Our exciting Summer programme has launched
Our new summer season features art for all, with our latest range of exhibitions, performances, and artist-led creative courses and workshops, while also featuring free events for all ages.
This summer we have a variety of exciting upcoming performances such as Faust by Seth Kriebal and Zoe Bauras, Friday 16 May. A new, interactive twist on the classic tale of a deal with the devil – will you take a seat? Arriving Wednesday 21 May, Elf Lyons performs Horses, which is described as the first ever comedy show performed entirely by a horse. Attenborough Arts Centre is partnering with The Y Theatre, to bring world-breaking beatboxer SK Shlomo to the Y Theatre with Beatbox Adventure for Kids, Sunday 1 June. Having performed with legends, SK Shlomo can make music with just a mic and their mouth. Meanwhile, we will again bring theatre to the great outdoors this summer as The Duke’s Theatre Company returns to the University of Leicester Botanic Garden with a dynamic reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Macbeth, Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 July.
With a number of performances offered on a Pay What You Can pricing scale, Attenborough Arts Centre remains committed to ensuring access to the arts for all.
In its visual arts programme, we present three unique exhibitions this season.
In Gallery 1, national disability-arts charity Shape bring their landmark Crip Arte Spazio: The Disability Arts Movement in Venice to Leicester from 14 February to 11 May 2025. Fresh from its presentation at the world-renowned Venice Biennale 2024, the exhibition is a joyous and exuberant celebration of the Disability Arts Movement, showcasing its dynamism, wit, and grandeur. The exhibition reclaims historical slurs ‘Crip Arte Spazio’ in an unflinching explosion of huge protest banners, cartoon panels, large-scale projected artist films, photography, graphic novels, and campaign merchandise featuring artists Keith Armstrong (supported by the National Disability Movement Archive and Collection), Terence Birch, Tony Heaton OBE, Jameisha Prescod, Abi Palmer, Ker Wallwork, Tanya Raabe-Webber and Jason Wilsher-Mills. The title ‘Crip Arte Spazio’, translated as ‘Crip Art Space’, plays on Italian words while reclaiming slurs disabled people have historically and continue to face, and Attenborough Arts Centre fully supports the curators, artists and disabled people in the reclamation of these words.
In Gallery 2 from 24 April to 29 June, artist whatsthebigmistry will exhibit The Empire’s Old Clothes. A short non-linear film which challenges the propaganda around the ‘British Empire’ and draws on influences, aesthetics and politics from Indian and Afro-Futurism, queer culture and experiences of ableism and racism in post-Empire Brexit-Britain. This short non-linear film borrows from the symbolic style of ‘tableaux vivant’, science education films and Empire propaganda. This work is commissioned by Unlimited, and Disability Arts Online (DAO), with support from ONYX and is in response to the Queen’s Honours List. It was brought about specifically because Unlimited’s senior producer was awarded an MBE (Order of the British Empire), which she accepted, a controversial and awkward decision. This work is at once a provocation and an invitation to rethink and rewrite ‘histories’, to demand change and define what it really means to take action against racism.
Whatsthebigmistry will collaborate with Attenborough Arts Centre to curate the upcoming Attenborough Late, a fun-packed after-hours art experience across the exhibition and the whole building on Friday 29 May. The Late will celebrate and re-imagine Black and Brown joy, as part of a socially engaged multi-city programme of activities, public events and parties exploring and evoking acts of decolonisation and communing. More information will be revealed soon.
Delivered by experienced tutors, we have a range of artist-led Creative Courses and workshops available including Islamic Geometry for Beginners, which is a practical introduction to the art using a ruler, compass and watercolours. Or create a unique gift with Wax Carved Cast Jewellery by exploring the ancient art of wax carving to design, measure, sculpt, size and finish a bespoke piece of contemporary jewellery. Later in the season explore the world of Devising Theatre with Collaborative Writing to unleash your creativity in performance writing. There is a variety of workshops and courses exploring a range of artforms, perfect for any ages and interests.
Alongside Exhibitions, Performances and Creative Courses, we also run a range of free events to engage local communities including Family Gallery Workshops each Saturday during exhibitions, free weekly Sunday Sessions in the café with creative activities from 12pm – 4pm, and Soundbites Lunchtime Concerts every Tuesday.
With such a range of events on offer, there is sure to be something for everyone this summer at Attenborough Arts Centre.
Visit the Attenborough Arts Centre website for more details.