A unique collaboration between Hastings Contemporary and Bristol Robotics Lab is the first time telepresence robot technology has been used in a gallery in the UK

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One of the most iconic and much-loved British galleries of modern and contemporary art has responded to temporary closure due to the coronavirus by utilising robotics technology to provide its audiences with remote access to its exhibitions while its doors remain closed.

In a UK first, Hastings Contemporary, an independent charitable arts organisation on England’s south coast, has teamed up with Bristol Robotics Lab to offer its members and audiences old and new alike the opportunity to continue to visit the gallery and experience the best of modern and contemporary arts via the Double, a two-wheeled videoconferencing robot that can guide an operator and up to five people through real time tours of the gallery and its current exhibitions, as well as taking in the gallery’s much-loved views over the historic Stade fishing beach and English Channel.

Praminda Caleb-Solly, Professor for Assistive Robotics and Intelligent Health Technologies at the Bristol Robotics Lab, UWE said “I am absolutely thrilled to team up with Hastings Contemporary as part of our Arts and Humanities Research Council D4D project to provide people who are socially isolated the opportunity to enjoy art via the telepresence robot. This is an excellent example of how robotics technology can be used to support people in difficult situations such as we are currently experiencing. There are other applications for use of telepresence robots within health and social care and I look forward to learning from our experiences at Hastings to apply elsewhere.”

Esther Fox, Hastings Contemporary Trustee and Researcher on the D4D project Esther Fox has said: “This has been made possible by a partnership with a pioneering research programme D4D, which explores how new technologies can change experiences of disability, social belonging and community engagement. Up until now we have been working with disabled people to explore how the telepresence robot might open up access to spaces they could not experience. We are now excited to see how we can enable a wider group of people to access great art and combat isolation, particularly those with underlying health conditions who are having to self-isolate.”

The telepresence robot, developed by Double Robotics, provides a revolutionary solution for arts organisations such as Hastings Contemporary in overcoming barriers of isolation. The gallery is delighted that through its adoption of this technology it will be able to continue to support families, children and older visitors alike, offering opportunities to enter the gallery space from the comfort of a sofa, bed or kitchen table.

The gallery is initially planning to offer robot-assisted guided tours of its current programme to visitors stuck at home, led by its curators and gallery team, as well applying the technology further to allow local artist-educators to facilitate interactive art lessons by piloting local children via the robot around the gallery. The gallery’s experience using the telepresence robot will also help to deepen scientific knowledge and understanding of the technical, social and organisational issues regarding use of such technology and inform future research and development.

The gallery is planning, in addition, further ways to use innovative technologies to ‘flip’ the gallery inside out so that people can continue to benefit from its work while stuck at home, including developing a new online hub of art and mindfulness resources, with the children of key workers in mind; creating bespoke digital art lessons and creative learning activities for many of the now closed schools in Hastings; and virtual 3D renderings of its three postponed Spring shows, Victor Pasmore: Line & Space, Stephen Chambers: The Court of Redonda, and Quentin Blake: We Live In Worrying Times.

Remote-controlled telepresence technology has not been used in a British gallery in this way before and Hastings Contemporary is delighted that it is able to create a radical and exciting alternative to the traditional gallery experience by harnessing the next generation of robotic hardware and empower both the gallery’s team and audiences during this testing time.

Liz Gilmore, Director of Hastings Contemporary said “As we navigate through these testing times and manage the loss of important revenue streams, I’m thrilled to embrace such innovation and creativity. Our trials with the telepresence robot have buoyed the team here in Hastings and will enable a new and pioneering means of continued engagement with our visitors. Next week I will be leading some virtual tours to bring to life the incredible exhibitions on offer, prioritising people who are most affected by the lockdown and are now having to self-isolate for a number of weeks. Press will also be able to join in by appointment. Recordings of these tours will be made available to the public afterwards. In this way, over the months ahead, we hope to continue our exciting future calendar of contemporary art exhibitions, and our educational and community engagement programmes.”

To visit the gallery and be one of the first people in the UK to experience this technology please email info@hastingscontemporary.org.

As with many other arts organisations, Hastings Contemporary has temporarily closed its doors in the interest of its visitors’ safety and in line with the British Government’s guidelines regarding the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The gallery continues today to appeal directly to its members, past and present sponsors, and the wider community of Hastings and East Sussex to support its transition into the digital realm during this health crisis.

One-off donations to the gallery are now being accepted.

To donate £5: https://pay.gocardless.com/AL0002EBH1DZJ1

To donate £10: https://pay.gocardless.com/AL0002EBH30YS2

To donate £20: https://pay.gocardless.com/AL0002EBH6CSTY

To donate £50: https://pay.gocardless.com/AL0003033G8WP2

To donate £100: https://pay.gocardless.com/AL0003033M8Y77

Or text ARTONSEA to 70085 to donate £3.

In these times when the livelihood of our musicians is at risk, we are launching this series to support the careers of our prizewinners and will be paying them a performance fee.

CONCERT 2: AN EVENING IN WITH MAXIM KINASOV

The second in our series will be 2019 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition Prizewinner Maxim Kinasov.

Friday 27th March 7pm

VIEW ON FACEBOOK HERE – https://www.facebook.com/HastingsConcertoCompetition

OR ON OUR WEBSITE HERE- https://www.hastingsinternationalpiano.org/an-evening-in-with/

Programme

Franck-Bauer Prelude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18

Rachmaninov Etude-tableau in C minor, Op. 33 No. 3

The concerts are free to view, but viewers are able to make a voluntary donation to Hastings International Piano Engagement Fund, or choose to join as a Friend.

