"There's an openness in people to try new things in Eastbourne"
Towner director Joe Hill is moving on after eight years to run the 500-acre Yorkshire Sculpture Park. He reflects on his time in Eastbourne and how the future is shaping up for the town
By Rebecca Maer
Joe Hill sits in his small wedge-shaped office at Towner in front of shelves of art books, thinking about his legacy as he prepares to head north for his next challenge.
For him, the two highlights of his tenure were the Turner Prize, which the gallery hosted in 2023, and helping to secure £11.5 million in Government funding for the planned Black Robin Farm arts and education centre on the Downs.
The ambitious project of bringing the Turner Prize to the town attracted international attention and tens of thousands of extra visitors.
Joe said: “To have all that focus on Eastbourne and hosting events with cultural leaders was amazing. To see the economic and social benefits has been quite powerful.
“It showcased what Eastbourne was capable of. It felt so vibrant and exciting for us.”
Around 130,000 visitors saw the Turner Prize exhibition during its six-month run from September 2023.
His other highlight is the Black Robin Farm project on a 1,000-acre former dairy farm in a secluded valley near Beachy Head. It’s being developed by Eastbourne Borough Council and will be run by Towner.
The farmhouse, milking parlour, cottages and barns will be repurposed and an exhibition space will be built.
Joe said: “Black Robin Farm is an amazing project. Some of that work, where art meets nature, has become more of an interest for me, bringing those two strands together.
“For any incoming director, it's so exciting. I’d love to be involved in it but the last thing you want is the old director sitting there, saying; ‘You’re not doing that right’!”
‘Levelling Up’ money from the then-Conservative Government was secured in 2021 for the project, on the basis it was used for a new scheme which would boost the local economy.
Back to his roots
Joe, 43, is from the market town of Batley, south-west of Leeds, in West Yorkshire. He was inspired by an A-level art tutor at sixth form college in Huddersfield to pursue a career in the creative sector.
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park was where he would hang out with his friends and visit with family.
He didn’t see himself living in the area again after he left at the age of 19. But he has four young children and, with family in Yorkshire and the north Midlands, it seems the right time to move back.
But he has mixed feelings about leaving the Sussex coast and returning to the area where he grew up.
“The sad thing will be leaving Sussex; we have loved living here. It’s the most beautiful place to live with a gentle pace and stunning countryside and coastline.”
A keen sea swimmer, he says he will find that the distant (and very chilly) North Sea will not have the same attraction as the sea off Eastbourne.
“We will really miss that. We will come back to visit – we don’t want to leave it forever.
"To watch Eastbourne grow and change over the last eight years has been fun. I am optimistic for the town.”
The Turner Prize legacy
Joe concedes that the period immediately after the Turner in 2024 was difficult for the Towner team. “There was a feeling of loss the summer after it closed. We found it really hard to come off the back of something so exciting. It was tough.”
But he says that the team’s experience of delivering an event of that scale gave them vital skills to build for the future.
Joe cautions that the change brought about by the attention focused on Eastbourne during the Turner Prize may not have been immediately apparent.
He said: “Those changes take time to bed in. The challenge for Eastbourne was that the year just after the Turner, the town went through a difficult moment with council funding and the homeless crisis. That did affect how much the town could benefit from that ‘Turner Prize moment’.
“But I think it is coming now. There are exciting food and leisure companies who are looking at sites in the town, which is really positive.
“I am definitely seeing some of that change. There is also an openness in people to try new things.”
He gave the example of Creative Eastbourne, a grassroots collective of artists and creatives which launched last summer and recently ran a highly successful postcard art exhibition to which anyone could submit work.
"It's really starting to build the ecology you need for the creative industries to thrive in Eastbourne.”
Who needs art?
But how relevant is art and Towner in an era when there is a continuing cost-of-living crisis, rising bills and a high use of the foodbank in Eastbourne?
Joe said: “Some argue that art is there to progress society, as a testbed for how we want to build society, as a mirror about what is not working. But it is also entertainment, leisure and therapy.
“I think there are behavioural changes in people. They can sometimes find overtly political and challenging artwork hard and maybe they don’t want to go to a gallery for that – but you can look at the Eric Ravilious paintings here.”
Towner is also trying to target a younger and more diverse demographic.
The Towner Lates programme is being held three times a year with live music, workshops, film, food and drink. It’s aimed at attracting bands and artists starting out and at bringing in a younger audience, some of whom may never have been to Towner.
Of the 200,000 visitors a year to the building, around 40% are Eastbourne residents. Towner facilities also include a cinema, meeting space, small library and working area plus yoga sessions run in the gallery.
Joe said: “We want people to come here regularly for lots of different reasons. Institutions like this can’t rely solely on exhibitions and art. They have to be, as much as they can, a community space.”
“Towner is in a good place and our audiences are up on last year. “
Exhibitions later this year include Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism and Ryan Gander, a contemporary artist who makes fun, immersive art.
A coherent approach
Joe is hopeful that a Sussex mayor, who will eventually be in place under devolution, will join up creative activities across the area.
Looking to the new job he starts after Easter, he said that West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin is a driving force behind the sector in the region.
And Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has given ten-year funding agreements to some creative organisations to enable them to plan for the longer term.
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which features 90 sculptures across a large estate and attracts 380,000 visitors annually, will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.
So the new director and chief executive will have plenty to do.
But one thing is certain: Joe Hill will be back to visit Sussex.
:: No machine learning (AI) was used in the creation of this hand-crafted journalism; just listening and shorthand. Interviewing like this takes time: copying PR handouts takes seconds and is less illuminating. If you value this reporting, one-off donations are here or become a member here for the price of a coffee just once a month. Reader support is vital: there is no funding for local independent news.
