Idea Generation

Festival of light to become a regular event for Durham as Lumiere is hailed as spectacular success

Producers of extraordinary live events Artichoke announced today, Wednesday 18th November, that Lumiere would become a biennial event in Durham, after at the spectacular success of the festival which took place over four consecutive nights, 12th – 15th November.

At least 75,000 people thronged the city’s streets during the festival, filling the city’s restaurants and cafes, trains and buses, and every available parking space. Staged as part of Durham’s bid for UK capital of culture in 2013, Lumiere is the largest festival of its kind to take place in the UK, and included no less than seven new commissions and more than 50 UK and international artists. Lumiere is part of the 2009 Sky Arts Artichoke Season.

Festival highlights included the brand new commission Crown of Light, a collaboration between projection artist, Ross Ashton, composer and arranger Robert Ziegler, and sound designer John Del’Nero, whose remarkable son et lumiere projected onto the Cathedral exterior enthralled crowds. Inside the Cathedral, United Visual Artists had recreated Chorus, 8 swinging pendulums of light suspended in the Cathedral nave: thousands filed underneath this and then into the Cathedral cloisters to experience Daan Roosegaarde’s Dune, an installation of illuminated flowers turning this way and that in response to movement and sound. Durham’s dramatic architecture and landscapes were transformed by artworks and installations by Ron Haselden, FIELD, Speirs and Major Associates, Simon Corder, Creatmosphere, Mia Kosminksy, Bureau of Silly Ideas, Filament, Air Vag, Tae Gon Kim, and Tim Etchells, while French theatrical companies, Quidams and La Salamandre led magical processions through the nooks and crannies of the city’s medieval streets.

Simon Henig, Leader of Durham County Council said: “Lumiere has been a spectacular success for Durham. We are delighted that Artichoke agreed to work with us and we are now talking to them about a biennial festival of light, one that would continue to forge links with artists and communities throughout the county, up to and including 2013″.

Helen Marriage, Artistic Director of Artichoke said: “We were really delighted to have been invited to produce Lumiere in Durham. When our local co-producer David Bilton of dgb events came up with the idea of a collaboration, we were immediately inspired both by the very strong partnerships that exist within this extraordinary city as well as its wonderful architecture and landscapes.”

Durham County Council in partnership with the University and the Cathedral is rightly proud of its historic cultural heritage with the world renowned World Heritage Site. All Durham’s institutions are backing the city’s bid to win the newly designated UK City of Culture for 2013.

Artichoke’s involvement, together with principal sponsor Sky Arts, meant that an ambitious programme designed to animate every nook and cranny of the city was made possible. Sky Arts co-commissioned the Sky Walkers – living artworks that took to the streets to distribute information to passers-by. The channel will also create a series of short films following ten of the Lumiere artists, exploring the inspiration behind their installations and the technical challenges involved, as well as a 30-minute documentary of the whole event to air in December.

“We were delighted to see how Lumiere came to life on the streets of Durham,” comments John Cassy, director of Sky Arts. “We’d been following the artistic process of many of the artists involved, and so to see their work realised, and to see the thousands of people that were engaged and inspired by it, was truly exciting.”

Lumiere forms part of North East England’s world-class programme of festivals and events, developed by culture10. Supported by Durham County Council, Lumiere is also a measure of Durham’s scale of commitment to developing the city’s cultural offering for its communities and visitors, underlined by the recent announcement of its intention to bid to be the first UK City of Culture in 2013.

Lumiere will air on Sky Arts 1 HD and Sky Arts1 on Sunday 8th December at 7pm and 15th December at 6.30pm.

Editor’s Notes

Artichoke
Artichoke is a registered charity, funded by Arts Council England. Artichoke works with the best creative minds to produce extraordinary shows that live in the memory forever, and believes that the arts should take place not only behind the closed doors of theatres and art galleries, but also in public places. In May 2006, Artichoke presented the biggest piece of free theatre ever seen in the UK, Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant. The story of the little girl giant and the 30 foot tall elephant won the hearts of the nation and the press claimed a million people filled the streets of London to watch. In 2008 the company joined London and New York by means of Paul St George’s Telectroscope, and people gathered day and night on both sides of the Atlantic to reunite lost family members or simply to catch a glimpse of life across the pond. Also in 2008 the company mounted the flagship event for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations, with La Machine’s 50-foot high mechanical spider and her adventures in the city. And in 2009 the company has produced Antony Gormley’s 100-day long invasion of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, One & Other.

