Bungee Assisted Dance, an aerial circus skill, is being integrated into a mainstream theatre production for the first time at West Yorkshire Playhouse for the forthcoming production of Monkey! Programmed to coincide with the production on 25 June, a special event chaired by circus producer Rachel Clare is being held to provide an opportunity for theatre and circus practitioners to explore how circus skills and narrative-based theatre can collaborate more meaningfully. For details, contact Boudicca Maloney.
e: labs@circelation.co.uk
‘Field for the British Isles’ (pictured), a 1993 Antony Gormley artwork featuring 40,000 clay figures handmade by 100 people aged seven to seventy in St Helens, Merseyside, is returning to the town where it was created. Field was purchased by the Arts Council Collection, and has since been seen by nearly 400,000 visitors in diverse venues across the UK, including a trainshed, a church, a cathedral, a gallery, and a warehouse. The new exhibition, from 20 June to 23 August at St Helens College, takes a week to install and will use a team of local volunteers, including some of the original makers of the work.
A London Events Volunteering Calendar has been launched to help volunteers in the Capital to find events to which they would like to offer their time in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Cultural Olympiad. Potential roles for volunteers will include hosting VIPs, marshalling, supporting people with disabilities, fundraising, first aid, marketing and interpreting. The calendar forms part of a set of new online resources for volunteers, event organisers and organisations to help them prepare for 2012.
w: http://www.eventvolunteers.org.uk
Two leading Asian figures in the arts have been honoured in the ninth Asian Women of Achievement Awards. Shobana Jeyasingh, international choreographer and Artistic Director of the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company since 1988, received the Arts and Culture Award. Conductor Wasfi Kani OBE, who founded Pimlico Opera, was Chief Executive of Garsington Opera and created a new opera house with a new company at Grange Park, was given the Lloyds TSB Award recognising lifetime achievement.
With the forthcoming introduction of the ‘Violent Crimes Reduction Bill’, the sale or use of swords will be prohibited unless for historical re-enactment or sporting activities. This will potentially lead to a ban on the traditional English artform of sword dancing. A petition defending this artform has been set up on the Home Office website, with a closing date of 25 June.
w: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/dancers
A 14-year vision to develop a world-leading arts facility offering the most accessible and inclusive studio space for artists has culminated with the opening of The Art House in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. The £3m complex consists of 12 long-term studios, a community studio with printmaking facilities, fully equipped meeting rooms, two short-term studios and a three-bedroom flat. Support facilities include full lift access, a navigation system to assist blind and visually impaired visitors, hearing induction loops, technician support for help with tasks such as lifting and carrying, and a quiet room where visitors can recuperate.
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has created a Finance Fund worth up to £15m to support projects and organisations that can demonstrate the need for investment and the ability to manage the demands of non-grant funding. Support from the Fund, which at this stage is not open to general applications, will include a mixture of loans, guarantees, and equity finance.
Action for Children’s Arts, the umbrella body for arts organisations involved in providing arts for and with children, will launch a Manifesto for Children’s Arts at its annual conference next month. Based on consultation with children and adults across the UK, the manifesto aims to raise awareness of the key role that the arts play in children’s lives, contribute to current discussion about childhood in the UK and influence the Government’s arts education policy.
w: http://www.childrensarts.org.uk
A new report from NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, assesses the growth of the creative industries using a new methodology. ‘Beyond the creative industries: mapping the creative economy in the United Kingdom’ bases its findings on population data, and focuses on three employment types: ‘specialist’, ‘support staff’ and creative personnel ‘embedded’ in industries outside the creative sector.
w: http://www.nesta.org.uk/beyond-the-creative-industries-making-policy-for-the-creative-economy-policy-briefing/
Ireland’s Arts Council has announced a significant increase in the Cnuas, an annuity it provides for a term of five years to allow artists to devote themselves full time to creative work. The annual sum will rise from €12,180 to €20,000 over the next three years, which is the first increase since 2004. The Cnuas forms a key element of the Arts Council’s support for artists at key stages in their careers.
Glyndebourne has launched its own independent CD label, The Glyndebourne Label, to coincide with the 2008 Festival. This will be the first in-house label from a UK opera company to feature current productions as well as archive recordings. The first releases will be the 2006 Festival production of Prokofiev’s ‘Betrothal in a Monastery’ conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, and the 1962 production of Mozart’s ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ conducted by Silvio Varviso.
Skilled film-makers wanting to work in either documentary or experimental film are offering to produce free video and audio communication material for charities, in order to build up their portfolios. Contact Kasmei, an EU-funded database, for more details.
w: http://www.kasmei.com/contact.aspx
Audiences NI, the audience development agency for Northern Ireland, is inviting those involved in the arts and cultural sector to a series of open discussions with its Board and Chief Executive at five venues across Northern Ireland between 23 and 26 June, with the aim of giving all its stakeholders the opportunity to have an input into its future business planning process.
e: info@audiencesni.com