Opportunity for artist to work and sell from a local gallery

I met with new WAP member Jane Johnson last week and found out about the work she does creating, selling and running workshops in Ceramics.

As well as working from her home studio in Holt, Jane is one of 4 artists who run a boutique gallery at Dick Willows in Bathford. They are currently looking for artists to join them and share in the running and rental (which is amazingly low!)There is space to run workshops as well as sell work from the Gallery.

Do have a look at their website http://www.dickwillows.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=671&Itemid=189 Do get in touch if you'd like to know more.

Cultural Olympiad discussed on BBC Radio Wiltshire

WAP had a little slot on BBC Radio Wiltshire last week to talk about the Cultural Olympiad. I have to confess it was a little scary as there are rather a lot of things that have aren't going to be 'revealed' until later in the year so I do hope I didn't give any secrets away! DO have a listen (It's available for the next two days) our bit is 45 minutes into the programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kt14t

What should the future of culture in Wiltshire look like?

Wiltshire Council “What should the future of culture in Wiltshire look like?” Open Space Event

Wednesday, 30 November 2011 from 12:30 to 17:00 (GMT)

Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford On Avon, Wiltshire


If this question matters to you please come and explore it at a special, free open space event being run by Wiltshire Council in partnership with CEW (Creative Ecology Wiltshire)

The Open Space event will be on 30th November 1pm(12.30pm arrive)-5.00pm at the Wiltshire Music Centre.

We need to listen to your views, observations, challenges, ideas and dreams because you, the Wiltshire cultural sector, are the experts.

Wiltshire Council is producing a cultural strategy for the county and is seeking to engage the cultural sector in a creative and constructive dialogue about the importance of culture within the wider civic society context.

As you know we are operating in a time of economic challenge but this does not mean that there cannot be positive opportunities and the space for new and bold ideas. This Open Space event is an exciting possibility for you to hold a dialogue with Wiltshire Council and have your views really listened to.

If you are unfamiliar with Open Space, it is an interactive and inclusive way of structuring a meeting that allows you, the participant, to set the agenda. It is a very dynamic way of talking about complicated and difficult things. You will not be talked at or asked to talk about things you don’t want to. Everything that is said will be recorded and you will get a copy of that document. The strength of Open Space is its ability to unite groups of enormous diversity; to that end we are inviting people from all areas of our cultural sector.

Culture is at the heart of communities and it is an important element of the economy for the county. The intended audience for the Cultural Strategy is primarily the suppliers and providers of cultural services and activities. This includes the public sector, voluntary/third sector and private sector organisations that provide and deliver cultural activities of all kinds. One of the principal functions of the strategy will be to express the links between these sectors and to identify opportunities for collaborations that significantly advance the cultural offer of Wiltshire. For the strategy to be effective it must include and engage all those with a stake in the cultural life of the county and this open space event is your opportunity to shape this emerging strategy.

We look forward to you playing a vital part in this event and will reward you with refreshments and treats to energise a debate that will help us forge a successful path forward together.

Click this link below to book your free ticket

http://wiltshirecultureopenspace.eventbrite.com/


Kind regards

Peter Tyas

Manager Arts and Archives

Money, help or someone who knows what they’re talking about?

Umm maybe this sort of relationship could be a useful one!

Two essential needs for any business are top advice and cash flow.

So, South West Screen are launching two programmes:

Investment Readiness – secure investment or funding for your business
Mentoring – direct one-to-one advice from leading creative entrepreneurs

If you’re interested in securing investment or building a long-term relationship with a highly successful business leader, South West Screen are bringing the UK’s leading support programmes to the region. The programmes launch on November 11th.

To find out how to join the programmes, see if they’re right for your business and discover who some of the big name mentors are, come to one of our taster workshops:

BOOK NOW:

Bristol – Monday 7 November, 2.30-5.30pm, Waterside 3, Watershed

Exeter – Thursday 10 November, 2.30-5.30pm, Auditorium, Exeter Conference Centre

ABOUT THE MENTORING PROGRAMME
Receive a year’s worth of 1-2-1 advice from a top-level creative entrepreneur! We’ve teamed up with NESTA to deliver its highly successful mentoring programme. It’s your chance connect with someone who has already done what you’re trying to do with your business now. We’ve got big names, from inside and outside the region, to share their experiences with you. You’ll also have access to a business coach, exclusive workshops and access to specialist advice. More details.

