The launch event of the new ground floor space takes place on Saturday 7 November, 5-7pm and will feature In Residence, a dynamic new creative programme; an exhibition of works from the Project Art Works archive; and a chance to experience the space firsthand. A brand-new Changing Place is also located in the basement and is open to the public.

The new space at 12 Claremont will reflect the Project’s vision of greater representation and visibility for learning-disabled and autistic artists and their work. Offering a temporary gallery to showcase contemporary art, an accessible creative workshop space and a shop featuring unique artworks and products, this new venue aims to be a welcoming, dynamic and creative environment for new audiences, artists, families, carers and visitors.

Project Art Works is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2021 in recognition of its role in celebrating and raising awareness of the contribution neurominorities and care givers make to society, art and culture. Their studios provide the conditions for a broad range of collaborative practices with neurodivergent artists, who take part on their own terms; while their Support Collective brings together paid and unpaid caregivers to share their experience and protect their rights through training, resources and advocacy.

More info: projectartworks.org  untitled-gallery.org Instagram: @ProjectArtWorks @gallery.untitled Facebook: Project Art Works

The formal rating for each of the four categories of the inspection – quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management – was expressed as “inadequate”, something of a euphemism for the more detailed description of “a chaotic environment in which some pupils feel bullied and threatened, and leaders are constantly addressing problems and concerns”.

The school, sited in temporary premises at the former Helenswood Upper School on the Ridge while new buildings are being constructed alongside, receives core funding from the Department for Education with top-up aid from East Sussex County Council (ESCC). It is registered for up to 76 pupils between the ages of six and 16 but at the time of inspection had only 22 on the roll, spread across Years 5, 6, 7 and 8. The OFSTED report, eventually published last week, states that, of these, “a sizeable minority currently do not attend school at all”, while the behaviour of many who do is “poor”.

Trustees are said to have been “aware of some of the issues, but failed to act effectively to address these. They told inspectors that they knew there were problems with some aspects of safeguarding, but were not aware of how
serious the situation really was”.

The behaviour of pupils was “too often…unsafe, disrespectful and disruptive”, and there were too few staff to ensure pupils’ safety. The report advised that “leaders and trustees need to rethink all aspects of how staff manage behaviour to reduce serious incidents, such as pupils threatening and attacking other pupils, or the constant damage to the fabric of the building”.

New Trustees

In response to the OFSTED findings, the existing trustees resigned. The Beckmead Trust, which describes itself as a high-performing behaviour-based education provider, and leads a number of other specialist schools including The Ropemakers Academy in Hailsham for SEMH pupils, was brought in last month to “support progress” along with other replacement trustees. Its CEO Dr Jonty Clark says:  “We are very pleased to be working with The Flagship School. While school improvement takes time, we believe we are already having a positive impact to help make sure that the children and young people at the academy receive the very best education and care, and are kept safe, which is of course our top priority. 

 “Our professional staff encourage, support, challenge and innovate to ensure the children and young people we are responsible for have high-quality care, teaching and curriculum in first-class accommodation.”

A spokesperson from East Sussex County Council added: “We are committed to ensuring that all children attending The Flagship School are able to learn in a safe environment that meets their special educational needs.”

What neither the Council nor anyone else involved in the setting up of the school has explained is why the decision was made to open in cramped and dilapidated buildings next door to a building site – accommodation that was anything but first-class. However, the new building is scheduled to be ready for staff and pupils by the end of October. And Stephanie Salter, who remains the school principal, exudes optimism: “Our vision was always to create a specialist centre of excellence where children with these complex needs could be nurtured and could thrive. That determination remains and while we are extremely disappointed, no-one involved in this very special project is disheartened or discouraged.”

Steep rise in SEND numbers 

The Local Government Association (LGA) has released figures showing that the number of children in England approaching county councils for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) support increased by 23% in the past year. The number of Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans issued to such children had been increasing for four consecutive years up to 2020, fell last year with the onset of Covid and the resulting lockdowns, but is now back on its upward trend.

The LGA is asking the government to scrap “high needs deficits” which county councils have built up in covering the spiralling costs. But it has also suggested that more SEND pupils will need to be accepted into mainstream schools. Budgetary “incentives” should be offered to take in such children, it argues, while councils should have powers “to hold schools to account for the support they provide.”

