Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the North of England and the rest of the UK – and most of it’s free!

Monday — Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Re: 2017) 8.15pm @ Picturehouse At FACT, Liverpool — £7.50/5.50

Doo doo dooo dooo dooooooo!!!! Can you believe it’s been 40 years since Steven Spielberg’s groundbreaking sci-fi was released? Enjoy this 4K restoration of the director’s cut tonight – including a brilliantly frantic performance from Richard Dreyfuss as the average Joe who makes first contact with alien lifeforms.

Tuesday – Exhibition Opening: From The Vapor Of Gasoline 6-8pm @ White Cube, Mason’s Yard, London — FREE

See the USA through the eyes of artists Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Richard Prince and others, who made witty and cutting work about the emptiness of the American Dream through the 1960s to the 1990s. Expect dramatic references to Civil Rights, celebrity, consumerism, sex and violence. Until 21 Oct.

Wednesday — BRASS EYE AT 20! Screening & Q&A 7.30pm @ Leaf On Bold Street, Liverpool — £11.21

First broadcast in 1997, Channel 4’s brilliant, faux-news programme Brass Eye (pictured, above) made a star out of comedian Chris Morris, and pushed satire to a startlingly provocative new level (who could forget its NONCE-SENSE report?). Join director Michael Cumming tonight for unseen material from his personal archive, and no doubt hilarious anecdotes from behind the scenes.

Thursday – PICK OF THE WEEK: Abandon Normal Devices Festival @ Castleton, Peak District National Park – Festival Pass Standard  £45 / Conc £40

This year held in the caves beneath the Peak District (yes, CAVES!), this nomadic festival will this year showcase highly ambitious and brand new cinema, digital culture and art with a scientific slant, across the themes of Strata, Dis-location, Listening to the Dark, Deep Time and Freefall. Our highlights include becoming a virtual cave-dweller with Ooni Studio; a new musical composition by the Kreutzer Quartet inspired by – and recorded in – DNA; and seeing how Studio Roosegaarde will take the v-shaped valley of Winnats Pass back in time to the Ice Age. Until 24 Sept.

Exhibition Opening: Nick Crowe & Ian Rawlinson: Song For Armageddon 10am–6pm @ BALTIC, Gateshead — FREE

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Tel Megiddo/Armageddon in Northern Israel has apparently seen more battles than any other place in the world. The location for artists Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson’s new video (main image), made in collaboration with Israeli composer Ophir Ilzetzki and singer Faye Shapiro, expect a reflection on climate change, globalisation, wars and end times.

Friday – Exhibition Opening: ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein In Focus 10am—5.30pm / Pop Art Party 6pm @ Tate Liverpool – FREE

Tate Liverpool unveils a new Roy Lichtenstein exhibition today: 20 of his comic book inspired, Ben-Day dotted paintings depicting fast cars, fast planes, and gorgeous women – plus his only work on film. See the show then enjoy music, make-up, performances, popcorn, cocktails, and mac n’ cheese. Exhibition continues until 17 June 2018.

Sunday — BBC Philharmonic | Mahler: Symphony No. 3 7.30pm @ The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester – £40-12

Described as “epic” in their programme, the BBC Philharmonic performs Mahler’s Third Symphony tonight, joined by Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena, mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, the BBC National Chorus of Wales, and The Boy & Girl Choristers of Gloucester Cathedral. Expect a colossal work inspired by the natural world.

Laura Robertson, Editor

Images, from top: Still, Channel 4′s Brass Eye. Abandon Normal Devices Festival 2017. Roy Lichtenstein, In the Car 1963 © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2017. Photo: Antonia Reeve. Main image: Still from Nick Crowe & Ian Rawlinson’s Song For Armageddon, 2017

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the UK – and most of it’s free!

Monday — As I Open My Eyes (2016) 6pm @ Picturehouse At FACT, Liverpool — £5

A winner at Venice Film Festival and Cannes, Director Leyla Bouzid’s Tunisian-set drama sees young protagonist Farah (played by Baya Medhaffar) torn between political rebellion, a rock band, and studying at medical school. Meet the lead tonight at a post-screening discussion organised by Liverpool Arab Film Festival – which continues all this week with some cracking events (until Sunday, see full programme here).

Exhibition Open: Ark 10am—5pm @ Chester Cathedral – FREE

A huge new sculpture show featuring Barbara Hepworth, Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, Lynn Chadwick, Sarah Lucas, David Mach, Jon Buck (pictured, below) and many more, set in an exceptional, historical setting, and paired with a series of workshops and lectures. Not to be missed; see it until 15 October.

Wednesday – Exhibition Opening: Soul Of A Nation: Art In The Age Of Black Power 10am—6pm @ Tate Modern, London – £16.50/14.50

Exploring America between 1960s—80s, at the turbulent height of its Civil Rights movement, expect a wide variety of important artworks; including African American photographer Dawoud Bey’s A Boy in Front of the Loews 125th St. Movie Theatre, Harlem, NY (1976), and conceptual painter Barkley L. Hendricks’ Icon for My Man Superman (Superman Never Saved any Black People – Bobby Seale) (1969; pictured, below). There’s an impressive line-up of film screenings and talks too – like Wednesday’s sold out in conversation event with hyper-influential film director Spike Lee. See the show until 22 October.

Talk: Maria Fusco 10am—12pm@ Annexe G09, 70 Oxford Road, Manchester — FREE

Invited by Manchester School of Art’s Nothing Abandoned (a reading group inspired by the theme of surplus, or abandoned material), Belfast-born writer and critic Maria Fusco performs live readings this morning from her new novella Legend of the Necessary Dreamer – described by Chris Kraus as “a new classic of female philosophical fiction”.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Thursday – Exhibition Opening: CcTV17 6—9pm @ Caustic Coastal, Salford – £3

In homage to classic, chaotic live TV that defined a generation (think TFI Friday and The Word), Caustic Coastal’s new show will be filmed tonight in front of a live audience and streamed online. Featuring upcoming artists including Beth Kettel, Aliyah Hussain, Mariel Osborn, and Lucy Vann; all alongside Mark Joshua Epstein’s “hedonistic wonderland” solo exhibition.

Talk: Liverpool Minus Francesco Manacorda @ The Serving Library c/o Exhibition Research Lab, John Lennon Art and Design Building, Liverpool — FREE

Say goodbye to Tate Liverpool’s Artistic Director Francesco Manacorda (before he leaves for V-A-C Foundation) in style; discussing a dream exhibition he never got to make. Expect to hear about those dream Italian artists — Michelangelo Pistoletto, Lara Favaretto, and Bruno Munari – in addition to talk of the future. The last event before The Serving Library closes for the summer (reopening in September).

