Select: things
to do online
An ever growing list of things to keep you and your family entertained, amused and educated
Scarborough
A programme of seaside and animal-themed stories, crafts and activities to keep children entertained through the summer holidays is available from Scarborough Museums Trust between 22 July and 20 Aug. The highlight each week will be a new audio story written by Jan Bee Brown (pictured), released each Wednesday. The stories will bring paintings from the museum’s collections to life, weaving together folk tales and local characters and landmarks, from Dottie the Donkey to the Hispaniola.
(scarboroughmuseumstrust.com/learning/family-resources)
Manchester
The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair goes online this year to support designer-makers through the pandemic. Some 160 participants will show their work on 25-31 July, with viewers able to buy jewellery, textiles, ceramics, glass, print and furniture.
Grizedale
Internationally acclaimed artist Gerry Judah brings together a striking body of work built over nearly a decade for Bengal: The Four Elements, at Grizedale Forest Gallery, 21 July-9 Sept. Visually forceful, Judah’s detailed sculptures engage with issues of climate change in India whilst also exploring the artist’s personal history.
(forestryengland.uk/grizedale)
Settle
Guest-directed by Joanne Harris, Yorkshire Festival of Stories hosts over 80 events online for free. Marking the 10th anniversary of Settle Stories the event is on 1-31 Aug and features big names including Jenni Murray, Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen and Booker-Prize winner Ben Okri, alongside workshops in storytelling and chocolate making, and a packed programme for children.
(yorkshirefestivalofstories.com)
Los Angeles
Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli appears live from Gold Diggers in Los Angeles on 1 Aug. Using material from his recent solo record Random Desire as well as other songs from his career, Dulli plays the set twice – once to accommodate UK fans at 8pm GMT.
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire Moors Railway is firing up the engines to welcome passengers aboard from 1 August. The reopening on Yorkshire Day sees the beginning of four departures daily from Pickering to Levisham and from Grosmont to Goathland. Tickets must be pre-booked for a specific time slot before visiting.
London
Art Enthusiasts London is hosting a series of webinars and online workshops for all ages. Highlights include Fauvism for kids age 6-9, Impressionism for ages 10-13, stained glass painting for 5-6 year olds and Kandinsky webinars for children age 10-13 and separately for adults.
(eventbrite.co.uk/o/art-enthusiasts-london-12917494907)
Blackpool
The Virtual, Arty, Art B&B Pyjama Party on 24 July is an online event marking the end of lockdown and the imminent reopening of the art hotel. Associate artist Mykey J Young will host and broadcast the final episode of his Weekly Kiki. He’ll be joined by artist Jez Dolan, comical cabaret musical act Black Liver and one of Blackpool’s most famous fortune tellers.
Manchester
Home’s new production asks what if there was a parallel universe floating 3cm underneath the surface of the world? Actualquest is an interactive, immersive, fantasy musical set in and around your own home. All you need is a smart device, about
25 minutes and a giddy sense of adventure.
homemcr.org/production/actualquest
London
This online National Youth Theatre production premieres on 23 July, running until 31 July on its YouTube page, and features time travel, couples therapy – and dancing. Made and rehearsed during lockdown,
Tiny Dancer is a fast-paced video drama.
nyt.org.uk/whats-on/tiny-dancers
Gateshead
In her 80th birthday year, Judy Chicago – one of the most important feminist artists of the last half-century – received her first major exhibition in the UK. The exhibition is currently closed under lockdown but can still be visited online.
baltic.art/whats-on/exhibitions/judy-chicago
London
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a rowdy young prodigy, arrives determined to make a splash. Awestruck by his genius, court composer Antonio Salieri has the power to promote his talent or destroy it. Stream the National Theatre’s production of Amadeus, based on Peter Shaffer’s play, with Lucian Msmati playing Salieri and live orchestral accompaniment by Southbank Sinfonia.
nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/nt-at-home-amadeus
Tatton
Tatton Park at Home is a virtual celebration of RHS Flower Show Tatton Park, with fabulous flowers, plants, design and information on gardening careers. Starting on 22 July, Back to Back Gardens demonstrates ways with small gardens, and there’s growing advice and shopping from home.
rhs.org.uk/shows-events/tatton-park-at-home
Leeds
Online is this year’s production of Benjamin Britten’s spine-chilling ghostly opera Turn of the Screw, part of #OperaNorthAtHome. In a remote country house a governess fights to protect two orphaned children from strange and menacing spirits. It was staged at Leeds Grand Theatre.
operanorth.co.uk/watch-online/watch-online-the-turn-of-the-screw
Countrywide
Digital comedy club Next Up hosts a Comedy Festival ( until 31 July). Shows lasting 50 minutes take place at 8pm on Zoom and seats are limited to 200. Acts include Mark Watson, Josie Long (pictured) and Tiff Stevenson.
