This Christmas instead of stressing about what gifts to buy friends and family, why not choose a unique surprise from Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival (BDBF) that will help support the arts charity in its recovery from the pandemic.
A selection of Brighton Festival archive artworks dating back 50 years, have been re-created as striking high-quality screen prints that will delight art lovers and retro graphic design geeks. From the 1971 brochure cover, featuring a colourful illustration of the famous Royal Pavilion dome to Turner prize nominee David Shrigley’s 2018 drawing. Other well-known names include cartoonist Steve Bell’s 1998 satirical city-scape and the late pop artist Martin Sharp’s fireworks over Brighton pier from 1988. The artworks have been hand-printed in limited editions by Brighton-based fine art studio, The Private Press, with prices from £90 with the option for framing the print so it’s ready to hang.
Following Brighton Dome’s re-opening and Brighton Festival’s return, their annual membership scheme is an affordable option to give fans of live events exclusive benefits, including invitations to member-only events, discounts on food and drink in the café-bar and priority booking for sell-out shows. Priced at just £35 (or £60 for a joint membership), it’s an easy way to give a cultural Christmas gift to a loved one that lasts all year round. Gift vouchers are also a fun way to help towards the cost of purchasing tickets to forthcoming events including comedy, music and talks.
During the coronavirus pandemic, BDBF lost 67% of its self-generated income due to a long period of closure. The sale of Christmas gifts will provide a crucial source of revenue which will help the venue and the annual arts festival to programme events but also provides support to artists to develop and bring their work to the city and offer arts projects in the wider community.
All prints are available to purchase online from theprivatepress.org/shop/p/brighton-festival.
Brighton Dome memberships and gift vouchers are available from the Ticket Office in person or by phone.
Below are just some of the prints you can buy
David Shrigley, Strive for Excellence, Brighton Festival 2018
Unsigned screen print
Size: 570mm x 395mm
Price: £100 + £5 postage
Brighton-based visual artist David Shrigley was the Festival’s guest director in 2018 and was the first director to create his own artwork for the festival identity. His distinctive satirical drawings have earned him critical acclaim, with a Turner Prize nomination and commission for the Trafalgar Square plinth.
Adam Sage and Johnson Banks, Everyday Epic,
Brighton Festival 2017
Poet and musician Kae Tempest was the Festival’s guest director in 2017. Creative agency Johnson Banks worked with Brighton tattoo artist Adam Sage on this detailed illustration that depicts the pen being mightier than the sword.
Unsigned screen print
Size: A2
Price: £100 + £5 postage
Steve Bell, Brighton Festival 1998
Brighton resident and renowned cartoonist Steve Bell kindly reprised his original artwork from 1998, beautifully reproduced in this high-quality digital print and signed by the artist. The drawing depicts a satirical Brighton city-scape with some familiar characters!
Signed digital print
Size: A3
Price: £90 + £5 postage
There are many more of these prints to be found and help support local artists and the link as above is here – theprivatepress.org/shop/p/brighton-festival.
