The 2019
Cambridge Festival of Ideas
programme launches today with 273 - mostly free - events on topics ranging from the US presidential elections, the paintings of Yoko Ono, Stonewall at 50, climate justice, the future of China and Brexit.
The Festival, now in its 12th year, celebrates the enormous impact of arts, humanities and social sciences on our daily lives and encourages lively discussion about many of today's most challenging global issues. It takes place from 14 – 27 October 2019.
There are events - from exhibitions, film screenings, talks and more - for all the family, including hands-on workshops for children, such as an Arctic Family Day and artist-led workshops on life in Cambridge.
The theme this year is change and many of the events focus on transformation, the implications of the technology revolution and wide-ranging social and political changes, from elder care and homeworking to house sharing.
Events related to technological transformation include:
-
Caroline Criado-Perez
is interviewed by Professor Ann Copestake on data bias in a world designed for men
Events related to social transformation include:
- a series of events celebrating
Stonewall at 50
, including film screenings and panel discussions with international experts on the riots and LGBTQ+ rights today
-
Rethinking drug addiction
- the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams hosts a debate on safer drug use and drug consumption rooms
-
These four walls: a secret history of women home workers
- an exhibition exploring themes such as precarity and domesticity, from the past to the present. This event is part of the Cambridge University Library's Rise: Women at Cambridge programme. The programme includes an exhibition of women at Cambridge's fight for educational equality and a focus on the careers of women who shaped the university and the world.
Events relating to cultural change include:
- Charles Saumarez-Smith on
the transformation of the museum
, drawing on his experience at the V & A, National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery and as Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts
-
The first Cambridge exhibition of Yoko Ono's paintings
on the themes of violence and healing, a screening of the 1969 film RAPE, directed by Yoko Ono and John Lennon and a talk by curator Gabriella Daris on the way Ono's work resonates with the increasing complexity of today's world.
David Cain, the Cambridge Festival of Ideas manager, said: "The Cambridge Festival of Ideas highlights the latest thinking about the important topics shaping our lives. Change is everywhere. As we change too, so do you. And sometimes the smallest change makes the biggest difference. I'm looking forward to welcoming you to the University or a series of thought-provoking events this October as we explore change in all its forms, identifying its challenges and embracing its opportunities."
The Festival sponsors and partners are St John’s College, Anglia Ruskin University, Heffers, RAND Europe, University of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden, Cambridge Junction and Cambridge University Press. The Festival media partners are BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and Cambridge Independent.
