Finding the future sound of Coventry is just one event in a newly launched year-long festival announced today, Monday 10^th May 2021 to Resonate with Coventry’s year as City of Culture.

The University of Warwick – a principal partner of Coventry City of Culture – is launching the Resonate Festival, an exciting and wide-reaching programme of events designed to spark creativity, connectivity, collaboration and conversations amongst across the City. In collaboration with partners across Coventry & Warwickshire, the Festival comprises a 12-month programme organised around monthly themes that complement those of the wider City of Culture programme. It will include online events, exhibitions, film festivals, walking tours, debates, and much more before closing with a live celebration event on the Warwick campus in April 2022.

Just some of the events in the Resonate Festival are:

• Working with Coventry people to find the Future Sound of Coventry
  A project bringing together academic researchers, artists, practitioners and the public in Coventry to address the question: what does the future of Coventry sound like? To answer it the University will be working together with communities to create sound compositions and performances, using field recordings of the city gathered by Coventry people.
  https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/research/sampling-sounds-of-the-future
  
  
• Working with school children to literarily stitch together Coventry’s past and future.
  Children in years 5 and 6 will take inspiration from Coventry’s textiles history and learn to create embroidery designs by writing computer programs. The University will work with local teachers to run the project, which can be taught in one day or spread out over five to six weeks between May 2021 and February 2022, culminating in the children's work being exhibited in an online gallery, and in a City of Culture exhibition on campus in in April 2022. https://warwick.ac.uk/about/cityofculture/get-involved/projects/stitchintime/overview/
  
  
• Pairing artists with engineers to design the city of the future
  Working with local Coventry art group, Foleshill Creates and artist Kitty Kaur, we will be exploring how we can use recycled materials to build greener cities for our communities. A series of workshops will look at how innovative new materials will allow us to unlock our creativity in designing public spaces. Join the researchers and artists for a lively discussion and Q&A on 26^th May, 12:00-12:45. More details here: https://warwick.ac.uk/about/cityofculture/get-involved/programme/current-events/foleshill_creates
  
  
• Invention and mindfulness
  Mindfulness practices have not only been shown to be beneficial for navigating the difficulties of life, but also for engaging in the positives and for cultivating greater creativity, problem-solving and invention. In this 1-hour session we will begin by exploring what contemporary mindfulness is (and what it isn’t) before engaging in 2 activities designed to slow the mind, body and emotions down whilst heightening our experience of each moment. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/invention-and-mindfulness-tickets-152984708381

 

Professor Stuart Croft, Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick said:

“Like all event organisers we have been challenged by the current situation to look at how to reorganise and rethink some of our planned activities in the first quarter of the festival programme. However, we have done so and will be mounting a fantastic Resonate Festival that aims to provide people of all ages and backgrounds across Coventry and Warwickshire with a chance to take part.”

Professor Helen Wheatley, Festival Director said:

“We’re so proud to be bringing the Resonate Festival to Coventry, celebrating our wonderful vibrant City of Culture and the role that our staff and students play in the city. At the heart of our programme are events and activities that are designed to excite, inspire and resonate with the widest possible range of audiences, encouraging new ideas, connections, creativity and conversations. We’ve also been thoughtful in how we represent and reflect on our city’s varied cultural traditions, seeking to bring diverse voices and artistic traditions together with our University’s academic researchers.”

Jane Furze, Director of the Warwick Institute of Engagement said:

“The University is committed to building connections and making a positive impact in our region. In 2020, we launched the Warwick Institute for Engagement, taking a fresh approach to University engagement. Our ambition is to ensure that the incredible talent, knowledge and expertise of our world-class University researchers inspires new generations and communities beyond the boundaries of our University campus; we also know that we have much to learn from those around us and we can only do that if we connect and communicate with each other.”

In the City of Culture year, the University of Warwick is also working closely with colleagues in the Warwick Arts Centre, on the University campus, to make sure that the Resonate Festival complements their exciting plans for the year ahead, including their City of Culture opening event ‘The Language of Kindness’ on 20-23 May and plans for the relaunch and official reopening of the newly re-designed building in October.

Many more details on the Resonate Festival can be found at: https://warwick.ac.uk/resonate

For further information please contact:
Peter Dunn, Director of Press and Media Relations
Chief Communications Officer’s Group, University of Warwick
Mobile/Cell: 07767 655860 UK +44 (0)7767 655860 International
Email p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

Notes for Editors

Spokespeople available for interview:

1. Professor Helen Wheatley, Festival Director, University of Warwick

2. Jane Furze, Director of the Warwick Institute of Engagement

Professor Helen Wheatley biography:

Helen is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick and Deputy Chair of the Faculty of Arts. She is also co-founder and current director of the Centre for Television Histories and an award-winning writer in this field. She comes to the Resonate Festival with a passion for engaging with the public, and was one of the team behind the university’s collaboration on the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum’s record-breaking exhibition, The Story of Children’s Television, From 1946 to Now’. Much of her recent research has focused on working collaboratively with archivists, curators and other organisations to engage the public with the history of British broadcasting. Since joining the Warwick Institute of Engagement as Director of the Resonate Festival, she has embraced the challenge of ensuring that staff and students from across Warwick seize the opportunity to take their research expertise off campus, and work collaboratively of the people of Coventry.

Jane Furze biography:

Jane has led Warwick’s Public Engagement team since 2017. Her tenure as Director of Regional Strategy and Public Engagement has seen Warwick host major events such as the British Science Festival, feed into national decision making around PE, and the creation and launch of the Warwick Institute of Engagement. Alongside her role in creating the Warwick Institute

of Engagement, Jane is Director of Regional Strategy and leads the University’s marketing and communications strategy. She sits on a number of national public engagement forums including the Royal Society Public Engagement committee. She has extensive knowledge and expertise in engagement after a career spent in management and communications roles across private, public and charitable sectors. In particular, her time spent as Director and CEO for Cheltenham Festivals ignited her passion for engagement. She is a firm believer in the power of engaging young people, in ensuring engagement is inclusive and reaches all parts of our community, and in championing the importance of experts building knowledge and understanding in our communities.

 

10th May 2021

For further information please contact:

Peter Dunn, Director of Press and Media Relations
Chief Communications Officer’s Group, University of Warwick
Mobile/Cell: 07767 655860 UK +44 (0)7767 655860 International
Email p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk