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Minster Nights
Published: on 19th August 2009 by Kendal Chalk in Minster News
York Minster will stay open late for the second time this year on Sunday 30th August as part of a new initiative called ‘Minster Nights’. Visitors will experience the cathedral at night through a spectrum of art and performance, expressing something of the Minster’s historic significance and its Christian witness and ministry down the centuries.
Minster Nights will have a wide array of special events for visitors, from 5pm until midnight, including performances, installations and interpretations, all of which work within the cathedral’s space and the evening setting to challenge the visitor’s perception.
Visitors can go on ‘Hidden Minster’ tours which will take them to areas of the building they have never seen before, including the Mason’s loft and crypt passages. Trips up the Central Tower will run from 6pm until 11pm and will allow visitors to see spectacular views of the city of York by night.
One of the highlights of the evening is an abridged performance of T.S.Eliot’s masterpiece ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ in the West End of the Cathedral at 7.30pm and 9.30pm by the well known Mooted Theatre Company. The play will present the story of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, as he takes up residence in Canterbury Cathedral awaiting his inevitable martyrdom.
The York Shakespeare Project will be performing some of Shakespeare’s best known speeches in the West End at 6.30pm. There will also be a performance of ‘February Fire’ in the West End at 8.30pm, which will examine the notorious life of Jonathan Martin, who started the Minster fire in 1829.
There will be a live acoustic set performed in the unique Chapter House by Holly Taymar, a local York musician, from 8.30pm onwards. David Pipe, Assistant to York Minster’s Director of Music, will also provide live Organ Music at 10pm in the Nave and will once again be happy to accept requests from visitors.
Glistening Cogs of Greenland will provide experimental music for visitors as they walk through the atmospheric Western Crypts at 7pm and 9pm. At 8pm there will be an audio, voice and movement performance called ‘Terrain’ by the dance company Mother in the Chapter House, who will use the setting to experiment with physical and sonic boundaries.
Local artist Steve Tomlinson will be developing ideas from his recent paintings by casting shadows of interior parts of the Minster onto a large screen in the Quire, allowing visitors a new way of looking at the Minster. Artist Lois Whitehead will be occupying St. Nicholas Chapel where she would like to create artistic badges based on the conversations she has with individual visitors, reflecting the setting as well as the subjects discussed and encouraging visitors to interact with each other.
James Brook will be working on his large reproduction of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the North Transept. There will be a ‘Light Fantastic Installation’ by ‘Miles & Dacombe’ in the Eastern Crypt who will have further work displayed in the North Transept. Installed in the Lady Chapel is a walk-through Labyrinth with projections on the history of labyrinths in European Cathedrals by North Country Theatre.
There will be interpretation stalls from the Minster Broderers, Flower Arrangers and Masons in the South Quire Aisle. New interpretation panels about the securing of the central tower and the excavation will also be in place in the Undercroft, which is free of charge during Minster Nights.
The idea for Minster Nights developed after York Minster took part in ‘Night Fever’ in May, which was a ‘Museums at Night’ nationwide initiative encouraging museums to open late and offer visitors unique events. The evening was so successful that the Minster has decided to make it a seasonal event.
The Dean of York, the Very Reverend Keith Jones, said, “The Minster is a holy place, and an amazing monument to the faith of many generations expressed in stone and glass. It’s also full of life, creativity and fascinating hidden places: so this special evening of artistic expression and enjoyment of the Minster has been arranged. We look forward to welcoming visitors and locals on the night of the 30th August to see and hear some new and different sides of a building that we all think of as a well-loved friend.”
Minster Nights is free to York residents with a Minster card or proof of address, however there will be additional charges for Hidden Minster Tours and Tower Trips. To find out more about Minster Nights and admission charges please visit www.yorkminster.org/calendar/ Due to limited space on the Hidden Minster tours, visitors will have to sign up on arrival. None of the tours are suitable for children under 16.