Sustainable public art for Sunken Garden

Funded on
02 Jul 2021

Margate NOW & the Sunken Garden Society are joining forces to commission innovative, functional and sustainable public artworks for the Sunken Garden, a unique biodiverse outdoor space in Westbrook.

£29,380 Raised of £27,576

45 Backers

106%

Backers

Order by

Latest

Highest to lowest

Turner Contemporary - £1,500
5 years ago

Margate NOW - reserves & offline donations - £20,000
5 years ago

Crate Studio & Project Space Ltd - £700
5 years ago

Sarah Martin - £40
5 years ago

Matthew de Pulford - £10
5 years ago

CrowdFund Kent Fund OLD - £6,000
5 years ago

veronique Parke - £50
5 years ago

Anonymous - £20
5 years ago

Robert Rutter - £20
5 years ago

Robyn Ford - £20
5 years ago

https://margatenow.co.uk/

Through art, music, performance and collective action, Margate NOW celebrates the best contemporary culture from our world-class creative community. This year, we continue our overarching motif of ‘NOW’, with a focus on the immediate themes of nature and ecology. A dynamic programme of visual culture featuring commissions in the public realm will animate the town, enlivening unusual spaces and inspiring audiences.

Margate NOW began in 2014 as Margate Festival, and has grown into an annual festival producing contemporary culture for diverse audiences in site-specific locations around Margate. Previous guest curators include People Dem Collective (2020), Russell Tovey (2019) and Sacha Craddock (2018).

The Sunken Garden is situated in Westbrook in Margate where it is a feature of the Royal Esplanade. Landscaped in the early 1930s during the years of the Depression, the garden survived the neglect of war and the partial eclipse of the popularity of seaside resorts. This much loved community space is set in the limestone chalk cliff of Westbrook Bay protected from sweeping winds and encircled by a terrace, and is one of the rare places on the Margate coastline where trees are found. Planting has changed radically from the lush bedding displays of the 1930s to the present arrangement of hardy coastal shrubs. Under the care of the Sunken Garden Society (SGS), a group of committed dedicated volunteers, since 2018, SGS is actively engaged with wildlife conservation, is an RHS affiliated society and was a recipient of the 2020 Bees Needs Champions Award.

Guest Curator for Margate NOW 2021 is Anna Colin, an independent curator, educator and researcher based in Deal, Kent. Alongside her freelance activities, which straddle the curatorial and the pedagogical and increasingly engage the natural environment and open spaces, she is training in horticulture and garden design, while completing a PhD in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham. Anna was a co-founder and director of Open School East, London/Margate (2013-20), associate curator at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2014-20), and co-curator, with Lydia Yee, of British Art Show 8 (Leeds, Edinburgh, Norwich, Southampton) (2015-16).

Project Owner: Margate Festival CIC The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.

Contractors : Nicolas Deshayes,Lindsey Mendick,Olu Oginnaike,Molly Pickle Design The team responsible for building or installing the project.