Towner Summer Exhibitions 2024

What’s On Summer 2024

Emma Stibbon RA

Melting Ice | Rising Tides

9 May to 15 September 2024

Galleries 2 & 3

£6 to £12.50, free for Towner

Members

Melting Ice | Rising Tides is an ambitious new exhibition that explores the beauty and fragility of our planet. This solo exhibition is the first large-scale show at a major UK institution by Emma Stibbon RA and will look at the warming environment of the polar regions and the impact this is ultimately having on the changing UK coastline. For a number of years Stibbon has been observing and recording the precariousness of the polar ice sheets and glaciers and the profound effect that ice melt is having on global sea level rise.

Top: Emma Stibbon conducting fieldwork in Svalbard, 2022. Photo by Tristan Duke

Bottom: Emma Stibbon, Weddell Sea, Antarctica sketchbook drawing, 2023. Watercolour & ink. Photo by Stuart Bunce Photography. © Emma Stibbon.

Cover image credit: Emma Stibbon, Hope Gap, 2022. Ink and sea salt on paper. Photo by Stuart Bunce Photography. © Emma Stibbon.

Melting Ice | Rising Tides will be a culmination of this work, making important connections between the apparent remote extremes of our planet and our local environment.

The exhibition will feature Cliff Fall (2024), a monumental and ambitious wall drawing and installation representing the rock falls that are an increasingly common occurrence on the UK coastline. It will be shown alongside a selection of Stibbon’s large-scale drawings and prints depicting vast ice fields and towering bergs, made in

response to recent field trips to Svalbard in the High Arctic, and the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. The exhibition’s narrative considers the connection between polar ice melt, sea level rise and coastal erosion and will also feature new drawings of the sea and coastline of Sussex.

The show will create an immersive experience for the viewer, aiming to act as a stark reminder that the seemingly remote events of polar ice sheet melt is directly connected with the changes that we are witnessing in our local, more familiar UK landscape.

Cliff Fall, 2024, work in progress. Acrylic on gesso prepared board with chalk, rocks, and mixed media.

Photo by Stuart Bunce Photography

4 May to 8 September 2024 Gallery 1, Free admission

Maria Amidu is the third artist in iniva’s Future Collect Commission partnership programme. Future Collect is a threeyear programme designed to create a dynamic new model to transform the culture of commissioning and collecting within museums.

The exhibition centres around 26,778,780 minutes, a new paper and text-based installation and accompanying sound piece which explores the dialogue between paper and writing. Featuring over 1000 sheets of laser-etched handmade abaca fibre paper, the work evokes a sense of

absence and longing, considering the nuanced meanings of the term ‘desire lines’. Once a week, on Sunday afternoon, air blown into the gallery will cause the prints to momentarily move outside their designated location. Once each print has settled to the floor after this activation, audiences will be asked to put them back in place. In what Maria describes as a ‘soft performative role’ public involvement becomes part of the work, provoking questions about how we relate and respond to a fragile artwork in a public gallery, through a gesture of tenderness and collective care.

iniva’s Future Collect programme has been generously funded by Arts Council England, Art Fund, and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

26,778,780 minutes, work in progress, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist

Florence Peake FACTUAL ACTUAL: Ensemble

9 May to 16 June 2024

Studios 1 & 2, Free admission

The Guardian

Internationally renowned choreographer and visual artist Florence Peake presents a monumental painting installation that embodies her distinctive gestural, movement-marking techniques. A 50 metre long frieze-style painting titled Ensemble will be shown across the ground floor spaces of Towner, enveloping the gallery walls and surrounding the viewer. Respected for her queer approach and non-hierarchical

process, Peake often works with a multitude of diverse collaborators. This new painting was created through a series of workshops held at Southwark Park Galleries. Working with community groups of all ages, participants were invited to mark the canvas with Peake through their collective movements and the paintings were further developed in the artist’s studio over several months.

FACTUAL ACTUAL: Ensemble is co-commissioned by Southwark Park Galleries, London, and Towner Eastbourne, in partnership with Fruitmarket, Edinburgh. This touring commission is made possible with thanks to Arts Council England, CockayneGrants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation, The Paul and Louise Cooke Endowment and Ada’s Circle. This exhibition is sponsored by Harlequin Floors.

