Since its opening in 2015, the Kino-Teatr has become the go-to centre for the arts in the Norman Road area of St Leonards with a programme of exhibitions, classical and contemporary music, and films, as well as being a venue for festivals such as the recent Hastings Book Festival. Founded by Olga Mamonova and Russell Baker, it is an inspiring venue, which includes a gallery, a dome-ceilinged auditorium for film and live music, and a bar and café in the foyer.
The building has gone through several guises, starting as a purpose-built cinema in 1913 called the Kinema Palace. Narrowly escaping destruction in the second world war, it was re-modelled in the Modernist style after the war and renamed the Curzon Cinema but finally closed in 1977. The site was used by a building merchant, and it was in this state that Olga Mamonova and Russell Baker took it over, having the vision to see that the building’s scale and original auditorium had great potential as a space for an arts centre.
The space certainly is cool with an industrial aesthetic, containing the Reel bar and café, an open area and mezzanine for the gallery and exhibitions, and dotted with cabinets displaying collections of Soviet era toys and figures, Russian art on the walls and vintage cinema equipment. The evening of our visit, the café was buzzing with people meeting up before the film, Eiffel (the story of the man behind the building of the Eiffel tower).
The auditorium has a domed ceiling which gives it very good acoustics and the stripped walls and peeling paint, along with the red curtain across the screen and the bar at the back, give it a sense of faded glamour. When sitting at the front in the comfortable armchairs, you could almost be sitting in someone’s front room.
Olga Mamonova, the artistic director at the Kino-Teatr, grew up in communist Moscow in a family that was intensely interested in European culture, literature and film. Her father was a translator, poet and writer and she first studied philosophy and Irish history at Moscow University, later going on to do an MA in Russian studies at University of Sussex. Eager to pursue a career in the arts, in the mid-90s, Olga worked in a contemporary art gallery in Moscow, and it was there that she met her husband, Russell Baker, who was in Moscow to collect Russian art. Russell, from Lancaster, trained at the Slade School of Art and is a printmaker and painter.
On coming to live in Britain, Olga set up a small gallery in London with Russell, exhibiting Russian art from the 1950s and 60s as well as contemporary Russian art. Russell had a small flat and a studio in St Leonards and it was here that Olga found that she had a deep connection with the place. “There were a lot of connections with my childhood interests. I loved the books of Rider Haggard and I was absolutely surprised to discover that he lived nearly next door.”
Initially, they set up the gallery and café, then in 2015 they opened the auditorium. “We had to be resourceful as we had little money. We got the cinema screen, plush seats and curtain from the Renoir cinema in Russell Square in London. We went to carpet shops and asked for off-cuts.”
The Kino-Teatr’s programme of events is always eclectic and interesting. A glance at the current listings include a weekend of jazz documentaries Jazzology; a coffee concert with pianist Mike Hatchard playing Chopin and Field nocturnes; a selection of Royal Opera House and Royal Ballet Live cinema screenings; guitarist Kevin Armstrong who has played with many of the greats of rock and roll including David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Roy Orbison and Paul McCartney among others; DocFest – a series of documentary films on people such as Leonard Cohen, Sinead O’Connor and Julian Assange.
Olga is responsible for the programming. She chooses things that she has an interest in and that she thinks connects with the community so believes it important to book local bands, as well as listening to what audiences and artists, suggest. She says: “Over time we have got to know many local creative people and so I am learning all the time.”
For the films, Olga chooses a mixture of mainstream films such as the recent Elvis as well as more arthouse films, documentaries, or the National Theatre or Royal Opera House live films which are proving popular. She tries to add value to the film experience through occasionally giving introductory talks or Q and A sessions. Interaction between audience and musicians is also important, and the regular coffee concerts gives the musicians opportunities to talk about their work.
Olga and Russell have done amazing things with the Kino-Teatr through their vision, energy and commitment. It is a large space and with the cost of heating and lighting and other increasing costs, Olga understands the Kino-Teatr must continue to draw in the audiences. It is much-loved and well- supported, and with Olga’s and Russell’s passion and knowledge, it will continue to be an important place for like-minded people to meet and enjoy so many great cultural events.
Kino-Teatr, 43-49 Norman Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex TN38 0EG
Tel: 01424 457830, email: admin@kino-teatr.co.uk
Image Credits: Juliet Duff , Courtesy Kino-Teatr .