Bristol Museum & Art Gallery to compete for Museums at Night festival

Five artists, 18 venues, two weeks to vote…

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery will compete against two other venues in a public vote to win a contemporary artist-led event in October’s Museums at Night festival.

Museums at Night is the biannual after-hours festival of arts, culture and heritage that sees venues all over the UK throw open their doors to showcase their treasures in unexpected ways.

With enough public votes, we will be lucky enough to work with Bedwyr Williams on an evening that conjures the world of our ancient ancestors with camp-fire discussions on the nature of existence, followed by stand-up comedy.

Voting opens at 11am on Friday 29 April 2016 and closes on Saturday 14 May at 9pm.

Bedwyr is a Welsh artist, based in Caernarfon. Working across a variety of media including performance, video, sculpture and text; Bedwyr investigates the friction between the deadly serious and banal aspects of modern life. He often satirises the role of the artist and curator against this backdrop, creating cruel and absurd scenarios for them to appear in.

Bedwyr inspired us with this idea:
“As I have a long-standing interest in mysterious historic periods and people I would like to hold a Druid open mic night. Imagine Stonehenge was actually a very niche comedy club. The audience are also the entertainers. Dressed up in badly made druid clobber, beards and wigs a selection of them will be able to get on stage and do a turn – anything, singing, yodelling, memory reading, spoons, funny burps or impressions. I’d also like to open some kind of druid bar or cafe selling prehistoric snacks and drinks. I think there is something special about dressing up as people you know very little about.”

If you vote, you get the chance to take part in the magical art that you helped create.

Three other Bristol venues have also been shortlisted: Arnos Vale Cemetery is competing to win an evening with Marcus Coates; Clifton Suspension Bridge is competing to win a night with Peter Liversidge; and Arnolfini is competing to win an evening with Susan Hiller.

You can vote for all four Bristol venues when voting opens on Friday 29 April.

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is up against Somerset House in London and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe to win Bedwyr Williams.

In 2013, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery beat Holburne Museum in Bath, the Foundling Museum in London and the Time Machine Funtington in Chichester and won the chance to work with Gavin Turk on a mystical evening of Egyptian-themed encounters with real scarab beetles, Egyptian makeup, Arabic music, dance performances and storytelling.