Tag archives for Coastal Currents
Exploring Activism in the Vaults
FIONA MCGARRY An unusual museum has recently opened in Hastings: The Before and After Vaults – unusual because its subject is modern activism. Located in the vaults of the Observe…
The Great Big Cultural Survey
Tina Morris is probably best known in Hastings as the director of Coastal Currents, the annual festival that she’s been running since 2017. But she’s been involved in the creative…
More Murals Help to Transform Town
TINA MORRIS With one more mural to come, and a selection of BT Boxes appearing, Coastal Currents has been leaving street art wherever they appeared in 2024. The Old Bathing…
Beach of Dreams Launch
This year’s Coastal Currents festival launches the MSL Beach of Dreams Programme on 31 August. In 2025, the UK-Wide coastal festival will feature a new Hastings commission, and the local…
Coastal Currents builds Hastings Music network
Local arts festival Coastal Currents (CC) will receive Arts Council funding for 2024, having self-funded in 2023. CC say half the new money will allow the return of young and…
Arts Funding Snakes & Ladders
POLLY GIFFORD The hugely disappointing news that Hastings Fat Tuesday Festival didn’t get its funding from Arts Council England (ACE) for 2024 highlights one of the long running problems with…
PhotoHastings: 13 years Supporting Contemporary Photographic Practice
GARY WILLIS Derek Cottrell Presenting exhibitions and events across Hastings and St Leonards with talks, workshops, events and exhibitions, PhotoHastings provides something for every aspiring photographer. This year, we extended…
Coastal Currents Arts Festival 2023
The organisers write: 2023 Coastal Currents is upon us and this year we have done it entirely without Arts Council funding! First, then, thanks must go out to our biggest…
Cinema Cats
JUDE MONTAGUE Cats have inspired worship throughout history. They are allegedly the second most popular search on the internet, and have been the focus of films that have been significant…
Creating Strong Currents
Tina Morris, director of Coastal Currents, looks back at this year’s diverse arts festival. Coastal Currents has some sort of magic that permeates and populates the town in September, forged…
ARTS DIARY
Tasters St Leonards Ceramic Studio celebrates its first anniversary of work by students and members, having taught more than 300 people in courses, tasters and workshops. They are taking part…
ARTS DIARY
KINO IS BACK The arts centre on Norman Road has reopened, after a short break, and has a wide-ranging programme of films, music and other assorted outpourings and will host…
ARTS DIARY
THE GOLD MACHINE The acclaimed writer Iain Sinclair and the director Grant Gee have created an extraordinary, award-winning film, The Gold Machine, which will have its first Sussex screening at…
Now give me money
How can a professional musician survive on the £10 per gig that some venues in Hastings pay? Now the company behind Coastal Currents and Audiotrope has produced a Charter to…
Extracts from the Audiotrope Good Practice Charter
The charter is a set of principles that cover freelance musicians’ working conditions and sets out minimum terms and conditions for musicians working in the sector. Venues are encouraged to…
You Are Here
By Alexandra Whatley Artists Maxime Allan and Ben Fenton invite us to embark on a documentary journey about “belonging and place” in an interdisciplinary exhibition, with painting and jewellery as…
Audiotrope Supports Local Musicians
By Gareth Stevens Musicians have suffered more than some other of their creative peers during the Covid-19 pandemic because so much of their ‘trade’ is dependent on live performances, but…
Live Before Lockdown
By Lucy Brown It was a rare night out for me; my first time at The Piper, and my first experience seeing live music in St ; There was nothing…
Respire: Suspire Inspire
By Lucy Brown You’ve got your head down, maybe your mask on; quick glance to the side as you walk down St John’s Road in St Leonards and an arrangement…
The Genius Who Lit Up Hastings
By David E P Dennis It took the Briton Francis Crick and American James Watson 880 words to define DNA for their joint Nobel prize and yet, in just 80…
Government Arts Recovery Fund Too Limited?