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 Prize. Over the years, of unmade beds and dissected cows, the prize has become a kind of reliable controversy machine within the media-world, which has already given Project Artworks a great blast of the artsy limelight. But, the odd thing is that the media circus around the prize has served to obscure what Project Artworks actually is.

Even the title of the current exhibition at Hastings Contemporary – ignition – is perhaps slightly misleading, in that it implies an explosive start. As if the group had just fired itself into being. In truth, Project Artworks has existed for over twenty years. In that time it has become an inclusive collective of ‘neurodiverse’ artists, other art practitioners and trained support workers. According to Kate Adams, the collective’s Art Director, the people working in this group make up an “ecosystem of inter-dependencies.” This may sound a little pretentious but their absolute commitment to this practice over such a long time is surely the very antithesis of the momentary gimmickery that has, rightly or wrongly, come to be associated with the prize.

Untitled by Stanley Ellis and Louis Newham

I think the thing which confuses people is that Project Artworks is not one artist. In evaluating art people seem to want a name, a fractured genius preferably. There is something written deep into the DNA of art that art is made by individuals and is the expression of the soul of that individual. Or something like that. If you think that way, it becomes very hard to think of a collective as an artist. Can a committee be an artist? However one thinks of it,
the curious fact is that all the five short listed candidates for the prize are ‘collectives.’ As Waldemar Januszczak, the Sunday Times art critic, says, with a tone of disapproval, collectives are now suddenly “fashionable.”

Detail from Toy Story by Michelle Roberts

Putting such issues to one side, what is the actual art like? Walking into the Hastings Contemporary gallery, one is first struck by the fact that all of the paintings are on a large scale – huge pieces of textured Fabriano paper about nine feet high – and most of them have great energy of line: almost abstract expressionist, if you had to put a label on it. But labels are probably irrelevant. It is just strong, bold art with plenty of zap to it. And not just paintings; there is also sculpture and film and sound art. At the risk of contradicting the whole idea of an inclusive collective, I found the work of Stanley Ellis and Louis Newham pretty special. 

 But there will always be nay-sayers. Januszczak, has recently weighed in with his great wisdom that the Turner Prize is “an insult to art.” To be fair to him, he argued that a worthy cause, such as helping neurodivergent people, is just that, a worthy cause. Not Art. Januszczak seems to subscribe to the elitist notion that an artist is a higher being bringing us great truths about this pompous thing known as “the human condition.” Probably the only way to decide if you think the Hastings collective should be the winner – or if art has been insulted, or if old art critics are a bit tedious – is to go the gallery and have a look for yourself. To put it another way, as in The Big Lebowski, why not go and check out what condition your condition is in?

Open – to misinterpretation?

Zuzushii Art Laboratory is currently staging an exhibition in celebration of the ambiguous. A visual, vibrant journey through 2 and 3D collage, mixed media assemblage, sculpture, prints and total abstraction. Taking part are Fumico Azuma, Tim Can, Peter Quinnell, James Roseveare, Mark Soye and April Yasamee. There’s much to see on many levels and some of the exhibition will be rotated over the duration, so visiting more than once is recommended. 

• Saturday 31st July, to Saturday 21st August. Gallery opening times are from 10am to 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday. Info at: zuzushiiartlaboratory.com 

Of Land and Sea 

Of Land and Sea is an artists’ residency in a vacant space in Priory Meadow Shopping Centre highlighting ecology, environment, climate change through artist responses with a community. There will be workshops, sustainable practice, gardening permaculture, outdoor beach conservation, big seaweed watch, bringing practice-led research into action. 

It’s on from August 3rd to September 3rd and organisers would like to connect with poets, musicians, environmentalists, healers and others who could share and make sustainable ideas in the workshop space in Priory Meadow Shopping Centre opposite the Vodaphone store Queens Road entrance.

• For more info see Facebook

Residency on Barge

This August, artist/makers from the Project Art Works collective will take part in a group residency on board a barge belonging to the Brighton based arts charity ONCA which fosters connections between people and the environment.

The residency offers Hastings’ Project Art Works – a collective of neurodiverse artists and activists a unique space in which to explore their creative processes, in particular in relation to the natural world. Artists on board are Paul Colley, Lucy, Aida Ashall and Mark Lockton.