Fossil Finder in us All
Mary Anning fought to be included in fossil finding as a working class woman. Today, we celebrate Mary’s findings and contributions to the field of palaeontology.
Throughout the Autumn of 2023, I will lead a diverse team of early career community arts facilitators with ExploreTheArch and in partnership with Hastings Museum & Art Gallery to inspire families to explore natural forms on the beach.
My innovative project will switch up who’s doing the ‘finding’ on the shore, empowering those from under-represented ethnicities in the ‘Finding' community to take part. The project will encourage access of a free natural resource in this coastal town through the exploration of shape and colour as primary motivations for selection of things to value.
‘Finder families’ will be welcomed to post-finding meet ups at the town’s museum with hot food and drinks to share their personal value of the forms collected on the beach - shells, stones and fossils - in video recordings.
This connection, foregrounding personal approaches to 3-D forms and agency in artistic appreciation of form, will be the subject of my autumn exhibition in the Walkway Gallery at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery championing this creative change-up alongside a touring Mary Anning installation, running 7 Nov 2023 - 7 Jan 2024. Free entry.
Additionally 39 Ammonites, a festival interactive installation in the museum’s Durbar Hall, will introduce my new 'Finder Families’ community to the museum’s overlooked collection of ammonites. I will create fun, inviting 3-D entry points, commissioning my team to compose a soundscape inspired by the ammonites' suture markings. 27-31 Dec 2023. Free entry.
Please check back for further details as funding for this project is confirmed.
Four Courts Connect
A project empowering Hastings’ very own Four Courts High Rise community. An extension of 2022’s collaboration with Hastings and Kyiv from ExploreTheArch and Seria_Project.
In 2023, project lead Yasmin Aishah and team of early-career creatives embark on new research of our local Four Courts heritage and celebrating those within the community. This community is one that is often ‘overlooked’ or ‘forgotten’ in local surrounding areas, resulting in residents feeling isolated and a lack of engagement with other communities.
This year, that changes.
Four Courts Connect aims to celebrate our landmark 60’s high-rises and work alongside their residents and community groups, with a goal to reduce isolation and residents to be proud of their iconic space within the town. The team is taking on heritage research, online presences and an under-used community hub that will soon host an array of visual & aural creative vibrance and inter-communal connections. This project is celebrating this forgotten community and is putting it back on our street maps!