Kate Delany and The Crown team up for Coastal Currents show

Local artist Kate Delany is presenting a show of her mixed media work at the Crown pub in the Old Town to mark an anniversary she and the locale share. The event is part of the Coastal Currents arts festival. Report by Lynda Foy, photos by Colin Foy.

HASTINGS-based artist Kate Delany is sharing an anniversary with one of the country’s best pubs. Kate and the landlords of The Crown in All Saints Street, Hastings Old Town, are celebrating their 10^th anniversary in their respective roles.

Kate, who moved to Hastings 10 years ago with her husband Mark, is observing the occasion with a mixed media art exhibition at the pub which was taken over a decade ago by Tess and Andrew Swan.

The artist, who works as events co-ordinator at East Sussex College, will stage her show, Public House, at the venue from Saturday 31 August to Sunday 29 September. Her works will be for sale, with a donation going to Dom’s Food Mission, a charity of the landlords’ choice.

Kate has previously staged exhibitions at Rye’s Red Door Alchemist Gallery and at Alexandra Park Greenhouse in Hastings. She said her new, popular venue was a change from previous ones because it was always busy. Her show will be part of this year’s Coastal Currents Arts Festival which features a range of events in August and September.

The Swans took over the pub as an independent, family-run free house in 2014 after it had been closed for many years. Open seven days a week from 11am to 11pm (10.30pm on Sundays), and offering food and drink from many local businesses, it has since won several national awards: it was voted the best pub to drink at in the UK by The Guardian and named as Parliamentary Pub of the Year for the South East.

Kate stumbled across the pub 10 years ago during its refurbishment and has frequented it ever since. Many of her friends and peers from the art community exhibit there and she is looking forward to being part of the furniture for a month.

“Public House is the largest collection of my work in one place to date,” she added. “The subjects of my semi-abstract, mixed media paintings include everyday objects and environments that satisfy my architectural obsession. They have been extracted from their own reality and abstracted back into mine. I am fascinated by mid-century, utilitarian design and brutalized architecture which feed my work wherever I go.

“It’s a pleasure to be exhibiting at the best bar in town and to be part of the Coastal Currents Art Festival for the first time.”

More details about Coastal Currents events can be found on its website and Instagram page, and about The Crown also on its website and on social media.

Also in: Arts News