Bloomsbury Festival 2016
October Wednesday 19 to Sunday 23
Festival Website:
Festival PR contact: Binita Walia, 07734 507799
Key Dates and Times:
Festival Dates:Wednesday 19 October to Sunday 23 October, throughout the day, everyday.
Step Out Store Street: Friday 21 October 2016, 6.30pm to 9.30pm, Store Street, Bloomsbury, WC1E 7DH, Free outdoor street party with a twist, just turn up.
For hundreds of years, Bloomsbury has been catalyst for ideas that have had impact across the world. Bloomsbury Festival celebrates contemporary Bloomsbury; a hotbed of creativity and pioneering development which has one of the youngest and most diverse populations in the country.
For five days in October, Bloomsbury will be full to the brim with artistic, scientific and literary events for all ages and tastes, from morning until late in the evenings taking place in the streets, parks, museums, galleries, laboratories and public and (normally) private buildings of this vibrant cultural quarter. There will be over 150 events created with over 100 partners.
Inspired by the centenary ofSOASand with Bloomsbury residents reflecting one of highest levels of diversity in the UK, the theme selected for this year’s festival is Language. Language comes in many forms; speech, symbols, non-verbal communication, performance language, dance notation, morse code, sign language, computer code. Language will be explored throughout all the events; from a Rosemary Lee video installation to investigations of Legal and medical ‘languages’ that are used in many firms and laboratories and hospitals in Bloomsbury.
Our headline event will be Step Out Store Streeta night-time street party with a twist. The street will be transformed by an array of artists and dancers, showcasing and teaching different dance disciplines from around the world, from Bollywood to BBoy and Swing to Line dancing.Pa-BOOM’sfiery pyrotechnic art installations will make a welcome return and the event will also feature a premiere of a new street dance commission from acclaimed dancerTony Adigun’sAvant Garde Youth Dance Company. The street’s eclectic mix of boutiques, shops and restaurants will each house a different art, music and dance experience and an abundance of street food and bars will be available.
A few highlights by artform
●Art
The Last WhisperersOratorio for Vanished Voices, Collapsing Universes and a Falling Tree at the British Museum Weds 19 to Sun 23 October. An immersive installation of new work by artist Lena Herzog is dedicated to the extinction of languages, with composition and sound design by Marco Capalbo and Mark Mangini. In collaboration with the Endangered Languages Archive at SOAS University of London, Herzog’s team create an experiential soundscape which is an invocation of the languages that have gone extinct and an incantation of those that are endangered.
Calling Tree by Rosemary Lee and Simon Whitehead sees performers entice audiences and unwitting passers-by to stop, look up, contemplate and enjoy. Audiences are encouraged to bring a blanket, lie on the grass, and expect to see and hear a tree in a completely new way. At St George's Gardens Fri 21, Sat 22 and Sun 23 October.
Sofie Layton Exhibition. The work explores how children and their families interpret medical information and understand disease, and culminates in a series of exhibitions and installations made in partnership with clinicians, researchers, patients and their families at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH)
●Children and Families
Take a promenade around Bloomsbury with Oggbots, a sci-fi treasure hunt with gaming and electronic engineering and Hedgehog’s Home is a specially created children's opera by Istros Books, both events are at Goodenough College. Join a comedy workshop at the Comedy Museum or fiction workshop at the UCL Beyond Words Hub. On Saturday 22 October there are family events at Wellcome Trust, family days at October Gallery and The British Library and there is the Big Draw at the British Museum.
●Music
Bounce between an all day free folk festival at The Harrison pub and Michael Poll, classical guitarist at Goodenough College on Sunday 23 October. We have commissioned A Song for Coram's Fields, composer Michael Henry will work with local schools, professional and amateur singers to create a choir that will perform outdoors in Corams Fields on Wednesday 19 October. There is a A Prokofiev 125th Anniversary Concert at Pushkin House and we are delighted that Bianca Andrew, Julien van Mallaerts and Somi Kim will play a classical recital at St Pancras Church.
●Poetry and Cabaret
Apples and Snakes create an open mic night Jawdance, with feature acts in poetry and music showing established artists next to exciting newcomers at Bloomsbury Studio. Art Macabre & epoch Presents entice you to an alternative late night eventwith Dark Dahl inspired by Roald Dahl to marking 100 years since his birth.
●Film
Filmmaker Werner Herzog examines the past, present and future of the Internet and how it affects human interaction and modern society in Lo and Behold: Reveries Of The Connected World at Bertha DocHouse and various film screenings at Curzon Cinema.
