The University of Sussex has an exceptional reputation for offering students an education that equips them not only with knowledge and skills but that helps them to think creatively. Further students are encouraged to work across boundaries, and understand the importance of a global perspective.
Earlier this year, the University of Sussex was announced as the official Higher Education Partner for the Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival 2023. This is the first time the University has been recognised as the Higher Education Partner for the festival. It builds on the role that the University has played in previous years in bringing academic expertise to the Festival through curated arts and culture programming.
This year’s Festival programme will include four events co-delivered with University of Sussex Festival of Ideas.
These will be at multiple venues across the city and a further nine Brighton Festival events on campus. They are co-presented in partnership with the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA), the University’s arts centre.
The University of Sussex Festival of Ideas is a dynamic and engaging programme of talks, events and activities. It comes from the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, which will sit within the main Brighton Festival programme. The event series looks to harness the transformative power of the arts and humanities to fashion new ways of thinking about the past, present and future. Events include:
- The Live Archive, hosted by Erin James. James is the most recent recipient of the Stuart Hall fellowship at the University of Sussex. They encompass a radical reimagining of archival research through poetry and performance.
- Acoustic Ecologies: Mapping the Climate Emergency. To mark Flock’s Sleeping Tree installation at Brighton Dome over the opening weekend of the festival, we bring together a panel of speakers. Including, Dr Alice Eldridge from University of Sussex, to open up and frame the theme of acoustic ecologies.
- Gardens, Botany and Histories of (De)Colonialism. Taking the Royal Pavilion and Garden as their starting point, Rob Boyle, Head Gardener at Royal Pavilion Garden, and University of Sussex Professor of South Asian History, Vinita Damodaran, will explore the remarkable relationships between botany and colonialism.
- Music for Girls, which will take the form of a panel of artists, writers and listeners for an afternoon of conversation and activities exploring collective music histories and lost memorabilia.
The University’s role as the Festival’s Higher Education Partner reinforces their commitment to regional arts and culture. Also, it builds on their partnership with Towner Eastbourne, including as the Education Partner for the #TurnerPrize2023.
