Are you ready for 11 days of magic and marvel with Festival of the Mind?

Professor Vanessa Toulmin, Head of Cultural Engagement and Director of the National Fairground Archive, has been the driving force and curator behind the world’s first festival of academic-city collaboration, Festival of the Mind, an innovative series of free events starting on Thursday 20 September which are set to show everyone that attends how inspirational collaborative working can be.

Vanessa said: “Festival of the Mind is about inspiring people and bringing the magic of our research through the creativity of our partners to the people of Sheffield.”

From Thursday 20 to Sunday 30 September, 35 groundbreaking collaborations between University academics and local people in the creative and cultural industries will be open to the general public and to University staff.

Well over 100 members of staff are involved in festival events. To see your colleagues bring alive their wonderful creative projects, meet inspiring people from the city and discover the magic of research take a look at the full programme of events. You’ll be sure to discover something you didn’t know about the University, such as the amazing world of the Alfred Denny Museum with its stunning zoological collection.

Follow Festival of the Mind on Twitter @FestivalMind #FestivalMind or visit its Facebook page.

Academics from such diverse disciplines as Nanotechnology, English, Architecture, Psychology and Biomedical Science have teamed up with artists, poets, magicians and musicians from Sheffield to create unique, thought-provoking performances, events and exhibitions designed to stimulate the mind.

The civic projects of the festival all arose from an Ideas Bazaar held at the University last year, where academics and members of the community were invited to a speed-dating style event to match proposals and ideas for projects to knowledge and expertise to make them a reality.

A day of family fun including street artists, sideshows, music, magic and storytelling will officially launch the festival on Thursday 20 September from midday to 5pm in Weston Park. Festival of the Mind events will then take place throughout the city, the centre of which will be in Barkers Pool in a beautiful 1920s cabaret-style ‘Spiegeltent’ – a large travelling tent decorated with mirrors and stained glass, one of the few left in the world following their 19th century heyday.