Woking Dance Festival –
in partnership with Woking Galleries –
commissions site-specific performances with Carol Brown

Woking Galleries and Woking Dance Festival have won a £50,000 public art prize for an exciting collaboration, which will include specially commissioned work from choreographer Carol Brown and a 34 metre long light installation by light artist Peter Freeman. The two artists will respond to the site and architecture of Woking’s new heritage and arts centre, culminating in a large-scale performance as part of its opening celebrations in 2007.

The prize was awarded by Art Plus, a prestigious public art scheme run by Arts Council England, South East and SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) and supported by Berkeley Homes and Land Securities.

The project; called Radiance; brings together leading lights from the worlds of architecture, dance and the arts – Julia Barfield, the creator of the London Eye and architect of Woking Galleries, choreographer Carol Brown and light artist, Peter Freeman.

Over the next two years, whilst the building is under construction, they will be working together to create a series of dance events on the building site and a permanent, interactive light installation, which will act as a beacon for the new centre, reaching out to the town. The common inspiration for the work has been the role of light, movement and memory in defining how we experience architectural spaces within cultural buildings.

The first live dance event will be in autumn 2005, and the project will culminate in a large-scale production as part of the opening ceremony of Woking Galleries in spring 2007.