Chichester - Culture

Culture

The city holds an annual three-week arts and music festival (“Chichester Festivities“) held in July.

Its most prestigious cultural location is the Chichester Festival Theatre, one of the United Kingdom’s flagship theatres, whose annual summer season attracts actors, writers and directors from the West End theatre.

Pallant House Gallery, winner of the 2007 gallery of the year Gulbenkian Prize has a major collection of chiefly modern British art and in 2006 opened its new extension that houses the collection of Professor Sir Colin St John Wilson. It also has a changing programme of exhibitions.

Since 2007, the week long annual I AM JOY Arts and Music Festival in August has exhibited artworks, showcased bands, contemporary dance, theatre and run workshops across different venues in the city. The festival has since 2008, grown into a high street gallery, magazine, monthly comedy night, film nights and live music nights; from Cabaret to Post-Rock.

Chichester Cinema at New Park is the city's first and only arthouse cinema. It shows a selection of mainstream, small-budget and older films, with showings 7 days a week. Vice presidents are Dame Maggie Smith and Kenneth Branagh. There is also a larger, multiplex cinema located at Chichester Gate.

The Chichester Open Mic has supported regular programmes of readings by contemporary poets in the city since 2010. It also hosts a high profile annual event under the banner Poetry and All That Jazz which included performances by Don Paterson in 2010, Sam Willetts in 2011 and David Harsent in 2012.

In the 1990s Chichester started to develop an alternative subculture. There is still a shop in Crane Street which retails clothing aimed at the alternative music culture.

Chichester is mentioned in a 1992 episode of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, the 2005 film Stoned (film) about Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones, and also in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes.