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Brighton CCA

A new centre for
contemporary arts at the
University of Brighton

This event is part of Structures of Community

Image credit: Elam Forrester, David Roberts and Andrea Luka Zimmerman.

Join us at Brighton CCA for an evening talk with David Roberts and respondent Dr Rebecca Searle, as part of the ongoing research programme Structures of Community.

“I am driven by an aspiration to defend welfare state architecture and revive the principles at its foundation.” – David Roberts

David Roberts is an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Alongside teaching and research, he is part of collaborative art practice Fugitive Images and of architecture collectives Involve and BREAK//LINE.

Roberts’ research, art and cultural activist practice engages community groups whose homes and livelihoods are under threat from urban policy, empowers ethical reasoning in built environment practice, and extends architectural education to primary and secondary school children.

For this event, Roberts will discuss his collaborative work with residents of two east London housing estates: for Balfron Tower in Poplar to remain a beacon for social housing; and to trace the demolition of the Haggerston Estate in Hackney. Roberts works with filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman as part of Fugitive Images, a not-for-profit cultural collective which emerged from grass roots community organising in particular around social and spatial justice and equitable co-existence. They work across media and platforms and in 2015 made the film Estate: A Reverie which reveals and celebrates the extraordinary everyday humanity on the Haggerston Estate and the resilience of residents profoundly overlooked by media representations and wider social responses.

You are invited to join us at the gallery from 5.30pm. The event will begin at 6.00pm with a presentation followed by a facilitated Q&A with University of Brighton’s Dr Rebecca Searle (Principal Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Science) and an opportunity for the audience to discuss themes after which there will be an informal bar to continue the conversation.

Structures of Community is an ongoing research programme that engages with spatial inequalities and socially engaged practices. It is co-hosted by Brighton CCA and Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics at the University of Brighton, and supported by Social Circles, a Brighton based network of artists working in social practice.

This event is free to attend. Booking is required, please use the button above.

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David Roberts is an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Alongside teaching and research, he is part of collaborative art practice Fugitive Images and of architecture collectives Involve and BREAK//LINE. Roberts’ research, art and cultural activist practice engages community groups whose homes and livelihoods are under threat from urban policy, empowers ethical reasoning in built environment practice, and extends architectural education to primary and secondary school children.

Rebecca Searle is a historian whose work focuses on the ways in which the study of the past can be used to make critical interventions in the politics of the present. She established and co-ordinates the Housing Forum, an initiative to bring together academics, community organisations and policy makers to develop local solutions to the housing crisis. She is currently contributing towards the Brighton and Hove Common Ambition project, which aims to tackle issues in healthcare for people facing homelessness. Her research interests include the history of the housing crisis; the global history of contemporary capitalism; the history of twentieth century Britain; and war and conflict in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She is the Course Leader for BA Politics and Social Change.

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Location:
Brighton CCA, University of Brighton, 58 – 67 Grand Parade, Brighton, BN2 0JY

Access:
Brighton CCA has step-free access throughout its public spaces. The venue is wheelchair accessible.
There are two accessible parking bays available by the side entrance to the quad. Please get in touch with Brighton CCA to find out more about their exact location and to organise entering the building.
There is an accessible toilet and a gender-neutral toilet.
Comfortable seating can be organised.
There are quiet spaces for which access can be arranged.

If you have any questions or need assistance with your visit please contact Polly Wright on 01273644716 or email brightoncca@brighton.ac.uk and they will do everything they can to make sure you have a positive experience here.

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