Flight Paths, a pioneering Refugee Training Programme developed by Lyric Hammersmith, has been awarded the Home Offices top 5 Star rating and Beacon status. The programme enables exiled and refugee artists to overcome the multiple barriers they face in obtaining work in the UK by providing them with training to become arts-in-education practitioners. Since the start of the programme 21 artists have found employment as professionals in schools or in educational projects with community groups.
A peer-mentoring programme for visual artists is being launched by ACI, an artist-led professional development agency. The scheme will facilitate monthly sessions where artists discuss their work in relation to the arts market, leading to sales opportunities at the Affordable Art Fair.
e: timb@artscorpinternational.com;
w: http://www.artscorpinternational.com
The Entertainment Lighting Award is a new category to be added to the 2006 Lighting Design Awards, which aim to give lighting designers recognition for their creative work. Organised by Lighting magazine and the Institution of Lighting Engineers, the award is open to theatrical productions, concerts, festivals, corporate events, exhibitions, and temporary and one-off lighting installations. The deadline for entries is 12 January.
w: http://www.lightingawards.com/entertainmentlighting.asp
The first national strategy for the arts and young people at risk of offending has been published by Arts Council England. As well as highlighting the work of ACE and its partners, the document is intended to heighten public awareness of this work and encourage wider debate amongst professional stakeholders about how the arts can engage with young people at risk.
w: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk
An independent review into intellectual property rights in the UK is being commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and will run for 12 months, with the aim of modernising copyright and making the rules more appropriate for the digital age. The review will include an examination of whether the current term of copyright protection on sound recordings and performers rights is appropriate.
A new report by cultural planning and development agency Eventus provides evidence of how a strategic approach to community-based cultural resources can have a long term impact on communities. The report includes an evaluation of Full Circle, a major culture and regeneration programme based in the a former mining village of Beighton which included public artworks, a series of environmental activities and a community heritage project.
w: http://www.eventus.org.uk