Lantern slide of a fairground ride in Scarborough. Copyright: Scarborough Museums Trust
SCARBOROUGH Museums Trust is supporting the East Coast resort’s Great Get Together event for the second year running.
The trust is providing inspiration for a postcard competition on the theme of Scarborough Fair.
Organised by We Are Scarborough and Say Hello Coast, the event is inspired by the Jo Cox Foundation’s national Great Get Together: a celebration of the late Labour MP for Batley and Spen’s life and her vision of bringing people together.
Like many such events this year, Scarborough’s Great Get Together will take place online over the weekend of June 19 to 21.
It will feature three competitions: creating a postcard competition; song lyrics and a multi-genre competition for writers, poets, model-makers and performers.
The trust’s learning manager, Christine Rostron, says: “If children or adults want to take part in the Get Together at Scarborough Fair postcard competition, but need some ideas and inspiration, Scarborough Museums Trust is here to help.
Cotton Bud Carousel Horse by Vivien Steiner
“In collaboration with Scarborough artists Helen Ventress and Vivien Steiner, we’ve pulled together some pictures from our collection and specially commissioned artworks introducing simple art techniques.
“These include painting, printing, collage, sculpture and photography, with simple ideas suitable for both young children and adults who like to get creative.”
These ideas will be available on the We Are Scarborough Facebook page and website, as well as being posted on the trust’s Facebook page, https://engb.facebook.com/scarboroughmuseums/, and on Twitter, @smtrust.
All three competitions will have first and second prizes for entrants aged 11 and under, 12 to 18 and over 18. They are open to everyone and are family friendly, so the organisers ask all those posting entries to bear that in mind.
The closing date for entries is midnight on Monday, June 15, and the winners will be announced online during the Great Get Together weekend.
Scarborough has joined in with the national Great Get Together celebrations for the past three years. Rather than miss out this year, it was decided to go ahead in a way that would bring people together safely in celebration of the town, borough and key workers.
James Knight and Jane Allanach in Next Door But One’s 2017 production of Any Mother Would, to be streamed on YouTube from tonight
NEXT Door But One, the York community arts collective, will stream its 2017 production of Any Mother Would in its YouTube premiere from 7pm tonight.
Written and directed by director Matt Harper-Hardcastle, the hour-long play will then be available online until September, both on YouTube and via the collective’s website, nextdoorbutone.co.uk.
“We’re taking a slightly National Theatre at Home approach to it,” says Matt. “If it’s good enough for the National Theatre in lockdown, then it’s good enough for us.
“It’s completely free to watch, but what we’ve done is set up a Go Funding page, almost as a Pay What You Think, for the YouTube streaming, and whatever we make from donations will make us stronger for the future.”
Any Mother Would marked Next Door But One’s shift into public performance in 2017, “making theatre out of the untold, poignant stories that had been shared with us and that we believe create the foundations of our community, so felt they needed taking to a larger stage.”
Next Door But One director Matt Harper-Hardcastle in rehearsal
This sold-out first venture into the public field featured as part of York Disability Pride 2017 and the Great Yorkshire Fringe 2018 festival.
Public performance is on hold in these Coronavirus-clouded times but, supported by public funding from Arts Council England, Next Door But One is able to continue workshops and performances through its Covid-19 response project, Distant Neighbours.
“We want to ensure that we can sustain our relationships with participants and audiences beyond this current pandemic and also support our freelance artists through this difficult time,” says Matt.
“This means our artistic programme that connects with neuro-diverse children, adults with mental health problems, community groups of people with learning disabilities, and services supporting those who are experiencing grief, will continue.”
When confronted by the Coronavirus lockdown, “initially we looked at all the work we had planned between now and September,” says Matt. “Mainly we considered all the people we were already working with and how we could stay connected, having built up many relationships with community groups and organisations, such as Snappy, Camphill Village Trust and St Leonard’s Hospice.
James Knight and Jane Allanach in a scene from Next Door But One’s Any Mother Would
“With the heightened scenarios brought about in lockdown, we wanted to ensure we could keep it going, and have life after this time, and we felt it was important that people had opportunities for education, for involvement, for expression, for so much more than just entertainment, like learning about navigating through life at Camphill Village.
