Grab a map and flag down an open-topped double decker – we’re off on a magical mystery tour of World Heritage Site the Lake District. To celebrate the shiny new UNESCO crown, various tourism and cultural agencies under the umbrella (note to self: probably needed on this trip) of Lakes Culture have co-curated a smorgasbord of specially commissioned art installations around the region. Six separate pieces are yours to tick off for free at Cumbrian gems from Blackwell, The Arts and Crafts House, with Di Mainstone’s interactive Time Mirror, to Grizedale Forest, where Charlie Whinney’s steam-bent oak creation Mountains We Made will become part of the permanent collection. Each piece in the Lakes Ignite 2018 programme responds to one or all three themes for which the status for outstanding landscape was bestowed last year: identity, inspiration and conservation. Praised for its own green credentials, multidisciplinary arts space and culture hub Rheged is home to Michael Shaw’s playful site-specific inflatable Slung. OS fans will enjoy Studio MUTT’s Ordnance Pavilion at Wainwrights’ Inn in the Lansdale Estates (pictured), while YSP-based Brian Fell and son George have contributed a steel sculpture of a shoal of ancient fish, Arctic Char, to the calming bubble that is Ambleside Salutation Hotel and Spa. Across town at the University of Cumbria campus, Philip Stanier and the Strange Names Collective have created an art project of three parts, comprising exhibition, VR experience and performance, which you can catch on Sunday 27 May (7pm), Friday 29 and Saturday 30 June, and Sunday 1 July (2.30pm and 7pm). Bus pass at the ready…
Until Tue 31 Jul, various venues and times, free, www.lakesculture.co.uk
- Words:
- Sarah-Clare Conlon
- Published on:
- Sun 8 Jul 2018