Tag archives for Hastings Contemporary
Contemporary up for Award?
NICK PELLING Something extraordinary has happened. Hastings Old Town has reached the last six of a European competition. To be more precise, Hastings Contemporary is the only UK gallery selected…
Small, but Perfectly Formed
VICTORIA KINGHAM Graced as we are with so many small exhibition spaces in addition to the established Hastings Contemporary and De La Warr Pavilion, it’s easy to miss some of…
Food Champions of Hastings & St Leonards
Wil Hospon Head Chef and Owner of Coquina What do you do and what’s your mission? Beca Fawn I am the head chef and owner of coquina at Hastings Contemporary.…
Siren Spring at the Hastings Contemporary
HELEN MURPHY AND NICK PELLING If you have ever felt (along with John Masefield) that you simply “must go down to the sea again”, then Hastings Contemporary – set on…
Christopher Tite at Project Art Works
Project Art Works presents In Threes, the first solo exhibition by Christopher Tite, on view at their new gallery space, 12 Claremont Street, from 14 March to 11 April 2026.…
Open Odyssey
HELEN MURPHY AND NICK PELLING Something groundbreaking is happening at Hastings Contemporary. They are about to put on their first ever Open Exhibition. The gallery took the very brave step…
Call for Entries: Open Show at Hastings Contemporary
Hastings Contemporary and Sussex Contemporary are proud to announce the distinguished judging panel for The Open: Odyssey, a major new biennial open exhibition launching in 2026. Euan Baker The panel…
Fun in the Post-Apocalyptic Slime
VICTORIA KINGHAM Along with T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, W. B. Yeats’ Second Coming must be one of the most-quoted poems of the past hundred years. Things Fall Apart…
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…
Sun and Sea at the Contemporary
SADIE PITCHER The building of Hastings Contemporary was just one of many challenges facing the Hastings fishing fleet in its 1,000-year history. In view of the gallery’s proximity and architectural…
The Sun Feeds The Wind
A ground-breaking new partnership and exhibition that will collect and display the living histories of the fishing community of Hastings, Sussex for the first time will open in spring 2025…
Drawing Life for Carers and Cared-for
SUSAN JANE MURRAY When Drawing Life was established ten years ago by Hastings resident Judy Parkinson, it offered free, regular, artist-led, creative sessions for people living with dementia and their…
Interim Director for Hastings Contemporary
Arts powerhouse Kathleen Soriano is to become the Interim Director of Hastings Contemporary, taking up her new role in January 2025. She is an independent curator, strategic consultant and broadcaster.…
Hastings Contemporary Director Leaves for Dorset
VICTORIA KINGHAM The Director of Hastings Contemporary is leaving to take up the post of Chief Executive Officer at The Sherborne in ; Liz Gilmore was the founding Director of…
Ambiguity, Paradox, Complexity, Eternity
VICTORIA KINGHAM on the new show at Hastings Contemporary Courtesy of the artistMarilyn Minter, Split, 2003, c-print Whatever else one can say about the latest show Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs…
Pearls of the Sea: The Sea and Me
SIMON ANTHONY HOBSON Pablo Picasso famously observed “Every child is an problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” With this in mind, stroll along to the…
Eregata
VICTORIA KINGHAM at Hastings Contemporary’s new Spring show The spring and summer seasons at Hastings Contemporary promise to be the best yet both in terms of exhibitions and participatory activities.…
A Pearl for the People?
HELEN MURPHY & NICK PELLING ask what the Hastings Contemporary is doing for the people of Hastings. The shiny black box of the Hastings Contemporary that graces The Stade in…
Art for All, On Sea – Hastings Contemporary Fundraising Drive
Hastings Contemporary is fundraising for an ambitious programme of free creative activities for local families, including Family Days, artist-led workshops and a pilot lunch scheme offering free school meals during…
Is it OK to Be Black?
