Get your Euro kicks in your own back yard
By Kate Simon
When you fancy an exhibition, a play or some music, where do you turn? Possibly to a favourite gallery, theatre or concert hall or the what’s on listings in a magazine. But there is another way to delve deeper into Britain’s cultural calendar – and it often throws up some interesting ideas in less obvious places.
When Phil stopped listening to the cricket to bowl me a googly – something to do with Germany, to go with his article about new brewery Werkstatt Bier – I realised I was going to have to take an unorthodox route around Britain to find a story.
So I looked at what one of the major arts funding bodies, the Arts Council, is up to. I know it proposes some imaginative briefs from personal experience of working on its Cultural Destinations programme for Visit Cheshire, which prompted a campaign that explored the county’s natural assets and scientific heritage through arts events and attractions.
It’s always worth sticking your hand in this lucky dip, you never know what little prize you might pull out. And on this occasion, I plucked from the barrel the Cultural Bridge Pilot Programme, which aims to promote cross-border cooperation between the four UK nations and Germany. It’s funded by the Arts Council in partnership with other organisations including the Goethe Institute and Fonds Soziokultur.
In November, seven projects partnering British and German organisations were awarded some money. Now, most of them are either about sharing theory and practice behind closed doors and others will take time to bear fruit, but it threw up a couple of interesting events.
Enter (pictured) is an exhibition about belonging and place that will reveal two locations as seen through the lenses of four photographers from Britain and Germany. You’ll have to be quick, the exhibition starts tomorrow (Saturday 9 July) at the Asylum Art Gallery in Wolverhampton and runs for just a week to 16 July. That’s short and sweet but it also provides an introduction to the Asylum Artist Quarter, an interesting project in itself, which operates across different venues in the city centre and is all about art in the community and regenerating disused spaces.
The other project is Ensemble Upvention, based at Govanhill Baths in Glasgow. Part music part recycling, this is an exploration of sound using waste objects based in the abandoned swimming pool turned arts space (it surely must have superb acoustics). They’ve got form. The baths were previously home to the Trash Orchestra. If you’re in Glasgow this summer, catch a performance at the Govanhill International Festival and Carnival, 2-14 August.
Another useful source is the British Council, which is linking hands across Europe with the Ukrainian Institute for its timely UK/Ukraine Season. The latest phase in the project, which has actually been in the planning since 2019, is titled Future Re-Imagined. Among the highlights is some Ukrainian opera and chamber music, which will be performed at the 2022 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in November.
In the same month, staged readings of literary works by Ukrainian authors, titled Crimea, 5 a.m., will take place in London. To find out more about where and when, keep an eye on the website of Dash Arts, another rich seam to mine.
Dash Arts is dedicated to creating artistic experiences ‘that bridge the divide across art forms, cultures, languages and communities’. Its Eutopia project, for example, has been analysing what it means to be European since Brexit. One of the results is this autumn’s production of Virgil’s Aeneid.
The classic poem will explore the tale of migration in the setting of a cabaret bar on the edges of Europe, in ‘Dido’s Bar’ and will play in London, Manchester, Leicester, Portsmouth and Oxford from 23 September to 29 October. To nurture the creative spirit, you need to open the borders.
Phil’s beer notes
As its name suggests, Bierhaus in Brighton was founded on a love of German beers, but its 20 taps offer more, and as it’s owned by local brewery Brighton Bier you’ll find them well-represented, too. Lowlander in London’s Covent Garden has celebrating the beers and cuisine of Belgium for a very long time, and is always worth a visit if you’re in the capital.
The Strawberry Thief in Bristol is another Belgian specialist, but it also offers a wide selection from the city’s busy craft brewing scene. Salford’s New Oxford is essentially a great local cask ale pub with a terrific choice of European brews also on the taps.