The government recently announced how it plans to assist arts organisations through the £ recovery package announced last month. In a first round of funding distribution, Arts Council England will…
Grounded: A Season of Screendance
Reviewed by Merlin Betts Screendance is a hybrid genre that does what is says on the tin: brings together the norms of screen, particularly cinema, and key elements of dance.…
Creation in Isolation
It’s not easy being an artist in lockdown. Our worst enemy is isolation: not having something to create about. That can be terrifying, with or without lockdown. But it’s not…
Arts Diary
New Queers on the Block On Saturday 7 March, New Queers On The Block, a touring series of shows programmed by the Marlborough Theatre in Brighton, present a double bill…
Shape The Future Of The Observer Building!
The project to renovate the Observer Building (OB), the iconic ex-newspaper factory at the heart of Hastings town centre, is entering its next exciting phase – developing designs for the…
Arts Diary
Beacon Jazz Fans of avant-garde music are in for a double treat at the Beacon in October. Free jazz trio Somersaults are touring their new album ‘Numerology of Birdsong’ (West…
SUB/MISSION
An exhibition by latex artist Michelle Mildenhall31st August to 4th December The St Leonards Pub, London Road. Reviewed by Mia L. Michelle Mildenhall brings more than a little kink to…
Blindfolded and Bloody
On Saturday 14th September a selection of volunteers from local XR groups took to the streets in an unconventional protest: an arts performance. Taking a new tack, rather than the…
Coastal Currents: Favourites
Open Studios at Six The GreenEarlier this year the house hosted a production of the play, Price On Application (by Lisa Harmer-Pope) and it will now be holding open studio days…
Observer Building Opening Its Doors With ‘People and Place’ Exhibition
The landmark Observer Building (OB) is set to open its doors to the town for the first time since its closure in 2016 as a proud partner of the prestigious…
St Leonards Modern Goods
Situated on Norman Road, St Leonards, this shop has recently celebrated its third anniversary. The shop offers a mixture of clothing, gifts and books, updating the stock on a regular…
Arts Diary
‘The Holy Rebel’ exhibition at Stella Dore Gallery continues until 20th July. Read the result of our interview with the artist, Rugman. Read the HIP's review here. ‘Sixty Feet of…
Becky Beasley Tells It Like It Is – Part 3
A three-part interview with Hastings-based Paul Hamlyn Foundation, winner of the Award for Artists 2018 By Caf Fean Becky draws our attention to some pressing personal and local concerns –…
Becky Beasley Tells It Like It Is – Part 2
A three-part interview with Hastings-based Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists 2018 Caf Fean Hastings-based artist Becky Beasley enjoys digging into all aspects of the human experience to inform her…
Council Pulls Funding For Coastal Currents
After providing core funding of the town’s major arts festival, Coastal Currents, for the past 20 years, Hastings Borough Council (HBC) has decided that it can no longer afford to…
Becky Beasley Tells It Like It Is – Part 1
A three-part interview with Hastings-based Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists 2018 winner. By Caf Fean Hastings-based artist Becky Beasley enjoys digging into all aspects of the human experience to inform…
Town Centre Space Offers Public Art for Coastal Currents
Hastings Borough Council teamed up with Coastal Currents organiser Sweet and Dandy, who organised some amazing artists to add artwork to the hoardings in Harold Place. The pedestrian side is…
Coastal Currents – Looking Back and Looking Forward
by Jilliene Sellner As we move through mid-September we have so far experienced an impressive first half of Coastal Currents. It seems to me as though the curated program has…
Making a Mark
By Tina Morris, director of Coastal Currents I’m proud to say that by the time you read this, four new pieces of street art will have been installed in Hastings.…
Pygmalion Turns Abstract
Bernard Mcguigan Sculpture Show at The Lawn 1st–2nd September and in his studio at The Beacon during Coastal Currents. Preview by Simone Witney In the middle of a delightful conversation…