Today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of the hugely influential filmmaker and activist Derek Jarman. On the evening of 19 February, the arts charity Creative Folkestone will live stream the sunset from Jarman’s fabled Prospect Cottage, with views of Dungeness in Kent, to mark the occasion. The three-hour-long stream will be available via the Creative Folkestone website and social media channels including YouTube. Audiences are invited to select their own soundtrack via a Spotify playlist of music playing inside Prospect Cottage.
In 1986, Jarman bought Prospect Cottage—a fisherman’s shack in the shadow of a nuclear power station—for £32,000. He came across the ramshackle building while filming on the Kent beach with the actor Tilda Swinton, a discovery that would help the late artist and activist cope with the trauma of his recent HIV diagnosis. Creative Folkestone have also announced the second round of successful artists in residence for Prospect Cottage, with Louis Shankar, Ami Clarke and Lynda Laird among the next 14 artists selected.
In 2020 Prospect Cottage was saved following a successful campaign by the Art Fund which raised £3.5m. The cottage and its contents were put on the market following the death in 2018 of Keith Collins, Jarman’s partner, to whom he bequeathed the cottage. Creative Folkestone takes care of the site, while Jarman’s archive from the cottage—comprising notebooks, sketchbooks, letters, drawings and photographs, including the notebook he used when working on his final feature film Blue (1993)—is housed at Tate Britain in London.
