Today the University of Sheffield launched the cerebral-sounding Festival of the Mind, this new fixture in the city’s festive calendar is apparently ‘a celebration of ideas, culture and collaboration.’ Quite literally a festival of freethinking, not one of its 50-plus events will cost you a penny.
Festival of the Mind is the brainchild of Professor Vanessa Toulmin in her capacity as the University’s Head of Cultural Engagement. Her other, and even more thrilling, title is Director of the National Fairground Archive. Not only is she a leading authority on Victorian entertainment, she is herself from a Lancashire showland family. Some of this carnivalesque sensibility can be seen in one of the festival venues, a glorious Spiegeltent (Dutch for “Mirror Tent”) constructed in wood and canvas, decorated with mirrors and stained glass and currently holding court in Barker’s Pool. It’s worth going to one of the events here just to enjoy the fin de siècle glamour.
There’s a veritable smorgusboard of brain food on offer from now until 30 September, surely enough to please any polymath but my personal picks are:
A City In Context
An animated film to make us change the way we think about our city.
A City In Context is a collaboration between the Designer’s Republic successor Humanstudio, media don Danny Dorling among others. The academics provided facts and statistics based on their research. Humanstudio turned those insights into an animated film. The result is an entertaining journey that forces us to think again about our city and the world.
Animal Magic
Artworks that celebrate the magic of the animal kingdom.
Animal Magic is a series of original artworks celebrating the poetic magic of the animal kingdom. It’s a lively, ambitious collaboration between artist Paul Evans and animal behaviour expert Professor Tim Birkhead from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences.
Arrivals Zone
Those irrepressible chaps at the Sheffield Publicity Department are at it again with a dream tourist information kiosk for Sheffield.
For the duration of the festival, our magical, romantic, creative city gets the kind of tourist information kiosk we know it deserves. From the kiosk, SPD’s guides will take visitors (and residents) to the best bits of the city: up to the most beautiful views, into the forests, down to the real-ale breweries. They’ll present the best products: the books, the art, the records that are Made in Sheffield. And they’ll showcase the talented creatives working in this city today.
The Myth of Monogamy: What Darwin Thought About Sex
Not much info on this one but the racy title and assurance that this isn’t suitable for young children is enough for me. Let’s hope we learn of the preferences and peccadillos of the bearded evolutionist.
Full details of the dizzyingly diverse programme can be found here, do be aware that although the events are free some are ticketed and have particular age suitability etc.
Do comment below on what your picks of the festival are.