Discover, Celebrate, Grow is open at VOLT, Seaside Road: a £92,396 Heritage Fund show on the Devonshire Ward's past, free, Wed to Sat 12 to 5pm, until February 2027.
Devonshire Collective’s tenth-anniversary exhibition, Discover, Celebrate, Grow, is open at VOLT on Seaside Road and runs into February 2027. It opened with a free community afternoon on Saturday 10 October.
The show is the public end of a year-long heritage project on the Devonshire Ward. It is paid for by a £92,396 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Entry is free, Wednesday to Saturday, 12pm to 5pm, at 67 to 69 Seaside Road, BN21 3PL.
The collective itself is ten years old on Monday. Companies House records The Devonshire Collective CIC as incorporated on 12 October 2016, with its registered office at the same Seaside Road address.
What is in the show
The exhibition page lists four main pieces, co-curated with the groups who made them:
- a projected map of the ward, marking the places the researchers explored, including the old Seaside Library and Eastbourne’s cinemas
- a new alphabet for the ward, built from found letters
- a wall-painted map of the area, made with Eastbourne Sketchbook Club
- drawings by the collective’s home education and Networx children’s groups, used as wallpaper
Visitors are invited to add to the work during the run. The year of research behind it took in storytelling walks, community research and filmmaking with foraged materials.
VOLT is wheelchair accessible. The project also lists DC Learn Studio at 1 to 5 Seaside, St Augustine’s Hall and Christ Church Hall on Seaside, and the Port Hotel on Royal Parade as project venues. The page does not say which part of the work, if any, is shown at each, and the Port Hotel is not wheelchair accessible.
Two closing dates on the collective’s own site
The exhibition page gives the run as 10 October 2026 to 20 February 2027. The collective’s exhibitions page and its DC10 page both say 2 February 2027. The DC10 page also says the project closes with a “Seaside Road” exhibition at VOLT in winter 2026. We have used the later date here. Anyone planning a February visit should check first.
The grant
The Heritage Fund’s project record shows the award was made on 10 December 2025, under the National Lottery Heritage Grants programme for projects of £10,000 to £250,000. It is filed under “cultures and memories”, with the location given as Devonshire and the local authority as Eastbourne.
It is one of several sums the collective names in its anniversary year. Its DC10 page says the year-long programme launched in October 2025 with a £150,000 development campaign. A fundraising dinner that month raised £35,000. In 2026 Arts Council England’s Touring Projects fund gave £42,500 for Where We Touch the Archive, a show about the artist and activist Tessa Boffin that is due to tour to Portsmouth, Nottingham and Brighton in 2026 and early 2027.
Ten years in Seaside Road
The collective’s own timeline starts before the company did:
- 2013: Devonshire Ward councillors set up the Driving Devonshire Forward steering committee.
- 2015: A Coastal Communities Fund grant refurbished three Seaside Road shops that had stood empty for more than ten years.
- 2016: A partnership with Eastbourne Borough Council formed the basis of the collective.
- 2017: Three venues opened: DC1 as a cafe and events space, DC2 as artist studios and DC3 as a workshop and community space.
- 2020: DC1 became the VOLT gallery and DC3 became DC Learn Studio. VOLT opened with four solo shows and a community exhibition with Eastbourne Mencap.
- 2021: Edward Ball was hired as the first director and the learning programmes began.
- 2023: The collective joined Arts Council England’s National Portfolio, which brings regular funding. Polly Wright became its first curator and a community advisory panel of eight residents was formed.
- 2024: A National Lottery Community Fund grant paid for green spaces on four residential streets near VOLT and launched Grow Club with Cella Collective.
- 2025: Emma Hunt became chair in July. The collective says it won the Creative Excellence award at the Eastbourne Business Awards. DC10 and the £150,000 campaign launched in October.
- 2026: Louis Foyle joined as general manager and Polly Wright became head of programmes. The Heritage Fund and Arts Council awards above followed.
Arts Council England’s own blog confirms the collective as a new addition to the National Portfolio for the 2023 to 2026 investment period.
Emma Hunt, the chair, is quoted on the DC10 page: “I have seen firsthand the impact DC is making at grass roots level, punching way above their weight in support of Devonshire Ward and Eastbourne.” Councillor Jenny Williams, the borough council’s cabinet lead for tourism and culture, says on the same page: “DC connects with people from all walks of life, showing us that when it comes to creativity, we all have a voice.”
What it means for you
- A free afternoon out. VOLT is open Wednesday to Saturday, 12pm to 5pm. There is no charge and no booking needed for the exhibition. Questions go to info@devonshirecollective.co.uk.
- You can take part. The work is designed to be added to during the run, so a visit in October and another in the new year will not look the same.
- Children’s groups to 22 October. The collective’s what’s on page lists a free Tuesday after-school art club for registered Networx families to 20 October, the free Sticky Fingers messy play group for pre-school children to 21 October, and a home education art course for six to eleven year olds to 22 October.
- Getting there. VOLT is a few minutes’ walk from the pier end of Seaside Road. Our parking in Eastbourne page lists the nearest car parks, and things to do in Eastbourne has the rest of the month.
Devonshire Collective is a community interest company, limited by guarantee, and its accounts to 31 March 2026 are due at Companies House by 31 December 2026.
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