VICTORIA KINGHAM on Hastings Contemporary’s latest coup Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane GalleryHurvin Anderson, Flat Top, 2008 ‘Is it OK to Be Black?’ is the title of one of…
The Dance of People and the Natural World, The Fourth Wall, Ink
VICTORIA KINGHAM takes in three new exhibitions at Hastings Contemporary Nengi Omuku: Repose Nengi Omuku is an engaging character and there is great warmth and vibrancy about her works now…
Gates to Heaven
GARETH STEVENS reviews the stunning work of Yun Hyong-keun, currently on show at Hastings Contemporary. The ambivalence I have towards abstract art has always baffled me. The fact that I…
HYP – Hastings Youth Press!
Hastings Independent Press and The Magnum Photos Foundation partnered to deliver a free multimedia journalism training programme for 12 local young people, from backgrounds under-represented in the media, during the…
Refugee Week 2023
GARETH STEVENS This year’s Refugee Week in Hastings, Rother and Wealden will launch on Sunday 18 June at at the Hastings Contemporary. The sheer span of the events and activities…
ARTS DIARY
Frontline Assignments Brian ArisDustman’s Strike Paddington 1960s The Lucy Bell Gallery presents Two Worlds, an exhibition’ exploring five decades of renowned British Photographer Brian Aris. Aris, who now lives on…
We Out Here
GARETH STEVENS reviews a groundbreaking exhibition at Hastings Contemporary. Since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the global upwelling of the Black Lives Matter, there is little…
Spirit in the Mass
Gareth Stevens reviews the Soutine | Kossoff exhibition currently running at Hastings Contemporary and argues that it is a ‘must see’ show. Kossoff, Building Site, 1961, Property of a European…
Arts Diary
Last Word Max Baillie leads a String Quartet performing Hayden’s The Seven Last words of Christ as part of the St Leonards Concert series at Christ Church in Silchester Street.…
Council Tax hikes, budgets approved
by PAUL MCLAUGHLIN Hastings Borough Council (HBC) agreed to raise the local council tax by the maximum amount allowed without holding a local referendum at a fiery meeting of the…
The HIP/Magnum Multimedia Storytelling Programme
Features Editor Ben Bruges asks HIP readers to help us run a free multimedia journalism training programme for 18- to 30-year-olds, from backgrounds that are under-represented in journalism. Hastings’ young…
Local Arts Cash Boost
Arts Council England has announced its 2023 to 2025 investment commitments, which include eight organisations in East Sussex who will receive a total of £ million – a 25% increase…
Contemporary at Ten
2022 is the ten-year anniversary of the gallery that is now Hastings Contemporary. To mark the event, they are currently hosting three major exhibitions each of which, says Gareth Stevens,…
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…
All at Sea
By Gareth Stevens It is perhaps apt that, in the year in which Hastings Contemporary celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the building it inhabits, it chose to host an exhibition…
Arts Diary
Jazzing Up the Stade On Tuesday 5 July, award-winning saxophonist, Gilad Atzmon, will be headlining at the Jazz Hastings July monthly session at the East Hastings Sea Angling Association on…
Covid, Mother of Invention?
By Gareth Stevens It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention. Whilst lockdown has had a catastrophic effect on art exhibition schedules, and led to all galleries…
HIP Congratulates Project Art Works as Runners Up in this year’s Turner Prize
Project Art Works Exhibition at the Hastings Contemporary We hope that the recognition of collective action, artists and activism so clearly articulated in the Turner Prize 2021, represents acceptance of…
And the Winner is?
By Nick Pelling By now, anyone with a vague interest in the art world, probably knows that our local art collective, Project Artworks, has been short-listed for the national Turner…
A Stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!
By Amanda Knight Sitting at opposite ends of the ‘Hastings-St Leonards’ promenade, two new public artworks Seawall and Painting the Prom bring the elemental nature and social role of our…
INTERVIEW
Lost and Found The curator of the new Hastings Contemporary exhibition speaks toKent Barker. “I was open-mouthed in wonder” James Russell told HIP. This was the moment he first laid…