Culture
The New Vic Theatre was Europe’s first purpose-built theatre in the round. It is just outside the town centre and offers a full programme of entertainment, including modern or classic plays and concert performances.
The Borough Museum and Art Gallery depicts the civic history of the Borough of Newcastle under Lyme and an authentic, life-size Victorian street-scene whilst the art gallery hosts work by local and national artists as well as ‘travelling’ exhibitions. Until 2005, there was an annual carnival held on the Spring Bank Holiday but this has been cancelled due to rising policing costs.
Notable residents who contributed to the arts and entertainment include Philip Astley, founder of the ‘modern’ circus. Jackie Trent, the singer and songwriter, was born in the town. Arnold Bennett, the novelist, playwright, and essayist, completed his schooling at the Middle School and called the town Oldcastle in his Clayhanger trilogy of novels. Dinah Maria Mulock, who wrote under her married name of Mrs. Craik, lived in the town (in Lower Street and Mount Pleasant) and attended Brampton House Academy. E S Turner, the social commentator, was educated in the town.
Historically, the city had a strong tradition of festivities marking the start of a new municipal year.
Read more about this topic: Newcastle-under-Lyme
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you’d never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)
“If you’re anxious for to shine in the high esthetic line as a man
of culture rare,
You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant
them everywhere.
You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of your
complicated state of mind,
The meaning doesn’t matter if it’s only idle chatter of a
transcendental kind.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“Culture is the suggestion, from certain best thoughts, that a man has a range of affinities through which he can modulate the violence of any master-tones that have a droning preponderance in his scale, and succor him against himself. Culture redresses this imbalance, puts him among equals and superiors, revives the delicious sense of sympathy, and warns him of the dangers of solitude and repulsion.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)