In the week beginning with the 22nd of May 2017, ICOS (International Community Organisation of Sunderland) and Friends will be hosting their first Meet Your Neighbour Festival in Sunderland, with a focus on cultures and arts of diverse ethnic groups settled in the North East of England. The spotlight is on the people and communities from Eastern Europe and their descents.
This festival journey began sometime in the 2016. While the University of Sunderland, the MAC Trust and the Sunderland City Council were preparing for the bidding process for UK City of Culture 2021, an idea sparked about ICOS supporting this amazing cultural project. The idea, which after a lot of consideration, planning, invaluable funding support, involvements of many different people and agencies, meetings and discussions, grew and developed into what is promising to be a lavish festival show.
What could be a better way to bring people and communities together than a lively festival?
Meet Your Neighbour Festival will take place over the last week of May 2017, including the bank holiday weekend. It will be spread out across two venues in the city, Independent and Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens.
During the week, various interesting activities will take place. Independent will be the host of the fine art exhibitions and a live music event. Meanwhile the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens will become the main information and cultural hub and a venue for a Family Fun Day.
The programme will actuate as follows:
The festival will commence on Monday the 22nd of May at 6pm, when a fine art exhibition of talented artists living in Sunderland and surrounding areas will open for the Private Viewing evening for friends, family, guests and collectors. The artwork on show are examples of how changes in socioeconomic reality exemplifies and depict the life and culture as a reflective nature of consciousness. The event will be promoting the works of painting, graphics, sculpture and photography. The show will be on display and available to the public view until Friday the 26th of May at Independent.
Saturday the 27th of May will be a Family Fun Day held at the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens. Doors will open at 10 am. Day will be brimming with interesting educational, cultural and art based activities. There will be a wealth of things to see and to experience.
Here is what you can’t afford to miss:
- Choir performances (Jubilate Community Choir; St. Anthony’s Girls’ Choir)
- A great opportunity to see the MYN Festival flower carpet, designed and made specially for this occasion
- Cultural trails (Discover Poland; Did you know? This is Slovakia)
- Workshops (coffee painting; flag making; legend of the Wawel Dragon movie; story telling; etc.)
- Design collections
- Food tasting
A fitting conclusion to the MYN Festival will be a live music event held on the 27th May at Independent. Doors will open at 6pm to an evening ditty. The main guest artists, performing a cross selection of folk, through jazz, rock and electronic music, will include Monika Lidke, winner of the Genfactor Olivia Glover and Dj Rafal Marzec from Blue Wings Records.
Please come along, join ICOS and Friends in this amazing event and be a part of the Sunderland’s cultural and creative future!
Anna Glover, MFA, BA (Hons), Participatory Arts and Creative Language Practitioner
