Event

Please note that this event will take place at The Birley Centre, 4 Carlisle Road, Eastbourne BN21 4EF.

Join Barbara Walker and curator and producer Craig Ashley in-conversation.

They will discuss Barbara’s artworks and the ideas behind her artistic practice.

There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.

Craig and Barbara worked together on Barbara’s Shock & Awe exhibition at mac Birmingham in 2016, which included commissioned drawings acknowledging the contribution of Black servicemen and women to British war efforts over the past 100 years.

The event will have BSL interpretation in-person. For further access arrangements, please email programme@townereastbourne.org.uk two weeks before the event date so that we can book a service if needed.

Venue details:

The Birley Centre, Eastbourne College, 4 Carlisle Rd, Eastbourne BN21 4EF

To be added to the waiting list for tickets, please contact programme@townereastbourne.org.uk

General Admission: £10

Towner Members/Concession, includes Students with ID, Disabled, Over-65s: £7.50

Universal or Pension Credit recipients and People 12 to 25 years: £4

Under 12's: Free

Barbara Walker works in a range of media and formats, from embossed works on paper to paintings on canvas and large scale charcoal wall drawings. Growing up in Birmingham, Walker’s experiences have shaped a practice concerned with issues of class and power, gender, race, representation and belonging.

Craig Ashley is a curator and producer based in the West Midlands.  He led the visual arts programme at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) in Birmingham from 2009 to 2016. Notable exhibitions he commissioned for MAC included By the Rivers of Birminam (2012), an important retrospective of the work of renowned photographer Vanley Burke, Disrupted (2015), curated by Noëmi Lakmaier addressing Disability and the civic space, and Shock & Awe (2016), new drawings by Barbara Walker acknowledging the contribution of Black servicemen and women to British war efforts over the past 100 years.

He curated Peter Kennard’s retrospective exhibition Off Message for MAC in 2016, and Alan Kane’s Early Graves for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2017. He was Director of the contemporary visual arts network New Art West Midlands between 2016 and 2020. Craig is currently Deputy Head of the School of Art & Design at Coventry University where he is working on a new MA in curatorial practice and the development of a gallery and public programme for the University’s new Delia Derbyshire Building. He is the Chair of DASH, a leading Disabled-led visual arts organisation working across the UK. 

This event will be BSL interpreted in-person. We have a budget available to make this event as accessible as possible – this can include further interpretation services or other access arrangements we can meet to enable you to participate. If you require access arrangements, please email programme@townereastbourne.org.uk two weeks before the event date so that we can book a service if needed.