Home Is Where The Art Is - Anne Dillow

In this series, the team at Mobius let you in on all their favourite arts venues and regular haunts from their hometowns around the UK.

Next up is our Senior Marketing Account Manager Anne, although she spent 15 years living and working in London she has now moved back to her hometown of Harrogate in Yorkshire.

Check out our other entries in this series from Elaine Jones (from Wrexham), George Rennie (from Brighton), Frank (from Carlisle), Alastair Norton (from Wolverhampton), and Flavia Fraser-Cannon (Waterloo)

1. Can you tell us about your favourite local arts venues when you were growing up?

The Alhambra Theatre in Bradford will forever stick in my mind as one of the most amazing places. Every year my Dad would take me to the ballet at Christmas and every year it would blow my tiny mind with how huge and magnificent and all-encompassing a performance could be (disclaimer; probably not the exact words used in my 8yr old feedback).

Harrogate International Festival was also (and still is) a really impressive selection of artists from across the globe coming to a relatively small town each year. Kicking off with a huge street parade of dancers, musicians, acrobats and local schools, it’s pretty hard not to feel excited and drawn in by the whole thing. The community outreach is also a big part of the festival; having the likes of Soweto Kinch and Julian Joseph come into your school to give jazz workshops is I’m sure one of the things that leads you to wanting to work in live music and performance further down the line.

2. And what about your favourite local culture spots now?

The Warehouse and also Headrow House in Leeds are really laid back and lovely small spaces for gigs and comedy. I’m really excited for the opening of Bradford Live this year, I think it will be a pivotal venue for Bradford’s culture scene (which we’d all hope might get a bit of a push in 2025 anyway!). Harrogate Theatre’s Studio Space also gets more and more interesting work in an intimate setting and is always worth a visit.

On my trips back to London I still always love a Soho Theatre trip and Southwark Playhouse is generally next on my list to check what’s on.

3. And any other local recommendations?

Roosters in Harrogate is the tap room of dreams; nice drinks, guest kitchens, beer garden, lots of space, family and dog friendly (but not oppressively so), live music nights and now a pretty significant comedy scene too.

And of course, Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield. Completely idyllic with some internationally impressive sculpture from the likes of Ai Weiwei, Henry Moore and Jaume Plensa (plus Seizure, that amazing blue copper sulphate crystal flat that they rescued from Peckham) all set against Yorkshire’s beautiful rolling landscape.

Yes please.

We'd love to hear from you if you're working on any shows in Yorkshire and looking for some Comms support, please do get in touch.

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