Culture Review of the Year - highlights of 2024 in the arts in Yorkshire
In January the Graves Gallery in Sheffield hosted an exhibition of work by Sheffield-based photographer Matthew Conduit entitled Land which showcased more than 20 of his striking large-scale works. Conduit has been visiting locations in and around the city for more than three decades, capturing the changes that have taken place over the years as the former industrial landscape was slowly reclaimed by nature. February saw the opening of a new exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The Brontës’ Web of Childhood explored the early years of the famous literary family and featured diaries, portraits, schoolbooks and toys as well as items from the collection that had never been on display before including family letters and Charlotte’s christening cap. In April the work of veteran documentary photographer Ian Beesley was showcased in a new exhibition Life Goes On at Salts Mill, a follow up to his 2022 show Life, with over 200 photographs from his extensive archive from the 1970s onwards, documenting life in the North of England. The images show ordinary people at work and play, exploring the decline of heavy industry in the North and its effect on communities and individuals.
In May the Yorkshire Sculpture Park hosted the first solo museum show of rising star Uganda-born New York-based sculptor Leilah Babirye in the YSP Chapel. Obumu (Unity) featured a selection of seven stunning larger-than-life-size figures in wood and five vividly coloured ceramic pieces. In June a hugely significant exhibition opened at the Hepworth Wakefield. Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life was the first ever major exhibition of the work of Jamaican-born sculptor Ronald Moody (1900-1984) and explored the development of Moody’s art and his important place within British and international art history.
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Hide AdOn the music scene Leeds post-punk band English Teacher began their year being chosen as ambassadors for Independent Venue Week – and then went on to win the Mercury Prize later in the year. In February Leeds venue The Wardrobe celebrated its 25th anniversary, while Britpop veterans Cast played at Leeds O2 Academy in March and went on to support Liam Gallagher when he played at Sheffield Utilita Arena in June. There was another great summer season of live music in the open air at the Piece Hall in Halifax. Over recent years the line-up has been extremely impressive with stars such as Richard Hawley, Duran Duran, Paloma Faith and Sting appearing. This year’s programme was equally starry with the likes of Blondie, Nile Rodgers (making a second visit), Crowded House, Sheryl Crow, Bryan Adams, Grace Jones and Tom Odell among others gracing the stage at the iconic venue.
There were plenty of exciting productions across the region’s theatres including a visit to York Theatre Royal from Emma Rice’s theatre company Wise Children with their latest production BlueBeard, a contemporary reimagining of the grisly folktale that was a powerful and resonant story for our times. In March Northern Ballet presented a long-awaited revival of one of the jewels in the company’s crown with their outstanding production of Romeo & Juliet. It had been 16 years since the company had performed it, partly due to damage done to set and costumes by flooding, but with those now carefully restored the production was able to return. The revival was a wonderful, exhilarating and ultimately extremely affecting retelling of the oft-told story.
Leeds Playhouse’s latest collaboration with Opera North was a lively production of My Fair Lady, directed by the Playhouse’s artistic director James Brining, which delighted audiences in June. Small but mighty Mikron toured with a new production, Jennie Lee, which celebrated the life of the radical Labour MP (and wife of NHS founder Nye Bevan). Among the big visiting touring productions stopping off in the region included hit musicals such as Wicked, The Wizard of Oz and Edward Scissorhands as well as thrillers like The Woman in Black and the stage version of TV sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey.
Films released in the first half of the year that garnered both public and critical acclaim included The Holdovers, released in January, an affecting drama from American indie director Alexander Payne set in a New England boarding school in 1970 as a cook, a teacher and a lonely student are thrown together for the Christmas break. April saw the release of Back to Black a biopic of talented singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse with a stand-out performance from Marisa Abela in the lead role and Scoop told the story of Prince Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight interview, with Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis and Rufus Sewell as the doomed royal. Two of the most impressive films of the year – both foreign language movies – were released in May. Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, set in 1980s Tuscany, starred Josh O’Connor as a British archaeologist plundering historical artefacts with a quirky gang of tomb raiders and Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning The Zone of Interest explored the notion of the banality of evil, telling the story of an ambitious Nazi officer and his family who live in a comfortable villa just outside the walls of Auschwitz.