Brave front: thought-provoking art on England’s south-east coast

The new Waterfronts exhibition – part of the England’s Creative Coast project – brings contemporary sculpture to seaside towns to attract, and challenge, visitors

I’m escaping a downpour in the Margate shelter where TS Eliot sat in 1921 scribbling The Waste Land. I’m not the only one: holidaying families huddle in waterproofs, wet dogs shake, tinny music emanates from smartphones, and a boy skips rhythmically with a rope. All the while the rain lashes the low-tide sand beyond.

I’m here to see the town’s newest public artwork, April is the Cruellest Month, its title inspired by Eliot’s poem. Positioned next to the shelter, it’s a lifesize sculpture of Daniel Taylor, a soldier who served in Iraq, by Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz.