The Dawning of Hastings Contemporary

Well, Hastings Contemporary has now evolved from the Jerwood Gallery in Rock-a-Nore Road TN34 3DW, and is open Tuesday to Sunday, and Public Holiday Mondays, from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm; last admission 4.30 pm (website). On the first Tuesday of the month, the gallery is open until 8.00 pm, and is free to enter for everyone from 4.00 pm (website), otherwise entrance fees are £9 for adults, £8 for people 60 or over, £6 for concessions and groups of 10 or more, £4.50 for Art Fund members, £4 for Hastings residents, and free to Hastings Contemporary members. Hastings Contemporary is a registered charity celebrating "contemporary art and modern art on sea."

The current exhibitions, until 13th October 2019, are Tal R: Eventually All Museums will be Ships, Roy Oxlade: Shine Out Fair Sun, Roy Oxlade & David Bomberg, and Quentin Blake: The New Dress (website).

I wish the charity good luck with its rebirth! 

The Jerwood Gallery is no more...

Long live the Hastings Contemporary! To reopen this weekend (ITV) following an anonymous donation of £250,000 and a grant from the Arts Council, good luck!

Jerwood Foundation to leave Hastings?

So, very probably not too upsetting for many people who live and work in the Rock-a-Nore area, but there appears to be a rift between the Jerwood Foundation and the local management of the Jerwood Gallery in Rock-a-Nore Road (Guardian). Following the Foundation providing grants of £2.6 million since 2012 (now you know how it kept on keeping on!), the Gallery now looks set to lose that funding (currently £300,000 a year) plus 300 works of art by artists such as Lowry, Hepworth and Spencer (the gallery must have a large cellar!). Gallery management is threatening the Foundation with legal action, whilst also trying to gain a larger grant from the Arts Council than the £100,000 a year it has received since 2017. Hmmm, a new name for the Gallery?!?

Watch this space...

The Egg Hatches!

Today I noticed the Exbury Egg, down at Rock-a-Nore Road, with an open door, so, what did I do? Yep, I had to take a wee look inside, and it really is a tardis! SO much more room than looks possible from outside, like one of those small caravans I stayed in on holidays as a child, but with even more room inside...

So, what is happening? Well, today, they were making the inside appear as similar as possible to what it looked like when it was lived in by Stephen Turner for a year, a few years ago, and it is planned to be 'open' to the public, when feasible, from this Saturday until the 15th of October, when it ceases to be an exhibit (see my previous blog and see his website).  Indeed, everything comes from the egg!

Wooden Egg-shaped Houseboat lands in Rock-a-Nore Road!

The Exbury Egg arrived in Rock-a-Nore Road yesterday, landing by the Jerwood Gallery. Artist, Stephen Turner lived on the egg in Exbury, Hampshire, for a year between 2013-14, and since then it appears to have been travelling the country as an exhibit, and now is in Hastings.

Stephen, helped by architect Wendy Perring, designed the houseboat as a means to 'explore the nature of the landscape and the meaning of place' in a time of environmental change, and the 6 metres long and 3.5 metres wide egg was built by boat builder Paul Baker. 

It's now time for Hastings folk to appreciate the project!

All Our Politics in Hastings...

Sky News are broadcasting their All Out Politics show from the Jerwood Gallery, Rock-a-Nore Road in the old town, this morning. Part of the show will be a discussion about Brexit with 4 local people...

Could be worth a watch, if I had Sky tv!

Royalty comes to town.

Yesterday, the Duke of Gloucester came to town, and here, the Police and special types of security staff were on show (YES!), I kept trying to get photographs, but kept missing him! Rock-a-Nore Road was incredibly clean though, with the big hoover on wheels going up and down about 4 times, and Sara, the street cleaner doing similar about 5 times!

Anyway, he not only visited the Jerwood Gallery, but went up the East Hill in the lift and unveiled a plaque at The Source Park as an official opening. Thanks to Hastings Borough Council for this photograph; though I wish he'd stayed still long enough for me! 

Bye bye Duke, from the West Hill!

Charity, art to come!

Yesterday, the BBC Sussex "Give a Gift" charity event got off with a bang, ably supported by some familiar faces in Hastings, and not a few visitors either!  

Yesterday, also, and not just a song sung by the Beatle Paul McCartney, but the Jerwood Gallery (with very mixed emotional support and hatred from locals) began its John Bratby exhibition, which ends on the 17th April (website).   

Bratby (1928-92), was quite a prolific artist, primarily in the 1950s and 1960s, and moved to Hastings when he left the bright lights of London, 2 of his paintings of Paul McCartney have been lent to the Jerwood for this exhibition by the ex-Beatle. Bratby died in Hastings, on his way home from one of our numerous chippies, R.I.P. 

May be worth taking advantage of one of our first Tuesday in the month freebies (for locals), which I may well try on myself...