THING OF THE WEEK
COLLABORATION… Bruntwood, long established as a supporter of the arts and slightly more recently as being very much into science, has been announced as an official partner of bluedot, the funky fusion of music and science that takes place each July at Jodrell Bank. The partnership, said bluedot, will include a series of unique and exclusive Microdot mini-festivals, which started last weekend at Hatch in Manchester and will continue on to Liverpool and Cheshire. We have lift-off.
LEAP YEAR… Stockport’s frog-themed art trail is set to kick off on 29 June, following in the footsteps of Manchester’s successful bees last year. The sculptures, sponsored by the likes of Orbit and Holiday Inn, will be dotted around the town centre, with the trail starting at the town hall, running down to Stockport Exchange, all around the Merseyway, up to the market hall and Redrock, and back to the Hat Museum. Manchester’s bees turned out to be pretty engaging with plenty of punters following the sculptures around the city centre, so here’s hoping it’ll be a success for Stockport. Just seems a shame there isn’t one inside the Robbie’s brewery…
HISTORY LESSON… The story of the Littlewoods building on Edge Lane, Liverpool, one of few that deserve the tag Iconic, is to be captured by Liverpool John Moores University and Metal, in collaboration with developer Capital & Centric. More than 30,000 people worked for Littlewoods Pools at the complex’s peak, while during World War II It was commandeered for the US military, also becoming the world’s largest manufacturing site for parachutes. A £48,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund will help a team of academics, artists, volunteers and former employees to revivify the building’s past through interviews, workshops, events and screenings. The heritage will be preserved on a website and smart technology will be installed on-site, enabling access to incredible stories of the building’s past. Lovely stuff.
ART ATTACK… Following last week’s revelation that Bangor University is selling a plot on an island off Anglesey, expected to go for around £1m, bargain hunters in the North Wales market might find value in nearby Menai Bridge. Oriel Tegfryn has been put up for sale by owner Martin Tinney, who bought the gallery in 2010 but is now stepping into semi-retirement, although his Cardiff gallery will remain open. All options are being kept on the table, apparently, so it needn’t necessarily remain as a gallery. Oriel Tegfryn was stated in the 1960s by Gwyn Brown to showcase Welsh artists.
