Our Partners

The University is proud to be the Lead Sponsor of Canterbury Festival, Kent's International Arts Festival, the largest festival of arts and culture in the region, and one of the most important cultural events in the South East.

Canterbury Festival

The Festival attracts an audience of over 70,000 people of all ages to free and ticketed events, drawn from across Kent, London and the South East. With over two hundred events in two weeks there is something to suit everyone from classical music to contemporary dance and from comedy to world music with theatre, walks, talks, visual arts and much more.

In 2011, the partnership received significant recognition when it was awarded the Commercial Collaborative Award at the Culture Awards.

Visit the Canterbury Festival website for more details about the festival.

Folkestone Book Festival

Canterbury Christ Church University and the Creative Foundation are delighted to announce a new partnership which sees CCCU as Creative Partner of the Folkestone Book Festival, 20–29 November 2015.

Canterbury Christ Church University will support the Creative Foundation in developing the creative content of the festival. In particular, working closely with the educational strands of the festival, supporting its efforts to inspire new thinking, encourage writing and build joint relationships with schools, the community, artists and local businesses.

There will be approximately forty five events at this year’s Book Festival and will include authors and speakers such as Louis de Bernières, Wendy Cope, Lynne Truss, Zoe Williams, Terry Wogan, Melvyn Bragg, Tracey Thorn, Jessica Hynes, Claudia Roden, HRH Princess Michael of Kent and more.

To find out more information about the Festival and to book tickets go to the Creative Foundation website.

Whitstable Biennale

As part of the new partnership between Canterbury Christ Church University and Whitstable Biennale, artist Trish Scott has been working with psychologist Dr Ian Hocking from the School of Psychology, Politics and Sociology to produce a new artwork for the Whitstable Biennale. The work, which is currently in development, investigates the question of phenomenology in psychology, and centres on exchange between a scientist, an artist and a psychic, juxtaposing different methods for approaching the quaila - the lived experience of being. Part fiction, part documentary, the work references actual encounters between Trish and Ian, and tells the story of their collaboration; the experience of Trish being a research participant, the articulation of her creativity and the question of whether one person’s ideas and motivations can ever be known by another.

Whitstable Biennale 2016 will feature a wide range of new work by contemporary artists, a pop-up artist-designed cafe, a special cinema showing films every day, and exhibitions, live performances, workshops, tours, events and talks. See our website for more information www.whitstablebiennale.com