Lancaster Arts' spring season of live events presents an ambitious programme of performance, music, dance and exhibitions on a new annual theme, Dissent.
The unique programme of live events features a world premiere, a dance show performed for the final time and works that will not be seen anywhere else in the north-west or, in some cases, in the country, is about to get underway.
The season opens on 31 January with artists Adam York Gregory and Gillian Jane Lees, for a world premiere of BALANCE, giving audiences the opportunity to witness a sculpture being created before their eyes in the Peter Scott Gallery.
Sculpture enthusiasts will be delighted with the rest of the gallery's offering this spring, as it is the first season in decades to have a focus on sculpture, within three exhibitions.
Multi award-winning sculptor and Lancaster University alumnus, Tony Heaton OBE, regarded as one of the pioneers of the Disability Arts Movement, offers Serial Dissenter, featuring artworks rarely or never seen before by the public.
The final exhibition of the season, Microtonal is from the renowned artist collective, Invisible Flock who will install in the gallery 200 borindos, traditional clay flutes from Pakistan. At a time when the borindo could easily disappear, this installation becomes a gentle act of resistance, breathing new life into the instruments through a soundscape.
The concert season opens on 13 February with acclaimed orchestra, The Hanover Band, who perform for the first time in the north of England, with a programme that spans the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras, performed on instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries by 15 of Europe's finest period instrument specialists.
Classical music audiences will enjoy the Mansutti-Repini Duo, performing for the first time in the northwest, A Century of Sonatas, on clarinet and piano, before the Manchester Camerata return to Lancaster Arts, this time in the beautiful setting of Lancaster Priory, for Beethoven, the Original Disruptor on 8 May. The Priory will then welcome string quartet Ensemble Échappée for an evening of music from composers not afraid to rip up the rule book, as the season draws to a close on 11 June.
The Nuffield Theatre welcomes an eclectic line-up, beginning with internationally acclaimed Belgian theatre makers Ontroerend Goed, whose thought-provoking production Handle with Care offers audiences a singular and immersive theatrical experience. It is a theatre performance in a box. No actors, no technicians. Just a box. The show gives complete control to the audience, creating a completely unique experience every time.
In Lancaster Arts' continuing partnership with Litfest, author Alan Hollinghurst, winner of the 2004 Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty, will be in conversation with Lancaster University Library's Andrew Barker on 26 February.
Contemporary dance takes centre stage in March with two shows and panel discussions in a week. VERVE return with another Triple Bill, featuring new work from three internationally acclaimed choreographers, performed by 18 graduate dancers from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance on 24 March. Then, on 27 March, Annie Hanauer Dance come to Lancaster for the very first time with A Space For All Our Tomorrows, a celebration of the power, creativity, and resilience of disabled people, performed by renowned disabled artists. This will be the last chance to see this show anywhere in the world as they will be performing it for the final time in the Nuffield Theatre.
This Spring programme reflects Lancaster Arts' commitment to presenting work that is artistically adventurous, relevant, welcoming and fun and, as always, there is a host of additional events taking place, including Artists in Conversation and some still to be announced.