“We have already begun an online R&D [research and development] of our adaptation of The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, hosted our first Playback Theatre workshop over Zoom, and soon we’ll be able to offer a rehearsed reading of our latest play, written for May’s cancelled York’s Dead Good Festival.”
Next Door But One applied for an Arts Council emergency fund in in late-April, all tied up in a fortnight, and already Matt had contacted eight freelance theatre-makers to be involved in projects now to be conducted online and on Zoom.
“We know how hard hit the freelance cohort has been in lockdown, me included, so we’ve now been able to honour our contracts in a slightly different way,” he says.
“We’ve also been able to ring-fence the original money granted for the scratch performances and we can give work to our artists once more when we can do that.
Actor Anna Rogers and Matt Harper-Hardcastle in discussion in the rehearsal room
“Between now and September, we can keep people working, and after we received just under £6,000, we can do so much more than we first thought we would.”
Next Door But One also applied for Comic Relief funding towards next year’s work, receiving just under £5,000. “We put that application in at the same time, and this allows us to run another year’s work with Converge [at the University of York St John], doing our Discover Playback course.”
Discover Playback brings together performers and those with experiences of mental ill health, with the focus on learning, creativity and being artists together.
“We’re now going to be able to continue our work with Converge, in this mental health field, when otherwise those people would have had to face five months’ withdrawal from our services and their well-being might well have been affected so much that we might have had to start all over again from scratch,” says Matt.
“Instead, we’re working on our Discover Playback workshops through the summer and through the next academic year too.
“We can support those people we have worked with for three years when this work feels more important than ever,” says Matt Harper-Hardcastle
“The funding means that not only can we support our artists through this awful time, but also those people we have worked with for three years when this work feels more important than ever.”
As mentioned by Matt earlier, research and development work is continuing on The Firework-Maker’s Daughter on Zoom. “That brings its own wonderments and challenges when we can’t work in our usual ways with Snappy and York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre, but now we can record a Zoom version and podcast version and send them out to continue our work,” he says.
“The original plan was that we would be taking our scratch version to York Theatre Royal’s De Grey Rooms ballroom at the end of June, and to Snappy too, but that can’t happen.
“So now we’re doing the R&D workshops in a reduced form on Zoom, working with people with sensory needs and autism, and we’re having to look at different ways for these young people to interact with the screen.
“That’s why we’re making the video (Zoom) version, podcast version, and we’re looking at using Makaton, a version of sign language that uses key symbols, so it’s more of a visual aid.”
Next Door But One and Converge took part in Mental Health Awareness Week with the #DiscoverPlayback course @ConvergeYork
Matt continues: “We’re ploughing ahead with this, and a video and audio recording should be ready by July to send out to Snappy and to any parents who think it might be useful for their child.
“Our live performances combine a hybrid of participatory elements that we can now include in the recorded version, with worksheets, activity packs, drawing materials, the chance to do music within it, but now doing everything individually at home.”
Coming next from Next Door But One will be a rehearsed reading of a shortened version of Operation Hummingbird, a play Matt has written in the wake of publishing The Day The Alien Came, his book on his bereavement experience after losing his mother to cancer.
“I did a few book readings and author talks and lots of people said, ‘You should make this into a play’, but writing the book was a big feat in itself, so I’d never considered doing a play,” he says.
“But then I thought about making a piece for the Dead Good Festival, so I’ve taken a fictionalised story, looking at how grief and the feelings of grief change, starting with feelings of loss as a child and how that then changes, and how our memories of things change over time; what we hold on to; how what we think of as painful changes; how it becomes a discussion between our self now and our younger self.
“We haven’t fixed a date for the rehearsed reading yet, but hopefully it will be in July.”
Blue sky, thinking of returning: Castle Howard’s grounds and gardens are reopening from June 1
THE Castle Howard gardens and grounds, near York, will reopen from next week with new health and safety measures in place in these continuing Covid-19 times.
Castle Howard members will be able to visit from Wednesday, June 3, and then all visitors, from Monday, June 8.
All visitors will be required to pre-book tickets online via the Castle Howard website, for capacity management purposes, and will then self-scan at the ticket office to enable contactless entry to the gardens.
New safety measures have been put in place to reflect the Government’s social-distancing guidelines and full information can be found on the Castle Howard website.
