Redoubt Dialogues

Redoubt Dialogues is part of Devonshire Collective’s wider National Lottery Heritage project Discover, Celebrate, Grow in 2026/27 which celebrates the people, buildings and hidden histories of Eastbourne's Devonshire Ward through creative partnerships, community engagement and storytelling, working alongside local residents who don't usually engage with heritage projects, contemporary artists and local heritage groups. The programme culminates in a centrepiece exhibition at VOLT, Devonshire Collective's gallery, in winter 2026, and forms part of DC10, Devonshire Collective's 10th anniversary year.

Within Discover, Celebrate, Grow, this small-scale Redoubt Dialogues commission is one of several artist-led strands, sitting alongside community-led storytelling walks with Jon Norman-Mason, a local journalism development programme with Eastbourne Reporter CIC, intergenerational creative projects with young people and refugee and asylum-seeker families, and the Pop-Up Potting Shed travelling allotment.

“I’m exploring aspects of the now closed Napoleonic Redoubt Fortress’ 21st c. heritage. Until very recently, I had never been into the fortress but had long been intrigued by it as a site, its potential as a public space, and its history. Its heritage is relevant to Devonshire Collective’s broad heritage project, being in the Devonshire Ward and having played so many different cultural not to mention military roles.

The Redoubt likely holds a place in many Eastbournian and Seasiders’ hearts. An aside is that generations of my family grew up over the road from the fortress in Seaside from 1905 onwards and might – I don’t know – have experienced it in a few of its different guises which over the years have included a military museum, a film club, a prison, and an aquarium.

Researching the heritage of the Redoubt would of course take many dedicated years to do in full so for this commission involving a few days’ research, I decided to focus on finding out about live events which have happened at the Redoubt, or been inspired by it, in the last 20 or so years, through hosting a conversation with some of the curators, producers and artists who have worked there in the past: Judith Alder, Marina Castledine, Elizabeth Doak, Karen Taylor, Fran Stovold, Clare Whistler”.
Nikki Tomlinson

This conversation, in which the contributors shared documentation, stories and memories, took place on 2 July 2026 as part of LIVE EDITIONS