This Summer (2021) marking its fifth edition, Art Night will change the festival format to include extended run-time and national series of events
As you know, we’re an all-night contemporary art festival, which traditionally transformed an area of London for one unforgettable night each year.
In 2021, we will be adapting the format of our fifth edition by extending its run-time to a full month of night-time events and programming from June to July (coinciding with the Summer Solstice), taking place throughout the country.
Art Night is reimagining its model for the 2021 festival: working with more national partners by expanding its geographical reach and moving away from the dominance of London – unseating ideas of ‘the centre’ and embracing an ethos of “we’ll come to you”.
Through collaborating with new partners located in towns, cities and rural areas across the country (to include Wales and Scotland), we look forward to a decentralised, distributed way of working – continuing to put artists and their ideas at the forefront of the programme and creating an interconnected, international network of ecosystems for artists, art institutions and audiences.
Helen Nisbet, Art Night’s Artistic Director has said:
“In 2021, Art Night will take place across the UK in a series of night-time events. I’m especially looking at places outside traditional ‘centres’ — I grew up in one of these and I know how important it is when cultural events come to us, how being involved and included gives us self determination. This works both ways — London has held the dominant voice in contemporary art discourse for too long — I’m looking forward to working in other parts of the country and growing new partnerships rooted in these places. We’re seeing this as a pilot, the beginning of something which will become even more collaborative, international and ambitious with time.”
Art Night 2021 is titled Nothing Compares 2U, after the song penned by Prince and most famously performed by Sinead O’Connor. The programme takes inspiration from defiance in small acts and moments of self-determination, both personal and collective.
The 2021 programme will feature large-scale and often newly commissioned public projects by: Oona Doherty, Sonya Dyer, Adham Faramawy, Guerrilla Girls, Mark Leckey, Isabel Lewis, Imran Perretta & Paul Purgas, Philomène Pirecki, OOMK, and Alberta Whittle.