Arts diary

Part of the Headline Ballads series, in which poets and storytellers repsond to stories behind world headlines, Kaan’s ballad explores the impact of flooding on the lives of people living in Bangladesh and the UK. It features the story of his own parents who left Bangladesh to escape the poverty and floods of their homeland and there are also personal testimonies from resident of Cumbria whose home has been flooded four times in the last decade, villagers in northern Bangladesh who experience the devastation of flooding on a regular basis and the people of Carlisle who live in constant fear of the return of floods that overwhelmed the city in December 2015.

Prestigious nomination: York Art Gallery has been nominated for the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA). The gallery is the only British museum on the list of 46 nominees from 24 countries. The winner will be announced on May 6 2017 at a special ceremony in Zagreb, Croatia. It’s the latest of several awards the gallery has won or been shortlisted for since its reopening in August 2015 after an £8 million transformation. These include winning the Family Friendly Museum of the Year and the York Visitor Attraction of the Year and being one of five finalists for the Art Fund Museum of the Year. “This is international recognition for the transformation which has taken place at York Art Gallery,” Reyahn King, chief executive of York Museums Trust. “It will help us to promote the gallery and the city of York as an exciting cultural destination to new audiences across the continent.”

Pay What You Can: Halifax’s Square Chapel Centre for the Arts is going to be celebrating its move into their long-awaited new £6.6m building next spring with some Pay What You Can shows in their forthcoming season. It is an invitation to the audience to try something new at a price they feel they can afford. For more details of the venue’s extensive programme of theatre, film, music and lectures visit www.squarechapel.co.uk

Over-60s Film Project: A series of original short films made by teams of over-60s in collaboration with filmmaking students at Leeds Beckett University will be premiered at the Hyde Park Picture House on Sunday. Created as part of the 2016 CINAGE: Filmmaking for Active Ageing project, the four films will be shown from 1-2.30pm followed by a Q&A with the participants. The films, which incorporate drama, animation and documentary, were produced over 10 months by 18 people over 60 with no previous filmmaking experience who took part in a programme of workshops in scriptwriting, directing, producing and editing at the Northern Film School at Leeds Beckett.