New art gallery for Hastings town centre

The next time you walk from Hastings Library to Robertson Street, take a look at the ex nightclub on the left hand side of the road at the end of Trinity Street, advises HOT reporter Joe Fearn. Formally a disused eyesore, it now houses Digital Media Print, who relocated from just around the corner at the Creative Media Centre.

The printing business owned and run by husband and wife team Gavin and Rachael Walker, will also feature an art gallery, which is good news considering the lack of exhibition space in Hastings; the newly opened Jerwood Gallery is unlikely to exhibit indigenous art, and F-ish Art Gallery has now closed, leaving only Stone Squid in the Old Town as the sole serious space for local artists (The Arts Forum is in St Leonards).

Admission will be free, and the first exhibition on June 15th will be a retrospective private view (invitation only) featuring clients of DMP. Future visitors will be able to view artwork by internationally exhibited artists such as Martin Everett, Malcolm Glover, and Ben Gibson, whose huge prints proved a real crowd puller at F-ish Art Gallery last year. It is envisaged that the gallery will become a permanent space for artists to exhibit and sell their work.

All that glisters…

The major re-fit of the former nightclub to house the impressive top-spec printing machinery and array of computers has seen the disappearance of the bar and dance floor, but DMP has retained the big glitter ball. Rachael told me “The glitter ball is fun so we kept it. It’s become a symbol of the relaxed atmosphere we like to foster at DMP; our clients can enjoy tea or coffee while we discuss their printing needs. We offer bespoke fine art printing, studio printing, master printing, test prints, posters, business cards, leaflets & flyer printing.”

And that’s not all, since DMP also offer colour corrections & advanced retouching, picture framing, roll up banners & pop up displays, and, coming soon, a fully supported gallery space. I’m already looking forward to the private view.

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