Arts & Ideas Festival
RHACC, Parkshot, Richmond, TW9 2RE
22 Jun 2023 - 18:30 - 1 Jul 2023 - 17:00
22 Jun 2023 - 18:30 - 1 Jul 2023 - 17:00
Richmond communities are uniting this summer to bring you an exciting season exploring the theme Together & Change. Join us for dance, music, exhibitions, theatre, and conversation to help us imagine our shared future.
RHACC are taking part in this exciting festival and hosting various events during June and July that explores and celebrates indentity, environment, heritage and more.
EVENTS
School of Ideas: Philosophy: Jane O'Grady on 'Is the Self an Illusion?'- A 1 hour talk from Jane O'Grady on the mind and self- hood.
Writer, Journalist and obituarist, Jane is the cofounder of the London School of Philosophy. She has taught at City University as well as Birkbeck extra Mural. Apart from her many reviews and articles she is the author of The Enlightenment in the Philosophy in a Nutshell series. An inspirational lecturer she is a feminist and leading light in philosophy education .
Sometimes it seems almost New Agey to talk about ‘the self’, which is, after all, hard to accommodate in a scientific worldview. Some scientists and philosophers, in fact, declare our idea of having or being selves to be an illusion. I want to discuss whether, or in what way, saying that we are could make sense. I’ll look at what the self, is -- and has been-- thought to be, at the mind/body relation, and at what ‘being true to yourself’ might amount to.
Thu 22nd June | 18:30 - 19:30 | RHACC Theatre | £5
Summer Art & Crafts Fair - We are delighted to announce that we will be holding a Summer Arts & Craft Fair. Entry to the fair is FREE and will showcase work from a range of talented artists and makers from RHACC. We will be hosting a limited amount of stalls from a range of artists, designers and makers working across different specialisms, including sculpture, ceramics, woodwork, jewellery, textiles, painting, and printmaking. All items on sale are locally produced and unique, the perfect place to find a handmade gift or something decorative for your home. There will also be refreshments and live music throughout the day.
Sat 24th June | 10:30 - 16:00 | RHACC Atrium | FREE
Richmond Drama School: Together and Change - Devised performance by the current RHACC students on Foundation Acting: Techniques for Performance. RHACC learners, from Richmond Drama School and the School of Ideas, collaborate to produce extraordinary performances. The devised project, created in our Foundation Acting course, explores ideas about change, as learners draw on their life experiences as well as the text of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Mon 26th June | 18:30 - 19:30 | RHACC Theatre | FREE
School of Ideas: The Frankfurt School and the Future of Social Critique - A 1 hour talk from Professor Peter Dews on the Frankfurt School.
Peter Dews is an emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Essex University and since the publication of The Logics of Disintegration in the early 80’s he has become one the the country’s leading interpreters of European Philosophy. He has taught all round the world and has continued to write extensively on many of the seminal figures of continental philosophy including Foucault, Derrida and Habermas. He has recently published a ground breaking study of Fredrich Schelling.
This year is the centenary of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, which was founded in 1923. The Institute was the first Marxist research centre attached to a German university, made possible by the largesse of a former student. The influential thinkers associated with it have come to be known as the “Frankfurt School”. These thinkers include Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Herbert Marcuse, in the first generation, and – most famously – Jürgen Habermas, in the second generation. The early Frankfurt School members were highly critical of capitalism, but also rejected orthodox Marxism-Leninism. Their aim was to understand the mechanisms through which capitalism, as a form of life, permeates culture, human interactions, and even the inner world of the psyche. And they also rang alarm bells, very early on, regarding the ruthless technological exploitation of nature. In some respects, then, their ideas could be seen as more relevant than ever. In this talk I’ll discuss what is outdated and what is still powerful in the work of the Frankfurt School, in our world of all-pervasive social media and the climate crisis. I’ll also consider to what extent influential recent thinkers such as Mark Fisher (author of Capitalist Realism) can be seen as developing Frankfurt School themes.
Tue 27th June | 18:30 - 19:30 | RHACC Theatre | £5
Orange Tree Theatre: Over 60s Performance - Orange Tree Theatre’s long standing Adult Community Company will take the stage in response to the Richmond Festival of Art & Ideas theme of Together and Change.
The group have been working together for a number of years exploring the boundaries of theatre and exercising their remarkable creative skills. Orange Tree Theatre believe in the power of dramatic stories to entertain, thrill and challenge us; plays that enrich our lives by enhancing our understanding of ourselves and each other. As a registered charity (266128) sitting at the heart of its community, they work with 10,000 people in Richmond and beyond through participatory theatre projects for everyone. The Orange Tree Theatre’s mission is to enable audiences to experience the next generation of theatre talent, experiment with ground-breaking new drama and explore the plays from the past that inspire the theatre-makers of the present.
Fri 30th June | 14:30 - 15:30 | Theatre | FREE
Drama and Scriptwriting Showcase: Together and Change - A performance between RHACC students on Advanced Scriptwriting and Acting and Performance Skills for Budding Actors. Exploring the theme of togetherness through the practice of ‘mutuality’ – seamless collaboration.
Sat 1st July | 16:00 - 17:00 | RHACC Theatre | FREE
