Sell out show at the Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre!

For one night only, We Make Our World launched the Youth Arts Network High Peak as a collaborative network of groups. A total of 7 different groups took part, with 25 young people performing live on the night. Take a look here at some first clips of the performance:





This first show from the Youth Arts Network High Peak has involved High Peak Community Arts, High Peak CVS, Residents of Fairfield Dream Scheme, New Mills School, Hope Valley College, Chapel Youth Club Jam Night, Chinley Youth Club, Funny Wonders and College Road Family Centre.

Day 2 of rehearsals, and another sneaky peak!

Day 2 included more making set pieces, and drilling through the performance - over and over again...

 

Day 1 of rehearsals

Take a look at the flavour of things!



More to come on Wednesday - watch this space!

We Make Our World

The first collaboration is about to start up this week - Exciting times!

Check in here to see clips from our rehearsals and feedback from the people taking part!

And come and see the show!

28 October 2011
7.30pm
Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre
FREE tickets from the box office 01298 72190

Ta
Sophie

A stroll round Bugsworth Basin...

Have a look at this little video-aid and start thinking!

Funding & Collaboration meeting

Matt Rowe, from Big Lottery gave his talk and here are some highlights:

-               Awards for All – has more money to distribute than they expected.

-               Reaching Communities – large scale grants

-               New funding streams

-               Forces in Mind – working with ex-servicemen / women

-               Older people

-               Social housing and Financial planning

-               Youth in Focus – deadline just gone, haven’t decided whether there will be another round.

Matt urged applications to show involvement from future participants in the planning and delivery.  They like to see a budget which is ‘front loaded’ – to pay for volunteer training etc., making the work more sustainable.

And check out http://www.biglearningzone.org.uk/ – for ideas and help.

Collaboration planning

After some ‘creative warmups’ we split into 3 groups to dream up ideas for collaborative projects.

Are here are the highlights from our discussions:

A theme for all:  "How landscape has shaped the area".  Need to think of a better phrase!

    (related themes:  History, local industry, beauty spots, canals (dream boats!), quarrying)

Preferred artforms:  Music, performance arts, visuals / projection

Suggested final result:

1)    A final performance which is site specific (Bugsworth Canal Basin suggested) - where the audience take in the different elements created by different groups:  Live music and recorded sound, dramatic narrative, floating artwork, visual projection.

2)    These final pieces also link to participatory events / exhibits in different locations, linked together in a week long festival format.

And we are still aiming for the October half term this year - so no time to delay!

Actions for all:

Does the final result appeal?

Can you already think of something you and your group would like to do?

If so, please get in touch.  In the mean time I'm going to write up some chunks of work to offer out to groups, something more clearly defined with numbers of sessions and time-frames included, so people can decide one way or the other whether it is feasible to get involved.

If you don't get involved this time round - there is always next time, and we will need a nice big audience to witness the end result!

Next meeting to explore collaboration

The next meeting for the

Youth Arts Network High Peak

will be on

Tuesday 10th May 2011,

from 2.30 - 4.30pm
Buxton Opera House - meet @ Box Office

RSVP to sophie@highpeakarts.org

We have booked a talk from Matt Rowe, from the Big Lottery, who will tell us about funding available from Lottery sources - applied specially to Arts Settings.

In the second hour we will talk about the opportunities for collaboration and try to come up with an action plan.  We have some budget to get this work started so all we need now are ideas for a theme and a concrete idea of what form the project might take -  so we can sell it to groups to get involved.

Things to think about before the meeting:

1)   Is there a common event in the calendar around October half term?

2)   Is there a local feature / piece of local history which needs to be celebrated?  Could be something well-known or obscure?

3)   What extra arts skills would you love to add to your activities?  Could be technology based, or combining another artform to yours...

Come on board to collaborate now!

When we met at the beginning of February there was an enthusiastic response to the idea of collaboration on a novel project.  High Peak Community Arts announced that they have a small pot of money to help this happen - money from the Arts Council - which could be used to pay for joint workshops and groups coming together to work in different art forms.

There were ideas at the meeting for a project that starts with a common point in the calendar or a feature of local history or culture to give the work a theme, but that is as far as we got.

We plan to meet again in May (10th or 17th to be confirmed) and this is likely to be our focus for discussion.  So get in touch now if you would like to be involved in creating exciting new work, or if you have an idea for what our 'local focus' theme could be.

sophie@highpeakarts.org
nigel@highpeakcvs.org.uk

Training opportunity - with subsidy!

Artswork is delighted to have the following one-day, accredited course taking place soon as part of the Artsplan Training Programme:

Access All Areas: disability and youth arts - 8th April 2011, 10 am- 4.15 pm, Lakeside Arts, Nottingham

Please find further course details below.

