Movements from the Margins: Collective Altar

People Dem Collective x Diasporas Now

Collective Altar is a week-long activation of live art and ritual at Quench Gallery in Margate, as part of People Dem Collective and Diasporas Now’s nomadic programme Movements from the Margins

What moves artists and healers to Margate, at the marginal shores of the district of Thanet? The name itself holds possible etymological origins to Thanatos, translating to “the isle of death.” In the depths of coastal winter, perhaps the light of rebirth is most palpable – as a retreat, a lighthouse, and a homing beacon.

This week-long residency at Quench Gallery, titled Collective Altar, is inspired by the elements of the Kent Coast: a speculative alchemy in chalk, salt, water, and fire – from the prehistoric sentience of fossilised cliffs, to deep-time diasporic lineages encoded in our DNA. The entire offering centres transformative shared experience over tangible artistic output, inviting Global Majority artists and healers with practices connected to the district of Thanet, and the region of Kent, to contribute to the mythos of Margate’s becoming.

Collective Altar guides participants through multiple activations at the precipice of 2026 – from shared meals at an artist salon in the gallery, to seaside scrying and incantations around open fire, to channelled writing, energetic realignment, electronic frequencies, and live art, music, and movement.

We gather at the threshold of the ocean, in liminal new-year rituals preceding cyclical renewal. Collective Altar is ever-changing – an ode to ephemerality and synchronicity, and the legacy of art to heal communities through past, present, and future.

Together we celebrate the magic that exists within our own bodies and our (extra)sensory perceptions: an invitation to speak, to feel, to sing, to dance, to heal.

Collective Altar is curated by Black-led community organisation People Dem Collective and live art platform Diasporas Now, as part of the collaborative programming series Movements from the Margins – piloted at Turner Contemporary in 2024, with a recent festival debut at We Out Here in 2025.

Collective Altar is supported by People Dem Collective, Quench Gallery, Margate Radio, Olby’s Creative Hub, and PRS Foundation.

For more information, click the link here