This autumn’s cultural agenda in the UK offers a diverse mixture of inspiring and vibrant events supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands in the United Kingdom. Dutch authors, performers, visual artists and other creatives are taking part in events up and down the country. A little glimpse of what’s in store:
Cherish Menzo performs JEZEBEL
Cheltenham Literature Festival
Are you a booklover? Don’t miss the globally renowned Cheltenham Literature Festival between the 7th and 16th of October in the heart of Cheltenham, to attend programmes with several Dutch authors such as Hanna Bervoets, Rodaan Al Galidi and Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. Together with other UK and international guests, they will discuss their publications and open up conversations on related themes.
More info on the events at Cheltenham literature Festival that are part of the New Dutch Writing campaign:
London Film Festival
More of a film fan? Discover a range of Dutch productions during the British Film Institute London Film Festival between 5 and 16 October. On 9 and 10 October the feauture film ‘Shabu‘ will be shown. This is a hilarious and heartwarming film by director Shamira Raphaëla about a 14-year-old Dutch-Surinamese wannabe rapper who gets into all kinds of trouble. Other Dutch productions include the short films ‘Aeronaut’ by Leon Golterman and ‘Bristles’ by Quentin Haberham, which both feature in ‘Animated Shorts for Younger Audiences‘ on Saturday 15 October.
What’s really spectacular is the Extended Reality exhibition at 26 Leake Street (near Waterloo Station). This exhibition features two artworks from the Netherlands: ‘Walzer‘ by Frieda Gustav and Leo Erken, and ‘Line of Contact‘ by Dani Ploeger. This XR showcase can be visited throughout the film festival, from 5 to 16 October.
Battersea Arts Centre and Midlands Arts Centre
Do you enjoy dance and theatre? The fierce and captivating dance performance JEZEBEL, by Dutch dancer and choreographer Cherish Menzo is coming to Battersea Arts Centre in London (6 to 14 October) and Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham (16th of October, part of Fierce Festival). Images in 1990s rap videos often projected females in a hyper-sensualized way, reinforcing stereotypes associated with women of colour. Join Jezebel as she navigates the landscape of hip hop culture, searching for ways to reclaim her own image.
Ivory Tars, The Showroom, Ferens Art Gallery & more
Looking for the hottest new visual artists? ‘PIECE(D) WORK’ by Tenant of Culture is currently on at Ivory Tars in Glasgow, Inas Halabi‘s installation ‘We No Longer Prefer Mountains’ opens at The Showroom in London on 25 October, and the installation ‘There Will Be Time’ by Rosalie Wammes is part of the Bloomburg New Contemporaries 2022 exhibition in Hull (and from December also in London).
Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre
If you love classical music concerts you should head to Wigmore Hall for a concert by the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam on 23 October. This excellent string quartet has toured all over the UK and was part of BBC Proms Liverpool 2022. This is probably their last UK concert this year.
On 4 and 5 November there are two concerts at London’s Barbican Centre by the eminent Dutch orchestra the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest. On 4 November they perform symphonies by Brahms and Beethoven, in collaboration with violinist Leonidas Kavakos. On 5 November the orchestra plays music by Mahler and the fantastic contemporary Dutch composer Rick van Veldhuizen (which is a UK premiere).
Embassy support
We are delighted with such a culturally rich October programme, that opens up new opportunities for Dutch artists and provides audiences in the UK an opportunity to enjoy Dutch culture.
The Dutch Embassy in the UK actively supports cultural collaborations between Dutch artists and British arts organisations. More information on what that support entails can be found on www.netherlandsandyou.nl/uk/culture.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
