Listening Grounds
Meet the artists
Friday 30th October 1pm-3pm
Listening Grounds arises out of a two-part workshop emerging from a transnational collaboration between The Margate School of Art (UK) and the École Supérieure d’Art Dunkerque (FR).
Developed by Amias Hanley and Melissa Ryke, Listening Grounds unfolds as an exploration of listening, not simply as perception, but as an embodied, situated, and political practice. Bringing together students and staff from both institutions, the project traces a shared enquiry across coastal sites on either side of the English Channel. From the concrete bunkers embedded within the shifting dunes of Leffrinckoucke, to the monumental acoustic forms of the Denge Sound Mirrors in Dungeness, the works presented emerge through fieldwork, recording, performance, and transmission. These sites, once designed for surveillance, detection, and defence become grounds for rethinking how listening operates across histories, infrastructures, and environments.
The exhibition gathers materials, recordings, reflections, and critical responses developed through the workshops, alongside contributions that extend the project’s investigation into sonic practices, acoustic evidence, and the politics of attention.
This is the second iteration of the exhibition and brings together works from students and recent graduates of The Margate School of Art and the Ecole Superieure d’Art Dunkerque-Tourcoing, including; Yuwen Hu, Xinyu Zhong, Lea Dal Zilio, Max Lelostec, Sofiane Dahmoun, Frédérique Leys, Lilou Duez, Josie Carter and George Watkin.
All Trees Are Political: Particularly at Christmas.
The Arborealists and invited artists, curated by Philippa Beale. Free private view at the Schwartzman Gallery, The Margate School.
The private view of All Trees Are Political: Particularly at Christmas, the Arborealists and invited artists, curated by Philippa Beale.
Every December we fell a young conifer, carry it into the house and hang lights on it, and most of us never ask why. This exhibition asks that question. Twenty-eight artists on what trees mean to us in the month we bring them indoors, opening in National Tree Week.
The exhibition is at the Schwartzman Gallery, The Margate School, from Tuesday 24 November to Saturday 5 December 2026.
Philippa Beale gives a talk, Being with Trees: 45 exhibitions in 13 years, at 3pm on Saturday 28 November.
Two books and a catalogue are on sale: Forests, Woods and Groves: Art from the Arborealists by Philippa Beale (Batsford, 2024); Art Meets Ecology: Arborealists in Lady Park Wood by George Peterken with Tim Craven and Christiana Payne (Sansom and Company, 2020); and The Arborealists at Staverton Park, Tim Craven’s catalogue.
The show then moves to The Batsford Gallery, 266 Hackney Road, London E2 7SJ, from Friday 11 to Sunday 20 December.
The artists: Georgina Allen, Robert Amesbury Brooks, Rosalind Archer, Suzanne Baker, Philippa Beale, John Blandy, Day Bowman, Frank Creber, Margy Creber, Louisa Crispin, Annabel Cullen, Alex Egan, Ferha Farooqui, Laura Gompertz, Julie Held, Joanna Hyslop, Charlie Kirkham, Claire Leach, Natasha Lien, Dawn Limbert, Anna Maconochie, Seema Manchanda, Sarah Medway, Hilary Rosen, Angela Rumble, Tom Shipman, Maria Storey, Sandra Wroe.
Image: works from the exhibition. Courtesy the artists.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Tuesday–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.
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
Drawing with Plants: natural pigments workshop
This immersive workshop invites participants to slow down and reconnect with the natural world through foraging, drawing, natural pigments, and intuitive textile making.
Margate Analogue Photowalk
Dig out your film camera for another Margate analogue photo-walk and film process.