News Blast: POW Thanet to close
Top creative and cultural news from across Thanet this week
POW Thanet announces its closure after ten years of championing gender diversity, Margate choir bags big support slot, plans for new RNLI lifeboat station. This week's key culture and creative news from across Thanet.
Gender equality charity POW Thanet has announced that it is closing after ten years “due to the increasingly challenging funding climate” that has made continuing its work “unsustainable”. Yesterday’s POW in the Park festival in Ramsgate was the organisation’s final event. There are plans to create a legacy mural in partnership with Rise Up, Clean Up to mark the charity’s important work over the last decade. Read the full closure announcement.
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Ramsgate Festival of Sound has put out an open call for submissions for its sonic trail in September. This year’s theme is ‘acoustic architecture’, and the festival is looking for work that reflects and interacts sonically with the diverse buildings and public spaces in Ramsgate. Up to five works will be selected for a paid commission of £400. Email ramsgatefestivalofsound@gmail.com with your ideas. The deadline is June 30.
Margate’s Social Singing Choir has been announced as the support act for Haim at Dreamland this Friday. The announcement comes after a social media campaign, which saw the choir sing a different Haim song each day in an effort to get the band’s attention. It worked, and they brought the campaign to a close with a drone-shot video on Margate Main Sands.
Art gallery Quench in Cliftonville has announced a free ten week programme for working class artists living in Thanet, offering creative workshops, funding support, one-to-one mentoring and more. Twelve artists will be selected to take part, with applications due to open next month. There will be a coffee morning on Saturday, July 5 from 10am-12pm to hear more about it all. Free tickets.
Margate Pride has announced sculptor Lady Kitt as the winner of its Pride Art Map Open Call Gallery Exhibition. Kitt’s practice includes crafting, performance and research to create objects and events with the aim of dismantling and re-crafting discriminatory spaces and systems. They will create an exhibition at the Margate School in August as part of Pride’s art trail.
The RNLI has unveiled plans for a new lifeboat station in Margate, standing on the same site as the existing building (following a previously rejected plan to move to the middle of Margate Main Sands). The current station was erected in 1978, after the collapse of Margate Pier. Work is scheduled to begin in September, and the RNLI has launched a campaign to raise the £3.5 million needed to complete the project. Find out more.
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