Whitworth Art Gallery announces Whitworth Weekending ahead of its £15 million redevelopment
From Friday 30 August – Sunday 1 September 2013, Whitworth Art Gallery will host Whitworth Weekending, a final celebratory weekend of art, music and performance in Whitworth Park before the Gallery closes temporarily to complete its historic refurbishment and major redevelopment.
Performances from the best of the Whitworth’s monthly late-night programme, After Hours, will launch the weekend from 4pm on Friday 30 August, while the renowned brass band Acid Brass will be one of the highlights of the evening’s celebrations.
The festival continues on Saturday with a full family programme and live world music co-produced with Manchester’s Band on the Wall. Join us for spoken word and film in The Living Room, or participate in the creation of a new work inspired by Jacob Epstein’s Genesis with the help of Manchester artist Lucy Burscough. Saturday evening will culminate with a magnificent fire and light display, with the building of the Whitworth Art Gallery as the canvas.
On Sunday the Whitworth invites visitors to come together for a communal Sunday lunch, bringing food to share. As dusk falls, Manchester artists Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson will mark both the end of the weekend and the beginning of a new chapter in the Whitworth’s history with the specially commissioned, beautiful and elegiac work Six White Horses. The Gallery will remain open until midnight, after which the Whitworth will close until summer 2014.
Headliners
Acid Brass: Friday 9pm
Jeremy Deller’s collaboration with Stockport’s William’s Fairey Band reinvented what a brass band can do, fusing traditional numbers with Acid House themes. On Friday night the band will incorporate the structure of Whitworth Art Gallery in a thrilling headline performance.
Finale: Saturday 9.30pm
Manchester School of Samba will lead us to the Whitworth Building where fire, light and sound come together in spectacular fashion. This will bring an explosive end to Saturday’s celebrations.
Six White Horses: Sunday dusk
Whitworth Weekending will be brought to a close with a new work by Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson. Six White Horses will be enchanting, beautiful and elegiac. A fitting goodbye for now.
