This piece is the result of a collaboration between Media, Film, and Music at Sussex University and Ditchling Museum.
Ditchling, East Sussex – a picturesque village nestled in the South Downs and brimming with quaint English charm. Overlooking the village is Ditchling Beacon, one of the highest points of the South Downs – with its notorious ascent playing host to one of the final climbs on the annual London-to-Brighton bike ride. Infused into the history of Ditchling is its rich, artistic and cultural heritage, preserved and promoted by the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft.
Steph Fuller, Director of the museum invited British interdisciplinary artist Jane Pitt to create a temporary window installation in the museum’s Wunderkammer. The resulting commission, Maunder Maps transforms the 4m high window on the East West axis and highlights the dialogue between the inner and outer spaces of the museum, exploring the idea of the window being more than just a portal of light.
Pitt’s work accompanies the museum’s current exhibition, Max Gill: Wonderground Man, and on Saturday 6th April, the Ditchling Museum will host a collaborative event with the University of Sussex, which will see musicians take inspiration from Pitt’s colourful vinyl window installation.
Speaking of Maunder Music, Steph Fuller says: “The event will be great because we might attract people who are interested in that and then they might find out about other things that are here and those things are always good. If you find different points to engage people that seems like a good thing to me.
“The performers are going to use her [Jane Pitt’s] drawing as a score to respond to. That idea of providing a starting point and then seeing how people take it on and do with it is what is always really interesting.
“I think the live sound will add an extra dimension to that installation experience, so it will be a time-limited ephemeral addition.”
Maunder Music will also feature a Q&A between Steph Fuller and Jane Pitt, alongside two musical performances throughout the evening.
As well as working in collaborating with the University of Sussex, the event is in partnership with South Downs National Park and Fuller hopes it will be an evening that will surprise and inspire people. “I’m hoping it will make people think about Jane’s work in a slightly different way.
“I’m hoping they’ll have a really nice evening and it will make them think about the museum in a slightly different way because I’m really keen on different kinds of programming here and I think this is something that’s not the traditional kind of event we would have done previously.
“I think people might really enjoy it and I think they’ll come for all sorts of different reasons, so we’ll get museum people who are curious about the music and hopefully we’ll get music people who will discover the museum and that mix is a really nice thing.”
Maunder Music takes place on Saturday 6th April 2019 at Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft. Tickets are £5 for students and under 18’s. For more information, visit www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk
