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!