Curated Events Open studios
In this section you will find workshops, performances, films and exhibitions in shops, on the seafront, on the streets as well as in galleries, museums, art venues and cinemas.
Please use our map to help guide you to all the events and exhibitions happening during the Festival.
The following posts contain community listings that are not funded or organised by Coastal Currents. We cannot be held responsible for accident or injury at events and activities organised by external individuals and groups during Coastal Currents.
Demolished in 1993, the famed St Leonards Bathing Pool is a much cherished memory for many in our community.
We invite you to share your thoughts, which will be shared in the local news. We ask you to query who has created this piece of work but to respond to it in the way you wish to.
In 1995 a community project called ‘Hastings in Stitches’ launched, a tapestry made up of 68 small panels of embroidery that delivered an art piece depicting 68 organisations. This piece was created by local embroidery and textile makers with the organisations with the Women’s cooperative.
FREE 3-DAY DRAMA WORKSHOP for Creatives to explore topical issues, create and share a short performance on the final day lunch and refreshments provided.
Cinema exhibition will also be open before each public screening until end of October Artist Hramseig and WolfGang, in partnership with Eggtooth, bring you an exhibition of film posters and drawings based on the history of Hastings and Bexhill cinemas. Includes sketches of the Electric Palace, alongside many cinemas now lost: the Roxy, Ritz, Orion and Gaiety.
Is a new art manifesto in the making? Join us at the award-winning Barnaby’s Lounge jazz bar for MANIFESTO, an exhibition exploring the theme of generosity of spirit. Curated by Louise Whitham, and presented by the #BarnabysArtGroup, the show features diverse media and affordable art via the #ArtistSupportPledge.
Chris Mammone has walked and photographed most of the 100 square miles of Romney Marsh. The Fifth Continent is his record of the place and its history. Ian Land is launching a new book, Consolations, a hand made document of a brief moment in time.
Sixty-Nine celebrates 15 years of latex artist Michelle Mildenhall’s creative journey, bringing together 69 works exploring fetish culture, empowerment, and identity. Spanning 2010– 2025, this retrospective reveals the stories, influences, and experiences that have shaped her distinctive pop art style.
Phillip Cosham, Tim Riddihough, Siobhan Tanner, Jackie Attwood, Nigel Plumb plus invited artists. This diverse group return once again to bring you work including: painting, print, ceramics, photography, film and sculpture.
Outdoor drawing event. Free to all. Four varied locations, over four days
Julie’s paintings encourage dialogue surrounding boundaries and borders, both physically and creatively. Tom’s use the suburban landscape, its architecture, and the space between to explore and convey concerns about isolation and exclusion, class and identity.
With around 40 members and an array of styles, Neighbourhood potters will display their ceramic creations for people to peruse and enjoy. Some of the makers will be present to discuss their work and inspirations, with pieces available for sale.
Kick off Coastal Currents with a special free weekend at Hastings Contemporary. For one weekend only, admission to all our exhibitions is free, including a special pop-up show, Out Front. Showcasing the creativity of our talented team, Out Front will feature paintings, prints, photography, and sculpture – all created by Hastings Contemporary staff and volunteers.
The Serpent sheds its skin of transformation… The Sound Apothecary & Abstract Source follow on from Call of the Jaguar, their previous Coastal Currents submission with Serpentis, an immersive Journey of sound.
Join us for a group show exploring the qualities and contexts of metal. This exhibition features sumptuous sculptural forms, taking over Unit 2 for the weekend.
A celebration of all the participating artists this year and in previous years of the festival.
Come enjoy the new roof terrace of the Observer Building.
Join us for Open Rehearsals and enjoy a rare behind-the-scenes look at the making of four exceptional concerts for this year’s Chamber Music Festival. Spanning 350 years of repertoire, from Baroque to contemporary, these sessions feature internationally acclaimed performers and give a unique insight into the musical creative process.
St Leonards Ceramic Studio will be opening the studio for the sale of ceramics made by the students, members and teachers, celebrating their fourth anniversary.
Zoom Arts provides spaces for members to exhibit their work, either solo or as a collaboration; enabling member artists to benefit from experience whilst presenting an informal, approachable gateway for the public to access and engage with the visual arts.
We are thrilled to present a rare exhibition of Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn’s 1930s screenprints. The Dutch spiritualist, mystic, radical thinker and associate of Carl Jung founded the Eranos forum. Subsequently, she created the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, a diverse collection of archetypes and symbols that dove into cultural history, a “magic wand of analogy”.
Pain recovery is more than meds and exercise. Explore how creativity rewires pain in this hands-on workshop led by Graham Stones, artist & physical therapist to the English National Ballet, Royal Philharmonic & celebrated creatives.
St Leonards based artist, Holly Newman, brings together a collection of her paintings in her largest solo exhibition to date. Expect to see a colourful medley of both impressionistic and lifelike portraits, landscapes and still lifes.
WE WANT ALL GENDERS AND ALL AGES TO JOIN US ON THE WEST HILL, DRESSED IN RED TO HELP US CREATE THE MOST WUTHERING HEIGHTS DAY EVER. BE THERE AT 1PM TO JOIN IN WITH THE DANCE BRING YOUR OWN PICNIC.
Georgie Wheeler, a local artist and public muralist, will be adorning the walls of Cake Room with an array of locally inspired and some, live painted landscapes, seascapes, pop nostalgia, disobedient seagulls and other paraphernalia, all at HALF PRICE.
Private view: with wine and nibbles, pay bar and live jazz with the Yair Katz Trio.
Curated by Sharon Wylde, Rowan Corkill and Hattie Hambridge. Moving image work by artists and performance artists. Including emerging and established artists.
The return of this perambulatory exhibition with contributions from a wide selection of artists.
Upcoming solo exhibition. Private View: Saturday 30 August 4pm- 6pm
TAKE PART IN OUR SURVEY TO HELP US UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT OUR CREATIVE COMMUNITY LOCALLY. THE MORE RESPONSES WE GET THE BETTER AS WE CAN USE THIS INFORMATION TO CAMPAIGN FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE.
