Street celebrations planned for Coventry City of Culture programme
Organisers of Coventry’s City of Culture bid have outlined some of the events which will take place should it secure the status for 2021.
The city’s initial bid document is now being judged by a panel of experts and, while the programme remains largely under wraps, the team has revealed some of the distinctive ideas that they hope will help to clinch the title.
With over 200 projects submitted so far, organisers are looking to put together the most ambitious events programme yet.
One element of the programme, should the bid be successful, would see Coventry’s first ever Streets of Cultures celebration – an opportunity for communities in the city to stamp their own mark on things.
The plan would see 21 streets given the means to explore what City of Culture could look like to them. It could be anything from front gardens landscaped by an artist to a documentary film about their road or it could include a food festival, pavement poetry or a new street choir.
The project has been devised to create lasting relationships between neighbours and communities, decreasing isolation and increasing pride.
Another innovative programme idea submitted as part of the bid is a weeklong Shop Front Festival which would take over shops in the city centre with dance, lighting, music, visual art and performance from not just Coventry, but the rest of the UK, Europe and even the United States.
The former Fishy Moores ‘chippy’ in the city is home to the first ever Shop Front Theatre and in 2018 it will help stage a pilot Shop Front Festival, supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Artists Julia Negus, Chris O’Connell and others are now working with the Business Improvement District to look at how they could make the city the festival in 2021.
The team behind the bid has also revealed its idea to create the Coventry Ring Road poem – the first 2.2 mile poem that can only be experienced in full by travelling around the ring road.
On top of that, local arts company Motionhouse Dance, which is performing in Aarhus European Capital of Culture in September and participated in the 2016 Coventry Godiva Festival, will create a large-scale dance spectacle on the roof of a Coventry car park.
Programme Coordinator Emma Harrabin said: “Although we are able to release some of the exciting ideas that are coming out of the city we are in a competition so must keep most of our cards close to our chest.
“We are still open to new ideas and our work in the community will continue right up to the submission of a final bid document in the hope we are shortlisted in June.
“Although we will only be able to include 30-40 ideas in the document itself we expect the year itself to consist of over 1,000 events so this is just the beginning.”
Laura McMillan, manager of the Coventry City of Culture Trust, added: “Coventry is a city of reinvention that has been moving people by cycle, car and jet engine for centuries and is now moving people through culture.
“Our programme will celebrate the diversity of our city, shining a light on the contribution of our communities and young people to Coventry. Coventry’s City of Culture year will bring surprise, spectacle and wonder and will create memorable moments that could only happen here.”
