Culture
Arts, culture and events
Painting missing for 60 years found in Millbrook attic and handed to Wrenhaven Art Gallery
Why it matters: A harbour scene that vanished from a council office in the 1960s has turned up wrapped in a blanket under the eaves of a terraced house in Millbrook. Its finder has given it to the city's art gallery.
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Callum Reid Culture
Night show on the shore: fireworks bloom above the water
Why it matters: Spectators lining the seafront watched coloured fireworks open in half-domes on the surface of the sea.
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Diego Fernández Culture
As the towers light up: a riverside skyline turns to night
Why it matters: A timelapse turns a cloudy evening into night as towers and skyscrapers switch on their lights.
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Niamh Gallagher Culture
Ruins of a medieval stronghold seen from the air
Why it matters: Drone footage shows stone walls on a green hill, a manor house and the small town around them.
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Viktor Lind Culture
Old Quay Jazz Weekend returns with 40 free gigs in pubs, cafés and on harbour boats
Why it matters: The festival is back after a year's break, with a pared-back budget, a focus on local musicians and a floating stage on a former ferry.
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Ana Sousa Culture
Independent bookshop opens in a former bank on Ropewalk Lane, vault and all
Why it matters: Two former librarians have turned a 1920s bank into a bookshop, with children's books in the old strongroom and a reading table where the counter used to be.
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Chloé Martin Culture
Harbour Lights Festival opens on the quay with three days of free music
Why it matters: Forty-two acts, two stages and no ticket barrier: the city's biggest free music weekend began last night on Old Quay, with organisers expecting more than 40,000 visitors before the final encore.
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Amara Nwosu Culture
Archaeologists uncover timbers of a medieval ship beneath the Old Quay car park
Why it matters: Oak planks and frames found during drainage works appear to belong to a trading vessel from the 14th century, the most complete ship find ever made in Wrenhaven.
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Isabel Duarte Culture
Central Library reopens after renovation with a late-night reading room
Why it matters: After eighteen months behind scaffolding, the Central Library on Old Quay is open again, with a repaired roof, a digitised harbour archive and a reading room that stays open until midnight.
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Wrenhaven Ballet School marks 50 years with a free open-air performance on the quay
Why it matters: Former pupils now dancing professionally will return to perform alongside current students in an anniversary show at Harbourside.
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Owen Pryce Culture
Museum of the Sea opens Knots and Nets, an exhibition of maritime crafts
Why it matters: More than 300 objects, from hand-braided rope ladders to a herring net still smelling faintly of tar, fill the museum's grand hall in a show built around the skills that kept the harbour working.
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Yasmin Haddad Culture
Tidewater Theatre Company opens its season with four new plays
Why it matters: Every production in the company's new season is a premiere, and three of the four were written by playwrights living within a tram ride of the Tidewater stage.
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Wrenhaven Film Week brings free open-air screenings to the quayside
Why it matters: Alongside its usual programme in the Asher Arts Centre cinema, this year's Film Week is putting up a giant screen on the Harbourside quay for six free evening shows.
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Ruth Abernathy Culture
Wrenhaven Philharmonic plays to 1,400 people in the dry dock at Saltings shipyard
Why it matters: Concertgoers sat on the floor of a drained dock for an evening of music inspired by the sea, the orchestra's largest outdoor performance in its history.
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Saltings Pottery Guild pairs young makers with master potters
Why it matters: Twelve young makers will spend nine months at the wheel beside experienced potters in the marsh villages, in a scheme the guild hopes will keep its craft alive for another generation.
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Rafael Ortega Culture
Folk song archive of 3,000 recordings from the Asher Valley digitised and opened to all
Why it matters: Reel-to-reel tapes made in farmhouses and pubs from the 1950s onwards can now be heard free of charge, after a three-year project by the Central Library.
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