This year, museums, galleries, historical houses and spaces and other places of interest across the UK take part in the first ever Museums at Night October festival over Halloween weekend, with a dazzling array of special, night-time events.
If you are planning a visit to the UK on the last weekend of October, you will have time to enjoy an enriched programme of cultural events as the country holds its first ever Museums at Night festival in autumn. For this year’s edition, some of the UK’s leading contemporary artists, including Turner Prize winner Gillian Wearing; Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare; street artist Pure Evil, multidisciplinary artist duo Davy and Kristin McGuire; and artist Alinah Azadeh will be working with museums and galleries to create a series of participatory events on October 30 and 31.
Gillian Wearing presents The Shy Convention at The Backlit, Nottingham. The Turner Prize winner, notoriously shy herself, will hold an afternoon of creative sessions exploring confidence and creative language and ways to present and perform publically. In the evening, members of the public will be invited to create a spoken word performance reflecting personal stories about their own lives based on the theme of love.
Yinka Shonibare will be hosting a 24-hour Art All-Nighter, creating a unique participatory experience with round-the-clock artist activity. Every corner of the museum with artists, students, community groups and kids evoking an atmosphere reminiscent of Warhol’s Factory. Read more on www.thenovium.org.
Known worldwide for his interactive, large-scale public live art projects, Luke Jerram will be creating a unique new installation called Harrison’s Garden. The installation features 1000 clocks donated by members of the public, along with their individual stories. There will also be activities, workshops and a talk by the artist.
The street artist known as Pure Evil, whose work was recently on show at Banksy’s Dismaland, will be creating an improvisational event where art, music and culture collide. The artist will transform the Verdant Works, a former jute mill in the Blackness area of Dundee, with experimental soundscapes, light and projected sculpture. Members of the public can work with this celebrated street artist on street printing, tag tool drop in workshops and DIY graffiti wall-stencilling.
Artists Davy and Kristin McGuire, known for their design of unique visual experiences through art installations and theatrical projects, have been commissioned to create a new work specifically for Museums at Night at the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum. The site-specific piece, called Starkers, will explore the idea of perfection and the female form. Using projection, voice and music, the artists will be bringing Pauline, one of the gallery’s classic Italian marble statues, to life during an alternative evening with DJs.
Finally, Alinah Azadeh, a British artist working across media, will showcase her new project Burning the Books at The Freud Museum in London. Based on her own personal experience of debt, this national touring project uses metaphor and story to explore debt and the deep moral power it seems to exert on individuals and society in general. For Museums at Night, the artist will be creating an evening of events and activities based on the theme of gift and generosity, debt and gratitude. The night will include the chance to talk with Alinah on Freud’s famous couch and the first public screening of the film of The Burning the Books.
www.museumsatnight.org.uk
Look out for these
Halloween-themed events at various locations
Members of the public will be invited to create a spoken word performance
There are a whole host of Halloween themed events taking place at various locations, including a Day of the Dead Fiesta at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford; a Ghost Walk at Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes; a Halloween night at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle; a night of pumpkin carving at the Manchester Art Gallery; a murder mystery at the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent, a screening of silent German expressionist classic Nosferatu (1927), which is based on the story Dracula, with accompaniment from Dmytro Morykit at The Guildhall in Leicester; ghost train rides on the Kempton and Hampton Steam Railway in Feltham; a re-enactment of plague-ridden Medieval England in The Canterbury Tales in Canterbury; the opportunity to sleep in one of the National Trust’s haunted houses, Dinefwr, in Llandeilo; a daring night evading zombies at the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds; a spooky evening with fire-breathers, storytelling and frightening fancy dress at Chiltern Open Air Museum in Buckinghamshire; an eerie evening exploring the shadowy corridors of the SS Great Britain, brought to life by performers; and a night of tarot card reading, mediums and Victorian séances at Preston Manor in Brighton.
Spirited London: Gin and the City at London Transport Museum
Journey through the long and chequered history of gin, from its medicinal roots and up to today’s gin resurgence. Sit back and enjoy talks from Nicholas Cook of The Gin Guild and Tom Hills, Distiller at The East London Liquor Company, as they guide you through tasting eight gins that each define moments in its history. Remember to make time to enjoy a delicious gin cocktail or two from the bar.
An Evening With Andy McNab at The Tank Museum, Dorset
Former SAS soldier and best-selling author Andy McNab returns to the Tank Museum to share his experiences of commanding Bravo Two Zero during the Gulf War, and also talking about his latest Nick Stone release Detonator, which will be available to buy from the museum shop on the night. There will be an opportunity for signing memorabilia and guests can enjoy a curry meal in the restaurant before the talk.
Banknotes and Bullion at Bank of England Museum
This is a rare opportunity to visit the Bank of England Museum out of hours. Throughout the night there will be presentations on banknotes, with some of the bank’s experts demonstrating easy ways to check that your banknotes are genuine and talking about the upcoming launch of polymer banknotes.
Craven Street Bones at Benjamin Franklin House, London
In 1997, a chance discovery during conservation sparked an investigation at Benjamin Franklin House: how did human skeletal remains of up to 10 individuals come to be buried under the basement floor?
Operations manager Braena Sykes will explore the answer to this question and reveal the darker side of the 18th century’s pursuit of knowledge. This event is not suitable for children.
Wild @ White’s Sleepover! at Gilbert White’s House, Hampshire
A natural history themed sleepover for families, with an evening packed full of activities that explore local wildlife and a bat walk and campfire, before going to sleep inside the 16th-century barn.