LONDON.- England’s Creative Coast announces new dates for 2021. The landmark partnership project spans 1400km of stunning coastline stretching from the East Sussex Downs through to the Thames Estuary, launching at Turner Contemporary on 1 May and running until November.
Combining seven Waterfronts art commissions by internationally acclaimed artists with the world’s first art GeoTour, England’s Creative Coast is a new cultural experience connecting art with landscape, local stories with global perspectives and linking seven outstanding arts organisations — Cement Fields, Creative Folkestone, De La Warr Pavilion, Hastings Contemporary, Metal, Towner Eastbourne and Turner Contemporary.
England’s Creative Coast launches with lead partner Turner Contemporary on 1 May 2021 and then sequentially with each of the partner arts organisations presenting their Waterfronts commission — a series of site-specific artworks curated by Tamsin Dillon — and part of the GeoTour. The new launch dates are:
Turner Contemporary presents Michael Rakowitz: ‘From Basra to Margate’
Margate, 1 May
Cement Fields presents Jasleen Kaur: ‘The first thing I did was to kiss the ground’
Gravesend, 22 May (launching with Estuary Festival 2021)
Metal presents Katrina Palmer: ‘Hello’ and ‘Retreat’
Southend-on-Sea, 22 May (launching with Estuary Festival 2021)
De La Warr Pavilion presents Holly Hendry: ‘Invertebrate’
Bexhill-on-Sea, 29 May
Hastings Contemporary presents Andreas Angelidakis: ‘Seawall’
Hastings, 29 May
Towner Eastbourne presents Mariana Castillo Deball: ‘Walking through the town I followed a pattern on the pavement that became the magnified silhouette of a woman’s profile’
Eastbourne, 29 May
Creative Folkestone presents Pilar Quinteros: ‘Janus Fortress Folkestone’
Folkestone, 29 May (launch date tbc; and featured in the 2021 Folkestone Triennial)
England’s Creative Coast crowns an exceptional year for culture along England’s South East coastline. In 2021 Turner Contemporary celebrates its 10th anniversary year; Cement Fields and Metal in partnership lead Estuary 2021, an art, literature, music and film festival celebrating the lives, landscapes and histories of the spectacular Thames Estuary (21 May – 13 June); and later in the year the Folkestone Triennial presents ‘The Plot’, the largest exhibition of newly commissioned work in the UK.
The beautiful and dramatic landscape stretching along the Essex, Kent and East Sussex shorelines has inspired artists for centuries and is home to some of the UK’s most distinctive and visionary galleries and art events, attracting visitors from far and wide. With so much creative commissioning in the public realm next year their cultural contributions are especially valuable, giving visitors the chance to see some of the UK’s best new art works safely in the outdoors.
Sarah Dance, Project Director of England’s Creative Coast comments: ‘Conceived as a project outside of gallery walls, England's Creative Coast offers a naturally socially-distanced experience that connects people and places across the extraordinary network of arts organisations along the South East coast. We hope that in these troubled times these site-specific art commissions and geocache trail brimming with seaside tales inspire creativity through adventure.’