Exhibition Opening: NAWKI 6.30pm @ CBS Gallery & Studios, Liverpool PLUS Venues Nationwide – FREE

An experimental art fair model (pictured, above), collaborating with loads of well-regarded organisations — including Eastside Projects (Birmingham), Focal Point Gallery (Southend-on-Sea) and SERF (Leeds) — expect simultaneous film screenings at said orgs across the UK tonight, with each one picking their favourite digital and video works. See website for a full list of participating venues.

Friday – Exhibition Opening: OH 6.30pm @ Bridewell Studios, Liverpool — FREE

What do costumed sprites, rainbows, and revolutions have in common? They’re some of the surreal subject matter depicted by artists Chiz Turnross, Tina Connelly, Jason Thompson and Penny Davenport (pictured, below) in this new show. Expect dreamlike and abstract drawings, paintings and sculpture, alongside live music tonight only. Show continues until 26 July.

Saturday — Exhibition Opening: Plymouth Contemporary 11am—4pm @ Peninsula Arts And KARST, Plymouth — FREE

In the second edition of this open submission exhibition, artists have been asked to respond to the theme of Visions; resulting in a heady mix of political, social and dystopian subject matter. Expect upcoming and established artists – including James Hardy, Corinna Spencer, NaoKo TakaHashi, Jennet Thomas, and Plymouth Young Contemporary Winner Liam Symes, plus many more – across two venues, until 2 September.

Sunday – Citadel Festival @ Mile End, London — £49.50/5

Don’t loaf on the sofa this Sunday; for under 50 quid you can enjoy live music from Foals, Wild Beasts, Maggie Rogers (main pic), Laura Marling, Dan Croll, Twin Peaks, and more, for one day only, in the (hopefully sunny) surrounds of Victoria Park. With added value in the shape of Sunday Papers live, a gin and tonic bar from Fever Tree, or workshops and discussion from the Science Museum.

Laura Robertson, Editor

Images, from top: Noah & The Raven (1988), bronze by Jon Buck., courtesy the artist. Currently on show at Ark, Chester Cathedral, 2017. Barkley L. Hendricks Icon for My Man Superman (Superman Never Saved any Black People – Bobby Seale) 1969 Collection of Liz and Eric Lefkofsky © Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Superman S-Shield © & ™ DC Comics. Used with permission​. Poster for NAWKI 6.30pm @ CBS Gallery & Studios, Liverpool, 2017. Penny Davenport, watercolour, on show at OH, Bridewell Studios, Liverpool, 2017. Main image, musician Maggie Rogers, courtesy the artist

Chester’s brand new cultural centre enjoys its official launch next Thursday. Ahead of the big day, Hannah Allan speaks to its staff and local residents to understand the area’s creative needs, and the huge expectations already placed at Storyhouse’s door…

Thinking of Chester might conjure up romantic images of Roman walls, or its arcade-style Rows walkways. Yet this perception of the city as a living museum is one which its newest development seeks to change. Due to open on Thursday 11 May, Chester’s flagship arts centre Storyhouse aims to become a hub for the local community, encouraging engagement with the arts in a city which has no other large-scale cultural provision. This lack poses a challenge to the Chester area and other regional hubs outside of the major centres of Manchester and Liverpool; asking if investment in arts might be the solution for marking out a space, identity and method for survival within an uncertain political and economic terrain. Can a new building instigate change or sustain culture?

Situated close to North Gate retail and leisure development, the whole area is one in transition. The £37 million Storyhouse project – backed by Chester City Council and Arts Council England – is centred around a redevelopment of the 1936 Odeon cinema space, which visitors can now take a sneak peek of ahead of the grand opening. Incorporating core library services for the city, there is an adjoining new build housing a 800 seat theatre, 150 capacity studio stage and rooftop bar. This cultural hub approach – in a similar format to The Atkinson (Southport) or HOME (Manchester) – is intended to foster a greater inclusivity and sustainability for all aspects of the new building and its future activities.

Storyhouses’ opening season includes four well-known plays, three of which will be staged outdoors via the popular Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, and there are plans to draw in internationally touring productions and companies, with experimental and local practitioners housed in the studio. Open air cinema Moonlight Flicks is showing a crowd-pleasing mix of blockbusters, from La La Land to Moana, and live music includes a blend of world, classical and experimentation, of which Craig Charles’ interpretation of Red Riding Hood, Tales Of The Dark Woods, is a highlight. Walking around the library and cinema, much of the character of the original Odeon can still be seen; the art-deco lines of the roof complement architectural details and the odd salvaged find – such as an original sofa – which feels important in terms of the city’s heritage, but also significant for residents. The cinema holds tangible memories for many of those who grew up here: childhood visits, first dates and family outings.

Formerly known as Chester Performs, the Storyhouse team could be classed as a safe pair of hands, having run the aforementioned Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Rogues’ Galleries, and other cultural events in Chester since 2009. It is overseen by Artistic Director Alex Clifton, who returned to his hometown from working in London as a freelance director and teacher at RADA. Clifton spoke to me of the need to create a “deep and sustained impact” on the lives of people through this work, and that creating this meaningful change has necessitated a long-term building of relationships. At the heart of Storyhouse‘s plan is to engage the community whilst attracting out of town visitors and tourism.

The team, it seems, recognise that Storyhouse’s work isn’t over once the ribbon has been cut. To address this, one initiative is to partner with local charities; sharing some of Storyhouse’s multi-purpose spaces for workshop, volunteering and apprenticeship usage. These newly incorporated groups include Fallen Angels, who teach dance to adults in recovery from addiction; Bridge Foyer, who support 16–24 year olds at risk of homelessness; and Passion For Learning, who focus on the literacy skills of vulnerable young children. By drawing in wider networks of local people who are traditionally less likely to participate in Storyhouse’s programming, Storyhouse is therefore encouraging uptake from all sectors of the community – an aim which Clifton enthusiastically champions. Activities, Clifton tells me, should challenge the community by “asking questions about shared identity… Storytelling is what will hold this building together.”

But what about that community? Chester is a relatively small city of 80,000 permanent residents. The University of Chester attracts an additional 15,000 students per year, and will no doubt be an essential audience for Storyhouse to tap into. Traditionally, smaller cities and towns (and campus universities) can struggle to merge shared spaces between the two groups. It is hoped that students will be further integrated into Chester’s services and public life with the opening of Storyhouse; preferring to use its public library, café, cinema and theatres after lectures, rather than being lured back to the neighboring cities of Liverpool and Manchester by train. Graduate retention is a problem; with qualified students moving to bigger cities with better employment opportunities and a larger cultural industry. Whether Storyhouse will in some small way affect graduate retention remains to be seen. One step to encourage graduating theatre practitioners is Storyhouses’ offer of studio time for new companies who choose to remain in the area. It is a helping hand for start-ups in the areas that they need most help: a permanent base, facilities, resources, and contacts in a blossoming local theatre network that is linked to national productions.

