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news from arts council england, london
Issue No. 14
08.08
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Our door is open Earlier this summer, colleagues from the team here in London and I met representatives from the majority of our regularly funded organisations at a series of informal briefings at our offices in Clerkenwell. My thanks to everyone who came for your time, your interest, and for your open approach to the conversations. It was a pleasure to meet you in the context of my new role, but more importantly, at the start of what I hope will be an increasingly collaborative phase in our relationship.
As I said to those who attended our briefings in June, we want to be part of wide ranging, on going conversations to help us understand better and invigorate, not just our relationships, but also our collective aspirations for London’s cultural landscape and audiences. And this does not only apply to our regularly funded organisations, but to artists and producers, to our colleagues in the commercial arts sector, to central and local government partners and, of course, to our new Mayor. We will be working hard over the coming months: seeing work, discussing our plans and listening to yours. Our door is open. As this issue of news goes to print, we are only two weeks from the moment, on 24 August, when London will officially become the host city for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Four of our regularly funded organisations will perform in the Beijing Olympic stadium, watched by a worldwide audience of 1.5 billion people and our best wishes go out to them. More information about our handover moment is on page 23, together with a look forward to the launch of the Cultural Olympiad over the weekend of 26-28 September later this year. There has never been a more exciting time to be a part of the arts in London. We look forward to working with you.ns Moira Sinclair Executive Director Arts Council England, London a priority for us t Opposite: Laura Cubitt in Brilliant by Fevered Sleep 2008. Photo: Keith Pattison. Fevered Sleep received £85,000 in regular funding for 2008/09 Left: Shafeek Ibrahim performing as a Whirling Sufi Dancer as part of Global Local. Photography by Hal Satterthwaite www.1000faces.co.ukhe needs and
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Making the global local In 2006 Continental Drifts Music was invited by Arts Council England to deliver Global Local - a series of showcase events for new and emerging artists from a wide range of London's under represented communities. Sophie Cammack from Continental Drifts talks about how Global Local has grown and how an uplift in regular funding will shape their plans for development. Continental Drifts was first established in 1994 and has since won numerous awards, been the focus of a Channel 4 documentary and achieved international success. Our Global Local initiative provides invaluable professional performance opportunities for artists, targeting major local authority events
and larger UK based festivals. It delivers music from outside of the mainstream to the mainstream, giving artists a platform to perform outside of their own communities. Initially we created three 'packages' to represent diverse music cultures and offered them to London local authorities, where they could choose a number of acts for free in return for putting them on a main stage with a minimum audience of 3,000. These were ‘The Crescent Stage’ - a wide range of UK Arab cross over artists (from belly dancing breakbeats to Egyptian pop to Jewish music in London), ‘The Desi Stage’ - contemporary Asian music (including Bhangra, Bollywood and Asian Raga), ‘The 21st Century Silk Road Stage’ - a whirlwind tour of the Ancient Silk Road (with bands from China to Eastern Europe to Spain).
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We've now brokered a number of high profile partnerships with BBC Asian Network and BBC London Live. As a result bands and genres, often unrecognised and overlooked, are now playing at over 22 major festivals a year across the UK to well over 500,000 members of the public.
Now in year three, Global Local can proudly boast that it has been an enormous and resounding success. Highlights include our Desert Remix Stage the only dedicated Arabic / Middle Eastern stage in the mainstream, that has played to crowds of 101,000 in 2008 alone. Glastonbury consistently provides an aspirational point for our artists, and they’ve never once failed to bring the house down. In particular, the unmitigated success of the Water Margins this year at Tottenham Marshes, where for the first time a stage was produced on the site to create one of the most enjoyable and beautiful events of London's festival season. This seems set to become the first of many micro festivals that we will be looking to launch all the way up the Lee Valley in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.