●Walks and Talks
The Wiener Library will be hosting Lunchtime library tours 19 - 22 October and join Rene Weis for a talk on Shakespeare's London atGoodenough College.Law Firm Mishcon de Reya will be hosting a Panel discussion on Children's Rights at Conway Hall and you can learn to Communicate Better in your Relationships with School Of Life.
The festival centres around three main hub venuesGoodenoughcollege, UCL, andConway Hallwith activities also taking place at a further 20+ satellite venues including the Wellcome Trust, the British Museum, the British Library, Pushkin House, Charles Dickens Museum, Coram’s Fields, the Music Room, Bloomsbury Hotel, the Curzon Bloomsbury, and Store Street. There will be lunchtime events Wed 19 - Fri 21 for locals and workers to attend and breakfast events and talks in local cafes.
Baroness Valerie Amos, Director of SOAS says: ‘As we celebrate 100 years of SOAS teaching and research, we are delighted that the Bloomsbury Festival’s theme this year is dedicated to language. SOAS is a special place with its unique blend of languages, regional and discipline expertise. We are proud of our Bloomsbury location and, with the addition of Senate House North Block, the growth of our Bloomsbury Campus. As we look forward to the next 100 years, we will continue to play a central role in the cultural and creative life of the area.’
Kate Anderson, Bloomsbury Festival director says ‘Bloomsbury Festival is unique, as is the area of Bloomsbury in which leading institutions and world-class creative organisations rub shoulders with primary schools and lawyers. We make the Festival with over 100 Bloomsbury partners, providing opportunities for unusual collaborations and development opportunities for all. The result is a very distinctive festival indeed! And with over 150 events including all art forms, science, architecture, walks, technology, outdoor music, debating and hubs focusing on families, I think we can safely say there is something for everyone at Bloomsbury Festival.
Every year the Festival runs a competition for BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martin’s students to design the festival logo. This year's winning entry is by Wies van der Wal which the judges felt illustrated the theme of language, the coming together of ideas and joy of the Festival perfectly.
The final programme will be online from September and the brochure will be available around Bloomsbury from September.
Editor’s Notes:
Key creatives:
Bill Gee - Creative Producer for Step Out Store Street
Tony Adijun - Founder and Artistic Director of cutting edge hip-hop company Avant Garde Dance. His choreography and style is renowned around the world and he has received many commissions as well as working commercially with artists such as Janet Jackson, Usher, Ashanti and Cheryl Cole amongst many others. Tony delivers powerful work with young people and as a Work Place artist he is presenting his new work Fagin’s Twist for three weeks at The Place in September and October.
Key Locations:
Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N 2AB, Camden
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL
Store Street, WC1E 7DB, Camden
UCL Gower St, London WC1E 6BT
Mary Ward Centre, 42 Queen Square, WC1N 3AQ
St George's Garden
Lena Herzog, The Last Whisperers:Wednesday 19 to Sunday 23 Oct, British Museum, Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG, Free.
Sophie Layton More info.
About Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is an area of the London Borough of Camden, in central London, between Euston Road and Holborn, developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into a fashionable residential area. It is notable for its array of garden squares, literary connections (exemplified by the Bloomsbury Group), and numerous cultural, educational and health-care institutions.
About Bloomsbury Festival
Established in 2006, Bloomsbury Festival is a creative explosion of arts, science,
literature, culture and fun throughout the streets, parks, museums, galleries, laboratories and public and (normally) private buildings of this vibrant cultural quarter. For hundreds of years Bloomsbury has been a catalyst for ideas that have had impact across the world.
Bloomsbury Festival celebrates contemporary Bloomsbury; a hotbed of creativity and pioneering development which has one of the youngest and most diverse populations in the country. Created with its extraordinary community including more libraries, museums, and educational establishments than any other part of the city, the Festival acts as catalyst bringing together its diverse population, and as a spur to develop new projects and new ideas. Each year, the Festival attracts an audience of around 50,000 people.
Festival Director Kate Andersonis a senior arts leader and creative producer, Kate was previously joint CEO of the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton, where she led a four year programme of major outdoor events and international collaborative projects in the city centre, and she won a tender for the company to set up an arts programme in Southampton’s new arts complex which opens in 2016. Since leaving the Nuffield she has performed strategic consultancy for a variety of organisations, and set up a new company creating and performing shows in London and abroad.
Funders include: UCL, The Bedford Estates, University of London, SOAS, The Francis Crick Institute, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Camden Council.