Angela Ferguson, who runs the culture blog We Are Chester, spoke at length to me about the attitude of Chester towards Storyhouse. Ferguson has been collecting residents’ opinions on the project through a radio programme. Generally, Storyhouse was identified as something sorely needed, with guests pointing out that since 2007 there has not even been a cinema in the city. There is obviously a huge weight of expectation placed on the project, yet many are encouraged that the team behind it have been, for several years, producing popular theatre productions during the summer months.

Ferguson also highlighted that residents question why it has taken so long for this cultural provision to be put in place by Chester Council. So far, the response to Storyhouse has been overwhelmingly positive within online discussions and local media reports; the enthusiasm suggesting a keen desire for a contemporary cultural centre to be successful in Chester, and attracting much-needed new visitors.

Despite high expectations, of course, not all requests can be met. One key lack of provision remains, and that is within Chester’s visual arts offer. Storyhouse will provide a limited series of digital screens for exhibiting art on the ground floor, but it will not be expected to act as a gallery. Its Arts Council funding has been awarded based on the offer of theatre and digital content, with its film and library services supported by other awarding bodies. Furthermore, Chester Council’s development plans does not currently include any further strategy for gallery spaces in the city centre. Clearly, Storyhouse cannot meet every community need and should play to its strengths in theatre (Chester has a strong tradition of theatre, in part due to an enduring legacy of its Mystery Plays dating back to the middle-ages. Theatres have come and gone in smaller locations – the Gateway closed its doors in 2007 – and at a grassroots level, but outdoor performances are persistently popular), but a void in the city’s art scene remains.

This absence is made even more apparent considering the University offers degrees in Fine Art and Photography, yet there is no venue for contemporary art outside of the municipal Grosvenor Museum, and a smattering of small commercial galleries. The University’s Contemporary Art Space Chester (CASC) has recently closed, becoming Fashion degree studios at the start of the academic year.

Unlike Liverpool or Manchester, Chester does not have a contemporary cultural legacy that overshadows its ability to write a new version of itself. There is no expectation of a past to be emulated, and instead, new traditions and experimentation might be introduced. One of the questions which arises from this absence of “house style” is who is responsible for ensuring that a city’s cultural offer is well rounded – or that recognising specialisms might be essential to survival. The city has an already well-established audience for the performing arts, so rightly this has been Storyhouse’s focus for investment. Such large-scale council funding for an untested offer might have caused more controversy than this proposal. Instead, Chester Council could support contemporary visual arts by offering up empty shop space for installations (like the aforementioned Chester Performs’ Rogue Galleries programme in 2013), or in assisting groups to start their own studios, galleries, art fairs or magazines. A mixture of both funded and grassroots activity is essential, particularly in giving a platform for voices counter to the prevailing political or cultural narratives the council and funders promote.

A project on the physical and financial scale of Storyhouse is one which will always feel risky. We have seen money poured into areas of the UK subsequently be cut-off, like with Newcastle at the turn of the century, with dramatic consequences for its larger venues and organisations. A sustainable space for uncertain times needs to adapt and challenge existing models. In the case of Storyhouse, this has taken shape through a broader cultural offer.

Buildings do not instigate change or sustain culture alone. However, with an initial commitment to the different audiences and community groups of Chester, in varied fields of performance arts and film, Storyhouse has the potential to become a valued addition. Whether positivity is enough to maintain the project in the long-term is an unknown, but perhaps a space such as this – with so much enthusiasm from its locals – has a better chance than one existing alongside rivals in a larger urban setting. Chester’s residents have waited over a decade for a new arts centre, and it has been hard fought for. Whatever the future challenges faced by cultural institutions nationally, Storyhouse has the attention of a potential audience who recognise the value of such a space in the ecology of their city.

Hannah Allan

This article has been commissioned by the Contemporary Visual Arts Network North-West (CVAN NW), as part of a regional critical writing development programme funded by Arts Council England — see more here  #writecritical

Storyhouse opens Thursday 11 May 2017 in Chester

Images, from top: Storyhouse exterior shot; foyer, roof of cinema and theatre, taken during building works. Feature image, exterior shot. All images courtesy Storyhouse

Jennet Thomas transports C. James Fagan back to the Thatcher years: a time of nuclear scares, managed decline and milk snatching…

Thatcher! Thatcher! Milk snatcher!

This chant has resonance with me, as Margaret Thatcher’s infamous decision to withdraw free milk from nursery schools, taken while Minister for Education in 1971, coincided with my time in nursery (although I do remember getting milk to drink). Since then, Thatcher has occupied a part of mine and many others’ lives as a narrative permeating British culture; usually portrayed as a  presence that borders on the supernatural, helped in part by various depictions of her as demon or a robot.

Like Raymond Briggs’ drawings of her in The Tin Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman, or that Spitting Image sketch where she turns out to be a Xenomorph for the Alien films. When she stepped down as Prime Minister in the 1990s while I was at high school, my Maths teacher cheerfully announced: “Thatcher’s Gone!” The class cheered as if a dragon had been slain or the Death Star had been destroyed.

It is, of course, a one-sided narrative; one that came from people who opposed the materialistic, capitalistic rhetoric she espoused. Obviously people agreed with her, or sided with the idea of what she was saying; it happens I don’t count myself as one of those people.

Thatcher happens to be on my mind as I’m heading towards a screening of Jennet Thomas’ The Unspeakable Freedom Device at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, hosted by The Exhibition Centre for the Life and Use of Books, Manchester. I’m not entirely sure what role, if any, that Thatcher plays in the film: expectations of Thatcher is based on the appearance of a look-a-like in some publicity stills.

During a brief presentation by Thomas herself, the artist explains that the flashpoint for the making of this film was Thatcher’s death and funeral. These events served to stimulate the feelings that Thomas had during the 1980s, describing what unfolded as a ‘Thatcher aesthetic’.

When The Unspeakable Freedom Device film starts, it becomes clear what that aesthetic is. Visually, it could be likened to Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1978) or within the more satirical aspects of 2000AD strips (Nemesis the Warlock Vol. 9 springs to mind). Even in the first edgier stories of Doctor Who, for example The Sunmakers (1977).

It is in Thomas’ primitive-futuristic costumes, which echo the fear of the return of barbarism as an result of a nuclear war. It is in the discarded buildings of the sixties and seventies that form the remains of a world left to managed decline. It is in the landscape of a pleasant and green land that bears the scars of its history.

