Fresh talent at free arts festival
08/24/2011 00:00:00
Painters, actors, dancers and multi-media artists from Lancaster University are opening the doors to the public to showcase their work from 12 to 16 September.
The festival – called Process at Play – shows the work of emerging artists graduating from this year’s vocational MA in Professional Contemporary Arts Practice.
Taking place in the University’s public theatre, gallery and new £10m contemporary arts building, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA), the festival gives audiences the opportunity to see the usually hidden processes behind the creation of these new pieces of work.
On the launch night – Monday, 12 September - dancer Lowri Jones and theatre company Sticky Tape Theatre will be performing their work, and Joanna Wood and Marcus Lilley will be exhibiting in the gallery throughout the week.
The festival features:
• Dancer and performer Lowri Jones.
Lowri creates contemporary dance and visual art that explores the relationship between the body and the landscape. Her solo dance performance ‘Codes of Romance’ will be performed on the evening of Monday, 12 September.
• Theatre company Sticky Tape Theatre. Leo Patel, Tom Kirk, Jon Coleman deal with themes of loneliness and isolation. Using striking imagery and animations they will tell the story of a man left alone in an inhospitable wasteland. Their performance ‘My Canary’s name is Danie’ will be premiering at the Nuffield Theatre on Monday, 12 September.
• Artist and painter Joanna Wood.
Joanna creates abstract paintings that explore the possibilities and qualities of painting through experimentation via, technique, color, form and fluidity. Her exhibition will be in the Peter Scott Gallery from Monday the 12 to Friday 16 September.
• Multimedia performance artist Marcus Lilley.
Marcus creates interactive and immersive theatre performances using social media photography and videos. His performance ‘The Darkened City’ encourages the audience to directly engage and interact with the work as it transpires, beginning on Monday, 12 September, and ending with a site specific installation in Lancaster city centre.
Student Leo Patel of Sticky Tape Theatre said: “After working on this festival for almost a year, we’re all really excited to finally share our work with an audience. The festival will give audiences the opportunity to experience an evening of debut performances in the Nuffield Theatre, and the opening of two new exhibitions in the Peter Scott Gallery, which will remain open over the course of the week.”
Director of Live at LICA Matt Fenton said: “The MA in Professional Contemporary Arts Practice has been remarkably successful in preparing young artists from all disciplines for careers in the creative industries. Many previous graduates are now working as artists or arts professionals across the UK, and this year’s graduates look set to be no exception.”
Tutored by the director of the highly successful Live at LICA (which includes the Nuffield Theatre and Peter Scott Gallery) Matt Fenton, and Drew Hemment, Director of the pioneering Manchester digital arts festival FutureEverything, previous students on the MA have gone on to achieve great things in the arts.
The course benefits from the excellent professional arts provision at LICA as well as the new facilities in the LICA building’s 1200 sq ft of flexible performance space, dedicated acoustic music rooms, well-equipped recording studios and video editing facilities.
For further information about the events please go to www.processatplay.com