The Considerate Society review at Exeter Custom House

Belinda Dillon, Becky Wells and Caroline Wilkins get the full salon experience at a weekend of events programmed by Art Work Exeter.

Since 2023, Art Work Exeter (AWE) have been one of the cultural partners in residence at Exeter Custom House on the Quay. During that time, the artists – AWE Creative Director Stuart Crewes, with Associate Artists Paula Crutchlow and Volkhardt Müller – have created, curated and produced a consistently lively, thoughtful and often playful programme of visual art, installation, performance, action and conversation. Their work has invited participation and collaboration from myriad artists across different media, as well as members of the public, local residents and businesses. At the heart of it all has been the Custom House – its history, its physical presence on the Quay, its place in the city’s narrative about itself and its connections through global trade, and its legacy. If AWE’s remit as cultural partners was to ‘enliven the Custom House’ and provide opportunities for more people to engage with the building and its heritage, they’ve achieved that… and so much more.

June was the final month of that three-year programme, and Custom Made was an exhibition showing traces and glimpses of the work that has been staged in the building, as well as often spilling out onto the Quay. The Legend of the Custom House, The Real Onedin Line, Pile Up! Worlds of Stuff, River Radio... you can read about these and more on the Art Work website, because the small (by necessity) exhibition could only begin to scratch the surface and convey the depth, complexity and scale of the whole programme. For the last hurrah, the team staged a weekend of ‘salon’ events – traditionally a platform for artistic, literary and intellectual exchange – in the Long Room, which provided a fitting sense of closure and celebration. In bringing together artists, community members, the public and Custom House staff, The Considerate Society operated as a microcosm of the programme’s life-cycle and intentions.

On Friday, The Listening Room hosted an impressive sound system courtesy of sound artist, producer and DJ Somin Griffin-Dave, who was in conversation with three guests about music, heritage, histories and connection. Each brought three songs, and we listened together – a rare and lovely experience to share with others, and my gosh, the clarity of sound out of those speakers, which heightened the physical reality of soundwaves reshaping molecules, becoming a tangible force in the room. Somin invited his guests to talk about what each track meant to them, its place in their journey and personal narrative, and how music has nourished them along the way. The result was enlightening and moving, and a wonderful reminder of how beautifully music articulates emotion. Somin (who is dual heritage English-Indian, brought up in Devon) was a thoughtful and generous host. In this way, the night brought to the surface the themes of the whole weekend (and entire programme, in fact): how art, music and creativity can

transform the Custom House from a place of extraction – a building known for collecting materials, goods and people from everywhere else – into a place of equal exchange, of open dialogue, sharing and community. A wonderful start to the weekend.

On Saturday morning, The Welcome Committee rolled out – literally – a brand-new art commission. Artist Adam Garrett worked with community members to design and make welcome banners with which to adorn the exterior of the Custom House. Evoking bunting and wall-hangings – symbols of celebration, welcome and home – the pieces brightened the building’s stately façade; in wrapping one of the cannons that sit in front of the building, the artwork tempered the object’s militaristic energy. Bright colours, flowers and the word ‘share’ writ large served to subvert the imposing exterior with the spirit of playfulness and generosity.

Upstairs, we gathered for coffee, cake and conversation. Design historian, educator and curator Sabrina Rahman invited Adam to discuss his process, how the banners were co-created, their relevance to the Custom House, and the notion of ‘welcome’ and creative exchange. Adam explained that the workshops were a making space, a conversation space and a social space, generating ideas and hands-on activity – a fully collaborative process. With this in mind, we as the audience were invited to contribute: what does feeling welcome smell, taste or sound like? Not surprisingly, food was a key theme, but also the sound of laughter and the bubble of conversation. Wrapping the cannons had been a suggestion posited by members of the Cultural Knowledge Exchange, a group of diverse individuals from the city who have collaborated with the AWE team across the residency, bring fresh perspectives and inspiration throughout. This was a fascinating insight into the artistic process around creating site-responsive contemporary work on a heritage building while acknowledging and subverting its undeniably problematic legacy. I loved the notion of recycled materials being ‘haunted’ – by their past uses, but also by the myriad hands they’ve passed through along the way, the processes they’ve endured. And the overriding thought I left with was that ‘feeling welcome’ is a process that grows and builds, and comes from being well held; a process that takes time, and trust and patience. A fitting description of the AWE team’s process throughout the entirety of the residency.