In this landscape travel two people: one a young mother on a pilgrimage for the fabled ‘Blue Lady’ (Thatcher); the other an older women who carry’s a weary wisdom regarding the young mother’s claims of the messianic qualities of this Blue Lady. These characters are helped, hindered or manipulated by creatures of Red, Blue and Green, who themselves are the echoes of past political ideals. It’s a classic sci-fi trope where the beliefs or notions of the now attain a mythical status.

As the film approaches a kind of climax at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens — which Thomas regards as the ‘origin of Thatcher’ — the two central characters join a Thatcher cult where the individuals dress like her regardless of gender. They applaud the platitudes of a Blue Man, who speaks in soundbites and jingles. Pretty much like many politicians do, leaving us to choose leaders on the basis of ‘I like the sound of that’.

This finale seems to point towards the idea of a fallacy of party politics, especially when many politicians main aim is to get into power. That most political rhetoric deals with the manipulation of symbols, the devolving of complex issues into the battleground of us and them, and the delivering of empty promises. It even expands into the narratives that the Tories are evil.

During the climax, there are moments where Red and Green forcibly join with Blue to create a possible utopian power elite. Think of the conclusion of Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal (1982). It’s strange to reflect that an exhibition of this film and of Thomas’ work was postponed by Conservative members of Blackpool council because of perceived political basis.

The film comes to a cyclical ending. There’s a break and Part Two starts.

Composer Leo Chadburn (aka Simon Bookish) steps up, having supplied the soundtrack for The Unspeakable Freedom Device. Though he’s not here to simply recreate the music we’ve just heard, rather he presents a separate yet thematically connected work entitled Red & Blue.

Red & Blue, Chadburn informs us, was inspired by his boyhood memories of seeing images of Thatcher and Ronald Reagan on the TV. He infuses these memories with transcripts of conversations between Maggie and Ronald. The 17 minutes of Chadburn’s piece unfolds like a ballad, exploring their so-called ‘special relationship’; declarations of affection wrapped around terrifying statistics regarding ICBM deployment.

Again, here is the ‘Thatcher aesthetic’: the way the ideals of that age affected the creative output of generations. It also expands into Chadburn’s other work; after Red & Blue he performs songs based on dreams of transportation. I say it expands; what I mean is that there’s something in the music that makes recall, and this may be damming with faint praise. It recalls that part of the ’80s where performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson could be Number Two in the charts alongside stuff like this.

As the last sounds fade and I ready to leave, I begin to think about the night as a whole. I begin to consider that both sections of the night were about memory and experience. Both Thomas and Chadburn have memories of a time which, when reproduced, leave a nagging, unavoidable sense that the problems of that time still remain unresolved.

C. James Fagan

Read more coverage on Thomas’ The Unspeakable Freedom Device here

The Christmas decorations have been taken down, the festivity is over, and the world looks cold and gloomy again. Is there any better way to escape the January drizzle than being in a warm venue filled with people, booze and live music? Vanessa Wheeler prescribes a selection of the best upcoming gigs to hit Liverpool and Manchester…

First up, catch neofolk band Daughter whose new album Not To Disappear is released today (15/01), followed shortly by their performance at the O2 Academy Liverpool (22/01). The band, led by frontwoman Elena Tonra, mixes heartfelt vocals with acoustics and electronica in a way that creates a serene yet slightly melancholic sensation; perfectly encompassing the winter blues.

See celebrated indie-rockers The Libertines at the Manchester Arena (23/01) play their rousing September album Anthems For Doomed Youth; their first studio record in over a decade. Notorious since the noughties for their heavy rock ‘n’ roll lifestyles pumped with drugs, sex and wild live sets, the band have an ever-loyal following of fans throughout the world. Despite their on-again-off-again past status, Doherty, Barât, Hassall and Powell are back for the meantime, so grab a ticket while you can.

Be sure to catch Bristol trip-hop duo Massive Attack, formed in the late ‘80s, whose hit albums Blue Lines and Mezzanine earned them a cult status and a spot each in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Daddy G and 3D, who make up the band, will be performing at the O2 Apollo, Manchester (28/01). Their last release, 2010’s Heligoland, was a critically commended comeback and thatGold in the UK. What better way to wave goodbye to chilly January than to dance all night at the best alternative gig in the North-West?

This is one for the millennials: popular YouTuber Gabrielle Aplin, who discovered widespread recognition after covering Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s The Power of Love in 2012 — which earned her her first UK Number 1  – will be performing at the O2 Academy Liverpool (29/01) . Alpin has since proved to be more than just a one-hit-wonder, as her hauntingly graceful voiced shows in second studio album Light Up The Dark.

Described by critics as ‘kitchen sink indie’, which lead singer Robert Coles put down to their lyrics depicting social realism, and the fact that they use kitchen utensils as percussion, Little Comets play O2 Academy Liverpool in February (14/02). The four boys from Newcastle kickstarted their musical career by doing guerrilla gigs; that is, arriving unannounced at venues, plugging in their instruments, and just performing — no permission or prior planning needed.

Also playing the O2 Academy Liverpool two nights later (16/02): all-girl rock band PINS, influenced by artists such as The Jesus And Mary Chain and Beach House, are described by The Guardian as ‘the most Brooklyn band to ever come from Manchester’. Be sure not to miss their energetic and exhilarating live set.

Grammy-nominated US rock band, Cage The Elephant, will be at the O2 Academy Liverpool (18/02) following the release of their latest album Tell Me I’m Pretty in December. Produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, the album is diverse and emotional; and as the band cite their inspiration to the late, great David Bowie, this is sure to be a special performance.

If that doesn’t float your boat, see Icelandic former techno duo turned alt rockers Fufanu downstairs at The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool (25/02). When switching styles, the band didn’t abandon their techno roots; instead, incorporating guitars and drums with synth pads, creating a unique combination of sound, which will be best experienced at this intimate gig.

Lastly, Italian-English acoustic artist Jack Savoretti (O2 Academy Liverpool (28/02)), who last year sold-out London’s Shephard’s Bush Empire, performs the final show of his tour, celebrating fourth album Written In Scars. Earthly guitar melodies, husky vocals, and honest lyrics stemming from his previous occupation as a poet: What better way to wave goodbye to winter?

Vanessa Wheeler

We have asked our critics to name their cultural winners of 2015: who will make the cut?

What to say about a year where The Double Negative discussed shame with Jon Ronson? Watched Shia LaBeouf man an existential call centre? Debated the General Election’s effect on contemporary art? Saw The Whitworth gallery return to glory? Said goodbye to Wes Craven and Brian Sewell? Visited Brussels, Ghana, Gujarat, and Reykjavík? Printed an indispensable city guide?

