Celebrate Spring with Attenborough Arts Centre’s new programme
TV star Rosie Jones, acclaimed Iranian artist Mohammad Barrangi and top cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson lead Attenborough Arts Centre’s spring 2023 programme, which is fully announced today.
During the packed season of events, comedian Rosie Jones will stop off at Attenborough Arts Centre as part of her first-ever full UK stand-up tour on 4 March 2023.
Mohammad Barrangi’s latest solo exhibition commissioned by Attenborough Arts Centre is a celebration of the aesthetic heritage of Iran and the artist’s childhood memories of playgrounds, fairs and folklore.
Made in situ over three weeks at Attenborough Arts Centre as the current political protests in Iran took hold, the exhibition also became a site of reflection for Barrangi, who launched an Instagram callout to source images of women from all cultures from around the world in solidarity with the women of his home country.
The exhibition runs until 5 March 2023 and Attenborough Arts Centre’s ever-popular Gallery Late night will return on 3 March featuring a range of immersive and hands-on art experiences.
From 20 January – 1 February 2023, Attenborough Arts Centre’s Next Gen. Creatives., a group of young people ages 16-25 who help shape the venue’s programme, will present an exhibition in response to Mohammad Barrangi’s exhibition.
Entitled Stories of the Mind, their exhibition draws inspiration from Mohammad Barrangi’s work and use of mythology as a tool to express complex feelings, ideas, opinions and memories.
This exhibition will also feature work from children and young people from the Inclusive Youth Arts Programme, Leicester College students and local primary school children.
Attenborough Arts Centre’s live performance programme this season features Ayanna Witter-Johnson, in demand nationally and internationally as a solo artist and composer, who will celebrate her Jamaican heritage through a unique fusion of classical music, reggae and R&B on 2 March.
Leading Midlands artists will present an exciting range of new shows, from Paul O’Donnell’s Dia-Beat-Es which mixes his lived experience of Type 1 diabetes and being a part-time DJ on 3 March, Emma Bourke & Ildikó Rippel’s show Wilding on radical protest and feminism on 10 March, and Jo Blake’s The Witness inspired by the Gospel of Mary Magdalene on 31 March.
The venue also hosts three Leicester festivals over the coming months. From 9-25, February Attenborough Arts Centre will present 23 shows as part of Leicester Comedy Festival, which is celebrating its 30th year as the largest comedy festival in Europe.
The ever-popular Spark Festival for children will make a welcome return with four shows for families, including Underwater, Choogh Choogh, 14/48 Takeover and Sound Symphony at Home from 13-19 February.
Literary Leicester will also return from 22-25 March, featuring some of the UK's most exciting writers and thinkers in events across the University of Leicester campus.
In Attenborough Arts Centre’s galleries, which are free for everyone to visit, Jas Singh will present hippocratic/hypocrite, an inclusive digital art installation that explores the mechanics of identity and the narratives that surround it from 11 February – 16 April.
Meanwhile, British sculptor and disability rights activist Tony Heaton will present altered, exhibiting intelligent and thought-provoking work about his lived experience as a disabled person from 25 March – 25 June.
Director of Attenborough Arts Centre, Andrew Fletcher, said: “Attenborough Arts Centre is a home for contemporary artists and we are excited to be celebrating spring with a range of leading creative voices to inform, inspire and entertain us with their views and experiences.”
Attenborough Arts Centre also runs extensive Learning programmes for people of all ages, from free Wildcard Wednesday sessions for students to free Family Gallery Workshops on Saturdays, plus a variety of Creative Courses programmes for people to hone their creative skills.
With such a range of events on offer, there is sure to be something for everyone this spring at Attenborough Arts Centre.
Visit the Attenborough Arts Centre website for more details.