Thanet Alive: Awakenings
Sept
23
to 27 Sept

Thanet Alive: Awakenings

Thanet Alive: Awakenings

23 – 27 September 2026
Private view: Wednesday 23 September, 6 – 8.30pm
Free entry
Mast, 31–33 High Street, Margate CT9 1DX

Thanet Alive returns to Mast for its second year, continuing as a free platform for emerging artists connected to Thanet.

Awakenings gathers artists bound to this place by lived experience, memory or artistic practice. Rather than resolving those differences into a single view, the exhibition holds them together — a collective moment of attention to the creative energy moving through Thanet now.

Spanning a range of media and approaches, the works invite discussion: about what is made here, about the ideas the works carry, and about the voices behind them — voices rising to be heard above the roar of the waves.

Awakenings responds to a society continually becoming more self-aware, and proposes that within this one place exist many worlds, each waiting to be discovered.

Curated by Daniel Jones.

Opening times
Mast gallery is open Tuseday - Sunday 10 am - 4 pm

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Pre-Show Discussion - Rebalancing the Abstract
Oct
8

Pre-Show Discussion - Rebalancing the Abstract

Join artists Gillian Brent, Alexandra Harley, Sheila Vollmer (Talking Sculpture Making) and Melanie Ahmed for an informal discussion of the work in their exhibition ‘Rebalancing the Abstract’ at Mast.

In this ‘back-to-front’ artist talk, visitors will be invited to share their thoughts about an artwork to encourage a wide-reaching dialogue about how we interact with art, artists and each other.

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Rebalancing the Abstract - Talking Sculpture Making & Melanie Ahmed
Oct
8
to 18 Oct

Rebalancing the Abstract - Talking Sculpture Making & Melanie Ahmed

 Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) is an exhibiting and discussion forum formed in 2019 by abstract sculptors Gillian Brent (Sheffield), Alexandra Harley (London/Norfolk) and Sheila Vollmer (London). The collective has an established exhibition profile exploring contemporary abstract sculpture, generating dialogue and supporting multi-generational women’s practices in the genre. TSM are fore-fronting the practice of community building as integral to the ongoing feminist repositioning of abstract sculpture, to redress the imbalance resulting from women sculptors’ underrepresentation in the genre. TSM aim to provide a showcase for intergenerational women’s practices and augment their voices. 

For this exhibition, TSM invites London and Margate based artist Melanie Ahmed to show with them. Melanie’s paintings and deconstructed painted objects offer a bridge between the more familiar genre of abstract painting and the composition of form, materiality, colour and surface in the works by the TSM sculptors. 

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Panel Discussion - Rebalancing the Abstract
Oct
17

Panel Discussion - Rebalancing the Abstract

A public discussion with the artists exhibiting in 'Rebalancing the Abstract', chaired by John Bunker.

The collective Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) host a free public discussion during their exhibition Rebalancing the Abstract, about their practice, ideologies and experiences of working as women abstract sculptors, aiming to provide an inclusive environment for audiences to engage and respond on their terms. Gillian Brent, Alexandra Harley and Sheila Vollmer will be joined by invited artist, painter Melanie Ahmed.

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Sandra Art4All celebrates a decade of creativity
Aug
12
to 29 Aug

Sandra Art4All celebrates a decade of creativity

Sandra Art4All Studio is proud to announce its 2026 summer exhibition season, marking an important milestone: a decade of making art accessible to Disabled Artists with additional impairments and learning needs.

 Over the past ten years, this supportive studio has served as a vibrant space where artistic expression knows no bounds. To celebrate this landmark anniversary, Sandra Art4All will host two major public exhibitions in July and August, showcasing their energetic artwork and unique abilities to the community.

The summer season kicks off with an exclusive exhibition in July at the Pie Factory, followed by the flagship August showcase. The community is warmly invited to celebrate at the official launch evening for the major summer exhibition, Proud 2 Create, on Wednesday 12th August 2026 from 4pm to 8pm at The Margate School of Art. 

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my diversity flag: workshop & talk with Gil Mualem-Doron
Aug
9

my diversity flag: workshop & talk with Gil Mualem-Doron

What would a flag representing your identity look like?

Join artist and photographer Gil Mualem-Doron for a talk about No Man’s Lands, his collaborative photography project exploring migration, queer identity, belonging and life on the threshold—currently on display at the School of Art, Margate.

The talk will be followed by My Diversity Flag, a playful, hands-on workshop in which a short quiz and specially designed stickers will help you create a flag expressing who you are.

The workshop is part of Mualem-Doron’s acclaimed New Union Flag project, previously presented at Tate Modern, Turner Contemporary, the People’s History Museum, the Southbank Centre and venues across the UK. This is your opportunity to become part of its continuing story.

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No Man's Lands - Dr Gil Mualem-Doron
Jul
31
to 9 Aug

No Man's Lands - Dr Gil Mualem-Doron

No Man's Lands, Dr Gil Mualem-Doron is an ongoing collaborative photography project exploring identity, belonging and life lived between social, political and personal boundaries. Created with participants rather than about them, the portraits foreground the voices of men navigating mental health challenges, LGBTQ+ communities, and Black, Asian and other People of Colour (BPOC), recognising how race, gender, sexuality, migration and class intersect to shape lived experience. Rejecting stereotypes and victimhood, the project celebrates resilience, vulnerability and agency. Through collaboration and shared authorship, No Man's Lands reimagines portraiture as an ethical encounter that invites empathy, challenges prejudice, and affirms our shared humanity. Works from this project were exhibited in various places in the UK as well as internationally in Germany, Austria, Norway, South Africa, Brazil, Israel-Palestine and Sri Lanka.

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An Oblong of Pink by Julie Caves
Jul
31
to 9 Aug

An Oblong of Pink by Julie Caves

An exhibition of paintings by Margate artist Julie Caves, whose vibrant, light-filled paintings explore the boundary between still life and abstraction. With a background in painting and curating, her work focuses on the everyday objects we live with-distilled into studies of colour, light, and form.

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Mast Degree Show
Jul
16
to 26 Jul

Mast Degree Show

The Margate School of Art Degree Show 2026 will run from 16 July Tuseday – Sunday 26 July 2026

Exhibiting artists: Josie Carter (@rejoice_satyr ), Mariz Nigro (@mariznigro ), George Watkin(@georgewatkinart).

Open T
uesday–Sunday from 10am–4pm. Closed on Mondays.

Displayed in The Margate School of Art’s gallery, the exhibition presents a wide range of practices from moving image and installation to sculpture, painting, and print.

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AGE | Paul Hazelton
Jul
2
to 12 Jul

AGE | Paul Hazelton

As humans we do not inhabit a single time. We are composed of many different types of ages
simultaneously.
When considering age, how do we quantify the mind, the body the soul?
For example,
an old soul can inhabit a young body.
The mind through learning can occupy an ancient wisdom
and the body, in its atomic constituent parts, is as old as time itself.
We are the sum of all that precedes us.
Therefore you could say that we are not the age we think we are.
The process of ageing,
whether biological or as epochal progression, is aligned with the process of making.
Art and Age go hand-in-hand.
For example,
to experience An Age we often do so through the artist’s medium,
whether that’s through
a piece of writing, a play, a painting, a sculpture, a piece of music, dance.
Each shifts our perspective
and therefore our perception of Age
and Time.
Age is seasoned by Art
We are seasoned by age
H takes his time.......
Then gives that time space and shape
In dust hair graphite
ink paint paper glass mirror

lines wrinkles cracks

cutting scoring
drawing

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