In the first weeks of opening, the focus will be on allowing visitors back into the gardens with limited facilities. Reopening of outlets will be reintroduced over the coming weeks when the necessary systems and risk assessments are in place and team members are trained up to operate each outlet safely.
Access to the gardens will exclude the playground at this stage, but will include takeaway catering outlets, and the farm shop and garden centre remain open daily.
Abbigail Ollive, head of marketing and sales, says: “The team at Castle Howard have been working hard behind the scenes to put our reopening plans into action and we are delighted that we’ll be welcoming back members and visitors over the next couple of weeks.
“The safety of our employees and our visitors is paramount, so we’d advise anyone planning to visit to read the guidelines on our website and pre-book a ticket online. The world might have changed significantly, but the stunning Yorkshire landscape and open spaces that we can offer at Caste Howard have not changed and we know how pleased visitors will be to have access once again to the gardens.”
Castle Howard reopening dates and times:
For the first five days of re-opening, from June 3 to 7, Castle Howard will open the gardens only for Friends/Members between 10am and 5pm.
From June 8, daily opening hours for all visitors will be 10am to 5pm; the gardens will close at 6pm.
From June 15, Castle Howard will offer Members-only entry hours from 9am to 10am and from 5pm to 6pm. The gardens will close at 7pm.
Booking for the general public will go live on Tuesday, June 2. To book, visit castlehoward.co.uk.
York River Art Market: Not taking place this summer amid concerns over social distancing
FIRST, no 2020 York Open Studios in April. Now comes a second blow for York’s artists in Coronavirus lockdown as this summer’s York River Art Market season is called off.
“Unfortunately, YRAM 2020 has had to be cancelled,” the official statement reads. “Officials have advised that the space besides the river is unsuitable for social distancing.
“Please check our Facebook page and support our artists. See you all in 2021 for the best year yet. Stay safe and stay well.”
The fifth year of riverside art markets on Dame Judi Dench Walk would have run on July 4, 11, 18 and 25 and August 1, 8, 15 and 22.
Javier Torres as Dracula and Antoinette Brooks-Daw as Lucy in Northern Ballet’s 2019 production of David Nixon’s Dracula. Picture: Emma Kauldhar
NORTHERN Ballet’s Dracula will be shown on BBC Four on Sunday night in the television debut of artistic director David Nixon’s celebrated 2019 production.
After the 10pm screening, this adaptation of Bram Stoker’s gothic story will be available on BBC iPlayer throughout June as part of the Leeds company’s Pay As You Feel Digital in its 50th anniversary year.
When theatres had to close suddenly under Covid-19 restrictions, Northern Ballet was obliged to cancel the spring tour of the 2020 premiere of Kenneth Tindall’s Geisha after only one performance at Leeds Grand Theatre on March 14.
In response, the company pledged to “keep bringing world-class ballet to our audiences” through a Pay As You Feel Digital Season.
One performance and goodnight: Ayama Miyata as Aiko and Minju Kang as Okichi in Northern Ballet’s Geisha in March. Picture: Guy Farrow
To date, the season has been watched by more than 200,000 people, attracting donations of £20,000.
Northern Ballet’s latest statement reads: “The company is set to face a loss of over £1 million in box-office income due to Covid-19, which may impact its ability to continue to pay its workforce, many of whom are freelancers, as well as its ability to present new ballets.
“While theatres remain dark, the company aims to continue making its performances available online and on TV, encouraging audiences to donate when they watch, if they are able.”
Dracula was recorded at Leeds Playhouse on Hallowe’en 2019 and streamed live to more than 10,000 viewers in cinemas across Europe. Choreographed by Nixon, it stars Northern Ballet premier dancer Javier Torres in the title role.
Jonadette Carpio in EGO, one of Northern Ballet’s Pay As You Feel Digital Season shows. Picture: Emily Nuttall
Northern Ballet’s Pay As You Feel Digital Season also includes Amaury Lebrun’s For An Instant; Kenneth Tindall’s original dance film EGO; Mariana Rodrigues’s Little Red Riding Hood; highlights from Northern Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala and extended scenes from Northern Ballet repertoire, including Tindall’s Geisha.
Premièred in 2019, Lebrun’s For An Instant was part of Northern Ballet’s Three Short Ballets programme and had only seven performances in Leeds and Doncaster. The full ballet, created, by the French contemporary dance maker with Northern Ballet’s versatile performers, can be viewed online until June 7.
