Coming next month . . .

. . . in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

On 15th. February:

Anita Corbin 100 First Women Portraits is the culmination of her 10-year personal mission to capture the portraits of modern female trailblazers.

Read more.

On 22nd. February:

Researched and curated by residents of Brighton & Hove, Queer the Pier allows the visitor to explore selected experiences of LGBTQ+ people in Sussex over the last 200 years, beginning with a blackmail letter written in 1798 from a solicitor to an army captain, accused of propositioning another man on a coach to Dorking.

Read more.

New Archaeology Gallery

Named for its major benefactor, the 'Elaine Evans Archaeology Gallery' opens to the public on 26 Jan.2019.

This is the first new gallery for 20 years to be devoted to the story of our ancestors who lived in Brighton & Hove from the Ice Age to the Saxons. It results from several years of work following a public petition from the Brighton & Hove Archaeology Society of which Elaine is a member.

At the heart of the exhibition will be seven forensically accurate 3D facial reconstructions revealing the faces of people, some of whose remains were found in and around Brighton & Hove from the Ice Age to the Saxon era.

Using modern scientific technology, research into the lives of these people has discovered a wealth of mystery, drama and tragedy through childbirth, malnutrition, toothache and possibly murder. Now you can see what they looked like and learn their real-life stories.

Queer Looks 2018

The West Pier Centre opens

How the BA i360 was built

In the i360 beach building an interesting exhibition is open to the public until, come winter, the pod starts loading and unloading from the lower promenade level.

Interesting facts about the construction:
• The 4,150-tonne concrete foundations are 3 metres deep.
• 7,200 tonnes of natural beach shingle was excavated during construction and returned to the beach at Shoreham, to help reverse the longshore drift.
• The 162-metre-high tower consists of 17 steel cans that were bolted together using 1,336 bolts.
• The steel cans vary in thickness from 85mm at the base to 20mm at the top.
• The pod is 18 metres in diameter and is 10 times the size of a London Eye capsule.
• The glass panels of the pod were shaped at high temperatures using bespoke moulds.
• The West Pier tollbooths were reconstructed using castings from the original structures.

Constable and Brighton.

Chain Pier Brighton 1826-27

Go visit the current exhibition at the Art Gallery if only to see this much-reproduced image "in the paint" so to speak. It is beautifully hung and lit and seems to make more of an impression here than it did in its normal home at Tate Britain.

The rest of the exhibition has also much of interest. The paintings are grouped according to Constable's three favourite walks from which he drew his inspiration; west to Shoreham, north to the Devil's Dyke and east to the Chain Pier. Everything is well lit and the information boards are succinct and easily read.

See also:
The Curator speaks about the Constable Exhibition
Blue plaque to John Constable unveiled
Rainstorm over the Sea

Pride 2017: a Royal Pavilion & Museums float

Pride 2016

Royal Pavilion & Museums will take part in this year’s Brighton & Hove Pride, making it the first Museum service to have a Pride float in the UK.  Pride 2017, under the title 'The Summer of Love', will mark the 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK via the Sexual Offences Act (1967). All of the RPM's  five sites – from the Royal Pavilion to Preston Manor will be represented on the float. Staff will build the float and appear on it on the day, many of them in costumes they’ve made themselves.

This is just one item in an extensive programme of projects, exhibitions, displays and activities to celebrate the 50 years since the 1967 Act.
For full programme see:- LGBTQ takes centre stage at Brighton Museum.

The Curator speaks about the Constable Exhibition

The Wall of Windows

At the University of Brighton in Grand Parade the Brooking National Collection is displaying four centuries worth of windows, ranging from a 17th century wrought-iron casement window from a Hampshire farmhouse,  to a 1960s window from the Tricorn Centre, Portsmouth, designed by Sir Owen Luder.  For the exhibition 68 key items were specially selected from the 500,000 items + that comprise the collection. They include a pine window from Windsor Castle designed by Sir Jeffry Wyatville, a Gothic Revival window from the Tower of London and details associated with well-known figures such as Sir Alfred Hitchcock and celebrated actor and playwright, David Garrick.

Charles Brooking at the official launch in Brighton

The remarkable Charles Brooking  is an architectural historian and consultant based in Cranleigh, Surrey. Collecting items since his boyhood, he established a small museum in his own home and, in 1985, created a Trust to preserve it for posterity. In 2013, it became a registered charity with the aim of preserving the physical detail of the UK’s built environment, and to demonstrate the craftsmanship involved as well as the social layering of British society.

Gothic Window Head.
Virginia Water 1884.