Possibly one of The Double Negative’s most important experiences this year was being able to commission new arts writing. Through our Be A Critic programme — inviting broadcaster, writer and Royal Academy director Tim Marlow to Liverpool to deliver a public lecture and masterclass to 15 aspiring art critics — plus the fantastic Contemporary Visual Arts Network North West (CVAN NW) bursary, we’ve been mentoring, commissioning and publishing new arts writing. Not only creating a snapshot of ambitious, diverse contemporary British arts culture, these two programmes have demonstrated the power and urgency of supporting new writing from North-West England’s talent pool. We certainly hope to keep doing more of the same next year, in addition to providing more editorial support, mentoring and access to practical advice from those — like Marlow and last year’s Be A Critic guest, ArtReview’s Oliver Basciano — who have managed to champion critical thinking throughout their careers.

I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to The Double Negative this year, as always; feeding into a continuing, vital source of arts criticism and cultural commentary that looks outwards and onwards, whilst acting — and publishing — locally.

SO NOW, THE AWARDS…

MOST IMAGINATIVE IN-SITU ART WORK 

In The Eyes Of The Animal: Marshmallow Laser Feast for AND Festival (pictured above)

Nominated by Laura Robertson

London-based studio Marshmallow Laser Feast arrived in Grizedale Forest (Cumbria) with a bang in September. Commissioned to make the focus artwork for art and tech fest Abandon Normal Devices (AND), they created In The Eyes Of The Animal: utilising drones, lasers and 3D animation to create a heightened, virtual reality experience of the forest from the perspective of its creatures. Essentially recording a bubble or full-sphere view of the landscape, by flying drones out over and through the trees, wearers of special VR headsets were able to get ‘inside’ that sphere whilst sitting on tree stumps on the forest floor. The result? A painterly, out-of-body experience; and a peek into the startling future of personal-use VR.

BEST INDIE PUBLISHER

Comma Press

Nominated by Mike Pinnington

It was with a degree of irony that I’ve chosen publisher Comma Press – described on their website as being “dedicated to promoting new writing, with an emphasis on the short story” – as my pick of the year for 2015. I’ve always been ambivalent about short form fiction; often when I read a good short, I don’t want to let go of the ideas and characters after so brief a time, but sometimes it is more to do with a nagging feeling that what has been committed to the page is little more than a sketch, an idea that went for a walk but ran out of steam.

This year, however, with the science fiction collection Beta-Life (2015), I was introduced to Comma Press. Pairing experts with writers – a practice that goes some way to addressing each of my concerns about the form – readers get both great fiction and the science behind it into the bargain.

There was a fitting sense of coincidence, too, in my choice. Last week (22nd December) we celebrated National Short Story Day, and you can visit this page for more info and recommendations.

BEST LIVE PERFORMANCE

Max Richter performs The Blue Notebooks (2004) at ATP 2.0: Nightmare Before Christmas (Prestatyn)

Nominated by Laura Robertson

I was first introduced to contemporary composer Max Richter at university; one of my tutors made a copy of The Blue Notebooks for me on CD. They thought I’d be into it. I’d never given classical music much time… but I’d never heard anything like this. An abstract and poetic interpretation of Franz Kafta’s Blue Octavo diary extracts, using typewriters alongside birdsong, violin, piano and organ, with an unexpected vocal performance by British actress Tilda Swinton, it completely floored me. This record was one of the most exquisite things I’d ever heard. A rare chance to see it performed live and in full came this year with the UK return of ATP Festival: Richter seemed to stop time in the freezing cold, bedraggled surrounds of the Welsh holiday camp venue. A heavenly, poignant contemplation of the human spirit.

BEST ACTOR

Kirsten Dunst, Fargo (Channel 4)

Nominated by Jack Roe

Kirsten Dunst. Her portrayal of Peggy Blumquist in the second series of Fargo has been little short of bewitching. Her frazzled, twitching, beautician’s update on Lady MacBeth is a triumph of characterisation on the part of the writers, but there is something in her wide-eyed repetition of self-help mantras and increasingly erratic behaviour throughout the series that is absolutely compelling. And all that from someone who, let’s face it, wouldn’t make the top of many lists beforehand. There is always something thrilling about seeing a formerly mercurial actor quietly and assuredly take things up a gear.

BEST NEW INDIE FILM VENUE

A Small Cinema (Liverpool)

Nominated by Mike Pinnington

Now a regular feature in our Culture Diary, how did we ever manage without A Small Cinema? A self-professed “project exploring what cinema used to be, and what form it might take in the future, through research, events, experiments, film-making and community dialogues”, ASC is a model its founder, digital artist Sam Meech, has explored previously, and with success – in North Manchester’s Moston, as well as a currently under construction “sibling project” as he calls it in a former church in St. Helens. The project is fully supported by BFI Film Hub North West Central, which means that the three venues can bring specialised and independent British Film to their local audiences. March 2016 will see ASC Liverpool celebrate its first 12 months; it has quickly become not just a welcome addition but a fixture in the cinematic make up of the city.

BEST “BLEW THE ROOF OFF” SEQUEL

Joint winners: Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams)

Nominated by C. James Fagan

My cultural highlight of 2015? If I’m honest I have to give the award to two blockbusters: Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Simply because these two cultural events have been the ones which had me thinking and talking about them long after seeing them.

For me, both films served as reminders of what’s great about blockbuster cinema: the thrill of spectacle mixed with a heroic story. How that, in turn, acts as a spur to the imagination. Ultimately, however, I’ve selected Mad Max and Star Wars simply because they were so much fun!

Nominated by Jack Roe

There may (certainly) have been films that are more interesting, have more artistic integrity and have provoked more critical thought and discussion, but I will unashamedly swing for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The task of giving an absolutely monumental, not to mention rabid, fanbase the film that they wanted seemed like an unforgiving and perhaps impossible task. This film is better than most of us had any right to expect.

BEST INDIE SCI-FI FILM

Advantageous (Jennifer Phang)

Nominated by Stuart Ian Burns

Bought for distribution at Sundance by Netflix, ironically causing unfortunate obscurity, Jennifer Phang’s indie wonder Advantageous glimpses a dystopian future in which an older woman is given the choice of losing a job which guarantees her child’s future, or sacrificing her own identity.  Tense, impressionistic, refreshing and warm filmmaking. Classic.

