What's on North 18-25 May: Museums at Night

Museums at Night descends, bringing Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester (and beyond) to life with late-night museum openings, special events and more

Feature by Jess Hardiman | 18 May 2017

Each week The Skinny team hand-pick a selection of the best events from the North's cultural calendar to provide you with this 'ere top ten guide to the most exciting goings-on for the week ahead. From gigs, plays and exhibitions to spoken word, pop-up foodie events and one-off film screenings, we give you the insider's guide to things to do in Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds every Thursday morning.

Museums at Night

Time for a twilight culture party! Art exhibitions with beer! Exciting happenings in unusual spaces! That's because it's time for Museums at Night, which sees venues, galleries and heritage sites across the country come to life after hours for an evening of late-night exhibitions and special events.

Manchester's citywide Manchester After Hours event will include an NTS Radio takeover at the Whitworth, an audiovisual installation from Islington Mill's Engine House Collective at the Museum of Science and Industry, literature night Bad Language at Elizabeth Gaskell's House, an ode to electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire at John Rylands Library and more.

Liverpool meanwhile will roll celebrations over onto Fri 19 May with its famed culture crawl LightNight, with eight new commissions for 2017 – head over to theskinny.co.uk for interviews with each artist, discussing this year's theme of 'Time'. You can also browse some of our programme highlights here, which include late exhibition openings at FACT, Walker Art Gallery, the International Slavery Museum and others.

Win House Party at the Mansion tickets!

Win four tickets (including beer) to Shindigger's House Party at The Mansion on 20 May; simply head over to The Skinny North's Twitter at 12pm on Thu 18 May and retweet to be in with a chance of winning! Winner picked Fri 19 May.

Register to Vote

The deadline to register to vote is Mon 22 May – it'll take five minutes and you can do it online by following this link. Feeling disillusioned by it all? Read our piece on why we should resist voter fatigue here. Illustration: Tony McKay

Vintage Fairs

Lots of vintage happenings this weekend across the North, with Manchester Weigh and Pay on 20 May, Leeds Vintage Kilo Sale on 21 May and Lou Lou's Vintage Fair in Liverpool, also on 21 May.

Also This Week:

Extra-ordinary
Various buildings at Leeds College of Art. 19-24 May and 10-15 Jun, times vary

Witness Yorkshire's rising talent with Extra-ordinary, a series of exhibitions of work by graduating students from Leeds College of Art. The degree shows will be divided into two legs: 19-24 May at the Vernon Street building and 10-15 Jun at the Blenheim Walk and Vernon Street buildings. Check out our preview and gallery here. Photo: Abbi Richards (Fine Art)

Unnatural Borders: Endangered Species in the City
MediaCityUK, Salford. Sat 20-Mon 29 May, times vary

A Quays Culture exclusive commission by Sober Industries (Netherlands), where four large illuminated sculptures – each representing the endangered species of polar bear, whale, red squirrel and bee – are suspended at various points in MediaCityUK, exploring the interaction and impact between human civilization and the animal kingdom environment.

Advertisement | Out Of This World
The Lowry Quays Theatre, Salford. Tue 30 & Wed 31 May
Mark Murphy's V-TOL

In parts heart-rending medical drama, love story and intense psychological thriller, Out Of This World creates a disorientating, visually inventive and exhilarating experience. This is one woman’s woozy descent into a medically induced coma: she wants to escape the pain, but to do that she must decide – her life or her love. Combining projections, aerial choreography and explosive special effects, this is unforgettable and deeply affecting theatre. Think 24 Hours in A&E... directed by Christopher Nolan.

Gold Sounds
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds. Sat 20-Sun 21 May, times vary

We're excited for Gold Sounds festival at the Brud, promising the ferociously wonderful Shame, LA art-pop outfit Gothic Tropic, Liverpool dreampop duo Her's (pictured), Bristol's Swimming Girls, Brisbane garage rockers Dune Rats, Nottingham grunge trio Kagoule, Leeds alt-rockers Narcs and more. Photo: Andy Sawyer

WOW Festival
Storyhouse, Chester. Sat 20-Sun 21 May, 9am

The global Women of the World (WOW) festival comes to Chester with a line-up of inspirational talks, performance, comedy, panel discussions, music, a marketplace, networking, workshops and film screenings (Sonita pictured). Not only is it your chance to help celebrate women and girls and examine the obstacles that hold them back, it's also the perfect opportunity to check out Chester's brand new multi-arts venue – we went to visit last weekend, and she's a corker.

What to Watch This Week

The best things to watch this week on the big screen, the small screen and your laptop screen, including candy-coloured sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Snatched, in which Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer play mother and daughter.