Enlighten Bury
Bury Town Centre
October 2017
In October 2017, Curated Place and Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre invited audiences to Enlighten Bury, a new light, sound and music festival. We presented an ambitious programme which worked with Bury Council’s desire to bring people and families to the town in the evening, providing an interactive fun festival for all ages, as well as attracting an audience from outside of Bury. Curated Place brought together a stellar programme of world premieres, award winning artworks and international musicians to the town over two nights.
Over 8,000 people visited the free public light art installation trail, tying together an eclectic music programme in challenging venues not usually used for live music. Our taking over of unusual spaces made the festival uniquely of Bury and demonstrated that the town’s cultural sector could work effectively across multiple sites. Enlighten Bury was a truly inclusive event for all providing an exciting family adventure through the town alongside a boundary-pushing music programme that showed how ambitious, high-quality art can transform perceptions and experience of place.
Programme Development
An incredible trail of 20 interactive light and sound installations brought the streets, venues, galleries and bars of the cultural quarter to life while stars of the experimental world music took to our stages transforming the Transport Museum and Parish Church into stunning, unique music venues. By showcasing the best in local and international talent we were able to nurture the local arts scene and develop new travelling audiences for Bury putting it on the cultural map of Greater Manchester. Featuring music and A/V performances from Hannah Peel, Wrangler, Plaid, Sykur, Orka, Wyles & Simpson, Cobby & Litten, James Orvis and more with visual arts interactives from BAFTA Winning Seb Lee-Delise, Felix Thorn, Paul Friedlander, The Owl Project and Stanza to name but a few.
Outreach & Engagement
The festival's volunteer programme worked with BAM Creatives to develop the skills and networks of young producers, while our schools programme enabled 6-9 year olds to learn both electronics and artistic skills with our dedicated outreach team. We ran a programme of arts and STEM education workshops with 3 primary schools alongside a series of Further Education creative development workshops in the lead in to the festival and worked with local community groups and businesses to develop the festival. Our education programme engaged with over 200 school children to produce a new light art piece with STEM artist Jenny Dockett, while our artist professional development programme enabled the Bury Collective to undergo 9 months of exchanges with peers in Blackpool and Aberdeen.
