Project Overview
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Project Overview In January 2017 Bexhill Museum was awarded a £20,300 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to facilitate an exciting new project,“People-Object-Place”, which took place in the Bexhill and Hastings area. Led by students from the local community, the project focused on the heritage of migration in the region and the contributions made to the local area, and considered contemporary topics of migration in the current era. th Students of Art and Design from Bexhill 6 Form College and Sussex Coast College Hastings worked with Bexhill Museum, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery and the De La Warr Pavilion, to explore the heritage of migration in the area through archived material and artefacts. The students, supported by arts practitioners attended workshops at Bexhill Museum and the partner organisation where discussions on the topic of migration took place and a project strategy formed. Resulting from these planning workshops the students curated three innovative exhibitions displays at each cultural venue; exhibiting the heritage uncovered by the project alongside contemporary artworks they developed responding to migration. Migration of Design This research area explored how design and style have travelled from their place of origin and had been applied in a different location and context. The students were particularly aware of this as a feature of the fashion industry and voiced the opinion that the appropriation of design, although creating interesting fusions and a rich influence, does not always consider the culture and people from whence it originated from. Research into this topic led the students to look at the architectural heritage of Bexhill's seafront buildings. The Kursaal - East Parade, Bexhill-on-Sea The Kursaal – Bexhill looks east The Kursaal used to stand where the Bexhill Sailing Club is today and was one of the most important buildings in the early resort. It also set the architectural theme for Bexhill’s new seafront in the 1890s. Even the name suggests something strange and exotic and is from the German word for an entertainment hall at a Spa town – the ‘cure hall’. Bexhill’s strong German connections and the resorts early pretensions as a spa – the local spring water tasted so bad that it must be good for you – came together in the naming of this building but its style was something altogether more eastern. Orientalist architecture was a mixture of North African, Middle Eastern and Far Eastern styles and is a fashion in seaside architecture that can be traced back to Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. In Bexhill this style was usually just described as ‘Moorish’ meaning Islamic North African but in practice it was a rather playful combination of domes, turrets and cupolas rather than a strict copy, it’s how we imagined the east might be. th The Kursaal was built for the 8 Earl De La Warr and was Bexhill-on-Sea’s first entertainment pavilion. It and the newly constructed Bicycle Boulevard were opened by the th Duchess of Teck on the 25 May 1896. The Earl’s vision for Bexhill-on-Sea was to be like the south of France, particularly Nice, and he introduced Continental innovations – such as mixed bathing and motor racing – to promote the resort. Pavilion Pier in Nice-a-Menton The Kursaal was the closest thing to a pier that we ever got – it did extend from the promenade over the beach, but it was never built out into the sea despite initial ambitious plans to do so. B e x h i l l C h r o n i c l e - 1 9 1 3 [What the newspaper wording above says:- In connection with the present negotiations regarding the taking over by the Council of the East Parade – and in connection also with the “Winter Garden”, Rotunda, and other proposals at the East – the reproduction of the above picture of the “Kursaal as it was to be” will prove interesting. The present Kursaal is not a complete building, of course. The original scheme contemplated something much more elaborate. It was fully hoped that the original scheme will be carried out someday or other ; but the question of protection against coastal erosion was not at that time (the Kursaal was opened in 1896) a very pressing one. The fact that it is a very pressing one today gravely affects the position of both the Kursaal and the Parade. But there are many people who hold that, if the various proprietors interested can be persuaded to come to terms on any scheme which will be best for the town, they can be no reason why all will not find it profitable. There never was a time when matters were in better “tune” for such an arrangement being come to – one which would place the control of the whole Front in the hands of the Council on satisfactory terms ; and it will be 1000 pitches, from the point of view of