Reflecting on grounded: A lens on COVID through Screendance

Abstract

Like much of the United Kingdom, arts communities in the South East were largely paralysed during the lockdown in spring 2020 through the temporary closure of venues in Brighton, the Towner Eastbourne, the De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill, Hastings Contemporary and Hastings Museum, and numerous smaller arts, music and theatre venues along the coast. Many gallery staff were on furlough and online content tended to be provided by larger institutions elsewhere, apart from grassroots activities such as Hasting’s Isolation Station broadcast on Facebook. The closure of arts institutions all along the East Sussex Coast and the absence of their habitual signalling felt like an inverse phenomenon and uneasy foreboding. grounded was devised in response to this regional silence and the curators, Claudia Kappenberg and Fiontán Moran reflected on the project for MIRAJ.