The Next UnCommons Adventure Will Rock Your Wife

Gigs in gig venues, art in art galleries, taxidermied two-headed sheep in museums—it’s all just a bit too separated for our liking.

Which is why we’re thrilled by the latest announcement from UnCommons, Yorkshire purveyors of ‘art in unusual spaces’.

In a one-off afternoon of bizarre sights, unusual sounds, and limited edition souvenirs, UnCommons will take over the Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley on 28th May and turn this already odd place into a palace of peculiar performance.

Bringing together music, art and technology, the UnCommons bill will include Leeds experimental pop don Napoleon IVth, spoken word and music weirdos Reet Maff’l, live coder Joanne Armitage and artists Amelia Crouch, Luke Drozd, and Katch Skinner.

James Mabbett (aka Napoleon IIIrd, aka Napoleon IVth) will conduct the performance of a new composition written specially for the event, leading groups of musicians positioned all around the building among the stuffed animals and other strange treasures.

Take a ‘sensible’ tour around the Museum with manager Daru Rooke (as sensible as a tour can be when one of the exhibits is a ‘wife rocker’ for women who need to be calmed down), or an ‘alternative’ tour with Reet Maff’l as they deliver odes to the odd objects in the museum.

Free workshops from Joanne Armitage will teach you how to turn objects into musical instruments, and unique original artwork including print, ceramics, and tea towels, will be available to buy in the gift shop courtesy of Amelia Crouch, Luke Drozd, and Katch Skinner.

It’s the third event UnCommons have programmed in West Yorkshire, having done events in partnership with the National Science and Media Museum and The Wild Woods in Bradford already. Previous events involved wearable technology, virtual reality, and more and, thanks to its setting at Yorkshire’s weirdest museum, this event looks set to be the most memorable yet.

All of the UnCommon events are supported by the University of Bradford as part of its development of a Centre for Socially Applied Arts with funding from Arts Council England.

Tickets are free but places are limited so book now to avoid missing out.