Highlights from Northern Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala,performed at Leeds Grand Theatre in January, include scenes from Tindall’s Casanova, with music by Kerry Muzzey,and Nixon’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
More will be released from this one-night-only spectacular, when Northern Ballet was joined by dancers from The Royal Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Leeds company Phoenix Dance Theatre and Scottish Ballet.
“A good song makes you feel like you’re not alone in the world, ” says Martyn Joseph
PENARTH folk singer, songwriter and guitarist Martyn Joseph will play Pocklington Arts Centre on January 16 2021.
Often called “the Welsh Springsteen”, he has released 32 albums in a career spanning 30 years, half a million record sales and thousands of live performances.
In April 2019, Joseph won a Wales Folk Award for Here Come The Young, the title track of that year’s album. “He’s never sounded more potent than he does here,” said Uncut on its release.
In 2018, he was honoured with a Spirit of Folk Award by Folk Alliance International in Kansas, USA, and he received Fatea magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Britain.
In his song-writing of passion and humour, Joseph, 59, engages with challenging narratives that tackle the complexity of the human condition, underpinned with a promise of hope.
“Really what I do is to try and write songs that might step up and make some sense of a moment in time,” says the Welsh raconteur of his tales of topical concerns and stories of the fragility of love. “A good song makes you feel like you’re not alone in the world.”
Tickets are on sale at £18 at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
South African cellist and composer Abel Selaocoe: Responding to beneficial effects of walking. Picture: Mlungisi Mlungwana
OPERA North is creating Walking Home: Sound Journeys For Lockdown in response to the easing of Covid-19 regulations on exercise and time spent outdoors.
For this commission for BBC Arts and Arts Council England’s Culture in Quarantine programme, the Leeds company has asked five artists to write and record new works specifically to be heard while walking.
Crossing folk, jazz, Middle Eastern and African traditions, classical and contemporary music, with a propensity for experimentation and breaking the confines of genre, the contributors are South African cellist and composer Abel Selaocoe; Syrian-born qanun virtuoso Maya Youssef; Syrian-born Iraqi oud player and composer Khyam Allami; Anglo-Polish vocalist, violinist and songwriter Alice Zawadski and English accordionist and electronic experimentalist Martin Green, from the cutting-edge folk trio Lau.
Martin Green: Has a dawn or early morning walk in mind for his piece. Picture: Genevieve Stevenson
Building on Opera North’s history of innovative sound walks and installations, the five musicians are writing and recording their pieces in home studios across Britain and Europe. Once complete, Walking Home will be available through broadcast slots across BBC radio and television, through podcasts on BBC Sounds, and via the BBC Arts website, continuing the Culture in Quarantine mission to bring the arts to homes despite arts venue closures, social distancing and UK-wide lockdowns.
One of 25 new commissions for Culture in Quarantine,Walking Home is billed as a “vibrant cross-section of music-making in Britain today, made by musicians under lockdown for audiences in the same predicament”.
The series seeks to engage with the lockdown context for walking and solitary activity, each 15-minute piece “offering an opportunity to renew our imaginative connections with our environment”.
Maya Youssef: Intense and thoughtful music on the qanun
Jo Nockels, Opera North’s head of projects, says: “The spark for the Walking Home commissions came from the strange alchemy we found between walker, place and music that was powerfully evident in the past sound journey commissions we have made for the Humber Bridge and River Tyne.
“While these five new walking commissions are on a much more intimate scale, and meant for wherever you are, all five respond to the dynamic of walking, listening through headphones and taking in your surroundings to produce an experience as much created by the listener as by the artists.
“They might offer a soundtrack to a daily escape from lockdown; intensify the sensations experienced on their chosen route; or conjure up something altogether harder to define.”
Iraqi oud player and composer Khyam Allami: Taking cinematic approach to disconcerting atmosphere of urban areas under lockdown
Nockels adds: “We are delighted to be working with five such brilliant and varied composer/musicians on this project, each of whom innovates way beyond the boundaries of genre. Together they will form a collection of music that is refreshing, unexpected and individual.”
