Pick of the Week: 3 - 9 August

Dash paint in yer mates mush for charity

Show in a Week: Annie 
Are the little terrors turning your house into their own personal play den? Driving you round the bend on their summer holidays already? Do you feel like the munchkins are out to get you? Then hide in the garage with the lights off no longer, parents, help is at hand in the form of theatre. Ship ‘em off to Nottingham Arts Theatre for the week, and have ‘em create a production of Annie in a matter of days. If your little angels are between the ages of seven and sixteen, then they can try their hand at acting at a professional theatre. They’re bound to have a cracking time, and you’ll have a well-deserved few hours peace to gather your thoughts and finally tackle that pile of washing that seems to have taken on a life of it’s own. Winner winner chicken dinner.
Monday 3 - Friday 9 August, 10am, £86, Nottingham Arts Theatre

The baddest place in town

Summer Arts Project
Listen up, yoots. There’s a new project in town that’s set to take you from the dim city streets to the bright lights of the stage, if only you’ll be bothered to get up in the morning. Trish and Ian, the absolute boss-people of The Lofthouse have managed to secure Arts Council funding that has enabled them to get a load of industry professionals to come in and coach you all into creating a show-stopper of a performance. Scorzayzee is ready and waiting to whip the wordsmiths into shape, Mrs Green aka Ben Welch is on standby to let you in on the secret to stealing the show, and West End trained professional dancer Molly-May Gardiner will show you a thing or two about tap. The end goal is to create a show that could take the world by storm, based on the history of our city’s lace industry. Up for it? Just turn up at 10 on the dot and be ready to work your bottom off.
Monday 3 - Friday 22 August, from 10am, free,  The Lofthouse

Zarina Bhimji – Jangbar 
Jangbar is a new film and sound installation by Turner Prize-nominated artist Zarina Bhimji. Something special awaits – her eagerly anticipated piece collaborates a portfolio of works in film, including the critically-acclaimed Yellow Patch (2011). Jangbar, filmed on 35mm in Kenya, is a 26-minute piece which incorporates an immersive single screen, HD projection with surround sound. The piece is an inquiry into image, light, object, the universal, the literal and the abstract. Commissioned by Film London Artists Moving Image Network and New Art Exchange, the showcase is not one to be missed – you’re in for a creative, intricate and elaborate experience. With Bhimji’s works previously held in collections including Tate Britain and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, it’d be daft not to nip down to Hyson Green for a peep.
August - September, 9am, free, New Art Exchange

Delve into the wonderful world of books, this week

Turning Ages Art Installation 
Whether you’re a fan of scrawling ideas into a jotter or reading the works of your favourite author, we all interact with words on a daily basis. This connection with the written word has been explored by artists three-fold. Recently venturing into this realm is Bristol based artist, Elaine Robinson, who has constructed a feature piece using a load of books in a glass box. A hell of a lot more impressive than our meagre description implies. Her work explores the importance of ancestry, and our connection with books and libraries as a whole. If you’ve never been a library fan, this is the perfect time to get down and find out exactly why they are so important to us. While you’re there, why not take home a novel and have a good old read in the bath.  
Runs until Wednesday 30 September, free during library opening times, Nottingham Central Library

Young Craft Academy – Felted Wirework Letter 
Get your teens down to the Lace Market this month to learn some crafty, tips and tricks. Debbie Bryan, a local craftswoman who regularly hosts workshops in around the city, is offering fourteen to seventeen year olds the chance to learn the rules and create their own petite wirework and study how to add stitch embellishments and felt baubles to thread through adding texture and effect. The workshop comes with a complimentary home kit, including a how-to guide and all the materials needed to recreate the felt making experienced at the craft academy. Confiscate Gameboys, Dream Phones and Hanson CDs (or whatever it is teenagers spend your hard-earned on these days) and ship ‘em off to learn something creative, and have a right old bit of fun too.
Friday 7 August, £25, 18 St Mary’s Gate, The Lace Market

