The cost of living crisis has affected us all this winter and as a public-facing cultural centre at the heart of the University of Leicester, we are working to help.
Over 25 years we have worked hard to create an inclusive space for our communities. Now more than ever, we want Attenborough Arts Centre to be a welcoming venue for everyone to enjoy, whether that’s coming to our café for a coffee, meeting here for a social or work event, as well as a place to experience our exhibitions, live performance and learning programmes.
Alongside the University of Leicester, we are utilising different avenues to help those we can. Explore below to see what we have on offer and how you can get involved.
Free Programmes
Our galleries are open 7 days a week (12pm – 5pm Weekdays, 12pm – 4pm Weekends) currently featuring Mohammad Barrangi’s Playing in Wonderland and Letty McHugh’s Anchorage. Each exhibition brings you into another world, offering a rich variety of ideas and opportunities for reflection. For families, we host Family Gallery Workshops to explore the themes of our current exhibitions with our friendly Learning team. Using resources from our Salmon Gallery, families respond creatively through drawing, working with clay, painting pots, and creating stained glass windows, all for free. Each workshop takes place every Saturday during an exhibition, 1pm – 3pm and is open to all families.
We engage young people through our weekly Wildcard Wednesdays: a free drop-in session where students can come and try a new craft each week. The catch is, they don’t know what the craft will be until the session begins. This could be pottery, painting, embroidery, tie-dye or more, all taught by professional artists.
For those who want to experience live music, we host Soundbites Lunchtime Concerts every Tuesday at 12:15pm. This is a free concert featuring musical artists from across the Midlands, ranging from classical music to jazz to dance music. A unique and engaging way to enjoy your lunch that we offer to everyone.
Low Cost Programmes – Tickets Starting at £2
For many of our theatre events and performances we offer Pay What You Can tickets to enable everyone to experience art by giving them the option of how much to pay. By offering low-cost options, our performances can be enjoyed by more people, whilst audiences who can afford to pay more help to support the vital work that we do. One example of this is our upcoming show Roti Moon. At the centre Monday 19 – Thursday 22 December 2022, Roti Moon is an interactive show for families about a young girl called Diya who sets of on an adventure to find out about the moon and show her Dada that it is not a roti. Along the way she meets up with friendly animal characters and explores the world in this interactive show – one not to miss.
We also host our Attenborough Film Club, which on selected Sundays at 10:30am showcases films for the whole family to enjoy for as low as £2 per ticket, with popcorn available for the true cinema experience. Our next showing is the classic film, Miracle on 34th Street. A perfect way to start the holiday season.
Warm Welcome Spaces
Over the coming weeks we are also taking part in the Warm Welcome Network, to offer our communities two days a week a warm space for those struggling to heat their homes this winter. We always have space for those in need, so please come down and utilise our building when you need it.
To learn about accessibility at Attenborough Arts Centre, public transport routes to get here, and to watch our guided videos of the centre before visiting, click here to explore our Visit webpage.
