Tressell’s Children

MSL’s new heritage and digital project, Tressell’s Children, is a ground-breaking project that aims to create an immersive museum inspired by working-class experiences in Hastings.

Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund with additional support from Localgiving and Postcode Society Trust, the project is rooted in an oral history project that was conducted in Hastings in the 1980s.

The people being interviewed on the 1980s’s tapes were children in the period when Robert Tressell wrote his seminal book, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (published in 1914).

Over the summer of 2023, the people of Hastings will turn detective and delve into the towns’ archives to unearth details of everyday lives, and then, through a series of creative workshops, bring those tales to life for everyone to enjoy.

Workshop participants will explore the largely unknown lives of working-class people – alongside professional artists and historians. They will explore new ways of telling these stories and give old voices new life in the form of writing, graphic and digital art.

An exhibition of workshop participants’ work will take place later
this year during Coastal Currents in September as well, as the creation of a digital online archive that will be available for generations to come.

An evening with Scarlett and Sophie Rickard

The first event – an evening with Scarlett and Sophie Rickard, the creators of the graphic novel adaptation of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – takes place this Thursday 8 June at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery.

In 2020, sisters Sophie and Scarlett Rickard published a visual adaptation that proved that – even 100 years later – the story still holds a fiery relevance.

Held in the atmospheric surroundings of Hastings Museum, we will explore the resonance of the book and delve into the sisters’ creative processes in making it.

Thursday 8 June

Event 6-7.30pm with book signing until 7.50pm.

Ticket price: £6 (plus booking fee).

Concessions: £4.50 (plus booking fee).

Workshops

Workshops will include:

A digital drawing and comics workshop with Scarlett and Sophie Rickard

Participants will use the format of a three-panel or four panel strip to create a short graphic story inspired by historical objects in Hastings Museum & Art Gallery. The workshop will also teach skills in using iPads to produce digital artwork using the Procreate app.

Participants must be over 18 unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Places are limited so booking is essential.

Workshop entry: Free

Please book here

Find out more about the Rickard sisters here.

Creative Writing inspired by the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery Collection

On Tuesday 13 June, there will be a free creative writing workshop with Michelle Porter, inspired by the 1980s oral histories of working people and objects and photographs in Hastings Museum & Art Gallery.

This is an event for writers of all abilities. Be you a seasoned writer or someone who has never taken pen to paper before, this friendly workshop will give you the opportunity to form creative responses to historical archival material. Using fun exercises and exploring writers’ tips and tricks, you will develop your questioning techniques and learn to shed your writing inhibitions.

The aim is to produce a short piece of writing that will become part of the project’s immersive digital museum and exhibition that will take place during the Hastings’ Coastal Currents festival.

Michelle is a working-class writer from South East London and a past winner of the Creative Future Gold Prize for prose. Since graduating from The University of Sussex, she has worked as a copy and article writer and has published several short stories. Michelle is also co-founder of the Small Story Cabaret, a pop-up live literature event showcasing established and emerging talent. She now teaches creative writing to adults and has recently completed her debut novel, Not Moving to Eastbourne.

Places are limited so booking is essential.

Workshop entry: Free

Participants must be over 18.

Book: here.

Sister project

A sister project in Medway, Kent called History Detectives will focus on exploring the untold stories of migrants who have travelled through the area and made it their home. Local people will work with professional historians and artists to respond to the migrant stories that they find in local archives.

More workshops and activities will be announced soon.

Follow MSL on social media or visit the MSL website for more announcements.

Facebook: mslhastings

Instagram: msl_hastings

Twitter: MSLHastings

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