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Sea, sun, fish and drawing tents - a good day out?

Posted by Kristina Veasey, Tuesday 28th September, 2010

inside the drawing tent looking out through the screen and the drawings on it towards the Net Shops on the other side

This month saw the opening of many of our nation’s treasured museums, houses and places of historical interest in a celebration of our national heritage. As an Our View ambassador I was asked to visit some of the events being held in Hastings. Both Hastings and Gosport have been areas hosting the work and activity of Creative Landscapes artists. I would have liked to have visited some of the attractions that opened in Gosport, and to have seen the work of artist in residence Mandy Saw, but as I was unable to attend, I'm afraid this blog will focus mainly on Hastings.

Creative Landscapes is an Accentuate project being delivered by English Heritage and aims to commission Deaf and disabled artists to explore the historic environment culminating in new ways of seeing and accessing our Heritage Open Days (HOD). By involving disabled artists within the wider programme of HOD events, the public profile of the artists themselves has been raised, but so too has the positive profile of disabled people more generally. As well as providing opportunity for established and emerging artists to showcase and build on their work, it has provided the general public of all ages and abilities with positive disabled role models.

On the Sunday afternoon I headed along Hastings seafront on my handcycle with the sun shining, the wind in my hair and my two year old running along behind me screaming, ‘mummy, mummy, come back muuuummmyy!’ – it was almost relaxing, but such is the reality of working at the weekend! My decision to bring some of my family along, I thought, would help me to see how engaging the HOD events would be for people of different ages with differing interests and differing needs, as well as allowing me to combine it with exploring Hastings more generally as a family day out. As a family we had all come to Hastings back in the spring to enjoy the vibrant Jack in the Green celebrations (if you’ve not been, I definitely recommend it!). I remember it being very crowded and struggling somewhat with a number of access issues, but my overriding memory is of working our way out of the crowds and falling upon this wonderful place that is called the Stade. I think we were all rather taken with it and we had resolved to return on a less crowded day to really explore what it had to offer.

So here we were headed for the fishing quarter. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the tall, tarred, wooden huts that tower above the shingle beach I must tell you that you are missing a visual treat. The Net Shops are huts built tall to save on space and with the function of providing space for the fishermen’s nets to be dried. The Hastings fishing fleet is unusual in that they launch their boats from the beach as they have traditionally done for centuries. There is no harbor or port. The Fishermen’s Museum is well worth a visit if you are interested in the history of the fleet and as it was open as part of the Heritage weekend I popped in on my visit. I’m a sucker for anything fish so I enjoyed reading and hearing the collection of oral testimonies of life in the fleet. I lost my partner for some time to a film of sea rescues, and lost my daughter in a large fishing boat. The welcome in the museum was warm and the artifacts at times interesting, at times unusual and at times comical. A suit made of silver winkles and photos and newspaper clippings charting the antics of Biddy the Tub Man did well to illustrate the buzz and vibe that has centred around The Stade over the years. The more I saw, the more I was falling in love with the place and with such a rich history who could fail but to be inspired.

Sally Booth, Creative Landscape’s artist in residence, has been drawing on this heritage to inspire her work over recent months. She has been working from a studio opposite the Net Shops and from on the beach itself, soaking up the atmosphere and translating it into images, some on balsa wood. To find out more about how Sally approaches her work, you would do well to read her interview with Colin Hambrook at dada-south http://www.dada-south.org.uk/blog.php I would have liked to have seen more of Sally’s work first hand, but having missed her exhibition at the House of Hastings I am instead making do with a postcard of “Nets and Rain, Hastings” which is pride of place on our fridge at the moment and drawing enthusiastic comments from all our guests. When I met Sally on The Stade she was emerging from a timber-framed ‘beach hut’ with walls of semi-transparent screens. From within this drawing tent participants were being encouraged to draw or trace what they could see through the walls directly on to the screens. My two year old added her scribble at floor level in the spirit of joining, in whilst others of different heights added their own views to the ever growing art work. It was an interesting exercise to take part in as it really encouraged you to look at the detail and form of the things around you, things that you may have otherwise not appreciated in such depth, or even noticed at all. Being almost hidden behind the screens I felt quite voyeuristic as I observed and recorded the activities of other visitors milling around outside. I was quite happy nestled there between the Net Shops, drawing in the sunshine and soaking up the atmosphere of The Stade, all of which, I guess, was Sally’s intention.

My partner, not so keen on staying in one place for any amount of time, was not so easily engaged and I had soon lost him to the Net Shop next door where archive films were showing. Having retrieved him we raced a few doors down and slipped into the Shipwreck Museum just before closing. My partner managed to secure time for me and the little one to have a good nose around by collaring the curator as he shut up shop, and quizzing him on the 1749 Amsterdam shipwreck (still visible at low tide at Bulverhythe). The day was finished perfectly with a fresh fish roll cooked on the beach and eaten whilst perching on an enormous old anchor amongst the boats. We animatedly shared the things we had explored and discovered, and eked out the last of the sunshine and a beautiful day out.

