Navigating History
Navigating History was created by Proboscis and curator Deborah Smith to bring to light unique local history collections through a series of specially commissioned projects by practitioners from the fields of art, design, jewellery, film and interactive technology. The project was sited in the richly diverse collections of East Sussex Record Office in Lewes, Folkestone Library & Museum and West Sussex Local Studies Collection in Worthing Library. In each of the libraries and archive you will find three of the commissions, a programme of talks and events, further information including inspirational archive boxes of background materials and you can join in with the project My History.
A significant portion of the local studies collections in the libraries and archive are only accessible through library/archive catalogues and are made available to the public on request. Navigating History‘s imaginative and exploratory commissions unearth items from these collections relating to several hundred years of history including 18th Century inventories, early film, maritime history and local newspapers. By interweaving past and present whilst exploring themes of identity and place the commissions open up unusual and new routes into the collections. A maze of narratives from the unexpected to the peculiar, the tragic to the wondrous are revealed from stories of ordinary people to those documenting momentous events.
Commissioned Artists:
Neville Gabie, Rachel Murphy, Claudia Schenk, Stephen Connolly, Rob Kesseler, Bob and Roberta Smith, Andrew Hunter, Simon Pope, Mah Rana, Jason Bowman and Sally O’Reilly & Cathy Haynes.
Team: Alice Angus, Deborah Smith & Orlagh Woods
Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England, Creative Partnerships, Kent County Council, West Susses County Council and East Sussex County Council
