ARKhive
JULY - OCTOBER • 2024
From 29 July – 8 August, Margate Pride took over ARK with a glorious mix of workshops, events and exhibitions and bringing many into our building for the first time.
Later in August, we coordinated the Thanet leg of Doorstep Duets’ Hum from Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, with performances at ARK, Turner Contemporary, the Ramsgate Festival of Sound and in Dalby Square. All performances were free to attend, and we are looking forward to working with New Adventures again in the future.
The performance of Hum at ARK took place at the end of the first week of our summer playscheme for local children, while the second week closed with a day of animation workshops with 1927, followed by the company’s Bivouac Tales, an exhibition of work created in the workshops, alongside work created in local schools.
We opened the building in September with Leave to Land, a touring exhibition about the Kitchener Camp which was built in Sandwich in 1939, complemented by a talk from author Clare Ungerson, whose book 4000 Lives, details the rescue and daily lives of the 4000 Jewish men who were rescued from the camps and brought to East Kent.
Also in September we worked with the Rise Up residency, to commission Breeze Yoko, an artist from South Africa, to create a stunning mural along ARK’s sidewall.
HOME • 2024
June 2024 focused on HOME, ARK’s festival celebrating the cultural contribution that refugees and asylum seekers make to our community.
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The festival started with ARK’s participation in Body as Data - People on the move, an inclusive workshop sharing folk dance, stories, music and movement, followed by a walking event along the coast.
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The main focus of HOME was during international Refugee Week later in June, with a programme that included Women of the World Orchestra, an enthralling mix of different musical traditions; Asylum Monologues, readings of firsthand accounts of negotiating the UK’s asylum system produced by Ice and Fire Theatre; ZouZou Group’s -door open- made during Syria’s ongoing civil war; Soudada Kaadan’s Venice Film Festival award-winner, Nezouh, which offered a powerful and moving perspective on the Syrian conflict; and a talk by Margate-based artist, Studio Lenca about Rutas – a visual arts project with refugees from central and southern America.
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HOME also included workshops and two exhibitions - Our Home, photos and narratives from young people in Lebanon and refugees from Syria and Palestine, along with Hands On Hearts, featuring bunting made by migrant women from Beyond the Page and local Cliftonville residents.
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ARK’s Roma neighbours were also an important part of the festival and curated the closing party which included a Rap performance from The Dalby Boys who had also performed at International Roma Day at ARK in April.
1927 Theatre • 2024
In May, we were thrilled to present two special events from the multi-award winning 1927 at ARK – the screening of Golem, a dystopian fable about our reliance on machines, and Strand, a playful installation created by Paul Barritt – co-artistic director of 1927. Golem was shown to students at Hartsdown Academy as well as to a public audience.
INFINITY Festival • 2024
Infinity celebrated the work of internationally acclaimed Margate-based artist Govinda Sah ‘Azad’ with a series of workshops, talks, performances, meditation and relaxation sessions, running alongside Govinda’s exhibition.
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Performances included Vishnu’s Got My Back - Ash Mukherjee’s queer coming of age story of endurance and regeneration, as seen through the lens of a first-generation Indian immigrant and told through original songs, spoken word, choreographed Bharatanatyam segments and lots of sparkle, while The Orchestra from Everywhere was the highlight of Infinity’s closing weekend with musicians from Syria, Iran, Hong Kong, Palestine, Ukraine and India playing music from their own cultures on instruments including the Syrian oud, qanun, Iranian santur, Chinese guzheng, Indian flute and South-Indian mrdangam.
ARK Spring Season • 2024
The year started with a free performance of The Light Princess from Las Theatre – a joyful re-imagining of the fairy tale of the same name – hot from its Christmas run at the Albany in Deptford.
Our collaboration with house enabled us to host two more national touring shows later in the Spring – On Track, which used comedy and visual, physical theatre to explore how a simple bicycle could become a vehicle to freedom, and The Freshwater Five, the story of five Isle of Wight who despite having always professed their innocence, in 2011 were sentenced to a total of 104 years for conspiracy to import £53m worth of cocaine.​
The musical highlight of our Spring 2024 programme was Mahogany created by Sabina Desir and longstanding collaborator Jessica Lauren. The show was a celebration of the diversity, contribution and legacy of Black women in music. Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith featured alongside contemporary artists such as Jill Scott and Erykah Badu.
Making More Waves • 2023
Following our sold-out opening season, of music, theatre, dance and film, in November 2023 ARK co-presented Making More Waves with Looping the Loop - a celebration of performance created in East Kent, and featuring some of the region’s favourite creatives as well as emerging performers trying out new work, alongside workshops and professional development opportunities.
The festival launched on Friday November 10th with Drenched! hosted by Amber Topaz. Scratch performances followed throughout this and the following weekend, interspersed with experimental work from Headphone Story (Escape Room LIVE), the vacuum cleaner (Ship of Fools) and Jasmin Vardimon Company (Alice in VR Wonderland). The adult programme for Making More Waves finished with The Music Box, an exuberant celebration featuring Wyatt Riot, Snottledogs, The Nuclear Family Band, Morag Butler, Gaddzukes Ukulele Band, Moa Papillon and hosted by Katie McGarry.
ARK Autumn Season • 2023
ARK’s opening season brought together a programme of music, theatre, film and dance.
Following our late September launch, featuring Falle Nioke, Charlie Hannah, Daisy Beau, Thomas Abrahams, Jambo Africa and the Margate Social Singing Choir, our programme began with the acclaimed touring production of The Rest of Our Lives from Jo Fong and George Orange, which was nominated for UK Theatre’s Achievement in Dance.
We hosted two evenings of top-quality work from the region – Parrot Theatre’s Death and the Carpenter by Sonia Overall, and an evening of music from The New Eves, supported by Green Diesel.
Added to the mix was the wonderful Margate Social Singing Choir which celebrated its sixth birthday with a performance to raise money for ARK’s development, and a screening of East Endings - a documentary film about some of the Jewish East End’s most colourful characters - and also featured a live performance from renowned Cliftonville-based musicians Francesca Ter-Berg and Luke Eastop.
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​The season ended with a sold-out multi-media adaptation of Robert Tressel’s seminal novel, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.
Refugee Week • 2023
Photograph: Matt Hall
Cliftonville Cultural Space recently hosted an exciting programme of events, exhibitions, workshops and talks for Refugee Week, a nationwide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
International Roma Day • 2023
CCS in collaboration with Nelson College, hosted an afternoon of music, dance, art, food and creative workshops to celebrate International Roma Day.
Cliftonville Lights • 2022
Cliftonville Lights is a celebration of light and community. Art created by six local groups was projected on to the building, culminating in the Winter Solstice.
Shelter • Margate Now • 2021
Photograph: Sarah Wyld
Shelter was an afternoon of music and workshops to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Sukkot, marking the opening of Margate NOW.