Packed with theatres, galleries, museums, concert venues, actors, writers, and artists, Cambridge is an ideal city for culture. There’s so much to see that it’s very easy for much of it to pass you by. I’ve seen plenty of theatre in my first term here, but I’m all too aware of great shows and events that I’ve missed. Most of all, I regret not going to see more of the new and the unusual. 

Like most freshers, I’ve been caught up in starting my course, making new friends, going out, and somehow squeezing extracurricular commitments in between. In this hectic cycle, the weeks flit by and keeping track of cultural events isn’t easy. Fitting them into the work-life balance is harder still. And why should we make an effort in the first place? 

The first answer to this should be the quality of the culture on offer; Cambridge can certainly deliver. Every so often a show like Jerusalem at the ADC comes along and astounds everyone lucky enough to have a ticket. 

There are weekly concerts of consistently high standard, such as King’s Evensong, while The Junction has hosted AlunaGeorge and other great bands and there have been a slew of five-star movies on at the Arts Picturehouse (Blue Jasmine, Gravity and Philomena, to name a few). 

So there’s a range of high-quality culture for everyone. But culture is worth more than just its entertainment value, especially when it takes us out of our comfort zone and makes us consider something that we’ve never seen before. 

Last year I saw Elizabeth Price’s Turner Prize-winning film The Woolworths Choir of 1979.  Weaving together clips of pop music, photographs of 14th century architecture, and archive film footage, the film recreates a fire in Woolworths furniture store in fantastical forms. 

I can’t say that I understood what it meant, or that I saw everything Price was trying to draw attention to. But at the very least, I was moved afterwards to see film in a different way: how we’re affected by it, and how we’re drawn into a strong sensual engagement with it. And that, I think, is what good art does: it makes us see the world differently. 

We need to have an open mind towards the new and unknown. Why not go and see a play in Greek, or an artistic burlesque show? Both were on in Cambridge recently. In such a culturally rich environment, there’s bound to be novelty as well as quality. 

Next Friday, I’m going to the Fitzwilliam Museum to see Edmund de Waal’s exhibition of white porcelain, with one of the pieces commissioned specifically for the Chinese gallery. It’s not what I’d usually see – I don’t normally see porcelain outside of an antiques shop – but even if I don’t like it, seeing it will be an experience worth having. 

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