FEATURE
Coventry City of Culture
In December 2017, Coventry followed Derry and Hull as the successful bidder to be the next ‘City of Culture’ in 2021. Coventry was chosen over the competing claims of Paisley, Stoke, Swansea and Sunderland. Due to the Covid lockdown, the start of the year’s events was delayed and the Year of Culture continued into the summer of 2022. Why was Coventry chosen above the claims of the other cities? How might these cultural experiences help the city recover and move forward after the years of social deprivation and the loss of its industrial heritage? The Creative Director of Coventry City of Culture, Chenine Bhathena, considered the city’s role in post-war peace, reconciliation and city twinning as important factors in the choice, as well as Coventry’s reputation as a city of music and artistic innovation. She also felt that, as Coventry was less well known than its Midland neighbours, the city provided a blank canvas for the year’s events. Over the years, music has certainly been a key part of the arts in Coventry. Benjamin Britten's ‘War Requiem’ was commissioned to 16
ARTEFACTS
AUTUMN 2022 • Issue 70
mark the consecration of Coventry Cathedral, which was rebuilt following a bombing raid in World War II. It was premiered in the new Cathedral in 1962. The pioneering electronica of Delia Derbyshire (born in 1937 in Coventry) has brought her posthumous fame. A new Music Museum, near the site of the old Highfield Road stadium, features both Derbyshire’s work and Ska music, following the ‘House is a Feeling’ exhibition in the old IKEA building last year. This show also highlighted music by bands like ‘The Specials’, combining black and white musicians and influences, a key factor in encouraging young people in the 1980s to turn away from fighting on Saturday nights and towards dancing through to Sunday mornings! Meanwhile, at the Cathedral, the talented young Canadian organist Rachel Mathon worked with local LGBT musicians in a ‘Classically Queer’ collaboration, and Ex
