Indeed it is all over... well because one key part is ,now a very important arts grant application flew off into cyberspace !!! I have received notification already - which is a great relief. It is a 6 week turn around - ten days first to find out if you are eligible. Here is hoping for the best and all of that stuff to actually start this project in earnest , on behalf of the project the team, board , champions everyone !!! A big thanks to them all so far on this journey...
I met last week with Further Education College of Excellence in Leicester to talk about the project, young people and exploring future learning possibilities . This afternoon I meet a journalist from a arts lifestyle magazine for an interview about me as an artist , my work and this mind boggling project. Great ! Tomorrow I have tour with fellow collaborators Simon and Sean , of a prestigious arts venue to check out its technical possibilities. does R& D ever really stop or is an on going process hmmm -possibly ?
Next week I do presentation with Sean, for MA students at the Institute of Creative Technologies De Montfort University to talk about the project, at the invitation of Dr Sophy Smith. there will be further discussion in the Autumn 2011 with the Centre of Excellence for Performing Arts in Leicester, have shown great interest in the project for his Digital & Performance students
Showing posts with label further education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label further education. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Technology Tools Up the Artist & UK Cultural Leadership Clubs Put My Name On The List
So you put forward proposals (they say they cannot fund it - oh well Further Education Univerisities have been cut ) and you send poems to people who never write back which you dont expect in the literary game (I would at the very least expect acknowledgement of receipt - so you know it did not disappear into cyber space ) You know there is Further Education money around, it just wont be coming our way i.e. professional independent artists based in the community that I work with . So much for boosting the local creative economy then !
More freedom beckons on internet radio platforms, other publishing platforms and the such like - the bigger the platform the better, seems to work out best ! Creative Commons seems a useful tool - as it is best avoid intellectual property problems. The internet is always there to offer a cornucopia of possibilities, to maintian creative thrust in order for artists to get work and eat !! I have lost count now how much work I get from facebook or how handy twitter is ....a flip camera for recording rehearsals etc. I use alot of new ITC tools as an artist more than I ever could have thought of -say a few years ago.
The current project fundraiser is taking me to task and I feel a real sense of forward momentum, the whole project now seems so incredibly innovative. I understand alot of people that had to consider the project -probably did not grasp it fully. Or indeed its eventual scale. I now see the funding request was far far too modest, given the creative technical challenges and beautiful vision. More importantly its more the 'awe' factor rather than the 'wow' factor that should be aimed for . This is typical of BME artists and Cultural Leaders as they have been undervalued for long . So they undervalue themselves within a harsh arts cultural landscape (it has always been so i.e. see the statistics not just now - hence the need for 'Rebel Dreamin' - by Gaylene Gould Clore Fellow.)
I am no different I realise this dramatically - it is as if I have been operating in a cramped space for years ( and so many BME artists before me ) , not able to spread my limbs . When I all I needed was a far bigger space in order to grow , to create, take risks, to experiment fully ....this is what creates low aspiration. It also something of a feature of the region I based am in - it is caught as is is as the 'Middle Lands' (needing to big it self/identity up more ) between London, Birmingham and Manchester . So how will things change , without Black Minority Ethnic Cultural leaders ( three generations down the line now) taking their righful place, to gain more recogniton and crucially be more valued in terms of their vital contribution overall to UK arts and culture historically? How do I get my name on that list, that gets you on all the other important lists, in terms of Cultural Leadership in arts & culture ? When do we really get this truly diverse party started in the arts cultural club in the UK ? All these thoughts will be part of my consideration for a blog about being part of the my region's Cultural Olympiad, as an emerging Writer that I have been asked to write for one of my region's literature website.
More freedom beckons on internet radio platforms, other publishing platforms and the such like - the bigger the platform the better, seems to work out best ! Creative Commons seems a useful tool - as it is best avoid intellectual property problems. The internet is always there to offer a cornucopia of possibilities, to maintian creative thrust in order for artists to get work and eat !! I have lost count now how much work I get from facebook or how handy twitter is ....a flip camera for recording rehearsals etc. I use alot of new ITC tools as an artist more than I ever could have thought of -say a few years ago.
The current project fundraiser is taking me to task and I feel a real sense of forward momentum, the whole project now seems so incredibly innovative. I understand alot of people that had to consider the project -probably did not grasp it fully. Or indeed its eventual scale. I now see the funding request was far far too modest, given the creative technical challenges and beautiful vision. More importantly its more the 'awe' factor rather than the 'wow' factor that should be aimed for . This is typical of BME artists and Cultural Leaders as they have been undervalued for long . So they undervalue themselves within a harsh arts cultural landscape (it has always been so i.e. see the statistics not just now - hence the need for 'Rebel Dreamin' - by Gaylene Gould Clore Fellow.)
I am no different I realise this dramatically - it is as if I have been operating in a cramped space for years ( and so many BME artists before me ) , not able to spread my limbs . When I all I needed was a far bigger space in order to grow , to create, take risks, to experiment fully ....this is what creates low aspiration. It also something of a feature of the region I based am in - it is caught as is is as the 'Middle Lands' (needing to big it self/identity up more ) between London, Birmingham and Manchester . So how will things change , without Black Minority Ethnic Cultural leaders ( three generations down the line now) taking their righful place, to gain more recogniton and crucially be more valued in terms of their vital contribution overall to UK arts and culture historically? How do I get my name on that list, that gets you on all the other important lists, in terms of Cultural Leadership in arts & culture ? When do we really get this truly diverse party started in the arts cultural club in the UK ? All these thoughts will be part of my consideration for a blog about being part of the my region's Cultural Olympiad, as an emerging Writer that I have been asked to write for one of my region's literature website.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Rewriting - Everything yet still Big Thinking Prevails
A truly auspicous new year begins, (given heavenly and earthly events so far ) with arts organisations, toiling away at submitting funding bids, to the main national funder of arts & culture inthe UK. In order to continue their very existence. Months of uncertainy and little information, draw to an end come March 2011. Who will be left standing so to speak ? There would have been much writing and rewriting on the part of arts organisations, in order to meet the new goals set by the arts funder. It is also most papable - the 'competitive air' the swish and switch of real cuts to come - but also a new robustness in terms of those that will be left to continue. This project continues within this challenging climate. After seeing a number of good spoken word productions in theatres recently . I am both re-invigorated and confirmed , as to the unique space this innovative work will occupy. This is confirmed after a conversation with an artistic theatre director who has suggested putting forward the project to the producer of his large theatre- as 'new writing' The arts will need to do big thinking- that is fundamental about the arts it self . I have just received a book, not due for publication till later in the year. In the first section I have read, it ably articulates many ideas and facts - that will I am sure will set ablaze, long overdue simmering debate, regarding arts & cultural diversity in the UK . What exactly does it all really mean in relation to now ? There are many points that are finely put in the book that I agree with. It resembles a gust of fresh air, regarding this topic, for an artist like myself. There is plenty in the book , about eurocentrism, racism etc. but not nearly enough about all the other 'isms especially those faced by black women . Certainly 2011 will see the begining of this big thinking, as it is required by all of us in arts cultural sector , Further Education, Higher Education - in really moving forward...
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