ABOUT THE INVESTMENT READINESS PROGRAMME
Pembridge Partners, a unique consultancy of experienced entrepreneurs and investors, will deliver an intensive short programme for a select group of creative business leaders. They’ll show you how to: question the real value of an idea; develop that idea in the context of investor interest; and pitch your proposition to a panel of investors who are interested in creative investments. More details.

Both programmes will benefit from access to advice from legal specialists Thrings and financial experts Baker Tilly.

Comments on the mentoring programme:
Jaya Chakrabarti, Managing Director, Nameless – Mentee:

“Our mentor made so much more of a difference to our company than I'd imagined. I had access to a wealth of experience from someone I could trust with intimate knowledge of my business. It might take a little leap of faith, but we're living proof that it's worth it. Our mentor (Charles Wace, Twofour Group) helped us become even stronger – he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, and frankly, that's the only way a small business can work!”

Comments on the investment readiness programme:
Andrew Mullinger, Co-founder & COO of Funding Circle:

"Creative businesses often they find themselves under the stranglehold of interest rates, borrowing fees, an arduous process or a closed door when seeking financial support. We need innovative approaches that eliminate these barriers and help companies to grow. Bespoke programmes like this are highly valuable in helping those companies to learn the pitfalls, package their business and meet the right investors."

With thanks to programme sponsors:
Baker Tilly, a leading national provider of accounting & business services
Thrings, providing specialist legal advice to the creative sector

Marketing network

Following our great first Marketing Network session we are planning our second. We will be feeding back on a potential partnership project with VisitWiltshire, a County Wide profile raising campaign 'Wiltshire Loves Arts', an arts loyalty card ap and more.

If you are an arts marketeer and would like to be part of this work do come and join us. We will be meeting in Salisbury, please add your availability to this doodle diary.

http://www.doodle.com/eqapx3bc8n6nfgmd

Thanks all

Screen Me Film Festival

The new Screen Me Film Festival project is presented by White Horse Pictures, a project bringing new release film to rural Wiltshire. Screen Me aims to involve communities from across Wiltshire in the programming of films that tell stories. Stories are revealing; they come out of community history and they express the culture of communities. This project has been granted the Inspire Mark by the London 2012 Inspire programme as it offers communities the opportunity to explore the culture of other nations through the films that they make and the stories that they tell.

The London 2012 Inspire programme recognises innovative and exceptional projects that are directly inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Screen Me will present a series of films in venues across Wiltshire that explore themes of journeys and the ways that different cultures tell stories in cinema. The films will come from around the world and tell stories from different cultures and unusual perspectives.

There will be opportunities for groups and individuals to take part in discussions and activities that explore the journeys and storytelling in films as well as viewing the screenings of these inspirational films.

We are looking for volunteers to get involved in selecting and programming films that tell stories of significance to their community. These ‘programme champions’ will have the opportunity to visit other regional film festivals to find new films and speakers to come back to Wiltshire and be part of the Screen Me film festival.

Screen Me will culminate in March 2012 with a run of films, entirely chosen by the ‘programming champions’. We hope that this mini-festival will include film reviews and interviews as well as trailers for forthcoming presentations and connections with other projects on-going within Wiltshire that explore similar themes.

To launch the festival we are screening Amreeka at the Melksham Assembly Hall on Friday 4th November at 7pm. Amreeka is the story of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle. We’d love you to join us.

If you are interested in volunteering to get involved in this exciting project or would like to book a free ticket to this screening then please get in touch with us at arts@wiltshire.gov.uk or call 01249 705545.

Arc Theatre Trowbridge closure

Many of you may be aware that Wiltshire College have made an announcement that they can nolonger support The Arc Theatre and it will cease to operate as a professional venue from January 2012.

The Arc has been a key part of the arts ecology in Wiltshire as a receiving venue programming professional performance, supporting local producing companies and acting as a platform for many arts professionals, (myself included) as well as providing West Wiltshire with access to professional and community performance. If this resource is lost it will be to the detriment of the arts throughout Wiltshire.

A two month consultation period has been afforded The Arc theatre team to work up some options to present to Wiltshire College's management team. his consultation period ends on November 12.

