About

This Digital Diary is written by playwright Vanessa Oakes, Writer in Residence at the George Eliot Collection (Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery). It will provide regular updates on the residencies’ progress and include information about a series of events designed to encourage the public to engage with and participate in the residency e.g. Creative Writing Days, Ask the Writer, Artist Intervention and Public Performances. It will also include a series of competition give-aways so make sure you subscribe now.

Vanessa Oakes: ‘The stimulus for both this residency and the resulting play was a comment by a local person who said, “George Eliot, yeah; I should really read his books”. It is this ambiguity of authorship which I want to explore. During the residency I want to investigate what George Eliot means today to local people and how (or even if) they feel connected to both her life story and the power of her words’.

Principal amongst the collections that Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery cares for are items related to locally born writer George Eliot. Given the international importance of the collection, the museum wants to explore new ways to bring these items and the writer they celebrate to life. This exciting and innovative residency will help to achieve this.

Vanessa Oakes trained as a theatre designer before working extensively in scenography, community arts and arts administration. Her recent plays include; The Game Anew for Pentabus Theatre’s May Fair at Latitude, The Watched Sea (CAPITAL), The Permitted Number (Paines Plough), I Am Active (Red Teapot), The Kindness of Strangers (Warwick Words), Lost in Paradise CV6 (Belgrade  Theatre), A Body Moving Through (the estate), Live Like Us (Belgrade Theatre). Current projects include His Naked Eye for Theatre in Action (Glasgow).

This project is funded by Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council and Arts Council England and supported by Coventry University School of Art and Design.

NB While the residency at the Museum & Art Gallery is now over, my own search for George continues (see post 7th February 2012) with occasional updates on my progress.