Whilst there were several art based events from Creative Landscapes on offer in Hastings, unfortunately I was only able to attend one. Ones that I missed included Penny Pepper’s screening of her film about Hastings Bonfires and the spoken word open mic evening accompanying it. I would have also enjoyed seeing the exhibition of Sally Booth’s work inspired by the Net Shops and Stade, and the illustrations that were inspired by the theme of ‘seaside’ and produced on acetate by families in her drop in participatory sessions. I also missed an art trail featuring both Sally’s work and that of Lynn Weddle (another of Creative Landscape’s artist in residence), whose photography aimed to capture the characters on The Stade. Lynn also worked with 4 participants from Autism Sussex whose photographic work and recorded captions I would have also liked to have seen. Venues opening for the HOD weekend have been working with the Creative Landscapes team towards becoming more accessible and welcoming to disabled visitors and reassuringly, my reasons for missing these gems had nothing to do with lack of good physical access and more to do with the days they were on in relation to my busy schedule! A real shame to have missed them though – perhaps next year it would be possible to run all the events on all of the four open days?

So, I have shared with you an overview of my day out in Hastings and told you about some of the events we went to and participated in. You know the sun was shining and I have a growing love for this interesting old town, but whilst you may (or may not) have enjoyed reading about it, what was the point of me telling you? What does it matter that I had a good day out? Well, the point is just that, I was able to tell you I had had a good day out! What I mean is that for many people having a day out and it running to plan without any unexpected problems or challenges arising along the way is probably pretty standard fare. However, for disabled people, such as my self, this is often not the case. To go for a day out and not experience any barriers around access, to be welcomed to participate in an interactive art project, and to have been able to appreciate some of our local heritage without any hitches is actually not the norm. So whilst Heritage Open Days may seem like a sure fire enjoyable way to spend a day for most people, for myself I was at first apprehensive.

My apprehension is well-founded and based on both past and recent experiences of going out … well, just about anywhere. Whether it’s getting in local shops, using my local branch of Nat West, crossing the park to town, navigating cracked and uneven pavements, being unable to locate available blue-badge parking, being stared at, being ignored, or just being refused entry altogether, poor access in both the built environment and in attitudes and service delivery are what do tend form the standard fare of a disabled person’s day out. This is not to say it is all-consuming but it is there and it is a reality, and it can change a good day out into a bit of an ordeal or even into a complete write-off. So when I am able to recount to you my day out in Hastings, I am sharing with you a positive experience that a non-disabled reader may take for granted, and also that a disabled reader may be reassured by (particularly if they are considering taking advantage of HOD in years to come).

So, what helped to make this such a positive experience? Making old buildings accessible to all is always going to prove a tricky one. Finding the balance between preserving something from the past (often not physically accessible) with the opportunity to share it with our present and future generations is not an easy task. Don’t worry this is not going to turn into a rant about poor access. This is an opportunity to see how things can work. After speaking to Liz Porter (Creative Landscapes team) and Theresa Hodge (HOD steering group and coordinator for the evening entertainment event) I was able to appreciate that this is only the beginning of the journey. Despite a lot of hard work and effort in a relatively short space of time, these are only the first footsteps in the march towards disabled people being able to freely access their heritage.

HOD is a nationwide initiative with doors opening all over the country. My home town of Seaford opened the doors of it’s Martello Tower which houses our local museum. It is not somewhere I have ever been able to go in, or am ever likely to be able to go in. It is the nature of the building; small, round and based on several floors down steep and narrow stairways, that makes things difficult. To add any access solutions would interfere with the look and structure of the building to such an extent it would no longer represent itself in the form in which we are trying to preserve. However with my ‘can do’ mind set I am thinking of the ways in which the contents of the museum can still be accessed by anyone with limited mobility. Bringing artifacts to other venues for the day and developing online slide shows and commentary are just a couple of ways things can be improved.

I know that a lot of organizations in Hastings (and in Gosport) came forward to learn how they could make their events more accessible and it is on this enthusiasm that I hope things will build and indeed spread further afield. The Accentuate program will run for another two years and so the prompting, guidance and encouragement for further steps to be taken should help to establish this way of thinking as ‘the norm’ and see many more improvements in future years. This year was by no means perfect, there were of course hitches and learning points along the way, but the key thing is that it is happening. So I would like to thank all those organizations that got involved this year and to reassure them that as far as at least this disabled visitor is concerned, it is worth the effort you are making and worth building on. It won’t happen overnight and it will take real commitment to keep it sustainable, but it will also make a real difference and allow many, many more people to enjoy our heritage, and to have many, many more good days out!

Comments

Thursday 4th November, 2010

Esther Fox

I loved this article Kristina - probably partly because I am biased as to the qualities of Hastings as I am a proud resident. Also our Creative Landscapes project has achieved so many things. However, I think you have very poignantly described the subtle challenges of having " a good day out", which is something I can really relate to - so thank you for putting it into words in such a considered way.

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