Sky Arts has generously committed to working with Artichoke for the next two years. Their support will enable Artichoke to develop new opportunities for artists to create work across the country and new ways to delight, surprise and challenge audiences everywhere.

About Durham Festivals and Events
In 2008, Durham hosted the award-winning Enlightenment, its first-ever international light based arts festival featuring outdoor arts installations by Asian and British artists and inspired by the county’s religious and industrial heritage. 30,000 visitors saw Durham’s bridges, river, landmarks and shop fronts transformed into a stunning exhibition of light based art. BRASS: Durham International Festival is one of the world’s fastest growing festivals celebrating global brass music. Over the past three years, Durham has welcomed musicians from five continents and more than 20 countries and annual audiences in excess of 80,000 for two weeks of free street performances and big band concerts in July. At the same time, work is underway to revive the lost tradition of Mystery plays in Durham. These biblical stories are being reinterpreted through contemporary media by local Durham artists under the direction of the city’s Gala Theatre. Durham’s Book Festival attracts leading literary figures each year to celebrate the power of the written word. In 2008, the festival was headlined by best-selling authors, Kate Atkinson (Whitbread prize-winner – Behind the Scenes at the Museum) and Bernard Cornwell (Sharpe series), TV comedian, author and activist Mark Thomas, and veteran BBC War correspondent Kate Adie.

Sky Arts: On Screen, Online, Onstage, and On the Streets
Lumiere is produced as part of a major two-year sponsorship with Artichoke, the ground-breaking company that brings art to the streets of towns and cities across the UK. Sky Arts is one of the largest corporate sponsors of the arts in the UK. With four arts channels in over 9 million customer homes across the UK and Ireland, Sky Arts has doubled output to 36 hours every day of the week on Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2, with Sky Arts 1 HD and Sky Arts 2 HD offering the best programmes in glorious high definition Sky supports the arts and make them accessible off as well as on screen, to the broadest possible audience. Recent programme highlights include The Book Show – the UK’s only television programme dedicated to books, hosted by Mariella Frostrup; Songbook, a series on some of the greatest songwriters of the day; and Sky Arts Theatre Live! which saw Sky Arts return live theatre to television for the first time in twenty years.

Partners
Lumiere is produced by Artichoke in partnership with Sky Arts and with the support of Arts Council England. It is part of the 2009 Sky Arts Artichoke season and forms part of North East England’s world-class programme of festivals and events developed by culture10. The event is generously supported by Durham County Council and culture10, and a range of other sponsors and supporters including the European Union, Lumalive, JCB, Durham University and Durham Cathedral. Artichoke was invited to produce a large-scale event in Durham at the suggestion of Newcastle-based producer DGB Events.

About the City of Culture 2013 Bid
Durham’s culture bid is led by Durham County Council, in partnership with County Durham Partnership, Visit County Durham and Durham City Vision. The bid will centre around the following strands: ‘Cultural City – Cultural County’: a series of activities reconnecting the communities of the county with its capital city and vice-versa, reenergising the City as the economic, social and creative heart of the county. ‘Creative Durham’: a series of activities designed to enhance the county’s cultural life, encouraging community participation in cultural activities and promote Durham as an area where creative people can live and work. ‘Festival Durham’: an ambitious programme of events and festivals which will take Durham into the next decade, cementing its position as a true cultural destination. The new UK City of Culture competition was proposed to enable towns and cities to access the type of culture-led benefits that Liverpool achieved as European Capital of Culture in 2008. Evidence of the impact to Liverpool in 2008 can be accessed at www.impact08.net . Durham will be the first predominantly rural area to bid to take advantage of the benefits culture-led regeneration brings. Funding for the proposed bid comes from Performance Award Grant money awarded to local authorities who perform well.

About culture10
Lumiere forms part of North East England’s world-class programme of festivals and events in 2009, managed by culture10. culture10 is an annual curated programme of exceptional cultural events and festivals across NewcastleGateshead and North East England. Established in 2004, it is managed by the culture10 team, funded by Newcastle City Council, Gateshead Council, One North East, Northern Rock Foundation and Arts Council England, North East, working in partnership with NewcastleGateshead Initiative. For further details see www.NewcastleGateshead.com

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Emily Airton: emily@ideageneration.co.uk
Artichoke website
Lumiere website
Durham City of Culture website