Do please add your voice to the lobbying of Wiltshire College to retain The Arc as a professional venue. You can write to the Chair Of Governors, Stephen Stone. The Clerk to the Governors is Shirley Raw so any written communication will need to be sent C/O Shirley Raw, Wiltshire College, College Road, Trowbridge, BA14 0ES or by email shirley.raw@wiltshire.ac.uk

There is also an online petition: http://www.petitiononline.co.uk/petition/petition-against-the-proposed-closure-of-the-arc-theatre-trowbridge/3544

Understanding venues

CEW have organised this session could be useful for those of you who are involved with tour booking!

http://danceandtheatrewiltshire.net/2011/10/7/tour-booking-workshop-understanding-venues

Somewhereto_

The Regional Youth Work Unit is helping to deliver a project called ‘somewhereto_’ which is all about finding spaces for young people to debate, play sport, perform, play music, dance, display artwork, show films, write – in fact spaces for young people to do anything related to the arts, sports and culture. It is a national project being supported by Channel 4 and is part of the legacy of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, so when the games are finished there are still positive opportunities for young people.

We are looking for spaces across the region that might be available for young people aged 16–25 years to use for dancing, performing, writing, meeting, playing sport - especially new spaces that young people might not know about or some unusual spaces for a one-off event. The space would need to be free or low cost. The space would be promoted on the somewhereto_ website along with acknowledging the donor, so you would get some positive publicity for your organisation. However, the project is regulated and it’s not that young people can just turn up at your space unannounced!

The South West part of the website has a few spaces, but we desperately need more and have young people looking for space to do the things they love.

Can you help? Please visit the website www.somewhereto.com and register your space. I will then get in contact to agree with you how and when your space could be used.

Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Sharon Adams

Somewhereto_ Project Co-ordinator

Learning South West


T: 01823 365444 / 335491

E: sharon_adams@learning-southwest.org.uk

Performance opportunities at the Summer Solstice

We have been invited to open an invitation to groups and individuals to perform on one of the spaces around Stonehenge as part of the Summer Solstice nest year. The Solstice begins at 7pm on the 20th June and continues through until 8am on the 21st.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in finding out more about this please contact me wiltshireartspromoters@gmail.com.

NB: No amplification can be used.

Want to be in a brochure showcasing the arts in Wiltshire

Following our marketing network session we have an action to produce a brochure that includes all arts organisations, individual artists and practitioners from across Wiltshire so that we can help raise the profile of the arts in Wiltshire.

We would like everyone to make the brochure available and distribute at events they are attending and the marketing network plan to attend big events in and around the County to promote Wiltshire Loves Arts. We hope this will help raise the profile of Wiltshire as a county with a thriving professional arts scene, but will also help develop audiences/ customers from within and outside of the County for those included.

I am currently having a brochure costed up. WAP will look to subsidise the brochure hoping not to need to charge more the £20 per entry as it is really important that we showcase as much of the arts ecology in Wiltshire as possible.

It would be really helpful to start to get an idea of how many entries we will be looking at. So please could you ask all of your contacts who work professionally within the arts to contact me ideally with 50 and 100 words of copy about themselves including web address, email and telephone number (If relevant) with a high resolution image.

The deadline for expressions of interest in being in this publication is October 19.

Facebook

Do join us on facebook, and I'll do my best to keep adding interesting posts! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Wiltshire-Arts-Promoters-WAP/194491707278326

Opportunities to present contemporary works in progress

There is an open call for practitioners, artists and companies to present works-in-progress in front of a live audience.


ICIA University of Bath in partnership with Salisbury Arts Centre, is looking for new contemporary performance work that has been devised, choreographed or produced. We offer a platform for work-in-progress and new performance ideas to test in front of a live audience at ICIA University of Bath on Saturday 26 November.

To find out more visit: http://danceandtheatrewiltshire.net/opportunities/icia-practice-call-for-artists

Want to have a chance to network with others involved with fundraising

Following our fruitful session with arts marketeers last week I have postponed our fundraising session as I am aware that a number of you had wanted to attend but were unable to make the date offered.

If you think you or anybody you know would benefit from being able to meet with others who understand the challenges of fundraising, share tips and find ways we may be able to support each other do look at the dates and times mooted at this link. http://www.doodle.com/wdtdng9qhscuhuk7

I am currently completing a course to become a qualified funding adviser and whilst I am far from an expert I'm very happy to share anything I've learned and support the group as best I can.

The Pound Arts Centre team have offered to host this session for us, I am aware that public transport access to Corsham can be a problem so if that makes it impossible for you to attend but you would otherwise want to please do let me know.

Pop up art anyone?

We were contacting though our website by a lady called Kim who would like to create a pop up art gallery in Salisbury. She has asked us if we can help. Any thoughts anyone? Drop me an email if you would like her contact details.