Nottingham Lakeside Arts’ new season approaches

Nottingham Lakeside Arts’ new season of events stretching April to August 2017 is fast approaching and tickets for all events are now on sale. The jam-packed season is full of events to cater for all tastes and includes the usual diverse range of theatre, dance, gallery exhibitions, museum, and music events. The world exclusive exhibition, Dinosaurs of China, will be soaring into Lakeside from Saturday 1 July to Sunday 29 October 2017. A large, ticketed exhibition will be held at Wollaton Hall and a smaller, free exhibition will be coming to Nottingham Lakeside Arts’ Angear Visitor Centre. This exhibition represents the only time that visitors can see this vast selection of fossils and skeletons outside of Asia and will bring to life the history of how dinosaurs evolved into the birds that live alongside us today. The largest exhibition of Winifred Nicholson's paintings since the 1980s is on display at Djanogly Gallery until Sunday 4 June. Liberation of Colour is co-curated by Jovan Nicholson, Winifred’s grandson, who has had direct access to rarely exhibited works in private collections. It draws on new research, including previously unseen archive material and includes portraits of her husband Ben, as well as the architect Christopher ‘Kit’ Nicholson, Ben’s younger brother. The exhibition focuses on Nicholson's treatment of light and colour, taking stimulus from the places where she lived or visited throughout her working life, including her native Cumbria. The May half-term holidays (Monday 29 May – Sunday 4 June) herald the arrival of the eagerly anticipated Wheee! International Children’s Theatre and Dance Festival 2017. The festival will once again include the world premiere of Architects of Air’s brand-new Luminarium, designed to delight and astonish all ages with structures that are externally intriguing and interiors that are brilliantly iridescent. The festival programme includes performances from world-leading children’s theatre company, Cas Public (Montréal), with Suites Curieuses, a playful interpretation of Red Riding Hood combining dance, projections, and shadows; and M6 Theatre Company’s One Little Word, a gentle story of friendship and power. The festival will culminate in the free Family Weekend in Highfields Park with performances, things to make and do, drumming workshops from Mark Evans, and much more. This new season also includes two collaborations for Nottingham Lakeside Arts. The partnership is between Nottingham Lakeside Arts and Nottingham New Theatre, the only entirely student run theatre in the country based at the University of Nottingham. Jessica Swale’s Blue Stockings (Tuesday 9 May – Saturday 13 May) is set against the backdrop of women’s suffrage, this is a poignant, comical and eye-opening story based on the true history of women’s fight for education. Following the success of Oedipus (2016) Martin Berry once again directs a talented company of University of Nottingham students. On Wednesday 12 July a new production of The Jungle Book opens at Nottingham Lakeside Arts, co-produced with New Street Theatre. Written by Toby Hulse, and with new music from BB Cooper, this community production promises a spell-binding edge-of-your seat adventure of song, dance, music, and laughter that evokes the brilliance of Kipling’s original stories. The University of Nottingham Museum at Nottingham Lakeside Arts, presents a new exhibition, The Medieval World In Colour, from 1 April – 18 June 2017. This exhibition explores the use, role and sources of colour in the Middle Ages in both religious and domestic settings. It examines the surviving forms of colour to explore the medieval colour pallet and to illuminate the world in which these colours were used and created. The exhibition is free to enter and includes a series of free events for all ages. This is just a taste of what’s on offer this season at Nottingham Lakeside Arts. For the full programme and online booking for ticketed events visit lakesidearts.org.uk, or call the box office on 0115 846 7777. Photo credit: Steve Tanner