Full programme

Clare Thornton is the Theatre Collection's first Artist-in-Residence. She will be focusing on the recently acquired Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Collection, revealing some of its hidden treasures and making new work inspired by its holdings.

The exhibition Unfurl, which celebrates the Theatre Collection's 60th Anniversary, is framed by the artist's research into depictions of folds and drapery in paintings, sculpture and historical interiors. Through the production of objects, garments and installations, she explores her creative interests in display, concealment and transformation.

Join Jo Elsworth, Director of the Theatre Collection, for a  tour of the Collection and speak to the artist about her work.

Book this tour (starts at 2 pm)

Book this tour (starts at 3 pm)

Bristol University holds the archive of Penguin Books, a unique and rich scholarly resource. Since May 2008, the Penguin Archive Project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, has enhanced this resource by making its catalogue available on-line, pioneering research in the Archive and bringing the varied importance of Penguin Books to the attention of both the scholarly community and the general public, notably the people of Bristol. This event, led by members of the Project Team, will describe the Archive and the Project’s multifarious activities to date and invite participants to engage in discussion of the significance of Penguin Books in all of our lives.

The Penguin Team will be available for discussion afterwards over tea.

Book this event Update: This event is now fully booked.

A chance for all short story lovers to hear author Tania Hershman discuss her collection The White Road and Other Stories, including the (very) short story 'Plaits', as well as her newer stories. This event will also offer a chance to hear about reading groups run by part-time students on the faculty's BA in English Literature and Community Engagement.

Tania Hershman's first collection, The White Road and Other Stories, was commended in the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers. Tania's award-winning short and very short stories have been widely published online and in print and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She is currently Writer-in-Residence in the Science Faculty at the University of Bristol, working on a new collection of biology-inspired fiction, funded by an Arts Council England Grant. Her website is taniahershman.com.

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The roots of Western liturgical chant are much older than their earliest surviving notations more than a thousand years ago. What impact would the chant texts have had on pious congregations in the ninth century and even earlier, and how do the existing melodies contribute to that impact? This lecture explores some of the meaning that music can contribute to liturgical text and considers the extent to which we — in our vernacular and secular modern context — can access such resonances now.

The lecture will be accompanied by a 15-strong female student choir. Join us and meet Faculty staff and students at the wine reception after the lecture.

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Find out more about Emma Hornby's work and interests in our Q and A interview.

This concert marks the beginning of a three-year residency at the University of Bristol by the brilliant young Brodowski Quartet, funded by a generous donation from The Carr-Gregory Trust. The programme includes the Third Quartet by John Pickard, Professor of Composition and Applied Musicology in Bristol’s Department of Music.

Programme

• John Pickard: String Quartet no. 3
• Mozart: String Quartet in C major, ‘Dissonance’

Booking not required for this event.

The lunchtime concert will be followed by a composition master class at 2.30 pm in the Recital Room, in which John Pickard, with the help of the Brodowski Quartet, will discuss his quartet, revealing some of the secrets behind the music’s construction.

“This is music of today, written by a level-headed yet responsive individual whose work commands our respect and attention.”

“Even if Pickard were never to write another quartet in his life, his place among the greats is secure."

Booking not required for this event.

How do we hear the words in a poem, and how do their sounds and rhythms influence what we understand a poem to mean? Chaired by the University's Winterstoke Professor of English, Daniel Karlin, staff and students will lead an interactive discussion and recite a selection of works across a broad range of languages. This breadth reflects the University's expertise in languages from the classical, medieval, and modern periods, including Old English, French and German. A regional poetry translation competition is running to mark this event, and the results will be announced during the workshop by Adrienne Mason, Director of the MA in Translation from the School of Modern Languages.

This event is sponsored by Faber and Faber.

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Poetry began as song, and poets continued for centuries to describe themselves as singers, even when the medium of verse became the printed page and the silent reader replaced the listener. At the same time, many songwriters lay claim to be poets, and we debate whether the Beatles and Bob Dylan should be studied alongside Keats and T. S. Eliot. This lecture explores the paradoxical history of the relation between poetry and song, and some of its contemporary resonances.

Join us and meet Faculty staff and students at the wine reception after the lecture.

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Find out more about Daniel Karlin's work and interests in our Q and A interview.

Join us for a screening of films made by undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Department of Drama: Theatre, Film, Television. The films illustrate a range of styles and formats, including work from students on our long-running postgraduate course, the MA in Film and Television Production, which attracts students from all over the world and prepares them to work in the film and television industries.

Booking not required for this event.

Join staff and postgraduate students as the Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities opens its doors to the public. With tours of the facility and the opportunity to talk to students and staff about the thriving postgraduate community that is based there, this is an event not to be missed for anyone interested in pursuing postgraduate study in the Arts.

The open day will be followed by a presentation of postgraduate student research at 3.30 pm (further details below).

To book a place, please email tracy.hanson-peliza@bristol.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 117 331 8458.

Discover what sort of research takes place at MA and PhD level in the Arts by coming along to this student-led afternoon of presentations. You will hear about some of the exciting independent and collaborative postgraduate research being done across the  faculty. Stay for a glass of wine afterwards and talk to staff and students about their work.

To book a place, please email tracy.hanson-peliza@bristol.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 117 331 8458.

This lecture evaluates some common definitions of poetry and the creative impulse. Drawing on specific examples from English, French and (in particular) Russian, it reflects on the characteristics and function of poetic language. It also discusses the way in which the poetic imagination explores and 'translates' the relationship between time and self, language and the external world. In the process, the lecture identifies an ongoing tension between the ways in which we strive for intellectual 'sense', and at the same time invest emotionally in the talismanic magic of the word. It concludes by suggesting one possible answer to the question: ‘what is the point of poetry?’

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Find out more about Michael Basker's work and interests in our Q and A interview.

How do we determine the role of the Arts and Humanities in society? Full details of this event are available in our Festival highlights.

Booking this event

Places for this exciting event are limited and we are issuing reservations on a first-come, first-served basis - a maximum of two places per request. Please email insidearts-watershed@bristol.ac.uk with your name and address, and those of your guest if applicable, and we will respond to you as soon as possible. 

We are recording this event and will make the audio available online as a free mp3 after the event takes place.