Archives for Arts - Page 6
For the Love of Music
VERA BELL The White Rock was full to capacity and the occasion was, if not exactly glittering, excited and expectant. The Gala Concert that heralds the start of another Hastings…
The Complete Lewis Floyd Henry
VICTORIA KINGHAM Walking along a rather quiet stretch of St Leonards seafront the other day in the warm greyness of late September, you may have been surprised to hear a…
Nigel Cheney: New Exhibition
Textile Art Reimagined is a new exhibition by acclaimed illustrator and textile artist Nigel Cheney, opening Thursday 2 October and running throughout the month. With a career spanning more than…
White Rock celebrates creativity at Open Day
HANNAH LOUISE SAMPSON The White Rock Theatre welcomed over 250 visitors through its doors on 21 September for a lively open day full of free workshops, performances, and behind-the-scenes magic –…
Photography Festival Flourishes
GARY WILLIS PhotoHastings is a collective of photographers that aims to inspire an appreciation of contemporary photographic art. This is done through an annual festival programme (directed by Tracy Jones…
Electric Blue Velvet
EBM HUMPHREYS Last weekend I was excited as hell to be seeing David Lynch’s as-yet-unseen-by-me Blue Velvet, on the big screen at Electric Palace in the High Street. Despite impulse-buying…
Fashion, Reclaimed
Two surprising venues this year hosted Hastings’ Sustainable Fashion Week. The Unzipped Sewing Café has not long been open, on the Marina at St Leonards. The DEPO you may not even have…
Hastings Contemporary: Environment, Observation, Protest
VICTORIA KINGHAM The new three-artist exhibition at Hastings Contemporary has much to recommend it, both in imaginative curation and artistic excellence. The large room occupied by local artist Sophie Barber’s…
Cut Out to be a Hero: Prince Achmedat The Kino
EBM HUMPHREYS The oldest surviving feature-length animation, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, was recently shown at Kino-Teatr – and you will want to watch it and watch again. (For the…
African Dawn: Osibisa
VICTORIA KINGHAM and EBI SOSSEH Music fans of a certain age will vividly remember the Osibisa album cover with the pink flying elephants. Listening to that music now (for the…
A New Jazz Festival
Now, just when the summer season is dying down, a big jazz day beckons, organised by Mike Willis, a musician and, it turns out, one of St Leonards’ prime movers. Jazz SambaJazz…
Power and Gender Shifts at The Stables
ELIZABETH ALLEN A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a text rich in possible interpretations. In Peter Brook’s radical 1970’s production, the traditional charming forest and cute fairies disappeared, replaced by a…
Chamber Music Festival showcases women composers
The 2025 Hastings Chamber Music Festival presents its most ambitious and varied programme to date, offering a vibrant mix of four chamber music concerts spanning an impressive 350 years of…
Modern Dance Festival at Bexhill
Journeys Festival of Dance is a vibrant three-day celebration of movement, choreography and community, organised by local event producers 18 Hours. The outdoor festival will take place across Uckfield, Hailsham,…
Pip’s: 200 Years of Family History
Pip’s Community-run gallery is about bringing our local, creative and colourful community together, to run a gallery steeped in family history, in the hopes of supporting local creatives in the…
Tosca Becomes of Age
ELIZABETH ALLEN With its series Becoming - the first, Becoming Carmen, followed last year by Becoming Tosca - Prologue Opera, describing itself as “part theatre, part opera company”, has set…
All That Jazz, Hastings
VICTORIA KINGHAM You’ve heard it here before: Hastings is a constantly surprising town. You’d think after some years one would know everything there is to know about its cultural vibrancy.…
Early Menopause: exposing the gaps
FERDUSARA ALI Powerful narratives, when on show in art galleries, often compel us to confront uncomfortable truths. One such truth is the battle faced by women experiencing early menopause, a…
The Healing Properties of the Sea
Patrick Kealey is here in conversation with Bev Lee Harling about the latest staging of her one-woman show, Ploughing the Salt Sea, at The Stables. Peter Mould Why should people…
Bogboy Comes of Age