BEST MINI MUSIC FESTIVAL

Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia 

Nominated (and photo) by Pete Goodbody 

As impossible to define as to predict, Psych Fest was a revelation and only in a good way. Set in the Baltic Triangle and using stages in both Camp and Furnace and District, it was clear on arrival this was going to be something special. There was that kind of atmosphere pinging around that you can almost feel and touch. Apart from having a passing familiarity with the camp theatre of Evil Blizzard and their thunderous four bass, one drummer line up, none of the other names on the bill meant anything to me. No matter, I didn’t see a bad band all weekend. The fuzz of Holy, the Latin rhythms of Fumaca Preta and the stripped down funk of Throw Down Bones were just three of the bands who have since taken up a more or less permanent residence on my iPod.

But it was more than just the music. There were enough bars to cope with the crowds, good street food, Psych Cinema, a pop-up record shop and a Hookah tent. This festival was very much more than the sum of its parts, impeccably organised and a showpiece for the versatility of its venues. I was buzzing for days afterwards.

OBITUARY

Sir Terry Pratchett

Nominated by Jack Roe

The passing of Sir Terry Pratchett was, for many reasons, one of the more culturally significant moments of the year. The man’s unfaltering consistency, the fertility of his imagination and his wonderfully skewed, moralistic take on satire ensured that his works move beyond the sci-fi/fantasy genres and into something much more in touch with contemporary British society. The tragedy of the manner of his death ensured that the outpouring of emotion was huge from within and outside literary society, and yet the darkly comic bent was perfectly fitting with a man whose flights of fantasy could never quite avoid betraying a beautifully pitched cynicism. In the words of his brilliantly, and altogether human, take on the grim reaper: ‘AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.’

Laura Robertson

Cian Quayle inspects the home footage, black and white photography and hand-drawn maps that embody Stephen Clarke’s personal, family-orientated homage to seaside towns…

Stephen Clarke has recently published a series of three books with Café Royal: Ocean Beach Rhyl, Rhyl Caravan Parks and Rhyl Seafront, all featuring photographs made between 1984 and 1985. End Of The Season at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester is based on these books. The Café Royal imprint is the enterprise of Craig Atkinson, who has single-handedly resurrected, what could loosely be described as the lost histories of British documentary photography.

As a publishing venture Atkinson’s modest photobooks, which are all uniform in size and format, reportedly find their inspiration in the National Trust’s Guidebooks. Clarke is apologetic; he does not describe himself as a photographer but he openly acknowledges the relationship between his experience growing up in St Helens and Warrington and his memories of seaside holidays. This locates the work in a particular time frame where his childhood and formative years, art college education in Newport and Winchester, subsequent artist practice incorporating collage, and travel overseas, led Clarke to return to Rhyl.

Following graduation Clarke spent a period of time in South California where the influence of the New Topographic photographers, and his earlier introduction to Lewis Baltz at Newport in 1986, had an impact upon the way he approached that landscape. Of his oft cited influential experiences within art education, he even ended up meeting sculptor Douglas Huebler whilst looking for collagist John Baldessari at Cal Arts. The light of the California landscape is a far cry from the seaside light of Rhyl’s location at the extremity of the Welsh peninsula, but these photographs maybe present a substitute for what Clarke left behind.

The origin of this work is initially revisited via colour, cine-filmed, home-movie footage from 1960s and 1970s: family holidays in Rhyl. The cine footage is apparently not contrived but as found, and features the late, heyday of an ubiquitous British seaside resort. The carnival-queen winner, a parade of majorettes twirling their batons as they troop along the seafront, and the super 8 camera momentarily fixates on a white woman carrying a baby of mixed race or West Indian ethnicity.

Clarke is also seen aged 5 years old ambling along, holding his father’s hand. His father is later seen in the foreground of one of Clarke’s photographs in Rhyl from the 1980s, looking into the distance with his back to his son. Clarke’s grandparents are also present in the cine footage – proudly overseeing their two caravans in Rhyl as they did each summer season.

End Of The Season also includes a considerable collection of photographic and other printed ephemera as well as other family snapshots, which are displayed across three vitrine cases.  The display cases include vintage photographs, which preceded the recent publications and new prints made for this exhibition by Steve McCoy and Stephanie Wynne. Clarke has previously also collaborated with artist and collagist David Ferry, whose own preoccupation with the British seaside and Blackpool was an influence for Clarke’s forays into collage and montage. This subsidiary material draws attention away from the three series of framed black and white photographs on the walls, which anchor the exhibition, and each suite of prints relates to each of the books already mentioned. A series of digitally montaged postcard images also function as an off-kilter rejoinder to the other works on display.

A hand-drawn map, which was made in situ during the exhibition, performs a repeat strategy that Clarke has previously adopted. In this instance, it involves replacing street names with the names of other seaside resorts, which will ultimately form part of a continuing investigation of the British seaside. How viable or necessary this is, following those landmark bodies of work which are already acknowledged as the pinnacle of this form of documentary, are perhaps most recently best represented in the exhibition of Tony Ray-Jones, Only In England (Walker Gallery, Liverpool), curated by Martin Parr.

The final selection of photographs, which closes the exhibition, presents a constellation of other images of other seaside towns in which Clarke has photographed. These include Bexhill, Hastings, Brighton and Robin Hoods Bay. Here we see some poignant moments where a boy dives off the end of a seaside jetty and rows of deckchairs laid out in anticipation of holidaymaker’s arrival.

The continuity of the project is of course a viable one – as the shifting identity of places and communities reveals new reasons to return to what might otherwise be perceived as an end point along the journey which a photographer’s life and work might follow.

The signage and motifs, which festoon the seafront, arcades and stalls all form part of the visual vocabulary and the stock-in-trade of any seaside resort. With their prospect of escapism providing a ubiquitous trope which is unavoidable and one to which, Clarke admits, he was initially drawn via American photographer Walker Evans. The photographs are by no means mundane as the human presence, which is sparse, activates a set of disconnected relations where individuals seem isolated from one another – absorbed in private moments of contemplation surveying something or someone out of frame. Elsewhere a child looks back at the photographer or another glances back at a passing adult.

This exhibition is tinted with nostalgia, which is heavily underscored by the array of fascinating, display-case material, but also what Clarke considers a melancholy sensibility.  Clarke’s images, and the prints, which have been made by Wynne and McCoy, are unerringly, unforgiving in what they reveal about a place whose recent headlines provoke a slew of headlines related to poverty, debt, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness and dog shit. The calcified light, in these images is not that of Southern California, and they are documents, but emotive ones for Clarke, whose affinity with Rhyl persists for obvious reasons and associations.

Subsequent recessions have left Rhyl one of the most deprived areas in the North-West. The photographs represent a seaside town that is already undergoing a sea-change, which across the next 30 years led to what now seems like an irrecoverable downturn in the economy, shifting demographic and status. Rhyl today is blighted by a confluence of factors, which are an endemic reflection of successive governments failure to stem the tide of decline in industry, and inevitably tourism. The boarding houses, which have not been demolished, backdrop the promenade entertainments, providing temporary accommodation for the shifting tide of communities which have depended for so long on seasonal tourism where the end of season signalled the need for the working population to either sign-on, or seek out work elsewhere in the region or further afield.

