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Light Night Leeds 2010
Ghost stories, a lute workshop, colour breathing and Personal Trainers – the Musical are just some of the events planned across campus as part of this year’s Light Night Leeds on Friday, 8 October.
The city-wide festival, now in its sixth year, gives people the chance to experience Leeds after dark from a fresh perspective. Many doors that usually remain firmly closed at night will be open until midnight, allowing members of the public to experience all manner of artistic events and performances.
Here on campus, artist Louise Atkinson will be at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery asking visitors to help her create an interactive People’s Map of Leeds. stage@leeds plays host to Void, an immersive installation exploring longing, emptiness and solitude.
Fitness facility The Edge provides the venue for two different performance pieces. Other events are taking place at the Brotherton Library, Emmanuel Centre, Leeds University Union, St George’s Field and Chancellors Court.
Meanwhile, the Life, Time exhibition in the foyer of the Charles Thackrah building explores the identity, ageing and the value of memory and artist Jo Lee will be talking about her installation Wave. Wave was created in collaboration with care homes and residents of Leeds and features a sea of hands which were cast from people aged between three-months to 100 years. It explores issues of isolation and dignity and investigates life stories through focusing on photographs and memories, and highlights their connectedness, challenges perceptions of the elderly and raises an awareness of a growing ageing society. The Life, Time exhibition is open 4-15 October 2010.
Find out more about Light Night at www.lightnightleeds.co.uk/ or visit www.leeds.ac.uk/ace/lightnight.html to download the University’s Light Night events guide.
An autumn of contrasts at Opera North
Opera North’s new season features The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten. Based on the chilling ghost story by Henry James, Britten winds up the tension to breaking point with his hauntingly atmospheric music. Set in the 1920s, this new production will have audiences gripped from the very first note.
By way of contrast, the company is also staging The Merry Widow. Opera North’s first production in 20 years of Léhar’s greatest hit, offers an evening of fun and romance. A beautiful, lavish score and the spirited dance provides an uplifting visual feast. Parisian sensuality and Viennese sophistication combine in this popular operetta, in which a beautiful and wealthy widow decides whether or not to take a second husband. Award-winning director, Giles Havergal and designer Leslie Travers team up with choreographer Stuart Hopps.
There’s also another chance to see The Adventures of Pinocchio. The tale of the wooden boy who longs to be real, this production won a host of five star reviews when it premiered in 2007. Matinees and Christmas performances will make a great treat for all the family.
Find out more at www.operanorth.co.uk or call 0113 223 3500.
Objects of Curious Virtue exhibition
The Objects of Curious Virtue exhibition by School of Design lecturer and artist, David Walker-Barker, opens this autumn at the Ruskin Library and Research Centre, Lancaster University.
This enthralling collection of cabinets and related artworks reflects David’s fascination for the geological realm, the connection between geological and human histories and their relationship to the study and understanding of landscapes.
The exhibition is from 9 October to 19 December and will contain artworks including six newly constructed cabinets displaying mineral and fossil specimens, artefacts and fabricated objects from David’s extensive collections. Accompanying these will be a range of his paintings, drawings and sketchbooks, and selected crystal specimens and geological material from the John Ruskin collection at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield.
For further information visit www.lancs.ac.uk/users/ruskinlib/Pages/welcome.html
