The Oxford Road Corridor Partnership were seeking to bring a festival together for the first time, with the idea of light at the heart of it.
Maria came on board in November 2020 and built on their ideas to date, shaping the artistic approach, inviting artists to participate and helping to secure Arts Council England funds.
The promise was a three-night celebration of the Oxford Road Corridor through music, light and ideas; a chance to explore Manchester’s innovation district as its stories are revealed by encounters with visual art, installations and live entertainment.
Corridor of Light | A celebration of the Oxford Road Corridor | 21-23 Oct
New Commissions
New commissions included Tim Etchells’ neon artwork Everything Up In The Air, new media artist Antonio Roberts’ projection Move Fast and Brake Things, May Wild Studio’s Many Types of Graces at the Royal Northern College of Music, live and pre-recorded algorave featuring artists from around the world, and new songs for LGBTQ+ low voice choir The Sunday Boys.
Contributions included Squidsoup’s Where There is Light and Walk the Plank’s Fire Garden, Manchester City of Literature’s comic arts strip The Arrivals, and The Poetry Library and Manchester Literature Festival’s Postcards from Oxford Road.
Opening up public spaces
The Festival opened a new and existing public realm in original ways, reaching large audiences in its first edition. Existing work included Studio Vertigo’s Our Beating Heart, recordings of Lemn Sissay readings his work already embedded in the landscape, Elisa Artesero’s The Stories Beneath Our Feet and Travelling Light Circus’s Pendulum Wave Machine.
Emergency Exit Arts’ Recovery Poems journeyed across the festival landscape with pop up performances from The Sunday Boys, the Hallé Ancoats Choir, hospital staff writers and musicians, and Tina Cribbins and fellow Hulme Writers. Two online Festival of Ideas conversations are still available online: Tim Etchell’s Text in the Landscape, and Algorave Revealed.