Stoke-on-Trent Illuminated: Ghosts of The Leopard #LightNightSOT

Discover the secret history of one of Burslem’s most iconic buildings and its incarnations through the centuries, The Leopard.

Haunted by famous visitors from Stoke-on-Trent past from ceramic artist Clarice Cliff to Charles Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood and canal pioneer James Brindley met in its rooms in 1765 and cemented it’s place in the history of the Industrial Revolution.

It’s hotel rooms and hidden tunnels were sealed off in the 1930s – but which ghosts will make contact tonight? Witness for yourself in animated projection, Ghosts of The Leopard.

One of four stunning animated projections which will illuminate pieces of Stoke-on-Trent’s history in Burslem. Especially commissioned for Light Night Stoke-on-Trent from renowned projection experts, Illuminos.

Discover the other projections in Stoke-on-Trent Illuminated:

The Most Powerful Weapon
Settling in Stoke-on-Trent
On Shining Wings 

Stoke-on-Trent Illuminated is presented as part of Light Night Stoke-on-Trent.

Find out more and plan your visit here.

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Stoke-on-Trent Illuminated: The Most Powerful Weapon #LightNightSOT

The Sunday School Movement set about improving the lives of the working class by educating children. Taking the Bible as their textbook children were taught to read and write on their only day of the week not labouring.

Learn the story of this revolutionary movement which gave thousands of children ‘the most powerful weapon’ in a powerful animated projection on Burslem’s Old Sunday School.

Hear The Light Night Community Choir perform live as part of The Most Powerful Weapon on the Thursday and Friday evenings of Light Night at 6:15pm, 6:25pm & 6:35pm.

Lyrics inspired by founder of the Movement, Robert Raikes and by Nelson Mandela. Music written by Mary Keith.

Outside of the live performances, audiences will be able to hear an audio recording of the Choir as part of the projection.

The Old Sunday School was built in 1836 and closed in 1977. Beyond repair, the main body was demolished in 1987 with only the portico remaining.

One of four stunning animated projections which will illuminate pieces of Stoke-on-Trent’s history in Burslem. Especially commissioned for Light Night Stoke-on-Trent from renowned projection experts, Illuminos.

Discover the other projections in Stoke-on-Trent Illuminated:

Ghosts of The Leopard
Settling in Stoke-on-Trent
On Shining Wings 

Stoke-on-Trent Illuminated is presented as part of Light Night Stoke-on-Trent.

Find out more and plan your visit here.

The Light Night Community Choir Members 

Anthony Wright | Barbara Eardley | Bernard Besly | Claire Stevens | Claire Wright | David Woolley | Di Morris | Doug Phillips | Heather Rushton | Helen Blakeman | Hilary Sides |Jane Besly | Jane Lythgoe | Janet Mason | Jen Phillips | Joanne Finney | Judy Tindall | Julia Crooks | Karen Freeman| Karen Taft | Kate Smith | Linda Longshaw | Lisa Ebberley |Maisy Hughes | Marie Morris | Mary Dale | Mary Issitt | Michelle Fry | Mo O’Sullivan | Rebecca Leach | Sadie Hughes | Sarah Colclough | Shiya Wright | Susan Belfield | Victor Maclaren

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The Voyagers by Cédric Le Borgne #LightNightSOT

They appear and disappear in the sky, between dream and reality.
They visit the parks, the monuments, they land on the roofs.
They contemplate the city, explore it, touch it, imagine it.
Perhaps they are the imagination of the inhabitants or passers-by…

The Voyagers journey began in Toulouse, France at the end of the 1990s, when artist Cédric Le Borgne installed his first sculptures in the streets of his neighbourhood using public lighting and car headlights. Since then The Voyagers have travelled the world, from Geneva to Seoul, from London to Singapore, inviting everyone to take a fresh look at their daily reality ,

The Voyagers celebrates the poetry of everyday life. Discover one of these travellers in Burslem.

The Voyagers is presented as part of Light Night Stoke-on-Trent. Match funded by Arts Council England and Stoke-on-Trent City Council and delivered by Appetite in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Cultural Forum, find out more about Light Night Stoke-on-Trent and plan your visit here.

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Hours of Darkness by The Social Agency #LightNightSOT

It’s 3am. Something wakes you from your sleep – what was it? A fox? An owl? Something unknown and unseen. You turn over and try to get back to sleep, but thoughts intrude, and start to race around and around, stopping you from returning to your slumber. This is your ‘old’ brain, hyper vigilant against threat, a leftover from the dim and distant past when we lived in caves and huts. It kept us safe then from the creatures of the night, but they’re all gone now…

Hours of Darkness is a giant illuminated lantern brain with short films exploring ideas about the things that keep us awake at night created especially for Light Night Stoke-on-Trent as part the North Staffordshire-artist commissions.

Created by The Social Agency, an arts-based support group for autistic and/or learning-disabled adults, facilitated by Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation). Realised by local artists Richard Redwin and B arts’ Hilary Hughes, with sound by Toby White.

Hours of Darkness is presented as part of Light Night Stoke-on-Trent. Match funded by Arts Council England and Stoke-on-Trent City Council and delivered by Appetite in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Cultural Forum, find out more about Light Night Stoke-on-Trent and plan your visit here.

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Colony by Mike Blow and Alison Ballard #LightNightSOT

Come and roam between these giant, other-worldly objects and experience their sonic universe.

Sounds radiate from inside the pods and vibrate upon their surface, creating music that you can hear, feel and touch.

Giant blue pods transform the town into an alien landscape in an entrancing sound installation.

Colony is presented as part of Light Night Stoke-on-Trent. 

Match funded by Arts Council England and Stoke-on-Trent City Council and delivered by Appetite in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Cultural Forum, find out more about Light Night Stoke-on-Trent and plan your visit here.

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Arthur Berry Shines Again by Neon Workshops and Arthur Berry #LightNightSOT

Experience the words of painter, poet and writer Arthur Berry lit up large in Burslem Town Centre created by Neon Workshops.

Dubbed the ‘Lowry of the Potteries’, Berry was born in Smallthorne, Stoke-on-Trent in 1925, studying at Burslem School of Art from the age of 14, where he later went on to teach, and The Royal College in 1943. Berry’s work was rooted in the culture of North Staffordshire and the vanishing industrial potteries.

Discover two large-scale neon works taken from Arthur Berry’s words created especially for Light Night Stoke-on-Trent:

Warmth & Humanity

Location | Inside Mothertown Fish & Chips

‘The working-class life I was reared in, I could never leave it. There was warmth and humanity abut it that I was easy with. I felt that the memories of the streets I grew up in were deep in the silt of my mind and that if I was ever going to make anything of value, it would have to be made out of that.’ Arthur Berry, 1984

Shine Again

Location | Above Market Place Cafe

Taken from the poem ‘Heat Wave’: ‘And all the roofs of the town will shine again.’
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About Neon Workshops
We make and install neon.
We teach and preach neon.
We exhibit and publish neon.

Neon Workshops was set up in 2010 by artist Richard William Wheater, in his home city of Wakefield, out of frustration that there was nowhere in Europe to learn hands-on in a creative environment. Now in its ninth year consulting, fabricating, installing, teaching and exhibiting neon, with the hope of inspiring future generations to play with and develop a subject that has heaps of potential.

Arthur Berry Shines Again is presented as part of Light Night Stoke-on-Trent.

Match funded by Arts Council England and Stoke-on-Trent City Council and delivered by Appetite in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Cultural Forum, find out more about Light Night Stoke-on-Trent and plan your visit here.

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