The Art of Participation
Exhibition display, creative direction, photography & design
Commissioned by Worthing Borough Council to create a project that would celebrate and elevate the town’s creative community. The commission formed part of a wider initiative to promote Worthing as a thriving town for creativity and cultural activity.
As part of the brief, the project was allocated a prominent seafront shelter to utilise. I developed a proposal that responded to both the site and community focus. The project was conceived with the specifications of an outdoor installation in mind, ensuring durability (exhibit run x6 months), accessibility, and visibility to residents and visitors.
The project was supported and installed by Colonnade house, Worthing.
“The colours spotlighting each individual and the portraits made their stories come alive”
— Local visitor
Worthing has a long-standing creative community, and this project set out to highlight the people who continue to shape and sustain it. When selecting participants, I invited individuals who were part of creative groups and initiatives, as well as those who had played an important role in building the town’s cultural landscape over the years.
Each creative was approached directly, and together we developed a concept for their portrait that reflected their practice and identity. The photographs were then taken in locations of personal significance, grounding the work in the subjects’ own sense of place.
The final installation took the form of a deconstructed magazine. The shelter itself became the framework: its East and West ends transformed into front and back covers, while the North and South acted as contents pages.
Portraits and interviews were displayed as large-scale editorial spreads, mounted on angled wedges to create depth and a three-dimensional, book-like experience. This approach turned the space into an immersive publication, celebrating the diversity and varied creative community.
“It made me feel less alone and more empowered to seek out artistic collaborators within my local community”
— Local visitor
The exhibition ran for six months and proved highly popular with both residents and visitors. It concluded with a celebratory live event at the Cellar Arts Club that brought together some of the creatives who featured in the exhibition.
Performances of music, live drawing, DJ sets, storytelling, and spoken word poetry. Drawing spaces were open to attendees to map and draw the connections formed across the wider creative groups and capture the sense of collaboration the project had generated. The event was well attended and highlighted the depth of engagement the exhibition inspired.
