Inspired by three days of experiential cross-arts collaboration hosted by Towner Eastbourne, lead artist Phoene Cave proposed transitioning these collective improvisations into the public facing, non-gallery spaces during the Turner Prize 2023 exhibition.
The performances took place between 2nd and 9th February 2024 at Towner Eastbourne.
They were part of Eastbourne ALIVE and acted as a response to the East Sussex Arts Partnership question of “Is it Art?”.
TRANSIT was influenced by local people (identities) and place (landscapes) exploring journeying, connections and crossing boundaries.
Through sound, gesture, movement, spoken and sung narrative, the Collective responded to community voices gathered from workshops with a range of local participants.
We animated the space of the Gallery, offering engagement with visitors, and welcoming our community partners – some of whom had never visited Towner before.
Explore the Outcomes and Artefects that the residency produced.
“It’s very un-Eastbourne”.
– Visitor comment
Who are TRANSIT?
TRANSIT is a collaboration between twelve local creatives – eight from Eastbourne, two from St Leonards-on-Sea and two from Brighton – from different disciplines of dance, music, spoken word and creative writing.
It is a group that is representative across LGBTQIA+, neurodivergence, gender, age and ethnicity. All are experienced performers and socially engaged arts facilitators ably supported by a Director and Movement Director.
We are testing the contextual resilience of a new cross arts collective working responsively through improvisation. This will pave the way for making future creative community connections sustainable.
Our artists
- Phoene Cave – website – @phoenecave
- Stuart Waters – website – @stuart__waters
- Yumino Seki – website – @yuminoseki
- Liz Overs – website – @overslizzie
- Florence Bell – website – @florencebell__
- Akila Richards – website – @akila_richards
- Georgina Aboud – website – @gigiaboud
- Charlie Kenber – website
- Rose Ryan – website – @roseryan82
- Emily Pearce – @emily_frances_photography
- Loupe Cooper – @8loupe8
- Kaixiang Zhang – website – @kaihsiang_cheung
- Yair Katz – website
Our community partners
Our community partners include:
- Allsorts Youth Project
- Audio Active
- East Sussex College
- East Sussex Family Hubs (Eastbourne, Hailsham and Seaford)
- Memory Lane Eastbourne
- Talent Accelerator
- Willingdon Trees Community Centre
Contact
Email us if you have any questions or comments about the residency.
Photography and video credits
We would like to thank Emily (@emily_frances_photograph) and Kai (@kaihsiang_cheung) for acting as our main photographers – and Lana (@lanapictureshots) for being our videographer.
On this page:
- Banner image: Kaixiang Zhang
- Grid images: Emily Pearce, Clive Jarman, Wendy Christmas, Kaixiang Zhang, Rose Ryan and Charlie Kenber.
- Slider images: Emily Pearce, Clive Jarman, Wendy Christmas, Kaixiang Zhang , Rose Ryan, Charlie Kenber, Anne Jones and Brian Booker.
Photographs used with kind permission of artists and photographers.
Image file names contain individual photographer credits – please use these if you share them.
Thanks and acknowledgements
This project wouldn’t be possible without a grant from Arts Council England and additional funding from East Sussex Arts Partnership and Public Health.
We’d also like to thank Eastbourne ALIVE, Towner Eastbourne and Eastbourne Borough Council for their support.
And individual thank you’s go to:
- Antony Edwards (@hey.canitakeyourpicture) for images taken at the original Arts Jam meet up.
- Tamsyn Sutton for all her support and hard work to make this project a reality.
- Dr Ruth Melville and the RMR Team for their assistance with the evaluation.
- Ben Morgan for assisting with observations, reporting and marketing.
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