Performance: FACTUAL ACTUAL

— Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 June

— 12.00pm & 2.30pm

— Welcome Building, next door to Towner

— Free admission, booking required

Re-interpreting and expanding on a performance at the National Gallery, FACTUAL ACTUAL presents seven large scale paintings on unstretched canvases that hang over a gloss dance floor.

The canvases will be animated by six dancers using a rig and pulley system to hoist, lower, collapse, fold and drag

the paintings throughout the performances. Shifting between flat and sculptural forms, the interaction of bodies and paintings will create a sea-like sonic soundscape.

Performers: Temitope Ajose, Charlie Ashwell, Iris Yi Po Chan, Katye Coe, Eve Stainton, Rosalie Wahlfrid.

Above: Florence Peake, FACTUAL ACTUAL: Ensemble, installation view at Southwark Park Galleries, London (2023) © the artist. Photo © Mischa Haller

Opposite: Florence Peake FACTUAL ACTUAL, installation view Fruitmarket Warehouse, Edinburgh (2023) © the artist. Performers: Iris Yi Po Chan, Rosalie Wahlfrid, Eve Stainton, Charlie Ashwell, Katye Coe. Photo by Chris Scott

Verity-Jane Keefe The Findings

Shinewater and Langney, Eastbourne Free

In Shinewater and Langney, residents have been working with Verity-Jane Keefe to create artworks from found objects, extracted during archaeological digs.

During the digs, remnants of previous human activity, ‘finds’, were dug-up by participants of all ages. Working from a retail unit in Langney Shopping Centre, the objects have been processed and sorted with archaeologist Jo Seaman. Local residents, schools and groups have participated in workshops using techniques including clay tile making, casting and frame-making. Some of the found objects have been cast in brass and will feature in new tiled artworks installed around the local area in May 2024.

Using the bronze age history of the area as a starting point, The Findings explores art and history. Through engagement in contemporary archaeology and the public realm the project asks questions about the present time. Fragments and ruins are called upon to consider which ‘age’ we are living in now. The Findings explores what ‘public’ art is and how we make it together through layers of process, from the found object to the installed artwork. The Findings is a new public art commission by Towner Eastbourne.

Aggregate, found object cast in brass. Work in Progress, The Findings. Photo by Verity-Jane Keefe. © Verity-Jane Keefe.

Navine G. Dossos Riviera

Devonshire Ward, Eastbourne Free

Navine G. Dossos has been conducting workshops with residents of Eastbourne’s Devonshire Ward to create Riviera: a communal-and-communitydesigned textile pattern made from stencils relating to the neighbourhood, its history, its population, its businesses, its flora and fauna and its location in the town. Together they have developed a Devonshire Ward-specific language of symbols, featuring palm trees, local gelato, a movie camera and the pier. These elements have been brought together by Dossos to fashion a rich and vibrant textile.

The fabric pattern will become a tangible part of the town, in people’s homes and outdoors. In the spring, the pattern will appear as upholstery or outdoor awnings at various locations in the Devonshire Ward.

Cuttings from the finished rolls of fabric (produced in two different weights) will also be available for free to those living locally as part of an exhibition at Devonshire Collective’s VOLT gallery

from 24 July to 15 September, with people invited to make their own personal objects and clothes and share them through an online archive.

Riviera is a new public art commission led by Towner Eastbourne in collaboration with Devonshire Collective.

devonshirecollective.co.uk

Navine G. Dossos with Riviera.

Ravilious Gallery & Collection Library

This dedicated gallery showcases selected works by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) as well as highlights from our Collection.

Lunchtime Responses

— Biweekly on a Thursday or Saturday, check website for more details — 1.30pm to 1.50pm — Free admission, drop-in

A a series of events where members of the Towner team invite you to join them in sharing new perspectives, unique takes and personal stories about the works on display in our galleries.

Jewellery Fair

— Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 September — 10.00am to 4.30pm — Free admission

Join us for Towner’s first fair celebrating the art of contemporary jewellery.

Wriggle Room

— Every other Tuesday during term time

— 10.00am to 12.00pm

— Free admission, drop-in

Join artists Katy Beinart and Lydia Hunt for making activities, sensory play, storytelling and movement designed for 0 to 5s and their parents / carers. Sessions take place at Towner with occasional visits offsite, please check our website for details.

Holiday Activities and Food Programme

— July and August, see website for times, dates, eligibility and booking process

A series of 10 artist-led workshops for children eligible for free school meals. Each day we will make and eat together. We will learn about natural materials, food and nutrition and develop a connection to the environment of the South Downs.

Wriggle Room at Towner Eastbourne. Photo by Phoebe Wingrove

Ravilious Gallery & Collection Library.

Photo by Fraser Marr

Family Day

— Friday 31 May

— Free admission, drop-in

Take over the building with artist Amy Leung during the school holidays. Explore the galleries with self-led packs, pop-up activations and intergenerational artist-led workshops. Times and access information can be found on the Towner website.

Towner Artist Editions

Towner and King & McGaw are delighted to have launched three new limited edition prints by Emma Stibbon, Mark Titchner and Clare Woods to celebrate Towner’s Centenary, with proceeds going towards Towner’s Emerging Artist Fund. Limited prints are available of each design in the Towner Shop. Find out more and shop the collection online.

Art Store Tours

— £10/£9 concession

& Towner Members

Join us and go behind the scenes for a fascinating introduction to Towner’s Collection of over 5000 works. Please visit our website for dates and booking. We also offer gift vouchers for private art store tours.

Towner Cinema

Towner Cinema is Eastbourne’s only independent cinema. Join us for an eclectic programme of new releases, classic films and documentaries. Meet friends beforehand in our Cinema Cafe & Bar or make an evening of it and enjoy dinner or a special pre-theatre menu at Light Restaurant & Bar.

We have permanent space for two wheelchairs, an integrated induction loop and regular captioned screenings.

The Cinema is open for daytime screenings Thursdays to Sundays and evening screenings from Thursdays to Saturdays inclusive. And why not start the weekend off with a little treat on us with reduced tickets to our Friday evening films. Or make the most of the hours between pick up and drop off with our new school run screenings where babies in arms up to 12 months are welcome.

Emma Stibbon, Dark Horizon, 2023

Opening Times

Tuesday to Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays, 10.00am to 5.00pm

Towner is closed from Mon 15 to Fri 19 April inclusive. Our shop, Cinema Café and Cinema will reopen from Sat 20 April. Gallery 1 and the Ravilious Gallery reopen on Sat 4 May and all galleries reopen on Thurs 9 May. Our restaurant, Light, is closed from Mon 15 April to Fri 3 May, reopening evening of Fri 3 May.

+44 (0) 1323 434 670 towner@townereastbourne.org.uk townereastbourne.org.uk

@TownerGallery

Getting Here

Towner Eastbourne, Devonshire Quarter, College Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ

We are 10 mins walk from Eastbourne station. Direct trains to Eastbourne from London, Brighton and Ashford. Brighton & Hove 12 & 12X bus services stop at South Street, a 10 minute walk to the gallery. Pay and display parking is available at College Road Car Park and free onstreet parking is also available close to the gallery. There is a drop off area (15 mins) and on street parking bays for blue badge holders in front of the building. Secure bike racks are available. For more information visit towner.gallery/carfree.

Please note there will be road and car park closures around Towner from late May to early July for the Eastbourne Tennis International (22 to 29 June). Check our website for details.

Dining

Our restaurant and bar, Light, is open Tuesday to Sunday for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings it also offers dinner, sundowners and a pre-theatre menu. To book, visit lighttowner.com. Our ground floor Cinema Café & Bar serves barista coffee and freshly prepared salads, sandwiches and cakes throughout the day, to eat in or take away.

Shop

Towner Shop is packed with quality prints, stationery, jewellery, gifts and books to suit all budgets.

Venue Hire

Our spaces are available to hire for daytime and evening events, including corporate hospitality. Email: venuehire@townereastbourne.org.uk

Membership

Support our work and enjoy invitations to private views, free entry to ticketed exhibitions, and discounts for events as well as in our Café and Shop. Join now for as little as £40 per year at: towner.gallery/members

Accessibility

We have a large lift to each floor and a wheelchair can be provided. 9 selfservice lockers and buggy parking available in the welcome lobby. See our website for full access information.