London truly is the city of a million marvels; when the going gets tough – the city adapts and evolves, constantly shifting to provide a fresh new cultural escapes for its citizens and visitors.
Among its many wonders are the throngs of artistic mavens that inhabit its storied walls. These cultural pioneers make London vibrant and become the global beacon for the arts, in all its many outlets – from its stage and screen to galleries and streets.
One of the more impressive initiatives of the last few years has been Art Night; an annual all-night free contemporary art festival. Through Art Night, a leading cultural institution or curator is brought together with London itself to a new exciting lens on an area of the city. By exploring its history, culture and architecture – this collaboration births a new series of commissions, one-off events and premieres each year featuring international and local artists from all stages of their careers.
This year (following a pandemic cancellation of the full Art Night schedule curated by Helen Nisbet) Art Night have partnered with Pullman Hotels to launch a brand new project celebrating the many public art works throughout two of the UK’s most exciting cities; London and Liverpool.
Entitled The Pullman Art Run this new undertaking will lead Pullman guests and locals along a selected cultural running trail for each city, offering a 5km route departing from either Pullman London St Pancras or Pullman Liverpool.
Each route has been carefully designed to reveal a captivating selection of the neighbourhood’s finest outdoor art works, from street-art and iconic statues to augmented reality and thought-provoking contemporary sculpture.
Participants will share their route via social networks, utilising the hashtags #pullmanartrun #upyourgame to tag any photographs and will follow a mixture of audio and visual clues to take them through the requisite journey.
Limited edition maps will be available to pick up at both hotels, and will feature a collectible print of an artwork along the trail on the reverse. To accentuate the journey, travellers will be required to download the Acute Art app for an augmented reality layer to their adventure.
Complimenting each artwork and paying homage to traditional museum audio-tours, are playlists with audio described biographies and descriptions for each artwork visitors encounter.
Further audio includes the Artistic Director of the Liverpool Biennial, Fatoş Üstek and her team who are the expert hosts of its Pullman Art Run. They will offer unrivalled thoughts on works throughout including ‘Everybody Razzle Dazzle’ by Sir Peter Blake and ‘Liverpool Mountain’ by Ugo Rondinone. Link to the Liverpool Pullman Art Run playlist is available here.
In turn, the Pullman London St Pancras Art Run playlist is hosted by esteemed art-historian and founder of ‘The Great Women Artists’, podcast, Katy Hessel, who provides insightful commentary on works including, ‘Semaphores’ by Amalia Pica and ‘My World and Your World’ by Eva Rothschild. Link to the London Pullman Art Run playlist is available here.
LIVERPOOL ARTWORKS INCLUDE:
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, The Hummingbird Clock
Gail Dooley, Tidal Shame
Sir Peter Blake, Everybody Razzle Dazzle
Betty Woodman, Liverpool Fountain
Ugo Rondinone, Liverpool Mountain
LONDON ARTWORKS INCLUDE:
Stephen Tomlin, Virginia Woolf
Jacques Rival, IFO (Identified Flying Object)
Amalia Pica, Semaphores
Eva Rothschild, My World and Your World
Koo Jeong A, density (Augmented Reality)
On your marks…get set…go!
UP NEXT: Keith Harring’s personal collection goes under the hammer…