Coming to a field near you

Nottingham Burn 2015
If you’re feeling like a bit of a hippy this month, get yourself down to Nottingham Burn. It’s a two-night community and creative event inspired by Burning Man and Burning Nest – the trippy Nevada desert-based arts festival, and its UK offshoot near Port Talbot. The festival combines the cashless, inclusive and expressive principles behind Burning Man with a good owd knees-up in a field, incorporating ethically-sourced food, composting toilets, art, live music and innovative workshops. Located just outside of Nottingham (the exact location is hush-hush until you cough up the cash), the site is based on a permaculture farm which produces salads for local restaurants. And they’ve got pigs. There are hopes to use solar and biofuel energy to power the majority of the event, with the intention of moving towards a fully renewable energy-powered or carbon neutral model. But most importantly, it’s a massive party in a field. So bring your instruments, joss sticks and headscarves, and be sure to equip yourself with a paintbrush. Oh, and the whole thing is run by volunteers, so give them a shout and get stuck in, if you fancy it.
Friday 7 - Sunday 9 August, 12pm, £45, Secret Location

The Runga Run 
Framework are just one organisation doing great things for the homeless community in Nottingham. Working on a case-by-case basis throughout the year, they help people to work through the endless issues that arise from being dealt a bad hand one too many times. Good thing then that their very first Runga Run is taking place at Kelham Hall this month. Inspired by the Hindu Holi festival, The Runga Run is five kilometres of pure fundraising madness. With paint powder. Lots of it. Anyone over the age of five can take part, and it will mean running, jogging or walking around the beautiful grounds of Kelham Hall while getting paint powder chucked in your face. There’s a small registration fee and with that, you get a fundraising pack, a white t-shirt, a running number and a bag of colour given to you on the day. Check the Framework website to get yourself signed up.
Saturday 8 August, 11am, £5/£15/£35, Kelham Hall

The big boys battle it out, spring roll in hand

Clash Money: Bar Buffet 
Youth Oracle has taken his battle rap empire to new levels. After a knock-out session at Mouthy Poet’s Say Sum Thin 9 at Nottingham Playhouse with a load of poets vs rappers, the master of wordplay is taking on a new challenge. This weekend, he’s got thirty-odd, whole new battles lined up with big name Bru-C and Pedro taking the top slot. There’s also gonna be a fair few nibbles in the form of a fully-fledged chinese buffet, so you’ll be able to nibble on a spring roll in between watching your favourite battlers cuss out one another. Expect beats, bars and beef in black bean sauce all up in one room. If that ain’t a match made in heaven then we don’t know what is.
Saturday 8 August, 3pm, £6, Free Season Karaoke Bar

Morley Memories Day
Nottingham has an amazing industrial past. We’re the city that invented the machines that paved the way for the industrial revolution, and we’re also the city that sought to destroy them for pilching our jobs. Built on lace, we pretty much ran the show when it came to stockings. Backlit wanna know all about it. If you’ve got any interesting stories about our industrial past - maybe your great great granny slaved night and day in one of our city’s many factories - then pop over to Backlit this weekend to document your slice of local history pie. If you’ve got any memorabilia from back in the day, too, they’d love to have a nosy. Go and help build our city’s history, ducks.
Saturday 8 August, 11am, free, Backlit Gallery

Catch 'em while you can

I Am Lono EP Launch 
Nusic describes them as ‘paranoid pop music gold’ – surely a good enough reason to get down to their debut EP launch extravaganza at the Contemporary this month. The duo – yes, there really are only two of them, but you wouldn’t believe it from their bleddy great racket – definitely know how to please a crowd. Anyone heading down will be in for a night of Bowie-influenced synth ‘n’ bass magic, supported by the alternative rock trio Mannequin, and electronic synth trio Blunt Mountains. The EP will be available to purchase on the night, and there’ll be limited-edition copies in classy white ten-inch vinyl. High energy levels, catchy synthesised pop, a wee bit of rock and a shedload of noise. Don’t be a crazy fool, get your arse down to the Contemporary to catch I Am Lono before they become I Am Massive-Fanbase-O.
Saturday 8 August, 8pm, free, Nottingham Contemporary

For the motherload of everything else going on this week check out our comprehensive Nottingham events listings.

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