Arts & Music

Welcome to the Pleasuredome! OK, maybe not, but here's where you'll find our arts and music pages – Tate Online features, festival reviews, Morris dancers, theatre bookings, pop trivia...

Tate Online: Are you feeling culturally marooned? Are you missing those regular trips to art galleries in the UK? Then help is at hand at Tate's fifth gallery, www.tate.org.uk - the UK's number one arts website.
Tate Online - Constable: "From 1 June, a major exhibition at Tate Britain of John Constable's seminal 'six-foot' exhibition canvases, 'Constable: The Great Landscapes', offers the first opportunity to view them all together. The 'six-footers' are among the best-known images in British art and comprise the famous series of views on the River Stour, which includes 'The Haywain' 1820-1, as well as more expressive later works such as 'Hadleigh Castle' 1829 and 'Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows' 1831. These paintings lie at the very heart of Constable's achievement. " Tim Batchelor, Co-curator of the 'Constable: The Great Landscapes' exhibition, examines Constable's life and some of the features of the exhibition.
Tate Online - Turner: "A recent BBC Radio 4 poll to find the nation's favourite painting chose Turner's 'Fighting Temeraire'. In fact it transpired the shortlist had been tweaked by the judges because the public had chosen too many Turners and the judges wanted the list to be more varied. In a country often considered to be more literary than visual, this sort of popularity is quite an achievement." Tate curator Matthew Imms on Turner's continuing popularity.
Tate Online - Turner Prize: Jemima Rellie, Head of Digital Programmes at Tate, tells us about the Turner Prize and how, if you can't visit the exhibition at Tate Britain, you can still share your thoughts on Europe's leading contemporary art prize on Tate's website, which is sponsored by BT.
Photography School Asia: Photography School Asia offers you a unique opportunity to study with British photojournalist Jonathan Taylor, with courses, classes and tours in Bangkok, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
Photography School Asia: special events - September 2008: Photography School Asia offers you a unique opportunity to study with British photojournalist Jonathan Taylor, with courses, classes and tours in Bangkok, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
South Africa Freedom Day Concert: "You cannot give me freedom, I have always been free/ Freedom lives, in me..." Celebrating seven years of freedom in South Africa.
The Music of Tanzania: "Over the past few years in particular the 'Sauti za Busara' (Sounds of Wisdom) music festival has become increasingly popular within Tanzania and overseas. And for many years now the Swahili Music Festival has firmly established itself as one of East Africa's finest annual events." Ian Williamson in Tanzania looks at the vibrant music scene there.
WOMAD 2000: "'World Music' is reckoned to be the fastest growing genre in the music business with sales booming in the high street. If this is true then the three-day WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) Festival - now in its 11th year at Reading - has to take some of the credit. It has introduced the music to a wider audience through its promotion of everything 'world' and in turn given something back to the musicians themselves - pride in their heritage." David Stockton reviews WOMAD 2000.
Festival Frenzy: "As I look out of the office window here in Berkshire, all I see is the drizzling nasty rain that pre-empts the English Bank Holiday. Forget what they said at school, Keats got it wrong with all that misty mellowness nonsense. Nevertheless, let's not bellyache as it is festival time with my town, Reading, smugly proclaiming itself 'home of festivals' with both WOMAD and Carling." David Stockton's review of rock and indie music festivals in England during the late summer and early autumn.
Sydney Morris Men: "They strike up the Devil's dance withall: then martch this heathen company.their pypers pyping. their belles jyngling, their handkercheefes fluttering.like madde men..." (Philip Stubbes, 1583) So what do you know about Morris Men? Find out here.
Hong Kong Morris Men: "Morris dancing is an English traditional type of dancing. Its origins go back for hundreds of years to pre-Christian times. The farmers and peasants who did these dances believed that the dances helped their crops to grow." David Scott writes about the Hong Kong Morris.
Pop Trivia - Birthday Related: Pop trivia questions - all birthday related.