📺 Old tellies, iconic comedians and a motorway bridge
This week's arts and culture news from Liverpool, Manchester and the rest of the North West
Good morning! This is the weekly arts and culture news edition of Stored Honey to complement the long read that comes out on Fridays. Do get in touch if you’d like to see your event featured in a future edition.
⛰️ A free exhibition exploring the hidden histories of the 1924 Mount Everest expedition in its centenary year is opening at Wray Castle, Cumbria, on June 8. It will feature stunning photographs presented in large-format vivid lightboxes and displays of artefacts, including the now famous recreation of George Mallory’s climbing outfit found when his body was finally discovered in 1999.
🏠 New work by northern collective Brass Art will be on display in a solo exhibition at HOME in Manchester from June 1, bringing together sculpture, lens-based media and immersive video. Light will digitally rake through the house, garden and writing room of Virginia Woolf, transform suspended silver landscapes, and illuminate cellophane-disguised silhouette portraits of the artists.
🎨 Two Impressionist masterpieces have been acquired by the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. The Epte in Giverny (1884) by Claude Monet and Modiste Decorating a Hat (1891-1895) by Edgar Degas are now on display in Room 10.
🤣 Andy Hollingworth’s evocative and powerful photographs of some of Britain’s most iconic comedians are going on display in an exhibition at Showtown in Blackpool from July 13. Hollingworth has worked with comedy legends including Rowan Atkinson, Steve Martin, Rik Mayall and Victoria Wood, and is the go-to photographer for many contemporary favourites including Rosie Jones, Kevin Bridges, Johnny Vegas, Sindhu Vee and Romesh Ranganathan.
🎸 Warrington Music Festival returns on May 24 with two stages in the town centre. As well as the Golden Square’s Old Market Place stage shining a spotlight on new and emerging indie rock talent from across the region, a new stage at Time Square will play host to a more diverse range of artists and music genres. It’s free and starts at 12pm.
🛣️ Manchester Art Gallery has acquired one of Jen Orpin’s brilliant motorway bridge paintings for its permanent collection via the Manchester Contemporary Art Fund. It shows a bridge on the M60 Southbound towards Stockport, graffitied with the words “No war but class war”. It’s on display in Gallery 16.
🎻 Simple Music Ensemble is performing music from the Studio Ghibli animation Spirited Away at the Carole Nash Hall in Manchester on May 25 and at St George’s Hall in Liverpool on July 20.
🧺 Open Air Theatre, outdoor reading workshops, summer garden parties, a ukulele festival and family events are just some of the things planned for The Reader’s summer season in Calderstones Park.
📺 Obsolete technology that once held the promise of the future gets a new life in photographer Darren Holden’s exhibition CTRL- ALT-DEL at The Modernist in Manchester until June 29.
🏛️ A selling exhibition of sculpture by Wirral-based artist Emma Rodgers and St Helens-born sculptor Johnny Vegas is at The Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, until June 15. Vegas originally trained in art and ceramics at the University of Middlesex and found solace in creativity during the covid pandemic. An installation of their work is also at the Walker Art Gallery.
Read all about it
📰 Joss Cole shares an interesting and funny account of setting up and running Cole’s Gallery in Leeds’ Corn Exchange, in The Blue Landscape, a new Substack edited by Liverpool-based artist Josie Jenkins.
📰 Niki Colclough writes about artist-led space SHOP at the centre of Preston’s burgeoning DIY art scene for Corridor 8.
📰 In this chat with The Guide, Yosser Hughes actor Bernard Hill recounts how surprised he was to find himself watching the stage version of Boys from the Black Stuff while filming The Responder series 2 in Liverpool.
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Thanks for reading this edition of Stored Honey. If you’re an arts organisation or individual who would like to be featured in a future edition, get in touch on X/Twitter, in the comments or by dropping me a line at tostoredhoney@gmail.com.
See you on Friday,
Laura