Worthing Museum and Art Gallery Celebrate The Golden Age Of Seaside Holidays With New Exhibition 'Barking, Booths, and Bottlers'

Worthing Museum & Art Gallery are bringing you a wonderful new exhibition that celebrates the history of seaside performers in the hey-day of the British seaside resort. Barking, Booths and Bottlers will be exhibited in Worthing Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 20 July - Saturday 31 August 2019.

The 1920s and 1930s were a Golden Age of seaside holidays when hordes of trippers visited Sussex resorts in search of sea, sun and fun. Entertainment was on hand not only from star names topping the variety bills at local theatres and Concert Halls but also from a host of talented performers whose makeshift stages were outdoors on the Prom or even on the beach itself.

Barking, Booths and Bottlers celebrates these seafront entertainers and the novelties they provided. The Concert Parties with their soubrettes and light comedians, the Pierrots with banjo and song; the Punch and Judy Professors, Living Marionettists, Sand Scratchers, Childrens' Corner Clowns and many more. All of whom formed a part of countless holiday memories between one world war and the next.

Senior Curator Gerry Connolly says "The display on the museum landing gallery continues our previous collaborative work with the Fedora Group. The traditional but long gone seaside entertainers and their art will be celebrated once again, allowing us to take a glimpse into the past and appreciate the British seaside holiday."

Since the 19th century Worthing has been a popular seaside resort destination. The first visitors were wealthy and fashionable people who expected a variety of entertainment, comfortable lodgings and regular dips in the sea. This exhibition celebrates the pinnacle of the British seaside resort, by looking at the seafront performers of the 1920s and 30s and the entertainment they provided.

This exhibition is part of The Beachcomber Project curated by The Fedora Group and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This project for 2019/20 celebrates seafront entertainment of the 1920s and 1930s and will tour to museums, schools and seafronts in Sussex this summer. This is an HLF-funded collaboration between Dr Tony Lidington & 'The Fedora Group' from Brighton, led by Glyn Edwards, which specialises in seaside arts and heritage projects.

Barking, Booths and Bottlers will be exhibited in Worthing Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 20 July - Saturday 31 August 2019, for more information visit worthingmuseum.co.uk.

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