Leeds
Capturing the drama of the backstage world during a performance of La Traviata by Opera North, Tragedy, by artist and film maker Lynne Marsh, is available to watch as as part of BBC Arts Culture in Quarantine. Marsh turns her camera on the hidden elements of the production, exploring the performance from the perspectives of stage managers, technicians, dressers and performers backstage.
(bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08hv3rk/tragedy-opera-norths-production-of-la-traviata)
Warrington
Visitors can now book free slots to visit Warrington Museum and Art Gallery. You can book up to five tickets for near private viewings of permanent collections and current temporary displays Undivinable by Derek Dick, Not All Who Wander Are Lost from Creative Remedies and 10,000 Steps from Jan Newhouse.
Manchester
Virtual Factory is a series of online artworks inspired by the architecture and ambition of the Factory, a new cultural space in Manchester. The first Virtual Factory project is Your Progress Will Be Saved, created by avatar artist LaTurbo Avedon, which reimagines the Factory within Fortnite Creative. Starting from a familiar-looking apartment, you’ll escape into the more alluring online wonderlands of music, entertainment and social connection.
(epicgames.com/fn/1248-2128-4287)
Leeds
Nine Lives is a Leeds Playhouse-commissioned play following Ishmael, who fled life-threatening homophobia in Zimbabwe. In Leeds there is the prospect of sanctuary but he faces uncertain acceptance and right to remain. The play is free to watch on YouTube but donations to the Black LGBTQIA+ Therapy Fund are encouraged.
Anglesey
Schoolchildren can visit Bryn Celli Ddu, a prehistoric tomb that’s been recreated by Manchester University academics in Minecraft. The interactive virtual tour takes the viewer through the landscape, with its main passage tomb, the cairn cemetery, rock art panels and Neolithic house based on evidence from Llanfaethu in Anglesey.
(mcphh.org/bryn-celli-ddu-minecraft-experience)
Leeds
Opera North is launching a new virtual choir to give everyone a chance to enjoy being part of an operatic chorus, wherever they live in the country and whatever their previous experience might be. From Couch to Chorus will take place over Zoom, with four weekly sessions for soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices. These will be led by a professional choral director with input from members of the Chorus of Opera North.
Lancaster
These Hills Are Ours is a new choral performance film by artist Daniel Bye, former Chumbawumba guitarist Boff Whalley and a volunteer choir from Morecambe. Filmed in March, it follows filmmakers and the 42-strong choir walking from the proposed site of Eden Project North on Morecambe seafront to the summit of Clougha Pike in the Forest of Bowland.
Huddersfield
Lawrence Batley Theatre is showing its online adaptation of Nigel Slater’s Toast – a play relying on its interactive nature through the smell of food on stage. Featuring the original West End cast of Toast, ticketholders receive a recipe card from Slater enabling them to immerse themselves in this sensory and heart-warming play.
York
Kentmere House Gallery reopens by appointment only, for sales and viewings of current exhibition A Life in Colour: Work from the Studio of Jack Hellewell, including unframed pieces by the local artist never seen before.
Bradford
The National Science and Media Museum is hosting an online photo exhibition to celebrate 50 years of the MacRobert Award for engineering innovation, which recognises not only technical achievement but social benefits. The photos, by Ted Humble-Smith, were commissioned by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2019 for the anniversary.
(scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk)
North Yorkshire
Forest 100: A Year in the Life is an online photo exhibition by Scarborough-based Tony Bartholomew, reflecting a year in the life of North Yorkshire’s Dalby Forest and marking 100 years of the Forestry Commission.
(forestryengland.uk/forest-100-year-the-life)
Southport
The Triumph of Art is a digital exhibition celebrating the restoration of the painting of the same name, given to the Atkinson in the late 19th century. In the work, by Nicolas Pierre Loir, classical figures representing the visual arts pay homage to Jean Baptiste Colbert, a patron of the arts and a powerful minister who helped Louis XIV rule over France in the 1600s. The exhibition also features highlights from the Atkinson’s collection.
Coventry
Part gig, part play, Reasons To Be Cheerful is about the life and enduring music of Ian Dury and the Blockheads. A Graeae Theatre Company production in association with the Belgrade Theatre Coventry, it’s available to stream until 3 Aug.
(graeae.org/reasons-to-be-cheerful-available-to-watch-online/)
