Hastings Bites Back at the Herring Fair

Abigail Wincott from the University of Brighton in Hastings and Bella Wheeler from the University of Sussex will be joined by members of the Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project, who have recently completed a 12-month research project on narratives of food poverty.

Their exhibition ‘Art on the Breadline’ will be at the Stade Hall on the seafront during the Hastings Herring Fair, from 31 October to 1 November.

On 31 October, members of the public will be able to try out creative research activities involving collage, mind-mapping and a ‘props’ box, developed by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s  Connected Communities project and similar projects. The aim of the activities is to encourage visitors to propose food research topics and to pose questions they feel strongly about.

Abigail Wincott, Senior Lecturer, Broadcast Media and Broadcast Journalism in the University of Brighton’s College of Arts and Humanities, said: “As well as raising awareness of social and cultural research and the work of the BSUFN in Hastings, the Herring Fair event will kickstart a new collaborative community-university food research project for Hastings, ‘Hastings Bites Back’.

“Unlike many community partnerships, Hastings Bites Back is not a closed collaboration between the university and one community group, but is open to all in the Hastings area.”

Abigail Wincott

Ms Wincott, a media and popular culture researcher, is leading the project. She is inviting members of the public, food related business and community groups, as well as local history groups and other researchers to join the project.

She said: “No experience of research is necessary, and although the research will primarily be social or cultural, natural scientists are also welcome to join. The membership will have to set the research agenda for the project, based on the experience and aims of the group and what they feel are the most pressing food issues locally.”

In order to equip people with the skills and knowledge to do this, Ms Wincott is organising talks and workshops on research methods and the experience and findings of  previous community research projects in the area.

She said: “The group will put together a bid for seed funding from the University of Brighton’s Community University Partnership Programme in spring 2016 with a view to developing a fully funded project.

“The project is part of a wider agenda at the BSUFN, to encourage more people from outside the university to join, and take an active and leading role in setting the food research agenda in the local area.”