SHIFT at Salisbury Arts Festival 2022
The Salisbury International Arts Festival brings fun and creativity to our modern medieval city and this year the youth of Salisbury have a starring role.
From 10th to 12th June 2022 a programme of events is being organised for, and by, youngsters through Wiltshire Creative’s SHIFT initiative.
Ahead of the events, Experience Salisbury has been talking to Roisin McCay Hines and Edward Scott – Shifts Associate Artists – to find out more.
Q: For those that don’t know, what are the Shift Initiatives?
A: SHIFT exists in order to amplify young voices through the arts. This year, we aim to achieve this by producing a whole weekend of events that platform the creative voice of young people as part of Salisbury International Arts Festival 2022.
Our ambitious and dynamic programme sees a variety of local, up and coming artists play the SHIFT Stage at Salisbury Market Square; create urgent, collaborative artworks in response to the climate emergency and, showcase a collection of new plays written, rehearsed and performed by young theatre makers within 24 hours of the event.
Join the fun at SHIFT Live at Salisbury Market Place
Q: Why is it important to have something like this for Salisbury?
A: It is important to have something like SHIFT as it highlights the wide range of voices that make up our community. SHIFT and stands as a counter balance to the often stagnant and stubborn perception of Salisbury and seeks to challenge the notion of a rural city in decline. SHIFT spotlights and nurtures the talent and creativity of our city’s future practitioners and safeguards the continued vibrancy and dynamism of Salisbury's rich cultural and artistic heritage for the future.
Q: How does it feel being part of the Salisbury International Arts Festival?
A: Being part of Salisbury International Arts Festival presents our young people with a massive platform to share their voice, be seen and heard in equal step with a multitude of highly regarded and recognised artists and performers. The Arts Festival is the cornerstone of our city’s cultural calendar and we are so excited to be an integral part of this year's programme.
Q: Which are the key events you think shouldn’t be missed?
A: ‘Kitchen Island Conversations’ is the big one for us. We’ll be taking over Salisbury Arts Centre all afternoon on Saturday 11th June for an Arts and Climate gathering that will hold the hopes, dreams, desires, fears and concerns of young people today at its centre. We’ve invited an exciting range of artists, activists and environmentalists to lead creative workshops, speak and answer questions on the arts and climate change, what we can do and how we can move towards a better future, together.
Across the same weekend is ‘Nightwalks with Teenagers’- a series of public walks developed by Canadian theatre company Mammallian Diving Reflex with students from Wyvern St Edmunds. These social-specific performances see a group of young people taking adults on a walk through the city at night. Nightwalks with Teenagers focuses on the power of walking; inviting older generations to see Salisbury through young people's eyes and brings people of all ages together to have a unique social experience in a shared place and time.
Nightwalks is coming to Salisbury Arts Festival 2022
Q: What’s in store for Shift once the Festival comes to a close?
A: Once the Festival comes to a close, we’ll all take a break and decompress before evaluating the successes of the SHIFT weekend. After that we’ll be looking to the future and using the activity of the SHIFT weekend to drive our ambitions of finding more ways we can bring people and communities together through engagement with the arts. SHIFT is an important and responsive programme of research and development for Wiltshire Creative and will continue to be integral to its future artistic planning.
SHIFT at Salisbury International Arts Festival will run from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th June. Find details of the full programme by clicking here.
If you’re thinking further ahead, why not pre-book your Salisbury Panto tickets for Christmas 2022! You’ll find more information through the Experience Salisbury What’s On page.