As part of our 2022 Composer-Curator programme, we’re thrilled to continue to our regional partnership with Back to Ours (Hull) and Sunderland Culture. Applications for Composer-Curator 2022 are now open, and will close on the 13th March at 11:59pm.
Composer-Curator supports outstanding projects across the UK that are curated and produced by composers and music-creators. These are centred on live (when possible) and digital performances, events, festivals and installations which celebrate any form of experimental new sound and music.
Here, we chat to our friends and partners Back to Ours, to offer an overview of what Composer-Curator 2021 in Hull looks like.
You can find out more about the type of projects we support and previous Composer-Curators here
Back to Ours is an Arts Council England-funded Creative People and Places project, working with neighbourhoods across Hull to break down the barriers to taking part in high-quality cultural experiences; they believe these experiences should be for everyone across the city, consulting their Hub members to commission and programme work in neighbourhood venues, right on people’s doorsteps.
They transform everyday places into extraordinary venues – school atriums into circus Big Tops, community centres into theatres, and shopping centres into live music venues – partnering with Under the Influence to host bands such as Black Grape, The Coral, Reverend and the Makers and Ash at Bransholme’s North Point Shopping Centre. In 2020, they joined forces with Hull post-punks LIFE to stream their first live gig since lockdown, premiering a spoken word commission exploring how the pandemic has affected young people across the city. Their Right on your Sofa programme brought people together digitally for a weekly Friday night Facebook live gig, giving a platform to local artists who’d lost opportunities to perform.
Back to Ours said: “Hull’s musical heritage is magical; The Beautiful South, the Housemartins, Fine Young Cannibals, The Paddingtons and Everything But The Girl all hail from the city, and who could forget Mick Ronson and Trevor Bolder, two of Bowie’s Spiders from Mars?
The city’s played host to some huge bands over the years in venues such as Bonus Arena and Hull City Hall, iconic smaller independent venues such as Welly, Adelphi and Polar Bear have seen artists like PJ Harvey, Pulp, Stone Roses, My Bloody Valentine, The La’s and Radiohead cut their teeth there, and if you haven’t been to Sesh, flooding Humber Street with over 200 artists every August, you haven’t lived.
We’re really excited to be partnering with Sound and Music and Sunderland Culture on Composer-Curator, supporting artists with a link to the city to create exciting new work that places audiences right at the heart.”
Thank you to our funders
Discover Composer-Curator in the North East with Sunderland Culture
Learn more about applying for our Composer-Curator 2021