Artichoke, also known as the Artichoke Trust, is a London-based British company and registered charitable trust that stages arts spectacles and live events. It was founded in 2002 by Helen Marriage, former director of the Salisbury International Arts Festival, and Nicky Webb. [1] [2] [3]
Artichoke specialises in working in unusual places, such as streets, public spaces and the countryside, and are frequently on a large scale. The company's website states:
We don’t believe the arts should take place only behind the closed doors of our theatres and art galleries. Instead, we put on shows that, though ambitious and complex, have something to say to the widest possible audience. [1]
The company produced French street theatre company Royal de Luxe's The Sultan's Elephant , the biggest piece of free theatre ever staged in London, [4] which attracted a million people over a four-day period in 2006, and the recent event in Liverpool featuring La Machine , a giant mechanical spider. [5] Artichoke has received praise from the press for their productions: a review in The Observer wrote: "a two-woman company called Artichoke ... are one of the most vital of theatrical forces", [6] and Marriage and Webb transformed the Salisbury Festival from a local event into what The Times called "a miracle of modern British culture". [7] [8] Marriage and Webb won the 2006 Women of the Year Shine Award for an outstanding achievement in the arts, [9] [10] and were listed in Time Out 's list of 100 Movers and Shakers in London in November of the same year. [10] [11] Their production of The Sultan's Elephant won the Visit London Award for Cultural Event of the Year in 2006. [10] [12] In October 2007 Artichoke mounted a one-day conference, Larger Than Life, on all aspects of staging large-scale productions.
The Artichoke Trust is a registered charity (Reg Charity No 1112716), funded by the Arts Council and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and raising significant funds from other trusts, foundations and businesses, as well as by public donation. [13] Artichoke also works as a consultant through its non-charitable company, Artichoke Productions Ltd.
 | This section needs to be updated.(June 2018) |
Nicky Webb and Helen Marriage worked together intermittently on productions prior to founding Artichoke in 2002. In all, their productions have included:
As Artichoke:
Nicky Webb (editor), 2006, Four Magical Days in May: How an Elephant Captured the Heart of a City London: Artichoke Trust
Marc Quinn is a British contemporary visual artist whose work includes sculpture, installation, and painting. Quinn explores "what it is to be human in the world today" through subjects including the body, genetics, identity, environment, and the media. His work has used materials that vary widely, from blood, bread and flowers, to marble and stainless steel. Quinn has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum, the Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Fondation Beyeler, Fondazione Prada, and South London Gallery. The artist was a notable member of the Young British Artists movement.
Nicholai Olivia "Nicky" Rothschild is an American socialite, fashion designer and model. She is a member of the Hilton family by birth, and a member of the Rothschild family through her marriage to James Rothschild, a grandson of Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, in 2015. She is the younger sister of Paris Hilton.
Salisbury Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Vauxhall and is connected to Nelson Dock to the north, Trafalgar Dock to the south and inland to Collingwood Dock.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.
The Sultan's Elephant was a show created by the Royal de Luxe theatre company, involving a huge moving mechanical elephant, a giant marionette of a girl and other associated public art installations. In French it was called La visite du sultan des Indes sur son éléphant à voyager dans le temps. The show was commissioned to commemorate the centenary of Jules Verne's death, by the two French cities of Nantes and Amiens, funded by a special grant from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. The show was performed at various locations around the world between 2005 and 2006.
Royal de Luxe is a French mechanical marionette street theatre company which specialises in giant puppets. They were founded in 1979 in Aix-en-Provence by Jean-Luc Courcoult. After some years based in Toulouse, the company moved to Nantes in 1989. The company has performed in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Iceland, Chile, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Ireland.
Dame Prudence Margaret Leith, is a South African restaurateur, television presenter/broadcaster, cookery writer and novelist.
The telectroscope was the first conceptual model of a television or videophone system. The term was used in the 19th century to describe science-based systems of distant seeing.
