The Oska Bright Film Festival in Brighton, run by people with learning disabilities, has been voted the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded arts project and awarded a £2,000 cash prize at the National Lottery Awards, broadcast live on BBC 1 on 30 August. The only film festival in the world that screens films made by people with learning disabilities, it is now touring in 21 towns and cities in the UK, as well as Ireland and Europe. The project received £4,000 from The National Lottery, which covered marketing, and publicity costs for the project, as well as providing support for the tour.
w: http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
An online survey to gauge opinion among those working within the cultural community about the 2012 Games and its perceived impacts on the sector in the years ahead has been launched by Arts Quarter LLP. The survey will remain live until 15 September and is open to all members of the UK cultural sector. Initial results will be made available in early October.
w: http://www.artsquarter.co.uk
‘Including the arts in extended services’, a new publication written by Felicity Woolf for Arts Council England, has been published as a resource to support the development of arts opportunities for children and young people in after-school clubs, weekend and holiday activities, and residential programmes. It is based on learning from a series of projects involving nine local authorities and over 60 schools, and development partners ContinYou, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Teacher Development Agency and 4Children, and is available to download.
w: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications/ publication_detail.php?browse=recent&id=628
As part of a new national campaign entitled ‘Young Arts Leaders’, ENYAN (English National Youth Arts Network) is looking for case studies of youth-led arts projects that aim to develop young people’s leadership skills, aspiration and potential. These will contribute to the creation of a downloadable publication which will make the case for the arts as an effective mechanism for developing leadership skills, as well as encouraging young people to consider a career in the arts and cultural sector. Case studies from projects working with ‘at risk’ groups of young people are particularly encouraged. Email ENYAN to express an interest.
e: http://enyan2@artswork.org.uk; t: 023 8063 0960;
w: http://www.enyan.co.uk
A resource to help children with autism make sense of the world around them is being marketed internationally, following success in the UK. The Transporters, a DVD that uses a combination of real actors’ faces and 3D computer-generated settings, was created through the DCMS-funded Culture Online programme. Already 40,000 copies have been distributed, and it will now go on sale across the English-speaking world. Some of the profits from sales will go to autism charities and to research other scientifically validated ways to help children with autism spectrum conditions.
w: http://www.thetransporters.com
Houndshill Shopping Centre in Blackpool has formed a working partnership with Blackpool’s Grand Theatre, through which Grand Theatre Box Office employees will exclusively staff the centre’s information point in the new shopping scheme, creating new opportunities to sell tickets for shows.
A study of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, commissioned by Perth & Kinross Council and Scottish Enterprise from the University of Abertay, has estimated the economic contribution of Pitlochry Festival Theatre to Scotland`s economy to be £13.1m per year, significantly higher than the £8m estimated in 2004. The research also highlights the greater contribution made by the Theatre in terms of visitor expenditure than that made by a typical urban UK theatre: 52% of theatre visits coincide with an overnight stay in the area, and the average daily additional expenditure per person on an overnight trip is £130, excluding spending at the theatre itself. Nearly 1 in 5 visitors come from beyond Scotland.
Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) has been invited to curate Scotland and Venice 2009, a presentation of new work from Scotland, for the 53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. A partnership involving the Scottish Arts Council, the National Galleries of Scotland and British Council Scotland will also be driving Scotland’s fourth independent presentation at this international showcase, which will coincide with DCA’s tenth anniversary programme.
The National Media Museum in Bradford has become the first UK institution to make sections of its National Photography Collection available worldwide through online photo management and sharing application Flickr™. The Museum joins seven other international institutions including The Library of Congress and The Smithsonian in the USA, The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and Bibliothèque de Toulouse in France in “The Commons on Flickr” a programme designed to increase access to publicly-held photography holdings. The site allows the public to contribute information and personal comment to the collections by commenting on and tagging the images.
w: http://www.flickr.com/commons/ http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
Unconsidered trifles
“On the update on the Arts Council plan, Council queried whether our overarching aim is ‘Great Art for More People’ or ‘Great art for everyone’. It was agreed that the November minutes would be checked and Council would report back.”
From Arts Council England’s Council Minutes, April 2008.