Islington Mill: Quiet events, busy calendar

Greg Thorpe

Islington Mill sees good news mixed with bad this month – but their upcoming events just keep rolling on.

Hot on the heels of their major successful Arts Council bid, Islington Mill suffered a serious blow this month when Salford City Council delivered a residential noise complaint against the venue. The Mill took its community responsibility seriously enough to shift two key events from the summer calendar to Antwerp Mansion as an emergency measure, but was a painful step back after such a huge leap forward. Noise is a familiar complaint for other venues, but a particular problem for a 24-hour licensed arts space with expansion of its programme on the horizon. The situation is currently in limbo.

The Mill’s upcoming events focus on creativity – and “the Citizen Kane of bad movies”

In the meantime, attention turns to events that foreground creativity and sharing, with an emphasis on community space – all core elements of the Mill’s ethos, and timelier now than ever. Artist Jen Wu’s project The Wall centres around the rebuilding of a social space (formerly the Old Bank Theatre / Royal Liver Friendly Society) on a plot of reclaimed public land. A single wall from the old structure has been preserved by the artist and participation is sought for the bricks to be cleaned up and distributed to custodians, in anticipation of it being re-built. The Wall events take place every Saturday until the end of September and are open to all.

On Thursday 28 August, the Pot Luck Film Night screens Tommy Wiseau’s so-bad-it’s-brilliant classic The Room – affectionately known as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies” – while on Friday 12 September it’s time for ARNAGEDDON, a night of wall-to-wall Schwarzenegger flicks, as voted for by the punters.

Meanwhile, regular Mill club night Gesamtkunstwerk heads over to Soup Kitchen for a one-off party on Friday 5 September. Further art happenings will take place back at the Mill next month, with a screen-printing workshop from One69a in the pipeline. As for the noise – we’ll keep you posted with developments. In the meantime, let’s be creative quietly.

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