Beacons

Beacons is an exciting new outdoor arts experience for the community of Folkestone made by artist Alison Neighbour, celebrating our connections to each other, to the land and to the sea.

The Sea Gooseberries are coming!

Magical and prehistoric creatures, Sea Gooseberries visit our shores each year with messages for the future. They live in every ocean of the world, and may be the ancestors of every other living creature, including us humans. They carry great wisdom, and their arrival once heralded a joyful celebration of light and song, but we have forgotten how to come together as we used to, and wild storms threaten their journey to our shores.

The Sea Gooseberries become lost and wash up alone, scattered across the landscape. They can only survive if they are found and brought back together. Could they be beacons we all need as we seek a way to save our world?

For Beacons, we invite you on a quest to find the magical, luminescent Sea Gooseberries hiding around Folkestone, Hythe & Romney Marsh and help us decipher the message they bring. With your help we can reunite the Sea Gooseberries and celebrate together once more. We will send the Sea Gooseberries back to the sea in a magical sound and light performance on Sunny Sands beach on the winter solstice.

 

 

“Like an ancient ceremony”

“Friendly, joyous, and contemplative”

“Simple, but really inclusive”

“As the darkness fell and the gooseberries lit up, I felt connected to the natural environment”

Audience comments from Beacons pilot project 2019

Beacons has been created by Alison Neighbour and will be co-produced by SparkedEcho and Creative Folkestone.