The Machines of the Isle of Nantes is an artistic, touristic and cultural project based in Nantes, France. The project is based in the old covered buildings of the former shipyards in Nantes that were at one time used for ship construction, and later used as business sites.
La Princesse is a 15-metre (50-foot) mechanical spider designed and operated by French performance art company La Machine. The spider was showcased in Liverpool, England, as part of the 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations, travelling around the city between 3–7 September. In 2009, it was on display in Yokohama, Japan, as part of Yokohama's 150th anniversary of its port opening. Arts reviewer Lyn Gardner wrote in The Guardian "There were times when it seemed to be leading the entire population of the city on a merry dance, like some kind of arachnid pied piper."
La Machine is a French production company based in Nantes, France, which is famous for La Princesse, a 50-foot mechanical spider constructed in Nantes, France.
François Delarozière is the art director of La Machine, a French company which is a collaboration between artists, designers, fabricators and technicians and which specialises in producing giant performing machines, often creatures. He has collaborated with French and international companies in productions ranging from traditional theatre to experimental street art.
Rowan David Oakes is a British actor and environmentalist. He is best known for his roles in the series The Pillars of the Earth, The Borgias, The White Queen, Victoria, Vikings: Valhalla, and for his discursive Natural History podcast, Trees A Crowd.
The Cinema Museum is a museum in Kennington, London. Its collection was founded in 1986 by Ronald Grant and Martin Humphries, from their own private collection of cinema history and memorabilia. Its current building was once a workhouse where Charlie Chaplin lived as a child.
Kuljit Bhamra MBE Hon DMus is a British composer, record producer and musician whose main instrument is the tabla. He is best known as one of the record producers who pioneered the British Bhangra sound and for his many collaborations with musicians from different genres and continents. His MBE was awarded in the Queen's Birthday Honour's List 2009 with the citation For services to Bhangra and British Asian Music. In July 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Exeter.
Sea Odyssey: Giant Spectacular was a three-day outdoor performance art event featuring giant marionettes, that took place in Liverpool, England, from 20 to 22 April 2012.
The National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) is an arts organisation in the United Kingdom providing pre-professional education and musical theatre stage experience for young people. Based in London, it is constituted as a private limited company and as a registered charity. NYMT was founded in 1976 by director and playwright Jeremy James Taylor. Since its inception, it has produced over fifty productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, premièred thirty new musical theatre works, toured several times outside the United Kingdom, and had runs in the West End and on Broadway. Amongst the many alumni of the National Youth Music Theatre who have gone on to careers in the performing arts are actors Idris Elba and Jude Law, both of whom are also patrons of the organisation, along with Jonny Lee Miller, Dylan Strazar, Sheridan Smith, Connie Fisher, and Matt Lucas. Alumni have also included directors such as Jo Davies, and songwriters such as Tara Mcdonald.
Memories of August 1914 was a five-day outdoor performance art event featuring giant marionettes, and took place in Liverpool, England, from 23 to 27 July 2014. The event started with the sleeping Grandmother on display in St George's Hall. On the Friday, approximately 300,000 people watched the giants in the city. On the final day, the giants left the city in a boat on the River Mersey, after making their way from Clarence Dock via The Strand. Crowd estimates show that over the course of the weekend, more than 1.5 million people attended the event.
A giant puppet is a puppet which is tall enough to be easily visible to a street crowd while being manipulated by puppeteers, on the same level. It is therefore most suitable for processions, street theatre and performance art, although some large theatrical animations can be used for the same purpose. Giant puppets are usually articulated and made from a lightweight material. Some are manipulated by puppeteers using rods, strings, stilts, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Giant puppets have been used worldwide for street entertainment, celebrations or other purposes from ancient times, and they continue in use and in development today. Of the traditional giant rod puppets, the Chinese dragon New Year puppet is "perhaps the most recognized form of the parade puppet". Of the most recent examples, Royal de Luxe of France has produced a notable set of giant string puppets.