Six artists including Yinka Shonibare MBE, Gillian Wearing and Luke Jerram have been paired with six museums across the UK for October’s Connect! Museums at Night festival.
Thirty museums and galleries were in the running to host one of the contemporary artists, with the final decision on which artist goes where decided by public vote. Now in its fourth year, over 34,000 votes were cast for the 2015 event which will take place on 30 and 31 October.
The bid to host artist Alinah Azadeh was won by the Freud Museum. The museum will literally invite visitors onto the couch and explore the act of closure through storytelling and gift giving.
Backlit in Nottingham is to host Gillian Wearing; its ‘Karaoke Selfie’ event will complement Wearing’s exploration of how we present ourselves in the world.
The other successful artist-museum pairings are The Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead who will host Davy & Kristin McGuire; Verdant Works, Dundee with graffiti artist Pure Evil; Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton, Devon with Luke Jerram; and The Novium Museum, Chichester, which will be working with Yinka Shonibare.
Nick Stockman, campaigns manager at Museums at Night said: “In October’s Museums at Night festival the winning venues, together with their artists, will create unique and special events that will again involve the very people that voted for them to happen – an unprecedented collaboration between contemporary artist, cultural venue and the general public.”
With the aim of supporting venues to try out new projects and approaches, Connect! is supported by Arts Council England and organised by Culture24. Artists who have previously been involved include Bob and Roberta Smith, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Spencer Tunick and Grayson Perry.
