Arts Diary: Will Marriott

Dizzee, or Mr Raassscal to Jeremy Paxman, has been travelling around the UK capturing images of Britain which inspire him most and one of his photos from the Sculpture Park appeared on the homepage of search engine Bing this week. Dizzee said: “I discovered this place after doing a gig up north in Yorkshire. A couple of us chilled out here afterwards while my team was getting ready to travel to the next gig. Some of the sculptures here are so interesting. The contrast between the natural surroundings and contemporary structures is stunning.”

And it was all going so well. The people at Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire’s newest gallery, had gone all the way to London, collected the national journalists, brought them back to Yorkshire, got them a special coach to the gallery (they think once they cross the M25 there be dragons) and gave them some posh sandwiches for the special media launch of the gallery. And then, as they were showing their special London-based guests around the gallery, a fire alarm went off. The poor southerners had to spend ten minutes stood in the cold outside. We can report that they all managed eventually to have lunch – one of them even made sure by taking his with him when the alarms went off.

Arts Diary has a new favourite comedian. Imran Yusuf is not just a cracking new funnyman addition to the stand-up comedy circuit, he is also a very nice chap. Not only did he let his set overrun by half an hour in Bradford last Friday, just because he was enjoying it so much, but he also hung around afterwards to sign autographs, have pictures taken – and then, went back on stage at the request of the 30 or so who had hung around at the end, and took part in an impromptu Q and A, entertaining the crowd until midnight. Top bloke.

The Northern Art Prize never seems to stop. With the announcement of the shortlist in November, when the exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery opens, the prize giving in February and next year’s prize around now, it’s relentless. Anyway, the latest news is that the fifth Northern Art Prize is to be judged by a selection panel that includes Caroline Douglas, head of the Arts Council Collection; Tim Marlow, writer and broadcaster, art historian and director of exhibitions at the White Cube Gallery; Simon Starling, Turner Prize winning artist and Simon Wallis, director at the Hepworth Wakefield. The panel will be chaired by Sarah Brown, Curator of Exhibitions at Leeds Art Gallery.

White Rose Festivals is trying to find out if Yorkshire’s Got Young Talent. The outfit behind the White Rose Winter Music Festival, this year at Harewood House in November, is looking for two of Yorkshire’s brightest young singing stars to perform on stage with professional opera singers at the festival. Think you’ve got what it takes? Email [email protected] or call 01423 563563.