2022 Festival

Yellow cornfield and blue sky

Ukraine: A Media, Arts and Humanities Conversation

Tuesday 29 March, 11.15 am

What is the place of culture in war, invasion and resistance? What ways can cultural actions and analysis support peace-making in desperate times? A panel of staff and students will reflect on the situation in Ukraine in contexts of wider crises.

A mobile phone taking a picture of a varied collection of items including strawberries, books about instagram, a mirror, a candle and watercolours

Images Among Us: Research Inside 'the Gram'

Tuesday 29 March, 12.15 pm

An informal and far-ranging discussion of imagery, the internet and possible tactics to explore it.

A solar farm in the shape of a panda, Datong, China, 2017

Hope and Fear: Cultures of Climate Change

Tuesday 29 March, 1 pm

Students from the new Sussex Liberal Arts degree convene speakers from across disciplines at Sussex and beyond, to examine key topics around the subject of climate change.

Showing torso of woman holding a clapper board with 'menopause' written on it

The New Menopause

Tuesday 29 March, 3.15 pm

Exploring the new visibility of menopausal life and politics, in mainstream, social and countercultural media.

Film director Jill Craigie on the set of 'Blue Scar'

'Independent Miss Craigie' Film Screening with Q and A

Tuesday 29 March, 4.30 pm

A screening of a new film by Sussex filmmaker Lizzie Thynne about a female pioneer of UK filmmaking followed by Q&A

Zarina Mohammed standing in front of a billboard promoting The White Pube and new ideas for the art world

The White Pube

Wednesday 30 March, 12 noon

With Zarina Muhammad, one half of irreverent cultural critics The White Pube and focusing on their work as writers, critics, artists and agitators.

A stack of newspapers

"We need to talk about" Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in the media

Wednesday 30 March, 1 pm

Discussing the media coverage of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and ways in which the representations of these diverse communities can be improved.

Sam Sivapragasm

Black at Sussex: Activism, Curating, Archiving

Wednesday 30 March, 2 pm

Bringing together Sussex alumni and academics this conversation will reflect upon their work as activists, curators and archivists in order to explore Black British experiences of access to the countryside, cultural curation and the archiving of history.

Gary Younge

Gary Younge - Not Set in Stone: Why we need more honesty and fewer statues

Wednesday 30 March, 4 pm

Debating one of the most pressing cultural questions of our time: how we remember and who.

Keir Milburn (white man with beard wearing black t-shirt against a green background)

The Social Strike Game

Sunday 8 May

The Social Strike Game is a tabletop group strategy game that’s fun for all the comrades.

Drawing of woman of colour holding a black cat

Making Space: Decolonial Interventions in Contemporary Art

Monday 16 May, 7 pm

Convened by Susuana Amoah, the University of Sussex Stuart Hall Fellow 2022, this panel will explore some of the imaginative de-colonial strategies used by artists, curators and activists in recent years to address cultural inequity in public art institutions

Two white men standing/sitting in a dimly lit room. One has a cartoon-like face.

I Get Knocked Down - Film screening and Q&A

Wednesday 18 May, 8 pm

I Get Knocked Down (dir Dunstan Bruce & Sophie Robinson, 2021) is the untold story of Leeds-based anarcho-pop band Chumbawamba.

Images displayed on the windows of the ACCA cafe-bar

Cultural Recovery

Thursday 26 May, 5.30 pm

As the UK emerged from successive Covid-19 lockdowns, there was a lot talk about the need for a ‘Cultural Recovery’, normally in relation to the re-opening of cultural spaces and, sometimes, a return to business-as-usual.