Best known as one third of the visionary folk trio Lau, Martin Green’s reputation as a composer in his own right was cemented by an Ivor Award for his Opera North commission for the Great Exhibition of the North in 2018.
Evolving over the course of a half-hour walk along the banks of the River Tyne, Aeons was an epic sound work that featured the Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North and Becky Unthank of The Unthanks. His contribution to the Walking Home series has a dawn or early morning walk in mind.
Alice Zawadski: Classical violin, gospel, jazz and folk. Picture: Monika S Jakubowska
Syrian-born Iraqi oud player Khyam Allami’s haunting installation Requiem For The 21st Century was an Opera North commission for the 2019 PRS New Music Biennale, combining microtonal tuning, ancient Arabic musical modes and generative software to produce ever-changing melodic sequences from speakers fitted within an array of decaying ouds.
Allami will be writing and recording his sound walk from his base in Berlin, taking a cinematic approach to the disconcerting atmosphere of urban areas under lockdown.
Now based in Manchester, cellist and composer Abel Selaocoe moves seamlessly from collaborations with world musicians and beatboxers to concerto performances and solo classical recitals.
He spent an Opera North Resonance residency working on a new body of solo music for the cello influenced by traditional African instruments. His sound journey will acknowledge the beneficial effects that he has felt from walking over the past weeks.
Walking Home: Five artists are writing and recording new works specifically to be heard while walking
Born and raised in Damascus, Maya Youssef plays the qanun, the Arabic form of the zither with a history dating back to the 19th century BC. She has made her home in the UK after recognition from the Government’s Exceptional Talent programme for her intense and thoughtful music, rooted in the Arabic classical tradition but taking inspiration from Western classical music and jazz.
Drawing on classical violin, gospel, jazz and folk, Alice Zawadzki’s output as soloist and collaborator is prodigious and eclectic. Her second solo album, last year’s Within You Is A World Of Spring, showcased her mastery of a range of styles in an inspired collection of songs.
Opera North is “still in discussion with the BBC about a release date, but hopefully it will be within the next month or so”.
Zoom in the room: A rehearsal for The Flood for the York Radio Mystery Plays by the remote wonders of 2020 lockdown technology, with director Juliet Forster, top row, second from right, and Rosy Rowley (Mrs Noah), middle row, second from left
YORK Theatre Royal and BBC Radio York are collaborating to bring the York Mystery Plays to life on the airwaves next month.
Four instalments will be presented as audio versions on the Sunday Breakfast Show with Jonathan Cowap on successive weekends from June 7, the Sunday before Corpus Christi Day on June 11: the day since mediaeval times when the plays were performed on wagons on the city streets from dawn until dusk.
Working remotely from home, a cast of 19 community and professional actors has recorded the 15-minute instalments, Adam And Eve, The Flood Part 1, The Flood Part 2 and Moses And Pharaoh, under the direction of Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster.
“The York Mystery Plays are part of the DNA of this city,” she says. “The longevity of these potent plays clearly demonstrates how vital the collective act of storytelling is, and how much we need to explore and reflect together on our experiences and understanding of the world.
“We’re determined to keep doing this in spite of the lockdown. So, these plays seem exactly the right choice to pick up, find a new way to create, communicate afresh and encourage one another.”
Juliet, incidentally, previously co-directed Anthony Minghella’s Two Planks And A Passion at the Theatre Royal in July 2011, a play set around a performance of the York Mystery Plays on Corpus Christi Day in midsummer 1392.
This time, she and husband Kelvin Goodspeed have adapted Mystery Play texts for the radio series, drawing on material dating back to the 1300s first resurrected after a long, long hiatus for the Festival of Britain in 1951.
Juliet Forster: York Theatre Royal artistic director and director of the 2020 York Radio Mystery Plays
The York Radio Mystery Plays now form part of York Theatre Royal’s Collective Acts, a programme of “creative community engagement” set up in response to the St Leonard’s Place building being closed under the Covid-19 strictures.
“When we went into lockdown, Tom [Bird, the Theatre Royal’s executive director] kept saying we ought to try to do something with the Mystery Plays, and I suggested that we should do radio plays,” recalls Juliet.
“But I’d never done a radio broadcast, so I contacted Radio York and said ‘let’s do this together’.”
