The Reel Store
The UK's first permanent immersive digital art gallery opens in Coventry, previews from Friday 5 May 2022.
Assembly Festival Garden
Open for three months this summer from 01 July, the Garden will be home to a mouth-watering selection of local food makers, four extraordinary performance spaces and will serve as a social hub for those wishing to make the most of their visit to the UK’s City of Culture.
The Garden has been designed from the ground up to include covid-specific adaptations to ensure events run as smoothly and safely as possible. The Garden and performances spaces will have flexible configurations to align with evolving UK Government guidance. This will be combined with a number of measures, including contactless payments and ticketing, increased ventilation and a robust contact tracing process.
Green Futures
Green Futures is a flagship programme for Coventry City of Culture 2021.
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with support from Garfield Weston Foundation and Severn Trent Community Fund, Green Futures explores Coventry and Warwickshire’s wildlife, natural heritage, and landscape, uncovering the story of its ‘hidden nature’ and increasing local stewardship. Through the Green Futures programme, Coventry will become the greenest and most environmentally conscious UK City of Culture to date.
Love Coventry
The Love Coventry programme builds on work that has already been undertaken within communities in Coventry and shines a light on local stories, bringing UK City of Culture to people’s doorsteps throughout the year.
This programme is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.
Youthful Cities Programme
The Youthful Cities Programme is a partnership between Coventry UK City of Culture, the British Council and Youthful Cities to facilitate a cultural and creative skills exchange between young people across the globe. It has been developed to enable young adults (age 18-25) to creatively respond to important, urgent and youth-focused issues in their cities, encouraging more active participation in civic matters.
The Pod
Food Union was founded in 2014 and is one of the Pod’s citywide social activism programs that exists to create conversation and action around the common language of food. On their ¾ acre plot of land, Food Union grows products for The Pod cafe, holds a variety of ‘soil to table’ workshops and hosts monthly musical gatherings with an emphasis on seasonal activities.
Shoot and Score
Shoot & Score is an innovative production-led creative media skills training course that will benefit 16 young people aged between 16-25 from Coventry. Shoot & Score will inspire the next generation of Coventry filmmakers and musicians to develop their creative and practical skills in media and take their first steps towards a career in the creative industries.
YOUTHFUL CITIES PROGRAMME - Coventry x Nairobi: Digital Storytelling Lab
The Digital Storytelling Lab brings together a project team of 12 young creatives (filmmakers, digital artists, writers, musicians and changemakers from Coventry and Nairobi) who are developing bold new digital stories to inspire change within their cities, exploring issues such as youth unemployment and life post-graduation.
Youthful Cities Programme - Coventry X Bogota: Street Art Exchange
Six young artists from Coventry and six young artists from Bogota have met online through the last year, sharing reflections on their cities and their priorities as street artists to develop and create new murals in each city, led by local arts organisations (Graffwerk and Jay McKeown – Coventry) and Vertigo Graffiti (Bogota).
YOUTHFUL CITIES PROGRAMME - Coventry x Beirut: Poetry & Spoken Word
The Youthful Cities Poetry and Spoken Word exchange brought 12 young writers and poets from Coventry and Beirut together through Spring and Summer 2021 to create a new spoken word performance ‘Transnational Lag Express’ and short film ‘Not Much Longer Now’ that were both premiered at the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in September.
YOUTHFUL CITIES PROGRAMME - Coventry x Detroit: Music Exchange
5 musicians from Coventry and 5 from Detroit are collaborating online to create new music rooted in their experiences of their cities, they are supported by local organisations Media Mania (Coventry) and Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit (Detroit).
YOUTHFUL CITIES PROGRAMME - #WEMOVE! Global Youth Series
The Global Youth Series continues in 2022 with day 2 (February 18th) and day 3 (28th April). Both days will bring together young artists and changemakers local and global to share their experiences and creativity as it relates to building brighter and more creative futures for cities across the world.
Access for Arts and Cultural Organisers
Access Coventry is designed to help you up-skill and increase your understanding of the experiences or access requirements of audiences.
The 10-week programme will culminate in us collaborating to create a Manifesto for Access which is the first step on our journey of making Coventry a more accessible place to experience culture.
