Celebrating a Brighton Institution

A new exhibition by Faculty of Arts, Graphic Design and Illustration students tells the story of Brighton’s historic swimming club.

Lecturer Paul Farrington has been working with the second year students on the ‘Floating Memories - Brighton Swimming Club 1860 to the present day’ exhibition, which creates new material on content in the club’s archives.

Inspired by more than 160 years of history, the students were allocated specific dates to focus on and tasked with investigating the rich and diverse content contained in the archive, as well as other sources including the Brighton History Centre. The result is a series of displays summarising their research, which present their illustrated ideas to a public audience.

The finished exhibition spans the duration of the club’s history, forming a sequential narrative of events, cultural traditions and memories. It opens to the public at the Fishing Quarter Gallery on Brighton’s seafront on 4 May as part of the Brighton Fringe 2012 and runs until 14 May. Opening hours are 10am and 6pm and entrance is free of charge.

The student exhibition is part of a larger £50k Heritage Lottery funded project that Paul Farrington has been involved in to create a permanent display of content from the club’s archives. This includes letterpress posters, photographs, films and other swimming related ephemera.

Opening on 13 May 2012, the permanent exhibition at the Brighton Fishing Museum presents archive highlights and sits alongside new displays about the West Pier and Punch and Judy. It reveals intriguing stories about Captain Camp, the one legged swimming instructor, 1950s diving outfit the Bottom Scratchers, the Father Neptune celebrations, and activities such as water polo, aquatic tea parties, and diving events that took place at Brighton's piers and the city’s, now demolished, swimming baths. Unique 16mm film footage that dates back to 1946 is also amongst some of the fascinating items to be properly documented and conserved.