Unique outdoor gallery is unveiled with art on pier

Vanessa Breen, 42, and Nadia Chalk, 45, are the team behind community interest company Creative Waves, which provides art in the community.

Art on the Pier features 100 local artists and Young Artist on the Pier showcases the artwork of more than 200 children printed in bubbles.

There are also 40 panels dedicated to the WW1 Centenary as part of Worthing’s WW1 Discovery Trail, which is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. 
Vanessa said: “We wanted to turn the pier into a kind of creative life, last year it was an aquarium and we had lots of fish and this year the theme was science and have had experimental painting workshops on the beach.

“Nadia and I met at a pop up shop, we are both artists ourselves and there seemed to be not that much art on offer in Worthing.

“We came up with the idea of putting art on the pier because we thought it was really under used and all the pictures are arranged to hide the scratched glass so we thought it would offer an improvement.

“We want to inspire children and adults alike to create their own artwork to be shown in public.

“It also gives people the chance to view a wide range of artwork.

“A lot of people on the pier do not realise they are strolling into a gallery so to speak as they walk along.

“The feedback has been great, especially from people who would not normally visit an exhibition.

“There are brilliant artists locally, there is a lot of talent out there and we have such a range, from photography to textiles, abstract art to street art.”

There are 450 submissions for the art exhibition, from which 100 images were selected, printed on to high quality vinyl and laminated.

Each piece of art will be displayed for a year.

A competition was run at the beginning of the year where children were asked to design anything that could put be printed in a bubble.