Under the partnership that ensued, the Theatre Royal has chosen the texts, sourced the scripts, recruited the actors and provided the music, while BBC Radio York sound engineer Martin Grant has mixed the recordings, splicing them together into finished crafted instalments.
Ed Beesley has provided composition, sound design and foley artist effects. Madeleine Hudson, musical director of the York Theatre Royal Choir, has given the choir and cast songs to perform.
In choosing the plays, Juliet says: “The ones that make for the most fun are the ones around Noah’s flood, but they are also about a family in isolation for 40 days, maybe falling out with each other, so there are parallels with what’s happening now.
“Then there’s the positive ending, which would be good, and that sense of starting again, so it was the perfect choice.”
Voice of an Angel: Christie Barnes recording her role remotely from home for Adam And Eve, the opening instalment of the York Radio Mystery Plays
The Flood, Parts 1 and 2 were picked initially for a spring pilot show, but then the BBC decided to build a series around the Corpus Christi Day tradition in June, and so two more plays were added: Adam And Eve and Moses And Pharaoh.
“I’d already started working on Adam And Eve and thought about doing a Nativity play, but in our conversations with Radio York, they then talked about wanting to keep the series going, with the possibility of four Nativity plays at Christmas and four for Easter based around the Crucifixion,” says Juliet.
“So I thought, ‘I’ll stick with Old Testament stories’, and I’d done the Moses and Pharaoh story for The Missing Mysteries with the York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre in 2012.
“It’s a play about a desire for freedom to get out, which again relates to now: that need to breathe, to get to the other side, but there’s also that moment where they dare not go out, where they stay behind closed doors, so that really is like now. That feeling of living in fear.”
As for Adam And Eve, again the Genesis story is a resonant one. “They were living in this paradise but then lost it, facing hardship and their own mortality, which we’re all facing now,” says Juliet.
“That sense of not knowing paradise is what you have until it’s gone; also that role of being guardians but always wanting that little bit more, when instead we need to be more environmentally friendly.”
In keeping with Covid-19 social-distancing rules, the production required the actors to record their lines on a smart phone from home, having done collective rehearsals for each play over the Zoom conference call app.
Rory Mulvihill experiments with recording the role of Satan in the shower of his Naburn home, by torchlight, with the script stuck to the wall
Among the cast are Rory Mulvihill and Rosy Rowley, Rory reprising his role as Satan from the York Millennium Mystery Plays in York Minster in 2000, this time in Adam And Eve; Rosy returning to Mrs Noah in The Flood, a role she first played in the 2012 York Mystery Plays in the Museum Gardens.
Rory experimented with recording in his shower as his sound booth in his Naburn home. “I Blu-Tacked my script on the wall and had to use torchlight because I couldn’t have the extractor fan on, but when Juliet heard the recordings, she said it was a tinny noise, so she rejected them!
“I had to do them at my desk in the end, with Julia saying it didn’t matter if there was birdsong!”
“Choosing the right time and location for the recordings was a challenge,” says Rosy. “Living in a busy street and having teenagers in my house, I ended up rehearsing in the garden shed and having to record at two in the morning in my bedroom in the attic.
“It was lonely having to record on your own with no voice to respond to, so you had to imagine how someone would have said a line.”
Hear the results from June 7. Note that in addition to the broadcasts on Jonathan Cowap’s Sunday show, the radio plays can be heard on BBC Sounds at bbc.co.uk/sounds.
The directory for the Covid-cancelled 2020 York Open Studios
YORK printmaker Jane Duke and ceramicist Beccy Ridsdel are organising a £10,000 fundraising campaign to boost the “big challenge” of bringing back York Open Studios in 2021.
“Are you a fan of York Open Studios?” they ask. “Cancelling this year had a huge effect on our finances, so we’ve started a GoFundMe to help us make next year brilliant! If you could donate, even a small amount, it would make a huge difference to us and all of our artists.”
Doors shut by the Covid-19 lockdown, York Open Studios 2020 was to have featured 144 artists and craft makers at 100 studios and workshops on two April weekends.
Jane and Beccy say: “In 2020, the timing of the Coronavirus lockdown meant the event was cancelled at less than a month’s notice, by which time the entire year’s budget had already been invested in marketing and publicity.