There is a £50 subsidy available for voluntary and community organisations who register on this course before the 11th April 2011, this makes the course fee £90 per person (conditions apply).

For more information please contact me, Rachel Hall - 02380 682535 / rachel@artswork.org.uk.

Access All Areas: disability and youth arts

Accredited Training Course  

8^th April 2011, 10 am- 4.15 pm, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham

Artswork is pleased to be delivering the established one day course -‘Access All Areas: disability and youth arts’ in partnership with Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham. This course is being delivered as part of the ‘Progress’ Project*. ‘Progress’ is subsiding places for those booking on from voluntary or community organisations (See below).
Artswork is the largest provider of specialist youth arts training courses and publications in the UK and all training and publications are written and supported by experienced youth arts specialists, all of whom are also currently involved in direct project work with young people.

This course is designed to encourage a broader exploration of equal opportunities within youth arts. Participants will develop an understanding of current legislation and the importance of inclusive practice, through looking at political and cultural contexts. Participants will also explore practical ways of ensuring youth arts projects and venues are genuinely inclusive to young disabled people. The course will leave participants feeling confident about their responsibilities, and inspired to engage in youth arts practice with young disabled people.

Rachel Hall, Artswork's Professional Development Manager, commented:

“This course is suitable for anyone working within youth arts, looking to learn more about the issue of accessibility and ensure equal opportunities are a natural part of their project planning; as well as those who would like to include the arts in their current work with disabled young people”.

Accreditation* 

Credits: 4 credits

QCF Level: 3

Awarding Body: ABC.

Please contact Rachel Hall for further information. 

Prices for the course, which include lunch and refreshments, range from £140 to £160. However a £50 subsidy is available to all third sector workers, because of the support of the ‘Progress’ Project. (Please note that this subsidy is only available for bookings made before the 11^th March 2011.)

Youth Arts Network High Peak Launches

  Feb 8^th saw the launch of the initiative to promote youth arts in the High Peak and make the many varied youth arts activities better connected.
The well attended meeting looked at how a network could work, and what it could do to help groups and organisations promote their work, collaborate with our neighbours and achieve more! They agreed to quarterly meetings plus updates through this blog.
The initiative has come from some joint work between High Peak CVS and High Peak Community Arts and Community Arts have some resources in the next year to promote some collaborative projects.
If you missed the meeting but want more information or want get involved contact Sophie Mackreth at Community Arts:  sophie@highpeakarts.org  
or Nigel Caldwell at High Peak CVS  nigel@highpeakcvs.org.uk 

Highlights from discussions on the night:
We asked "How can a network help what you do?"
People said:

• Give a forum to promote groups and find out what else is out there for young people.
• Share resources like equipment and space.
• Share expertise and invite people in to give information, e.g. funding talks.

We asked "What is your biggest hurdle?"
People said:

• Getting out to reach all the young people in the area, i.e. rural communities or working on the streets etc.
• Fund raising and making activities self-sustaining financially.
• Getting full use out of the facilities in the district, e.g. Buxton Opera House, Museum & Art Gallery

We asked "How could we collaborate?"
People said:

• Draw more groups to participate in existing events, e.g. Buxton Christmas Lights Switch On or PB Theatricals working with Buxton Art Gallery on their annual G&S exhibition.
• Use a common date in the calendar / or a local cultural or historical theme to build a project for lots of groups to participate in.
• Different groups having a distinct role in a project, e.g. A visual arts group making banners for a performance event.

Launching the Youth Arts Network! Relaunched!

We had to cancel the launch of the network, originally scheduled for 2nd December - who knew it would snow so early in the year?

So now that we've all enjoyed Christmas and embraced 2011 with enthusiasm, we are ready to re-launch the launch!  On

Tuesday 8th February from 3 - 5pm

we will be meeting at:

Buxton Dome, Derby Uni, Devonshire Campus, 1 Devonshire Road, Buxton

for an open discussion about how a network could work, and what it could do to help groups and organisations promote their work, collaborate with our neighbours and reach our higher ground!

From 3pm there will be refreshments and a chance to look through the information we have already drawn together about groups that exist in the area.  We will then come together to meet and there will be a chance for groups to present more information about what they do.  Our colleague James Cross spent considerable time last year researching other youth arts networks, and he will give a brief overview of his findings, describing how other networks function and what they get out of it.  With that overview in mind, we will then break into small discussion groups, looking at different topics and gather as many ideas as possible.

With the hard work done, we will take a closer look at the resources available to the network, with a word from Dan White at the Donut Centre in Chesterfield and another look at the functions of this blog - opportunities to post information and use Facebook to reach a wider audience.  Finally we will sum up the discussion groups and suggest some options for the future.