Tucked inside the University of Sussex Library is the gallery. Originally built to display Chinese pottery, it later spent years as an unloved storage space before being renovated in September last year. It now hosts Out of the Box, its fourth exhibition since reopening, which is definitely well worth a visit. I spoke to curators Beth Collard, Ian Skelton, and Daniel Millum from the Heritage Collections Engagement team, who took me on a journey through the University’s history.
Drawing on the Library and The Keep’s archives, the exhibition tells the lesser-known stories of Sussex and Brighton history. Cases hold student photographs and union magazines, local community newspapers, anarchist zines and the LGBTQ+ collection, alongside a case celebrating alumni, including comedians Bob Mortimer and Frankie Boyle, as well as former South African president Thabo Mbeki.
One of the star attractions is a fire hose, which boasts a chaotic backstory. In 1965, Sussex student Bob Harvey led a group entering a Lyons tea competition to win a decommissioned fire engine. The student union bought 1,400 packets of tea and filled in an entry form for each one, promising to turn the engine into a children’s playground. Miraculously, they won, but during the drive back from London, with a crowd hanging off the sides (make sure not to miss the photos on display!), it broke down and ran out of fuel on the A23. It became an improvised playground and hangout anyway, with just the hose remaining today.
Surprisingly, it was also the most contested item. “Some felt like featuring a case on frivolous student activities and escapades would be doing a disservice to Sussex students,” the curators explained. The solution was two cases: a “loving throwback” to student life, shenanigans included, beside one celebrating student campaigns, journalism and activism.
The protest case traces student activism from the earliest days of The Wine Press to our very own The Badger. With sit-ins and long-running support for the anti-apartheid movement, and an audio player in their online archive allows you to hear former students recall Sussex’s early days.
Another of the main star attractions is the first editions of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, which were released too early even to include the authors’ real names. Unfortunately, a second edition folio of Shakespeare was too valuable and fragile to display, especially since second editions are more sought after than first editions, as they contain more plays.
Not everyone made the cut. “Kemi Badenoch was hard to leave out as an alum superstar – but fortunately, there were four other comedians who were able to represent us in that regard.”
Elsewhere, the display shows the range of collections. There are two of Nobel Prize winner Harry Kroto’s Buckyballs, including one of the first 3D models printed here at the University. The Virginia Woolf and Richard Attenborough cases “could easily become entire exhibitions in their own right”, covering Woolf’s translations, Attenborough’s Brighton-made films and his Mousetrap collection, plus a nod to Jurassic Park.
The curators were also taken aback by “the madness and scale” of the Devil’s Dyke theme park. And, any story that starts with “a Black Canadian Big Game Hunter bringing his stuffed moose over to Victorian England”, the curators said, “deserves a wider audience”.
They hope that students leave with “a better sense of the Sussex community they are a part of” and an understanding that even the smallest part of student life can one day become a part of history. And, students can use every item on display, and many more, in their own research.
Out of the Box is open 12-4 pm on weekdays until Friday, 16 October. Go and see it before the boxes close. And keep your eyes peeled for the next exhibition!