all interested, if any hitch arises now. If it had not been for unnecessary hitches in the past the Kursaal idea portrayed here might well have been a reality.] The Kursaal was the location of many ‘firsts’ for Bexhill, it showed the first moving pictures in 1898 and in 1912 became a film studio itself and the first official Sherlock Holmes films were made there. There was even a ‘mad’ inventor with his laboratory on the roof, Harry “Death ray” Mathews who built and demonstrated his wireless telephone and remote controlled torpedo from there in 1907. th It was at the Kursaal at Christmas 1901 that the 8 Earl met Miss Turner an actress who had been performing there. They ran off together and so precipitated the divorce that shocked Bexhill in July 1902 and resulted in the next generation of De La Warr’s being brought up by the Brassey side of the family. As we approach the centenary of the Great War it is worth noting that it was in 1916 the Kursaal was renamed ‘The Pavilion’ due to the protestations of the notorious Horatio Bottomley of John Bull magazine, who criticised Bexhill for having an entertainment hall with a German name. Shortly afterwards it was taken over by the Canadian Army Training School. Interior of the Kursaal The 'Moorish Lounge' of the Kursaal The Kursaal’s style was copied westwards along Bexhill’s seafront with Channel View (the retail section of which was called ‘The Cairo’) and Marina Court Avenue, culminating in 1911 with the opening of the Colonnade and its iconic cupolas. That the Maharaja of Cooch Behar also died at 22 Marina Court Avenue in 1911 further confused the facts in people’s minds creating many local myths. John Betjeman’s poem “Original sin on the Sussex coast” is clearly inspired by Bexhill and its many schools and mentions “the copper domes of Cooch Behar”. The Cairo, Bexhill th We are now much more familiar with the 9 Earl’s entertainment hall, the De La Warr Pavilion which was built and opened in 1935. Once the new Pavilion was up and running there was no need for the old one and the Kursaal was demolished in 1936. Returning to the idea of clothes fashions, the students began to research similar examples of appropriated design in textiles. Research trips to project partners Hastings Museum and Art Gallery revealed obvious connections between ethnic garments worn by native Americans and fashion garments in the costume collection in Bexhill Museum. Above - Native American Jacket with beaded floral design on display at Hastings Museum and Art gallery. Right - Dress. Cotton crepe machine-made with hand sewn elements. C.1938 Bexhill Museum collection Combining these areas of heritage and to draw focus to the nature of migrating design, the students undertook making artworks that made a comment about the practice of cultural appropriation. Taking a very specific cultural garment, the kimono they set about creating versions that were indiscriminately decorated with patterns inspired by the Orientalist style heritage architecture of Bexhill. The work created first went on display at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery in May 2017 before being exhibited at Bexhill Museum throughout the rest of the year. Above - Native American waistcoat. On display at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. Right - Suede waistcoat and hotpants. Factory produced. C.1960s. Bexhill Museum collection. The Display at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery The Display at Bexhill Museum Migration for Work Students in this group focused on people who had come to the Bexhill and Hastings area for the purpose of work and who had contributed greatly to the development of the area. Relocating for employment is one of the major reasons for migration in society. Economic migrancy is often stigmatised as opportunist and less advantaged nations capitalising on another countries wealth. However many people within their own countries relocate to different areas, to seek better working opportunities to improve their lives. A significant physical feature of Bexhill and an important visitor attraction is the De La Warr Pavilion. Built in 1936 the pavilion was designed by an architectural partnership of two Jewish migrants, Serge Chermayeff and Erich Mendelsohn. Being pioneering exponents of both steel and concrete for construction, the students wished to drawn attention to another migrant to East Sussex during the 1930s who was also an innovator in the use of the materials. Civil engineer Sydney Little travelled around Britain from his place of birth before moving to Hastings where he implemented ground breaking schemes to redevelop the seafront area and water services of the town. Chermayeff and Mendelsohn Serge Chermayeff (1900-1996) – Photograph taken c1930 Serge Chermayeff was born Sergius Ivanovich Issakovitch at Grozny, in what is now Chechnya.