Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival (BDBF) have released a series of high-quality art prints as part of its #BringBackBrightonDome Crowdfunder campaign.
Four art works were selected from an audience survey of Brighton Festival’s back catalogue of posters from the last 54 years. The top favourites include visual artist David Shrigley’s illustration from 2018; Brighton tattoo artist Adam Sage and leading design agency Johnson Banks created poet and musician Kate Tempest’s artwork in 2017; a 1972 graphic of Brighton palace pier and a firework display image from 1988, both by unknown artists.
Brighton-based artist David Shrigley explains why he’s backing the campaign:
“As a Brighton resident, it was an honour to be the Guest Director of Brighton Festival in 2018 and to see how much joy it gave to people. I was extremely saddened that Brighton Dome was forced to close and Lemn Sissay’s Festival cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. By helping to support this campaign it gives us all a glimmer of hope that we will be able to enjoy live art events again in the city.”
Following Brighton Dome’s closure in March and the cancellation of Brighton Festival, the arts charity lost 67% of its self-generated income through ticket sales and events.
With the continued uncertainty around when large-scale live events might return, the 1,800 capacity Concert Hall is only able to consider vastly reduced attendances of social distanced performances and the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatres are undergoing major refurbishment until autumn 2021.
The #BringBackBrightonDome appeal is asking the community to raise an initial target of £25,000 with the aim of increasing to £40,000 until the completion date of 20 October. The funds will help towards the additional £250,000 the organisation needs to raise in the next year. Supporters are able to choose a range of rewards for different levels of donations, with prints priced at £100 each or £350 for the set of four.
The campaign has been supported by local fine art screen printers, The Private Press who have hand-made the artworks as full colour A2 screen prints in their Brighton studio. GF Smith, makers of fine quality paper have also donated premium stock to produce a high–quality finish.
Gary Parselle, Founder of The Private Press added:
“It’s been a pleasure to support Brighton Dome with their fundraising campaign. It was so interesting looking through the range of artists’ work in the Brighton Festival archive and
re-produce them as new prints. The venue and the festival bring so much to the city’s cultural life and as a local business, we wanted to do our bit to make sure they can get through this difficult time.”
The prints are available to purchase online here: https://crowdfunder.co.uk/bringbackbrightondome