York printmaker Jane Duke, co-organiser of the Go Fund Me campaign for the 2021 York Open Studios
“With virtually no income from sales commission, and having refunded or credited artists and advertisers, the volunteer committee now face a huge challenge in bringing York Open Studios back in 2021. We need your help.”
The organisers continue: “If you are a regular visitor, we would like you to consider donating the money you would perhaps have spent on petrol or fares coming to see us this year.
“If you have never been but would still like to support the art community, we would very much welcome your donation.”
York Open Studios is run by volunteers and is entirely self-funded, paying for itself by commission on sales, entry fees from artists and the sale of advertising space in the printed directory.
York ceramicist Beccy Ridsdel, co-organiser of the Go Fund Me campaign for the 2021 York Open Studios
In 2019, nearly 49,000 individual visits were recorded at the annual event, a highlight of the York art calendar that is completely free to attend.
“We will be here in 2021 celebrating our 20th anniversary,” say Jane and Beccy. “Many of our artists already have pledged to return, but your support now will help us ensure the festival is as bright, full and visible as ever.
“Your money will be used to promote and publicise the event and to produce printed maps, guides and signage, so visitors can plan their weekends and find our artists. We are already preparing York Open Studios 2021 and by donating now you can help us to move forward with confidence. Thank you!”
Wanja Kimani’s lockdown film Butterfly: Inspired by the daily family walk
WANJA Kimani’s Butterfly, a new film inspired by the everyday pleasures of a daily family walk, will be released on June 2 as the latest digital commission in lockdown from Scarborough Art Gallery.
Butterfly is filmed from the perspective of two children adjusting to life during the Coronavirus lockdown and collects encounters from their walks, when they appreciate nature and music in particular.
Suitable for all ages, Kimani’s six-minute film can be seen on Scarborough Museums Trust’s YouTube channel, https://bit.ly/SMTbutterfly, from next Tuesday morning.
One of Butterfly’s highlights will be a performance of Over The Rainbow, from The Wizard Of Oz, played on violin, piano and accordion by two music teachers from their doorstep.
A still from Wanja KImani’s film Butterfly, released on June 2
Kimani, who lives in Cambridgeshire, says: “We heard beautiful music coming from the house one day and put a note on the door to ask if we could film the following day.
“It’s not something we would usually have heard: all of these things are coming together because we’re all forced to be at home.”
Kimani asks both herself and the viewer: “What can we learn from listening even closer to our natural world, which seems to be revelling in our absence? How can the small but magnified details of our journey change how we engage when all of this is over?
“In this digital commission, I am exploring objects from the natural world through the eyes of children, who instinctively collect and curate everyday objects simply by noticing them.
“What can we learn from listening even closer to our natural world, which seems to be revelling in our absence?” ponders Wanja Kimani in Butterfly
“The title, Butterfly, sums up spring for me: a sign of new life, light and a reminder that things are working even when we don’t see them. It’s something that my youngest has just learned how to draw and is so proud of it.”
Scarborough Museums Trust wants Butterflyto be accessible to everyone. Consequently, the film includes audio description and captioning, for those who might find this helpful. A transcript is available to download too.
Kimani says: “Thinking about how this work will be accessed has made me pause and reflect on how the tools I use can be used to enrich the experience of diverse viewers. It made me consider how my work may be viewed and what different audiences may need to engage with the work.
“By embedding access in the process, the work has allowed me to experiment with how different senses engage with work, with the second part of the work attempting to level out the point of entry.”
“Butterfly is something that my youngest has just learned how to draw and is so proud of it,” says filmmaker Wanja KImani
Through film, textiles and installation, Kimani’s repertoire of work “explores memory, trauma and the fluidity within social structures that are designed to care and protect but have the potential to mutate into coercive forces within society”.
She imposes elements of her own life into public spaces, creating a personal narrative where she is both author and character. In 2018, her performance piece Expectations was included in the Laboratoire Agit’Art presentation during the Dak’Art Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal.
In 2019, she presented her work at Art Dubai and as part of a group show, Yesterday Is Today’s Memory, at Espace Commines, in Paris, France.
The digital commission series forms part of Scarborough Museums Trust’s response to the Corona crisis, asking Kimani, Kirsty Harris, Jane Poulton, Feral Practice, Jade Montserrat, Lucy Carruthers and Estabrak to create digital artworks for release online across assorted social-media platforms over the next few months.
