Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry – main entrance (c.December 2022)
Warwick Arts Centre[1] is a multi-venue arts complex at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. It attracts around 300,000 visitors a year to over 3,000 individual events embracing all types of theatre and performance, contemporary and classical music, dance, comedy, visual art, films, talks and family events. Warwick Arts Centre is the largest arts centre in the Midlands, and the largest venue of its kind in the UK outside the Barbican Centre in London.[2][3][4]
Warwick Arts Centre consists of numerous spaces on the same site, including a large 1,500 capacity concert hall, theatre, three cinemas, art gallery (Mead Gallery), Helen Martin Studio and conference room, as well as learning space, hospitality suites, a café and bars.
The centre houses the University of Warwick Music Centre with practice rooms, and an ensemble rehearsal room where music societies and groups rehearse.[5]
History
The Arts Centre was the brainchild of first vice-chancellor Jack Butterworth and American benefactor Helen Martin – who was at the time anonymous.[6]
Commissioned in 1970 – and opened in October 1974 – the Arts Centre was designed by architects Renton, Howard, Wood Associates, and the building went on to win a RIBA award. initially with a theatre, studio theatre, conference room and a music centre, the venue was expanded further with the larger Butterworth Hall in 1981 and Mead Gallery, along with a cinema, in 1986.[7]
Following a four-year redevelopment, the largest in its history, the Arts Centre reopened to events in October 2021. Work included extensive upgrades of existing spaces, a new foyer, three new cinemas, and a new restaurant.[8]
This was followed in January 2022 with the reopening of the repositioned Mead Gallery. With a floor area of 6,458sq ft, it's the largest single dedicated contemporary exhibition space in the region.[9]
In autumn 2024, Warwick Arts Centre celebrated its 50th anniversary "with a programme honouring community creativity and its power to make change". The programme was entitled Rebels With A Cause![10]
Warwick Arts Centre has been described as "one of the best places in the Midlands to watch theatre, comedy and other shows"[13] with the building providing a "vibrant showcase for the very best in contemporary art, events and entertainment."[14]
Mead Gallery
Warwick Arts Centre's dedicated visual arts space, Mead Gallery, opened in May 1986. It was named to honour Phil Mead, a Coventry businessman who worked to develop support for the University and for Warwick Arts Centre, and designed by Renton Howard Wood Levine. It is a large, L-shaped space and presents three white cubes, which can be divided into three galleries.[15]
The gallery closed in 2018 as part of the Warwick Arts Centre 20:20 Project to redevelop the building, reopening in January 2022 with Rana Begum: Dappled Light.[18]
The Koan
Warwick Arts Centre (c.2012), with White Koan (1971) by Liliane Lijn in the foreground
A distinctive feature outside of the arts centre is White Koan by American-born artist Liliane Lijn, which was purchased by the university in 1972.[19]
Taking the form of a rotating, conical construction with light-up elements, the piece combines industrial materials and artistic processes. Liliane is known for exploring the interaction between art, science, technology and eastern philosophy and mythology.
A number of popular myths have grown around the piece since it was installed, including that it was the nose cone of a failed Apollo mission,[20] and has several nightclubs underneath it.[21]
The University of Warwick is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a government initiative to expand higher education. The Warwick Business School was established in 1967, the Warwick Law School in 1968, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) in 1980, and Warwick Medical School in 2000. Warwick incorporated Coventry College of Education in 1979 and Horticulture Research International in 2004.
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Liliane Lijn is an American-born artist who was the first woman artist to work with kinetic text, exploring both light and text as early as 1962; and in addition, she is in all likelihood the first woman artist to have exhibited a work incorporating an electric motor. She has lived in London since 1966.
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Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 is a designation given to the city of Coventry, England, between 2021 and 2025 by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The designation means that Coventry gains access to funding to improve its infrastructure and arts facilities, and will host a series of events celebrating local culture. Coventry was selected in 2017 to become the third UK City of Culture since the initiative began in 2013.
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