A Town Explores A Book - A Town Explores A Book

Unmasked and Stripped Bare – exhibition by Yasmin Aishah and Ruby Colley

Two sound installations at Hattons Yard by artists Yasmin Aishah and Ruby Colley.

Seaview’s Masks – community exhibition at Seaview

An exhibition by the Seaview community exploring Mary Seacole’s writing through masks

Kings Road Street Party

Fun for all the family this Easter Sunday, 11am-3pm on Kings Road, St Leonards, feat. dog show, family workshops, games, live music & poetry stage. Don’t miss it!

Family Print Workshop at Little Mashers

A drop-in family print workshop at Little Mashers, inspired by the themes in Mary Seacole’s book.

Home Front – Exhibition by Jude Montague

Exploring news reportage and images from the first Crimean War. How did people feel about what was going on far away – how connected did they feel?

The British Hotel – Exhibition by Black Butterfly

An immersive installation by Black Butterfly reimagining The British Hotel, the provisions store, canteen, and medical centre set up by Mary Seacole to serve soldiers in the Crimea

“Sharp edge of our grief” – film, live music & conversation

Two artist teams take Mary Seacole’s book on a creative journey. Join us for a film screening, live music, conversation and food inspired by Mary Seacole’s catering…

Four Courts Festival Weekend

Join us at Four Courts Wellbeing Hub on the final weekend of the festival for live music, exhibitions, food and community!

Innovation: A diverse early-career artist team leads the festival

A Town Explores A Book festival centres the voices of those who have experienced barriers to accessing heritage literature in traditional educational settings

Join it Up: applied arts supporting reading and writing in the quest for fun

One of the school engagement projects this March has been a brush stroke exploration. Water colourist Susan Miller has been working with 200 school children exploring Mary Seacole’s adventures through the adventure of putting brush to paper

Creative writing competition deadline extended!

School communities have asked for an extension to this year’s creative writing competition for 5-14 year olds in order to set this activity as a holiday project! The new deadline is 28 April

Design your bunting! Schools festival artwork inspired by Mary Seacole

#ATownExploresABook23 is inviting schools to create artwork inspired by this year’s book, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole, which we will print and display as bunting during the festival. Submit by 22 March!

Planning Underway for April Community Events

A Town Explores A Book is all about community, and planning is already underway for two big events in April that come under the festival banner, and will bring together lots of independent local businesses.

Press Kit

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Earthed

14–18 April 2022: Earthed An experiential theatre performance: a promenade theatre performance exploring two women’s magical childhood hideouts. Running over the final Easter weekend, Thursday 14–Monday 18 April, performers Yasmin […]

The Diddakoi Zine

The Diddakoi Zine The festival mentee team include artists of Romany and mixed race heritage. Their zine, created by Esme Fisher and supported through Artist Digital fringe funding that Esme […]

1–18 April: disPLACED exhibition

1–18 April: disPLACED exhibition Southwater Area Community Centre,1 and 2 Stainsby Street TN37 6LA,Entrance on the railway side of the building, free. Curator Nick Hill has steered a focus on […]

#ATEAB23 Crowdfunder a Great Success Raising Over £7,000!

The festival community showed up and and showed overwhelming support for #ATownExploresABook23 and our aim to offer creative workshops and activities to thousands of school-age children. As the Crowdfunder closed on 25th October, our total had reached £7,607.