ARTS DIARY

Scarborough’s mystery painting:

A stunning painting of Scarborough’s Grand Hotel has gone on display in the foyer of the town’s Art Gallery – and Scarborough Museums and Galleries is looking for help in identifying the artist. Believed to have been painted around 1867, the year it opened (it was both the largest hotel and the largest brick structure in Europe at the time), the pen, ink and wash on paper image depicts the hotel from a location just above the Spa. “We can guess from its detail and accuracy that it was made after the hotel was completed and is likely to have been specially commissioned,” says Andrew Clay, of Scarborough Museums and Galleries. “But we don’t have any records about the painting or the artist.” Anyone who has information, contact Scarborough Museums and Galleries at: info@scarboroughmuseumsandgalleries.org.uk

Orpheus wins three top awards:

Last year’s ground-breaking new staging of Monteverdi’s opera Orpheus, with newly composed music by Jasdeep Singh Degun, has swept the board at recent award ceremonies winning three accolades in recognition of its innovative approach to cultural collaboration. Having scooped the Outstanding Achievement in Opera Award at the 2022 Critics’ Circle Music Awards in September, the production has gone on to win the same category at the 2023 UK Theatre Awards and the Best Stage Production at the recent Asian Media Awards. The opera resulted from a long-standing collaborative relationship between two Leeds-based arts organisations – Opera North and SAA-uk, a centre of excellence for classical Indian music and dance.

Poet laureate to headline festival:

The multi-award-winning Huddersfield Literature Festival will return in April 2024, headlined by Simon Armitage. The Poet Laureate will give a poetry reading followed by a performance with his band LYR at the Lawrence Batley Theatre on April 11. The Festival will run from 18-28 April 2024, after securing a 30 per cent increase in Arts Council funding. Other authors include Monique Roffey, Sairish Hussain, Alex Wheatle and poets Steve Ely and Rose Condo.