With the increase in unemployment, poverty and debt afflicting the majority of Rhyl’s population, both young and the elderly, the longer-term depopulation and immobility of a disenfranchised community has been supplanted by the influx of a migrant population. A migrant work force have been attracted by what work can still be found in the hotel and leisure industries, and it could be supposed that for Steve Clarke, and the communities of other seaside towns, that the season has not quite come to an end – just yet.

Cian Quayle

Cian Quayle is Programme Leader for BA Photography at the University of Chester and was in conversation with Steve Clarke at the Grosvenor Museum on Friday 9 October 2015

See Stephen Clarke’s End Of The Season at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, curated by Lucy Ashdown, until Sunday 18 October 2015 — all images courtesy the artist

Clarke is a contributing writer to The Double Negative: read his articles here, including a feature on Cian Quayle’s 2014 exhibition Points Of Departure at the Grosvenor Museum

Clarke’s book can be found at Café Royal Books – Rhyl Caravan Parks, Rhyl Seafront – and at The Velvet Cell – California Shopfronts Vol.I and Vol.II

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Tuesday — LAST DAY: Geoff Brokate @ Cornerhouse Bar (Manchester) — FREE

Cornerhouse Projects present the work of north-west based, Australian-born photographer Geoff Brokate; known for documentary photography international subjects, here he turns his camera on the English landscape, creating a series of mysterious, atmospheric ‘visual poems’. An excuse to go for lunch/after work beers and catch the last day of this beautiful mini-exhibition.

Wednesday — Kraftwerk: Uncovered A Future Past 8pm @ Liverpool Philharmonic — £19.50, £25

Love Kraftwerk? Yes. Love a live orchestra and visual arts? Yes. Then you’re in for a treat. Described as ‘A nostalgic vision of a ‘future’ now passed, and a modern reworking of a lost utopian dream’, composer, producer and sound-scapist J. Peter Schwalm re-imagines tracks from a range of Kraftwerk albums – from early acoustic tracks to the now iconic synthesized tunes — alongside visual artists Sophie Clements and Toby Cornish’s new video work, representing Kraftwerk’s vision in the language of an earlier era of avant garde film ‘that wondered in the new aesthetics of technological and industrial innovation’. And there’s even a pre-concert talk at 6pm from Kraftwerk – Music Non Stop’s Dr. Richard Witts, Reader in Music and Sound at Edge Hill University. Excellent.

Thursday – Paul Farley & Michael Symmons Roberts: Edgelands 7.30pm @ the Bluecoat – £5/£3

Soft Estate Event #1: Exploring the Bluecoat’s current exhibition, award-winning north-west poets Farley and Symmons read from their new book Edgelands, described as ‘a masterpiece of its kind… A beautifully conceived work of exploration by two emissaries to the wilderness who do the wasteland proud’ (John Burnside, The Times). Expect the poets’ views on ‘non-places’, how the book took shape through collaboration, and art in the margins.

Friday – Dallas Buyers Club @ FACT — ticket prices vary

Tipped for an Oscar, Matthew McConaughey continues his transformation from rom-com makeweight to serious actor as Ron Woodroof, a hard-living Texan rodeo cowboy/electrician who is diagnosed as HIV positive. Initially refusing to accept the doctors’ prognosis, Ron discovers that HIV treatments in the US are hard to come by; his determination sees a search abroad for experimental treatments and eventually turning into a smuggler of highly sought-after alternative medicines. Jared Leto stars as his trans accomplice.

Saturday – Edgelands Walk 12-2.30pm @ Birkenhead North Merseyrail Station (Wirral) – FREE (booking essential)

Soft Estate Event #2: Get out of the house with historian and writer Colin Dilnot as your guide through Wirral’s ‘Soft Estate’ — hidden wilderness and neglected places between town and country. Trekking across motorway, retail park, canal, recycling plant, rubbish tip, railway sidings, several bridges and wastelands, expect a real ‘edgelands’ experience (sturdy shoes and warm/waterproof clothing recommended). Read our essay on J.G. Ballard and the Soft Estate here.

HIS HEAD Symposium 3-6pm @ Gasworks (London) — FREE (booking recommended)

To celebrate Gasworks’ latest exhibition Late Barbarians, artist Sidsel Meineche Hansen leads a symposium on the divergent connotations of the male human head. With contributions from Niels Henriksen, a PhD candidate at Princeton University, and Thomas Boutoux, a founding member of castillo/corrales in Paris, expect to learn about radical archaeology, medieval stone carving, French political anthropology and the theory of the “headless leader”…

Martin Creed and Band 10pm @ The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall (London) — FREE

As part of the Turner Prize winner’s new Hayward exhibition What’s the point of it? (one of our Unmissable Exhibitions of 2014), the affable Martin Creed performs ’an evening of catchy and humorous songs’ (whatever that means) from his new album Mind Trap. Good fun.

Sunday — LAST DAY: Out of Ice @ University of Westminster (London) — FREE

Another of our Unmissable Exhibitions of 2014, by one of the most significant artists of her generation, Scottish environmental artist Elizabeth Ogilvie presents a vast and immersive installation portraying “the psychological, physical and poetic dimensions of ice and water.” See our full interview here.

LAST DAY: Jake and Dinos Chapman: Come and See @ Serpentine Sackler Gallery (London) — FREE

Surreal, nightmarish, twisted… will ‘enfants terrible’ Jake and Dinos Chapman ever grow up? We hope not. Morality, the history of art and consumer culture loom large here in their latest exhibition, featuring taxidermy, Ronald McDonald, Nazis and Daniel Craig as a gorilla. Worth a visit to also admire the Zaha Hadid-designed gallery space.

Humour, joy, passion and romance; tonight sees the return of a production with a difference…

Returning for a fourth year, Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre is a combination of spectacle – an intimate 320 seat outdoor auditorium – and theatre of the highest standard (described as “idyllic” by the Guardian), has fast made it a staple of the city’s cultural programme.

We asked Artistic Director Alex Clifton about its popularity, growing reputation and this year’s performances…

This open air event, he says, was conceived in response to the old Chester Gateway theatre having been demolished; it was “born of the hunger and desire of the city for professional theatre to be produced, in the city, [and] as far as possible by the city”.

