Photography Course – Taster Session

Hastings Museum and Art Gallery is running a photography taster session on Tuesday 2 February, from 10:30am to 12:00pm. It's aimed at home-educated children, and the session focuses on studio portraits. It's a good way to get a feel for the subject before committing to anything longer.

If you do want to take it further, the taster leads into a full ten-week course that runs on Tuesdays from 2 March, with a final exhibition on 15 June. The course is led by Kate, who introduces the programme, the equipment, and the dates to children curious about photography and creative ways of seeing the world. Over the ten weeks, the group welcomes two professional guests and visits Picnic, a photography hub in St Leonards. By the end, students prepare their favourite images for the final exhibition.

The course is part of the museum's Home Education Group, a project for anyone in the Hastings home-education community interested in museum-based activities. It started in 2020 with grant funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Arts Council England, and has run a series of programmes since: What's in the Box? (2020-2021), Carnival of the Deep (2021), Digging for Hastings (from May 2022), Trees (2023-2024), My House is a Time Machine (2024-2025), and Natural History Gallery Creative Intervention (2025-2026). The group also runs a dedicated Facebook group and a mailing list.

The photography course returns each year, and the taster sessions are held at The Compound, 161 Bexhill Rd, Saint Leonards-on-sea TN38 8BG, as well as at the museum and Picnic. The taster session costs £5; the full ten-week course is £240 per child, which includes exhibition prints.