Mikey Martins, Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of Freedom Festival Arts Trust, said: “We’re delighted that our partnership with the University of Hull is going from strength to strength, and these excellent and compelling parts of this year’s Festival programme are just the tip of the iceberg, outside of the festival period we’re also painting artists up with academic experts around topics of social justice, criminology and climate adaptation, developing various student engagement programmes with creative practitioners and also working closely with arts based research.”
Formerly Symposium, Freedom Talks is an integral part of the Freedom Festival.
Inspired by the reformist legacy of Hull local William Wilberforce and the wider abolitionist movement, Freedom Festival Arts Trust build local, national and international alliances to create cultural experiences that have something to say about universal values and the future, working with artists, creative organisations, international producers, the private sector, academic partners and voluntary and community groups. The big subjects are as ever: Barriers to freedom including tackling isolation, loneliness, negative cultural perceptions and racial stereotypes, diversity, modern day slavery and effects of human trafficking.
Freedom Festival Arts Trust brings thousands of people together through its annual festival and year-round artistic and creative programme of performances, installations, talent development programmes and creative participatory work to excite, inspire, challenge, empower and provoke. Hull’s long-running Arts Festival has flooded the city with free to access thought-provoking and entertaining arts and culture for 16 years.
Freedom Festival began in 2007 to mark the 200th anniversary of the first anti-slavery act in parliament.
For full details of the Freedom Festival line up, visit the Freedom Festival website.