The Museums at Night festival took place last weekend with high-profile authors taking part for the first time. We caught up with Nick Stockman the Festival’s Director who is in his second year of managing Museums at Night for Culture24. They are based in Brighton, home of the now defunct Victorian Volk’s ‘Daddy-Long Legs’ Electrical Sea Railway. Nick has been a recording artist and manager of a band that appeared on the Jools Holland show and ran England’s largest arts festival, Brighton Fringe for 6 years.
Q: How old were you when you first picked up a book?
So long ago I can’t remember.
Q: What books are on your bedside table?
Londoners by Craig Taylor and Sandman volume 4 by Neil Gaiman.
Q: Who’s your favourite author and what is your favourite type of book?
David Mitchell right now, just finished his latest The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. I like fiction, novels that challenge, play with the concept of how a novel should be written and I like The Cat in the Hat!
Q: Are you in a book club?
No.
Q: How did you get the idea for the Museums at Night Festival and what was the first one like?
Museums at Night evolved through Museums and Gallery Month which lasted for a few years until in 2009 it was decided to focus on one weekend. I took over the management of the festival last year and this year the number of events has risen to over 500 and we have significantly increased the amount of high quality artistic activity which features in the festival.
Q: What’s a typical day like for you at the festival?
I’ll be going to Liverpool, speaking at their launch and then packing in as many events as possible including artistic taxidermist Polly Morgan’s demonstration at Victoria Art Gallery.
Q: How you’ve found working with publishers?
Good, they’re very excited about the opportunity of placing authors in unusual cultural venues. I think there’s great potential to do a lot more with this.
Q: How will the authors in museum events differ from bookshop and library readings?
We are looking for connections between authors, their work and venues collections. We are striving for the events to be uniquely about these connections so that audiences come away hearing things about the author, their work and the venue they won’t get anywhere else. Jon Mcgregor is going up to Dundee’s Discovery Point partly because of the connection he and the museum have with Antarctica.
Q: Anything else you’ve learnt or have been surprised by organising the author events?
I’ve learnt loads and am constantly surprised not just by organising author events but life in general.
Q: What do you do once the festival comes to an end?
Evaluate and fundraise, there really is no break.