JILL GLENN Hastings-based writer and theatre director Patrick Kealey has turned his creative talents in a new direction this year – from stage to page. His debut novel, Bogboy, was…
Auditory-Sensational
Held at Electro Studios in West St Leonards, Sono-Electro is a groundbreaking, two-weekend festival dedicated to spotlighting the best in local, national and international sonic artists, while inspiring the people…
Red, Blue, Up, Onwards and Up
JESSICA COURTNEY BENNETT Congratulations to Michelle Roberts, who has been shortlisted for the Sky Arts Awards 2025. The winner will be announced live on screen on 16 September. Michelle was…
The White Rock Stands Firm
HANNAH LOUISE SAMPSON Since taking over management of The White Rock eighteen months ago, Guildhall Trust has instigated a revival at the White Rock Theatre, steering the nearly century-old venue…
Sleepwalk: the Dream of Lady Macbeth
In 2023/24 an enterprising St Leonards-based collective around the local band Afrit Nebula had a sellout success at the Kino-Teatr and Fabrica (Brighton) with their multi-media live show The Spirit…
Lammermoor, the Inside Story
VICTORIA KINGHAM Lucia di Lammermoor, one of Donizetti’s most famous operas, is ultimately based on a ‘true’ story. Written in 1835, the libretto was inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s historical…
Gala Concert - Hastings International Piano
The White Rock Theatre will host this year’s Gala concert by the winners of the last Hastings International Piano Competition, presenting what promises to be the musical highlight of 2025:…
Bexhill Art Weekender 2025
Flatland Projects, De La Warr Pavilion and the Bexhill Cultural Network are pleased to announce the launch of the Bexhill Art Weekender 2025, a new two-day festival celebrating contemporary visual…
Rustavi Choir and a Taste of Georgia
Founded in 1968 by legendary folklorist Anzor Erkomaishvili, the choir Rustavi have since created recordings of thousands of Georgian songs and performed more than 8000 concerts in over 80 different…
Even Walls Have Eyes
Following successful exhibitions in 2024, The Two Ians are becoming well known for creating alternative gallery experiences in the town. For Coastal Currents 2025, Hastings History House is transformed from…
Project Art Works Opens its Doors
This summer take a trip to Hastings to visit Project Art Works and experience their newly reopened Arches and Trinity Hall on one of their Open Studios weekends. Explore an…
The Art of the Portrait
CHRISTIE CASSISA To me as a young teen, art was about a love of problem solving. Later in life, I found that there is more to great art than just…
SIXTY NINE: A Major Retrospective
This autumn, UK latex portrait artist Michelle Mildenhall presents her most ambitious and personal exhibition to date: SIXTY NINE— a retrospective celebrating 15 years of provocative, and empowering art. Bringing…
Coming Home with Purpose: Kid Kapichi
KATE SHAW AND VERA BELL Kid Kapichi played their last big concert at De La Warr Pavilion earlier this year, having announced that Ben Beetham and George Macdonald were leaving…
Romeo And Juliet In Today’s World
BAREFOOT OPERA, an opera company for our times, has again been awarded Arts Council funding to take Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor on an extended tour of London and the South…
Little Miss Cadaver Hath Thee in Thrall
LARA LIPPIN Little Miss Cadaver is an exciting artist who is carving out her own esoteric niche commune at a time when the rise of AI music technology risks the…
Guitar Virtuoso Enchants at the Kino-Teatr
SUSAN DEMUTH The Kino-Teatr’s popular Coffee Concert series served up a special treat for local music lovers when classical guitar virtuoso Eleanor Kelly took to the stage. Eleanor Kelly at…
Launch of a New Zine at Barnaby’s
JOHN VANEK Barnazine is the first edition of a new magazine that features local and regional writers who meet regularly at Barnaby’s Lounge. It is also a companion piece to…
Hastings Contemporary Reaches Out
SIMON HOBSON Hastings Contemporary’s pop-up exhibition from The Cove, the specialist facility for SEND students at The St Leonards Academy, is over, but its spirit remains. The gallery is bustling…
Hats Off to the Hot Tap
VICTORIA KINGHAM It has to be said that in the three months since we last reported on Dean Stalham’s new little theatre Top Hat (oops, sorry, Hot Tap) it has…