Although a hole had been left in the city’s cultural programming and there was a hunger for it to be filled, the proposed Grosvenor Park venture still must have represented a degree of risk, we suggest. “We tried to see whether or not there really was that desire. We did a four week run of two shows in the park and it was a triumph. We had sell out houses and had a fantastic time making the work.”

It’s been a case of onwards and upwards for a company – “around since 2010” – still very much in its infancy. However, when Clifton mentions how “the stars, the environment” add an extra layer of spectacle and occasion to the proceedings, we can’t help but wonder, this being the north west of England, about the wisdom of open air anything – on the day we speak, it’s a deluge outside.

It’s a slightly mean question, of course, but Clifton is philosophical about it. “I guess, like any open air event, you don’t fight the conditions you embrace them; it’s part of the game, the fun.” Enthused, he continues, “It’s elemental theatre: Shakespeare wrote his plays to be performed outdoors and it really embraces that… The plays … are improved by confronting the elements. I’m really proud of the theatre and what we’ve achieved.”

While he has every right to be, perhaps some of that pride comes from the fact he also happens to be a native of Chester: “There are nights where I’m sitting down and see my old French teacher – I know them … they’re the same as me, brought up with the same cultural frames of reference – it’s really special for me, the best job I’ve ever had.”

And what of the plays themselves, what can we look forward to between now and August? “This year we’ve now got three productions: Cyrano [de Bergerac], Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” All tried and tested, we note, what about new writing or commissions? Our assumption about the theatre’s reliance on classics to pull in audiences a little premature; Clifton puts us right.

“Our fourth [production] is a young person’s company producing a piece … by a writer from the North West, Olivia Hicks, who won a commission to produce a play. It’s now a 9 week run, with the young company performing later on in the summer.” He continues, “There’s a real commitment within the company for new writing. We’re working with young writers, emerging directors, to produce new work for them.”

Does that kind of offer bring different audiences, we wonder. “I’m delighted that one of the things you see when you look back over the last four years is how audiences for the new writing have been as strong as our audience for the Shakespeare … it tells you a lot about the audiences we have… It’s all ages.”

But, he says, they are looking to attract younger audiences if possible. To that end, “this year anyone under the age of 12 gets a free ticket, as long as they’re with an adult. We’re working hard in order to get that audience in.”

Novices to Grosvenor Park, but appetites definitely whetted, we asked Clifton which performance he would recommend if he could only pick one. With little deliberation, he says “Cyrano – something that is told in as contemporary a way as possible. This is a 20^th century story using the 17^th century as a setting,” he continues.

“It’s a very accessible piece of theatre told in contemporary language, in a very contemporary voice by a writer whose ear for conversation is really vivid… It’s a beautiful story with all that glorious swash and buckle you get from Cyrano. Humour, joy, passion and romance.” 

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre opens tonight 7:30pm with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and continues until 25th August 2013

Follow @ChesterPerforms and #gpoat for Twitter updates and pictures

Registering its intent for City of Culture 2017 has led to a welcome upturn in Chester’s arts offer, says Kayleigh Davies…

Chester is a beautiful backdrop of historic buildings, has a stunning riverside bank of charming restaurants and a variety of places to shop, but you knew that. What isn’t an immediately obvious addition to that list is culture. Traditionally, this is a city missing art.

Fine when your economy is based around Roman heritage and shopping, but significantly more problematic when throwing your name into the ring for City of Culture 2017, an initiative that could embellish the city’s reputation, created in part due to the success of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year in 2008. Becoming City of Culture 2017 could be the music that gets Chester dancing.

To that end, new ventures are being explored and rolled out. It feels like we’re at ground zero for Chester’s new cultural offer, and it’s an exciting period for the city, with locals – previously looking to Liverpool and Manchester for their fix of the arts – suddenly finding they have options on their doorstep.

One click on Chester’s 2017 website suggests signs of an evolution in the pursuit to find Chester’s undiscovered talent: the information provides a one-off chance to explore the new ventures being delivered, with Chester Performs at the top of the list as a platform for the MBNA Chester Music Festival, Grosvenor Open Air Theatre (pictured above), Chester Literature Festival and 2013 Rogues’ Galleries, also intelligently favouring site specific events to utilise the hidden beauty spots across the city, as well as filling currently empty commercial spaces.

Echoing this move to shift perceptions around the city, Council Leader Mike Jones said: “Chester isn’t a museum. It is a contemporary, vibrant city,” although until discussions were prompted by the new theatre and library opening soon, there seemed very little support or tangible attempt to create a forum for creative minds within these famous city walls. Council Leader Jones also stated that the city is “… recognised as a jewel in the crown of the north west … the perfect backdrop for a celebration of cultural activity”, providing an array of opportunity for arts lovers and entrepreneurs to assemble and bond into a thriving scene.

Theatre for one has a track record, and if anything is likely to be increasingly successful, as the expensive renovation alongside Chester Performs will cultivate an audience of story lovers; although galleries provided to entertain appear commercial, with culture saved only by the efforts of Chester Grosvenor Museum in showcasing the heritage of the location, supported by exquisite classic paintings.

The city currently plays host to very little contemporary art, with public arts perhaps represented best by Fine Arts at Chester University. There is no Whitworth, Tate or Walker equivalent in Chester, however, the recent Rogues’ Galleries project nods in the direction of more DIY style arts, with empty buildings and shops transformed, if temporarily, into ready-made gallery spaces.

Progressing to gather a musical realm in undiscovered venues across the city, Telford’s Warehouse as well as The Compass are positioning themselves to become alternative locations to the more mainstream fix of  Chester Rocks. MBNA’s Music Festival is also an asset to the area, as more classic styles feature within their programme, increasing the overall offer, hopefully accessing a wider audience across the surrounding regions.

Lack of an expressive output has left the city in the wake of its inarguably cooler siblings, Liverpool and Manchester. That said, there is a place for each of these cities, and each provides their own diverse attractions. If Chester is to follow in the footsteps of current City of Culture, Derry-Londonderry – the title is said to have brought near £100 million to the area – with profits placed back into the city’s long term arts offer, the City and its local communities would benefit immensely.

With public services gaining custom as well as other proximate businesses, the award could, should, mean new audiences and a new lease of life for the existing magic that hides within the city walls.

The people are the heart of any city, with their ambitions and determination playing keys roles in every step towards progress. Chester is finally willing to bare its teeth in the cultural arena, ready to tussle for a prize that could see the city evolve into something other than a touristy shopping destination.

Chester is capable, and deserving, of being more than a heritage site for day trips with a scone by the river, as lovely as those things are. Whether this bid for 2017′s City of Culture is successful or not (certainly, it isn’t a foregone conclusion, but with odds of 4/1 is the current favourite), that the effort is there for all to see could be its making.

Kayleigh Davies

Visit Chester 2017