The State Of The Arts The State Of The Arts

Last year, the city of Leeds held its Year of Culture - a 12-month programme of arts and culture events, delivered by LEEDS 2023.

Now the dust has settled, how do its leaders feel about it? And what did it take to deliver a project of this scale? We sat down with Kully Thiarai, Creative Director & CEO, and Emma Beverley, Programme Director, of LEEDS 2023 for an honest reflection on this eventful year.

Timestamps:
3:16 - Kully and Emma's roles in LEEDS 20238:06 - What does it take to deliver a Year of Culture?27:24 - The personal impact of delivering a YoC37:55 - LEEDS 2023 staff & key events47:52 - Working with Leeds' culture sector56:12 - Advice for the wider culture sector1:08:29 - Highlights from the YoC

Darren Emerson is a VR artist who’s been working with the medium for years.
In 2021, Darren produced 'In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats', an immersive piece exploring Coventry's acid house rave scene of the 1980's. Darren recently joined TSOTA to discuss the piece and virtual reality art in general, with a conversation touching on the state of VR today, the scale of work required to make art with it, and the potential of VR to express things other art forms may not.

The State of the Arts are proud to be starting a new digital exhibition project focusing on the overlooked moments that make up the North’s musical landscape.
To start, we’re focusing on the Jazz-Funk era of the late 70’s and early 80’s that took over the North and Midlands. We enlisted three key characters from the scene that drove its success in Manchester, the North West and beyond - DJs Colin Curtis, Mike Shaft and Greg Wilson.

Manchester’s music scene is always thriving, but the city's R&B/neo-soul movement is having a special moment.

Mali Hayes, Fliss and [ K S R ] are just a few of the artists shaping the city's sound and turning Manchester into a national capital for the genre.
For our latest roundtable podcast episode, TSOTA spoke to them about the scene, their music, their careers and much more!

'Culture Matters' return explore  the state of the independent and grassroots cinema industry!
The State of the Arts enlisted several figures from across the North’s cinema landscape to discuss how the industry will recover from lockdown…
Tony Mundin – The Savoy, Regal, Rex & Ritz cinemas
Sally Folkard – Film Hub North
Wendy Cook –  Hyde Park Picture House
Michael Pierce & Monika Rodriguez – Scalarama
Listen to this special recording of our third panel event!

Jack McLoughlin and Georgia Madden are two talented, young Liverpudlian filmmakers, both featured at this year's BFI Future Film Festival. The festival takes place from the 17th - 20th February 2022 and both filmmakers' short films are up for awards.
We chatted to Jack and Georgia for a roundtable podcast episode, discussing their work and what it means to be nominated by the BFI. And with both of them being from Liverpool, we of course spoke about the role the city plays in both their lives, as its cultural reputation gets bigger and bigger.