Steel, inward-opening, arrow-slit.
Portsmouth 1966.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Brighton & Hove Heritage Commission. It is open until 10th April and is well worth a visit for anyone with an interest in architectural history or amazing craftsmanship.

Puget's Lane - A Public Exhibition

Exhibition Venue: 16 North Street, (formerly Cargo)

See also - Will we get a Puget's Lane?

Further thoughts on the Mazda fountain.

Photo: Jax Atkins

Rivetted boilerplate would not normally be the material of choice for a public art work but the original purpose of the Mazda fountain was promotional. It was designed to flaunt the virtuosity of electric lighting in general, and Mazda equipment in particular, at an exhibition. On being transplanted to Brighton  it continued to do this to great effect as many Brightonians and long-standing residents will recall. The dancing jets illuminated from below by ever-colour-changing lighting redeemed, to considerable extent, its industrial appearance.

It is understandable therefore that the recently mooted suggestion for its removal as part of a Valley Gardens regeneration scheme has produced some strong reactions from those who already feel too much of familiar Brighton is being lost.

However longevity would not have been a concern of the original designers. The lighting was perforce housed in watertight chambers and the performance of insulation and sealants available in the 1920s would not compare with modern standards. Degradation is inevitable in such an item. After several intermittent and only temporary repairs the lighting systems were finally  removed on safety grounds in the 1990s. 

The cost of installing a new safe lighting system in such an ageing steel structure would surely be prohibitively high and the money better spent on commissioning a site-specific water-feature. A feature that, like the Victoria Fountain with its dolphins in the Old Steine, makes an aesthetically relevant  yet contemporary statement about the City.

Museum gets HLF grant

The  "Fashioning Africa" project of the Royal Pavilion & Museums has been awarded a £240,000 grant through the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) 'Collecting Cultures' programme.

The museum has an extensive collection of historic African textiles mainly from the colonial era. With this award, and working with members of Brighton & Hove’s African communities, fashion and dress specialists, and a range of partners in the UK and in African countries, the Royal Pavilion & Museums will extend its collection with strategic acquisitions of post-1960s African dress. No other UK museum is consistently collecting in this area so the result will be the creation of a new national resource.

Items from this new collection will be made publicly accessible through a planned 2016 exhibition, "Fashion Cities Africa", through social media, a lively events programme and a community engagement initiative.

Subversive Design

"Chopper" 2008 by Richard Slee

The winter exhibition at the Museum, which continues until March 9, comes with a warning -  "this exhibition examines provocative and challenging themes and includes some images of nudity, violence and sex." In other words it's great fun and well worth a visit. 

"Lathe v Red", Sebastian Brajkovic, 2008.

The British Engineerium

For information: The British Engineerium has a website:-

http://www.britishengineerium.org/

and a Facebook page:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-British-Engineerium/389329344439696?fref=ts

Open day at the Engineerium

Open Day at the Engineerium

Boiler room

For the first time for several years the Engineerium held an Open Day on Sunday. All entrance fees were donated to the Chestnut Tree Children's Hospice. It seems to have been very well-attended and have given visitors the chance to view the extensive refurbishment and development work in progress.

The Engineerium and its contents were saved a from auction and dispersal a few years ago by local entrepreneur Mr Mike Holland, seen above in conversation with 'Thomas Hawksley', victorian designer of the pumping station, who had kindly reincarnated to provide visitors with guided tours. They are seen in what was the coal store, converted to an exhibition hall in the 1970's and now destined to become a restaurant and bar.

N0.2 Pumping Engine

The boilers were in steam and the no.2 Pumping Engine, in beautiful condition, was  demonstrating its stately, intricate actions.

The new brick work blends seamlessly with the original.

A new skylight to what will become a new Exhibition Hall

The Engineerium across Hove Park

It is intended to open the Engineerium every Sunday throughout the winter.

State of Mind: A Consciousness Expo

The Expo, hosted in central Brighton at the magnificent Corn Exchange complex, will feature an interactive showcase of new technologies that exploit and explore many aspects of consciousness, perception, and human experience. Exhibits will have a strong interactive component allowing you to be immersed in, and to learn about, different aspects of your own conscious experience and their biological basis. There will also be plentiful opportunities to talk with the scientists, technologists, and artists investigating consciousness from their many differing perspectives.

State of Mind will have a strong focus on the core theme of consciousness science, with exhibits covering topics such as: introspection, mind-bending visual illusions, striking scientific images of the brain, sensory substitution devices, impossible objects, myths, morphs and memes, virtual-reality environments, bio-feedback, eye-tracking, and much, much more.