On Saturday afternoon, Becky Wells pulled up a chair at Solidaritea. Led by artist Yara El Sherbini and yoga therapist Sonia Rashid, the session convened a group of activist women (and a couple of men) to hear about the vital work being carried out by two city organisations – St Sidwell’s Community Centre and CoLab – in support of women. We were served two specially mixed teas, both made of organic plants. One, a mix of ginger, rosemary, gingko biloba and hibiscus, was an invigorating brew aptly called ZingPing and the other, a calming mix called Rosa Fen Coza. We tasted, nibbled on biscuits and discussed how these unique blends could be sold to raise funds for the Women’s

Project at CoLab and the St Sidwell’s Community Centre. Ideas were shared, conversations had and connections made. Glorious!

On Saturday night, Caroline Wilkins thoroughly enjoyed the intellectual experimentation of Cut Up Cabaret, hosted by artists Stephen Hodge and Matt Fletcher, and Cultural Knowledge Exchange member Gosia Zając. Drawing inspiration from Zurich Dada’s Cabaret Voltaire and Krakow’s Zielony Balonik (Green Balloon), members of the Exeter community were invited to plunder, break apart, reconfigure and perform texts and actions relating to the Custom House and Exeter’s historic trade to make their own performance moments. Constrained by a strict five-minute limit, pieces ranged from Charades-style mimes of Polish idioms, a collaborative poem collaged from bits of text, and actions that channelled and celebrated the absurd. Resident musician Steve Sowden burst into spontaneous songs built from noises filtering in from outside, and shouted suggestions from the audience. The result was fun, chaotic and utterly enjoyable.

On Sunday afternoon, the Long Room was filled with a group who’d been part of aspects of the weekend as well as the residency as a whole – whether as direct participants, collaborators, co-conspirators or audience members – for A Custom-Made Conversation: a chance to hear Stuart, Paula and Volkhardt talk about the work, the building, the experience. Responding to questions written on cards across the weekend as well those asked live in the room – including the brilliant ‘Chaos – good or bad?’ – they discussed the role of the artist, how the residency has shaped their own practice, their collaborations, and hopes for the future of the Custom House’s role as a ‘cultural hub’. They spoke about what they’d hoped to achieve – to activate the building, to create a sense of energy and vibrancy, to bring contemporary artwork and ideas into dialogue with this heritage space, and to enable the building to be seen and experienced anew. They spoke about the people they’d worked with along the way: the artists, community members, the Custom House team. It was a thoughtful, moving and insightful afternoon, and a reminder of the richness of the programme.

For the last three years, Art Work Exeter have offered us myriad ways in which to engage with the Custom House. They provided opportunities for us to participate, to come together and to create new relationships with this building; to add our own narratives to it while finding creative ways to speak about its place in this harbour, this city and the world beyond. Throughout, there were multiple invitations for people to bring their own stories, share them here, and thereby weave their own histories into the building, layering it with new identities and meaning. The programme has consistently presented high-quality, complex and multi-faceted contemporary work for us to experience – a valuable contribution to Exeter’s cultural landscape. Never didactic or heavy-handed, the team held the space generously for us to think together, to collaborate, to listen and to connect; by infusing every aspect with their intelligence and curiosity, they enabled us to bring all those qualities to each encounter too. And my gosh it’s been fun to be part of the journey. What a wonderful ride it’s been.