Digital map plots Southwick’s history
WEEK OF EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS TAKING PLACE TO HELP PUT AREA ON THE MAP
There’s still time to check out a pop-up gallery which celebrates Southwick’s colourful history.
As part of the national Being Human Festival, Austin House Family Centre has transformed for a week-long exhibition and a series of events called Southwick Lost and Found, which celebrates the artistic and cultural life of Southwick.
The week of events has been organised by the project Putting Southwick on the Map, a University of Sunderland research project working since 2015 with community partners and local people in Southwick.
Earlier this year the group launched the Southwick Culture Map. The digital resource portrays the area’s cultural life past and present, in words, pictures and sound from the perspective of its people.
It shows cultural activities ranging from juvenile jazz bands and cinema-going at the Savoy to the Catch the Light Lantern Parade and Summer Streets Festival.
The exhibition gives people a chance to explore the map.
It also features an exhibition of paintings by the artist and Southwick resident, the late Derek Copeland, including paintings of the shipyard where he worked as well as aspects of everyday life such as allotments and greenhouses.
The exhibition also includes collages made by local people working with Lyn Killeen, a visual artist and community researcher with the Putting Southwick on the Map project.
Lyn said: “As part of the project I facilitated a visual arts project where participants explored imagery and tried out new artistic techniques to reflect their connections with Southwick and every day life past, present and future. Unique individual collages were created in layers of imagery to portray these special memories and aspirations. I am delighted to see these wonderful collages being exhibited in Southwick.”
The Putting Southwick on the Map group meets on Fridays, 2-4pm at Austin House and is open to anyone with a connection to the area.
More information at www. sunderland.ac.uk/events/ event/putting-southwick-onthe-map-286