Nathaniel Hepburn

My Sussex: Nathaniel Hepburn MBE

Director of Charleston and Chair of Sussex Modern

Photo by Alun Callender

Congratulations on your award of an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

It was a wonderful surprise, and I think it’s an important honour for the sector, for the importance of culture within our community. So I was very happy to accept it on behalf of Charleston and the work that we and others are doing to create this extraordinary cultural life for people who live in and visit this great county.

Are you born-and-bred Sussex?

I’ve known Sussex since I was born: my grandma and her sister lived in the Hurstpierpoint, Hassocks area and we would regularly walk across to Ditchling, so I got to know that area really well. After leaving university it was like putting a pin in a map, and I ended up in Brighton, moving to Eastbourne when I had kids. I’ve lived longer in Sussex than I’ve lived anywhere else now, so it feels very much like home. It’s an amazing county, what more could you want? To be able to walk on the hills, in just about the most beautiful landscape in the country.

The Sussex arts scene seems to be thriving.

It’s amazing thinking back to just 15 years ago, when it all looked very different. You can probably trace it back to when the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill was in danger of becoming a Wetherspoons, and the commitment of Rother District Council helped it become an amazing arts venue instead. Since then, we’ve seen Pallant House’s expansion, Hastings Contemporary being built, Charleston’s new spaces, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft undergoing a huge transformation… Hundreds of millions of pounds have been ploughed into bolstering the county’s creative infrastructure. And it’s not over yet.

Do you feel Sussex is like one county?

Technically it’s two counties with a unitary authority in the middle. But the border is an arbitrary administrative line, and I don’t feel anyone who lives either side of it cares which side they’re on. Visitors don’t care if they’re in West Sussex or East Sussex, either. So, yes, Sussex is definitely a single entity, with its own, growing, sense of identity.

It’s part of your job at Sussex Modern to attract visitors…

Sussex Modern was founded in 2017, aware that there was no official Sussex tourist board, and that the county had so many world-class cultural venues to offer. We amassed a lot of data which revealed that most people who didn’t live in Sussex couldn’t place it on a map and thought that they’d never been there. But when they were asked about individual towns, they revealed they had actually visited – towns like Lewes and Eastbourne and Rye – without connecting them with Sussex. And that they had given very high ratings about their visitor experiences. So Sussex Modern was conceived to let people know about the county’s modern, vibrant, forward-thinking venues and cultural organisations – later being joined by the county’s many vineyards. We’ve certainly seen a marked change in awareness over the last seven years and a new story emerge for the area.

So Sussex’s vineyards are very much part of its cultural scene?

The emerging wine industry is going to be transformative for the region. There are 138 vineyards already in Sussex, and the contribution that’s going to make to the local economy and local businesses over the next five years is going to be significant. Some of the forecasts suggest it will soon become one of the top wine tourism regions in the world. And even the most enthusiastic winetasting tourist is probably only going to do two or three vineyards in a day, so it’s important to communicate the story of the arts and culture of the region to these people, letting them know that they can also go to see Ravilious works at Towner, or they can go to Charleston to see the Bloomsbury Group or to Farleys Farmhouse. And all this is enriching the Sussex story for those coming from Germany or Australia or America… or London.

Is Sussex’s proximity to London beneficial or detrimental to its cultural scene?

When we put on the Sussex Modernism exhibition in Temple Place in London 2017, we analysed why so many 20th-century artists made their way to Sussex. Of course, the beautiful landscape played a big part, and the proximity to France, via Newhaven, and the teaching opportunities in Brighton. But also the county’s proximity to London, and the art market there. Not much has changed, and the same thing applies to visitors to Sussex’s arts venues today. They attract Sussex-based visitors who choose destinations within the county instead of going to London, and others who go as well as going to London. But there are also many visitors from the capital who want to spend time out of it, visiting the countryside and taking in some culture while they are there. And all only an hour away…

What are your favourite Sussex arts venues?

I could be here all day. There are some exciting venues dedicated to exhibiting early-career artists, such as Volt in Eastbourne, Beeching Road Studios in Bexhill and Afri-Co-Lab in St Leonards that deserve a shout out. I’d also like to mention Newlands House Gallery in Petworth, which opened fairly recently and has put on some extremely strong exhibitions.

Tell us a good place to eat out.

I’ll tell you a few; Bayte in St Leonards, which has recently opened; The Ginger Fox just north of Brighton; Dill: great food in an unassuming setting in Lewes. I love the Ram in Firle, you’ll often find me there. And I’m looking forward to visiting Juniper, in Arundel, I’ve heard great things.

What artwork would you hang from your Desert Island palm tree?

Am impossible question but seeing as I would probably not be allowed Peter Blake’s dazzle ship, I would take a semiabstract watercolour of Fisherman’s Green that I own, by my friend Roland Collins. I gave him a big show a few years before he died aged 98. He was a special man and a genius!