Appetite
New Vic Theatre
Etruria Rd,
Newcastle-under-Lyme,
Staffordshire ST5 0JG
Programme Funders
Consortium
Let’s Light Up Hanley!
Tuesday 3 & Wednesday 4 February
Drop in any time 5pm – 8pm. FREE!
Location: around Albion Square and The Town Hall.
Light Up Hanley is the second event in our✨ Light Up Winter ✨ series, which includes Light Up Middleport (21 & 22 Jan) and Newcastle Under Light (4 March).
Featuring immersive artworks, projections and interactive installations, the Light Up Winter series will transform familiar spaces into glowing, playful places to explore after dark.
Each of the three events in the series will feature different artists and artworks, and a special vibe that reflects the community where it happens.
At Light Up Hanley, you will see a multi-sensory musical sculpture made up of more than 200 illuminated chime bars and a five-metre-high fortune-telling fruit machine.
It will also feature a large-scale projection onto The Town Hall co-created with young people from Stoke–on–Trent College, YMCA, Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, Pinc College and artists Illuminos.
With thanks to our Light Up Hanley partners Stoke-on-Trent City Centre BID and Stoke Creates.
Sneak peeks
Message in a Bottle Kiln
by Illuminos
Message in a Bottle Kiln is an inspiring new projection artwork from Illuminos to celebrate the centenary year of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, bringing Hanley Town Hall to life through animation and sound.
Playing on the idea of a message in a bottle, alongside the area’s iconic bottle kilns, Illuminos have worked with young people from Stoke imagining with them what they would place in a bottle kiln to send forwards into the future, and the wonderful transformations that might take place in the process.
Weaving the young peoples’ ideas into a vision of the next 100 years of Stoke-on-Trent, the building will come alive with the power and heat of the kilns, morphing and transforming as Spitfires turn to space travel, ceramics merge with silicon, melodies soar and treasures delight.
Positive Spin
Created for Liverpool’s River of Light 2024 festival, Positive Spin is a towering, five-metre-high interactive installation by illustrator Liz Harry and the creative collective The Kazimier (Invisible Wind Factory).
Merging the nostalgic charm of beachfront arcades with a futuristic aesthetic, the piece functions as a giant “automated tarot reader.” Three illuminated rotating drums- reminiscent of a vintage fruit machine – generate your fortune!
Adorned with Harry’s signature bold, colorful illustrations and framed by vibrant neon, the artwork uses play and spectacle to promote a mindset of optimism, inviting audiences of all ages to engage with a message of hope.
Illumaphonium
“A dynamic and interactive, multi sensory, music making installation – the first of its kind”.
This semi-acoustic, semi-automatic, multi-player musical sculpture stands over three and a half meters tall.
108 hand-tuned and illuminated chime bars respond to every players touch. As an ever-changing pattern of light and sound ripples across the giant instrument’s surface.
Become a part of the artwork Hanley, come play!
The Appetite programme and Light Up Winter series of events is funded by National Lottery through Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme. With additional event funding from UK Government, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Denise Coates Foundation, and Middleport Matters. Light Up Winter is delivered in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Centre BID, Newcastle-under-Lyme BID, and Stoke Creates.
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