Two communities in the Four Courts neighbourhood explore the meaning of ‘curiosity' with arts collective ExploreTheArch within A Curious Town festival.
In the development of an outdoor artwork created specifically for their landscape, residents and friends of Roosevelt Court will explore what ‘curiosity’ means with early career ExploreTheArch facilitator, Elkie Riley, mentored by Gail Borrow and Rod Morris. The participants' weekly stories, craft outputs and images will be metaphorically ‘posted' through the picket fence surrounding the Four Courts Wellbeing Hub where children meet in the Monday after-school connect sessions.
Facilitated by early career ExploreTheArch facilitators - Sam Brown, Cai Jones, Julia Garcia Lopez and Sheffa Katz - mentored by Gail Borrow, the young participants receiving the messages will respond in an imagined ‘posting’ of their curiosity back to the Roosevelt Court group. The weekly to and fro of ‘curious sharings’ will result in an artwork woven into the fence that separates them in the landscape with sound, accessed through QR codes and interaction with the sculpture.
Fences provoke curiosity in many life experiences. As dividers that screen places off, neighbours hear and sense life on the other side of them and curiosity is piqued.
The Four Courts high rise community live in a visibly more open neighbourhood environment and yet separation is just as keenly felt. In this project, older people who do not feel as connected with young people and families as their elders did when they were children, address isolation in a connecting sharing of stories and experience, inspired by the word ‘curiosity’, which will be woven into their fence.
ExploreTheArch is a inter-disciplinary arts collective, based in St Leonards-on-Sea, with a diverse early career artist team specialising in innovative community arts projects, experiential theatre and international installation. ExploreTheArch is honoured to work with the Four Courts community in Hollington, St Leonards-on-Sea, supported by Making it Happen - East Sussex funding through Hastings Voluntary Action. The project team thank the Curious Agenda Festival for a much-appreciated financial award for this project.
Details:
Location: Roosevelt Court, Stonehouse Drive, St Leonards-on-Sea
Dates: 25th May - 2nd June
Open all hours, Free event