South Coast Design Forum plans local design celebration

The South Coast Design Forum is planning ‘a celebration of local design’ in five coastal towns next year. Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Worthing and Chichester could play host to a travelling exhibition of local designers’ work, if SCDF’s plans attract the necessary funding.

‘The North East and now Cornwall are benefitting from the Designs of the Time festival coming to them, and Liverpool has its design show now, but the South East does not really attract regeneration funding, so we are having to do something for ourselves,’ says SCDF chair Peter Spence.

Spence envisages a talk element which will support the exhibition. One or more speakers would be drawn from the SCDF board, which includes Wayne Hemingway.

SCDF is seeking to secure about £25 000 to back the event, and reports that it has gained interest from the Arts Council and South East England Development Agency.

‘We want to raise the profile of local designers among businesses looking to buy design – to show that they don’t have to go elsewhere for everything,’ says Spence. ‘We also want to raise the profile of design with the general public in the area, which can be hard,’ he adds.

The event is likely to coincide with either, or both, the Brighton Festival in May 2010, or Chichester Festivities in June.