Od Arts Festival 2021: Alone with Everybody, 28-30 MAY

Online and across East Coker and West Coker, Somerset
Digital programme continues until 6 June

We are delighted to announce the return of Od Arts Festival this May! We’ll bring exhibitions, performances, film and workshops by local and international artists to not-so-sleepy Somerset. New and specially-sited artworks will pop up around the villages of East Coker and West Coker: in cafes, halls, houses, chapels and fields, and also online in a special digital programme.

Devised before the hiatus of the global pandemic, the guiding theme for the festival of ‘Alone with Everybody’, explores loneliness – what it is, how we continue to experience it, where it comes from, and how it might be addressed. A programme of playful, experimental and performative artworks will probe different aspects of aloneness, and ask how it might be liberating as well as difficult to be alone.

Od Arts Festival 2021 is co-curated by Simon Lee Dicker, founding Director of OSR Projects and Vickie Fear, Curator/Programme Manager at Aspex, Portsmouth. Vickie says:

“Our theme, Alone with Everybody has a whole new set of resonances from when we originally planned the festival. We’ve had to rethink some aspects of the programme and alongside making physical works safe and accessible, we are excited to extend the presentation of digital work to allow people to experience Od without needing to travel. The artists explore a range of themes: from going off-grid and choosing to be alone, to the struggles and challenges of being or feeling isolated – something we’ve experienced in different ways during Covid-19. Whether visiting in person or joining us online, I hope everyone will feel a part of this shared experience of contemporary art in rural Somerset.”

The full programme of events and workshops will be announced shortly. In the meantime, find out more about the 25 artists taking part by visiting: odartsfestival.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you – on or off-screen – this May!

The Od Arts Festival team (Simon, Vickie, Chantelle & Rowan)