Donate

http://bit.ly/JustGivingPianoFest

Become a Friend

https://www.hastingsinternationalpiano.org/become-a-friend-or-patron/

Events are cancelled, venues are closed but performers and managers still need to plan for both the immediate and more long-term future. Behind every cancellation notice there are many individuals whose lives are changed, both professionally and socially. Over the last week I have been talking to musicians and singers, directors and managers about the effect the coronavirus is having on them, and considering the longer term implications for the arts in Hastings.

I caught up with Neil Sellman, Chair of the Stables Theatre. He has only been in place for a year and in that time has overseen a broadening of the Stables outreach and involvement in the local community. Needless to say this has come to an immediate halt with the onset of the coronavirus.

‘Thankfully we are in a secure position financially even with having to close the theatre with immediate effect. We rely almost entirely on volunteers and the local community have always given us strong financial support. We have wanted for some time to open up the theatre for greater community use and had just started to do so when the pandemic hit us.’

Given the importance of volunteers to the Stables, I wondered how self-isolation was affecting them. ‘At least 80% of our volunteers come into the risk category! The majority of them are fit, well and enthusiastic but realistically we all need to be very careful at this time and it would be quite wrong to allow people to work with us if they were putting themselves, and others, at risk by doing so. ‘

And how were plans for the future going? ‘Looking at the shows booked in for this season, we had 42 listed of which 7 have taken place. However, we may have to reschedule or cancel many of these if the epidemic continues. As we have no dedicated staff within the theatre for particular jobs it is difficult to retain consistency of support which is why we have reluctantly decided to close for three months, subject to further advice. We hope we can reopen in September. As long as we are given the all clear to do so we could start quite quickly, as plays were already in rehearsal and could be restarted with relative ease once casts can meet up again.

Our website gives details and we try to keep it updated on an almost daily basis as the situation changes. Members can now choose to get refunds for tickets already purchased or defer them on the assumption that the plays will be staged at a later date. This, obviously, is not the case with visiting shows, like Antony & Cleopatra, where we are in the hands of the companies themselves as to their future plans, and immediate decisions to cancel. Valuable as the internet is we are very aware that many of our regular patrons don’t have access to IT and we are therefore making a point of sending letters (almost unheard of these days!) to ensure everyone knows what is happening. We hope to bring them all good news of an opening date in the near future.’

The next day I spoke to Polo Piatti about the Opus Theatre’s situation and his own as a professional composer. Just before we spoke he had released a composite video from the Composers’ Festival 2018 which is an inspiring example of the breadth of music-making and the way he has galvanised composers from across the world to join with him here on the South Coast.

I wondered how his plans for Opus Theatre were changing in the light of the pandemic. ‘We have obviously had to make a lot of changes. I am sorry we have had to postpone the concert which soprano Thomasin Trezise and guitarist Sergio Puccini were due to give in early May. This is essentially due to the travel restrictions now in place in Argentina. Put bluntly, Sergio is not allowed to travel, either abroad or within Argentina. When you add this to our own closures it is obvious that we have no idea when the concert might be able to take place.

It is a little different for Hastings Sinfonia, but even here there is an on-going problem with rehearsals, which again are impossible for the time being. We have considered the idea of out-door events, which might be feasible in the summer, but again rehearsing beforehand is currently out of the question. There is some thought of on-line rehearsals, in the same way as on-line choirs have been , very successfully, created, but not all of our players have the equipment, or the expertise, necessary to set this up.

In many ways the same is true for our plans for the next Composers’ Festival, where we were to have had an orchestra from Singapore. Now, with the dates unknown, all of this is unsure. Thankfully the London Mozart Players are very keen to ensure that my oratorio Libera Nos goes ahead even if as expected we have to postpone its premiere. It seems somewhat ironic that the text is a plea for rescue – the very thing the whole world wants at this moment, regardless of individual beliefs. ‘

There is one silver lining to the otherwise grey clouds. ‘Like so many other people at the moment, I am in voluntary isolation, which means I have time to finish writing the cello concerto for which I have a specific commission and also, potentially, to get back to my opera which I keep having to abandon because of the pressure of other work. ‘

Let us hope that the dynamism shown by both the Stables Theatre and Opus Theatre is able to continue once this pandemic has passed, and will return to us refreshed, renewed and as viable as ever.

Hastings International Piano will be presenting a series of online 15 minute concerts, beginning with a short recital from our

2018 Competition Winner Roman Kosyakov

premiering live this Friday evening at 7pm on Facebook.

In these times when the livelihood of our musicians is at risk, we are launching this series to support the careers of our prizewinners and will be paying them a performance fee.

The concerts will be free to view, but viewers will be able to make a voluntary donation to Hastings International Piano Engagement Fund, or choose to join as a Friend. The concerts will be free to view, but viewers will be able to make a voluntary donation to Hastings International Piano Engagement Fund, or choose to join as a Friend.

St John the Evangelist, Hollington, Concert Saturday 21 March 7.30pm

“What a Difference a Day Makes” – 20’s and 30’s songs and music has been cancelled due to ongoing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. 

Please pass this message on to friends and colleagues who may have been interested in this event. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause but trust you will understand our decision.

Hopefully we will be able to reschedule this concert for later in the year.

It is with great sadness that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been forced to postpone several concerts at the Opus Theatre, including this one by Thomasin Trezise and Sergio Puccini. We have already refunded all ticket holders in full and hope to be able to offer another date in the not too distant future. Many thanks for your understanding.

The Opus Theatre Team