News

From hypnotic sound and light installations, immersive experiences of optical illusion, to the breathtaking 3D projection mapping of Bournemouth Town Hall, Arts by the Sea has commissioned some of the UKs’ leading names in creative and visual art for its 2021 programme. Plus the festival receives £10,000 funding from Bournemouth Town Centre BID.

Bournemouth’s must-visit arts and culture festival, Arts by the Sea, has revealed the first wave of outdoor spectaculars commissioned for the 2021 event. This first announcement includes three intriguing, large scale installations including the mesmerising projection mapping on Bournemouth Town Hall by video design specialists NOVAK, an immersive optical illusion experience by Lucid Creates, and a hypnotic light and sound installation by international visual artist, Romain Tardy. Taking place from Friday 1st October to Sunday 3rd October – with some programming extended beyond these dates – across Bournemouth’s beautiful town centre and seafront locations, Arts by the Sea attracts tens of thousands of people each year to its lively and unique programme of accessible arts and culture. With entertainment for people of all ages, the free-to-attend festival now in its 11th year is delivered by BCP Council in association with Arts Council England. For more info visit www.artsbythesea.co.uk.

Revellers at the 2021 edition of Arts by the Sea Festival can expect to get lost in a world of creative experiences, musical performances and participatory events. This year, the event’s artistic theme is ‘Connect’, fittingly chosen now friends, families and loved ones can unite.  As a strand running through the 2021 festival programme, the theme will explore the concept of the human being as a fundamentally social creature—a tribal animal—while highlighting the importance of celebration, festivity and connecting with others.

One of the most highly anticipated night-time attractions at Arts by the Sea, drawing vast crowds each year, is the large-scale projection mapping of Bournemouth Town Hall. For 2021, video design specialists NOVAK will showcase the dynamic yet sensitive piece Kindred in this very setting. Audiences should prepare to marvel in the vivid colours of evolving, 3D contemporary dance scenes, devised in collaboration with Southpaw Dance Company artistic director, Robby Graham and its company dancers, alongside a soundtrack composed by the award-winning musician, Ed Carter. Kindred explores the ups and downs of restricted human contact during the Covid-19 pandemic and can be experienced at the Town Hall from 1st – 3rd October at numerous showings from 7pm until 11pm.

Another must-see spectacular – both by day and by night – is the immersive experience CROSSROADS by creative design studio, Lucid Creates. An optical illusion of light, sound and mirrors will transport audiences into a world where reality is altered. Here we are encouraged to question how the mind makes assumptions, and how what we see is not always the truth. Find CROSSROADS at Horseshoe Common during Arts by the Sea and beyond from 1st – 8th October from 9am until 11pm each day.

Arts by the Sea is thrilled to have received £10,000 in funding from Bournemouth Town Centre BID to stage CROSSROADS at Horseshoe Common. Paul Kinvig, Chief Operating Officer for Bournemouth Town Centre BID said,

“We are proud to be supporting the programme in Horseshoe Common as we believe it will bring increased footfall and provide increased opportunity for visitors to experience the restaurants, cafés, bars and other great businesses in that part of the Town Centre. Arts by the Sea is part of the important cultural offering that is playing a vital part in encouraging residents and visitors to reconnect with the town centre and thus shares our goals and aspirations.”

The Great Indecision Council by Belgian visual artist Romain Tardy is the final spectacular unveiled today for the 2021 event. Audiences will step into Tardy’s self-portrait of society today on Sandbanks Beach as it translates, in real time, the search terms most-frequently used on Google and Google News in the UK into visual and audio signals. A vast circle of light surrounded by words, computer-generated mystical chants, and music composed by sound artist Loran Delforge, it is set to be a mesmerising physical experience that holds a mirror to society’s secret self, exploring our constant digital connection to those around us. This installation can be experienced from 1st – 8th October from 6am until 11pm daily.

This announcement from Arts by the Sea Festival sets the bar for another exciting year ahead.  Much more awe-inspiring programming is yet to be announced, from carnivalesque roaming music and theatre to rib-tickling shows, as the festival continues on its mission to deliver an unrivalled programme of diverse arts and culture.

To stay tuned on forthcoming announcements from Arts by the Sea 2021, visit www.artsbythesea.co.uk or follow @artsbythesea on social media: #Connect2021 / #artsbythesea