International Changemakers: Unregulated Black Intimacy
Unregulated Black intimacy is a film-based conversation created by Black/afro-feminist artists across borders. In 2021 the artist collective Papaya invited ten artists from different contexts to use films as a common language.
Festival of Ideas
National and international collaborations with groundbreaking organisations will bring political debate, citizens’ assemblies, talks, conferences and interviews to the heart of Coventry - and everyone is invited.
The Show Windows 2021-22
The Show Windows is co-produced in partnership with Coventry City of Culture Trust, Coventry Business Improvement District and the Royal Institute of British Architects. Funded by Arts Council England.
Our Modern Day Lady Godivas
Coventry City of Culture Trust has found our 14 Lady Godivas, who will play a major role in the signature event for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021, Coventry Moves.
We Come Far
WE COME FAR is an artist-led walk around the urban and green spaces of the city, kick-starting a range of wellbeing events specifically aimed at reaching men (defined as those who identify as men) aged 25-55.
Coventry Moves
Online, on the radio and on your timeline.
A city-wide celebration, Coventry Moves is the first major moment of our year as UK City of Culture on Saturday 5 June. Coventry Moves will be a playful and engaging introduction to Coventry, its stories, and its people, and will be an opportunity for every home in Coventry to be part of our year as UK City of Culture.
The day-long celebration will tell the story of Coventry’s pioneering identity and how it continues to shape its future and give voice to the many people that call the city their home.
Coventry Moves will be a day of moments and shared experiences, designed to be enjoyed from home online, on the radio and on your timeline.
Culture Conversations
Monthly workshops for the people of Coventry to come together and discuss important social issues. Image: Edie Jo Murray.
The Unplugged Series
We will be creating a digital exhibition showcasing the work that you create, and after lockdown you'll have the opportunity to share your work. Take a virtual walk through The Unplugged Series Digital Gallery to see brand new works by a collective of aspiring Coventry artists aged 13 to 25
OurCovHeroes
Twenty-one of Coventry’s real-life, everyday heroes are being celebrated and recognised for their acts of kindness after a citywide search produced an incredible response.
You can find out about #OurCovHeroes here.
Reform the Norm Micro-Commissions
We want to ensure that D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists are represented across our programme, ensuring not only equal opportunities, but equal voice.
Community Connectors
We’re delighted to welcome 10 more Coventry residents onto the Community Connectors programme, who will join our existing 8 Connectors in delivering their own projects in neighbourhoods across the city.
November 2020 until May 2022
Changemakers and Shakers: Digital Gallery
For young people, this programme has been a journey of creative exploration, of their city, of their story and of their communities. They give us a real insight into what safety looks and feels like for them, the challenges they face from knife crime to mental health and their visions of the future.
Front Room Sessions: The Visual Album
Front Room Sessions was a creative response to the worldwide lockdown bringing Coventry musicians and visual artists together. Commissioned and supported by Coventry UK City of Culture 2021. With thanks to partners at Warwick Arts Centre, The Tin Music & Arts, Coventry Caribbean Centre, The Empire, Coventry City Council, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, Coventry Music, Sam McNulty and Hardish Virk.
The Future Show Coventry 2020
12 Coventry-based young writers have been given the opportunity to write a 1 hour version of the Future Show – each taking a particular moment in time in the future – from the minutes still in lockdown, leaping decades ahead in their own futures.
Celebrate Holi 2021
Sahyadri Friends Group, a collective of Indian families based in Coventry, have created a range of exciting activities to help you celebrate Holi safely from home.
March 2021
Walking Forest
Walking Forest is a 10-year artwork that culminates in the planting of a new intentional woodland by 2028 to mark the connection between women, activism and trees. As part of Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 Walking Forest will deliver an ongoing campaign of activity including a camp and a climate action as our year unfolds.
Window Wanderland + Artist On My Street
As part of Window Wanderland, Coventry Artspace have commissioned 21 artists to transform windows in residential areas across the region.
August 2021 - May 2022
Coventry Moves: trivia game
Test your Coventry knowledge with our fun and friendly quiz.
Nature Nurture
Nature Nurture is a long term arts, culture and nature conservation project to engage local communities in accessible activities with an intentional impact on individual and community wellbeing, and the wellbeing of the green space environments existing in the community.