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2008 has also seen a very effective partnership with the City of London Festival, where we are showcasing acts in 'guerrilla' events, such as having Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee performing outside Liverpool Street Station at rush hour. Our uplift in regular funding from Arts Council England will enable us to extend our artist development to incorporate seminars in fundraising, how to get festival work, working with agencies and getting the best from marketing. On a practical level it will help us provide artists with more studio time. We will also be taking our artists to WOMEX this Autumn with the aim of raising the profile of the project and the individual acts world wide. Continental Drifts are one of Arts Council England, London's regularly funded organisations and received ÂŁ122,109 in regular funding for 2008/09 Above: The crowds dance a hoe down to 'Cut A Shine' at The Water Margins Festival in Tottenham Marshes. Opposite: Rhythms of the City perform at Stokefest 2008. Both photos by Hal Satterthwaite www.1000faces.co.uk
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Merrymaking: Artichoke and public engagement Best known for producing Royal de Luxe's The Sultan's Elephant in London in May 2006, Artichoke recently became one of our regularly funded organisations. Katy Fuller, associate producer for Artichoke, tells us about her role, tackles the phrase ‘public engagement’ and hints at what’s next for Artichoke. My Artichoke colleagues and I share an allergy to jargon, so we don't generally use phrases like ‘public engagement’. However, if pressed, we will acknowledge that public engagement is not only an outcome of what we do, but is the primary motivation for doing it in the first place. As producers, we work with the best creative minds to put on extraordinary events that live in the memory forever. We work in unusual
places: in streets, public spaces or in the countryside, putting on shows which, though technically complex and ambitious, speak to the widest possible audience. We choose projects first and foremost because of their capacity to surprise and delight the public. Certainly, we choose to work with artists whose ideas surprise and delight us too, but they also have to speak to (or, if you must, engage) all manner of other people. We don't have a target audience as such. We want everyone to come out and play. Artichoke is best known for producing The Sultan's Elephant. For four days, a vast, time travelling elephant and giant girl paraded through London’s famous streets to the delight of hundreds of thousands of spectators. It was a phenomenal experience for us and it precipitated a huge, emotional, heartfelt response from the public.
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Above: The London Telectroscope. Photo: Matthew Andrews. Opposite: The New York Telectroscope. Photo courtesy of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. The Telectroscope was produced by Artichoke and sponsored by Tiscali UK with additional support from the Garfield Weston Foundation
The Telectroscope followed in May 2008 the brainchild of British artist, Paul St George. The project involved digging a tunnel under the Atlantic and installing a Victorian optical engine at either end. This engine magnified the view through the tunnel, allowing Londoners and New Yorkers to see each other. The Telectroscope quickly captured the heart of the public. One person proposed marriage (successfully!); there were two dance offs and countless meetings with long lost relatives; new friendships sprang up as people rose to the challenge of communicating with gestures rather than words. Artichoke is often characterised in terms of the scale of the work and our next project, La Machine: Les Mecaniques Savants (5-7 September 2008) for Liverpool Capital of Culture, will again be very big and very spectacular. But large scale is not what defines our work, or Artichoke as a company. For us, the defining feature is that the projects allow people the licence to play in public spaces. We love to produce work which makes complete strangers speak to each other in the street and that can be shared by a range of audiences: from the
most sophisticated arts frequenter to a child the age of four. One of the Telectroscope audience members said: ‘It allows us all to indulge in our magical childhood dreams, where the impossible suddenly becomes possible, and the only limitations are our own imaginations.’ Artichoke is delighted to have recently become regularly funded by Arts Council England, London. Crucially, this provides stability, the opportunity to plan strategically. and grow. We are still a small team, but being full time employees, rather than project based freelancers, allows us the time to develop all those additional ways of speaking to people: education projects, volunteering programmes and professional development opportunities, so that they are integral and not an afterthought. Writing a few extra reports is a small price to pay…even if it does mean coming to terms with that jargon after all. Artichoke are one of Arts Council England, London’s regularly funded organisations and received £500,000 in 2008/09
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The new Friday On the first Thursday of every month, over 100 galleries and museums in East London open their doors until 9pm as part of Time Out First Thursdays. The initiative provides unique opportunities to experience an array of amazing art, culture, bus tours, walks and events for free at times that are in keeping with the constraints of a busy urban lifestyle. Elizabeth Flanagan from Whitechapel Gallery explains how the programme has developed and its aspirations for the future. Time Out First Thursdays was conceived in May 2007 to engage Londoners with the area's burgeoning cultural landscape and is now a major player in the Mayor of London's Late Night London campaign; an initiative that aims to open up London as a 24 hour world city - a key priority in the lead up to the 2012 Games and launch of the Cultural Olympiad. It has since gone from strength to strength and this is mirrored in the dramatic rise of participating galleries; from 70 in May 2007 to 113 in May 2008. First Thursdays was originally managed by Parasol Unit Foundation and Whitechapel Gallery. Its success has resulted in the creation of a separate consortium of participating arts organisations to manage the event, with Whitechapel Gallery at the forefront. The initiative now actively promotes a cross section of artistic venues, from the Museum of Docklands in Canary Wharf to emergent project spaces such as the Transition Gallery in Hackney.
First Thursdays has radically opened up the area to new, local, UK wide and international audiences. It is estimated that 45,000 new visitors have come to the East End as a direct result of the intiative, helping to revitalise the area and reinforcing its status as Europe's largest cultural quarter. Between 2008 and 2012 there is an aspiration to celebrate UK culture through the Cultural Olympiad. This is particularly resonant in East London, home of the games themselves. In this context, it is anticipated that First Thursdays' celebration and promotion of diverse cultural practices will make an important contribution to the Olympiad. By organising and lending its internal skills base to First Thursdays, Whitechapel Gallery provides vital audience development and marketing support that might otherwise be beyond the financial reach of some of the participating galleries. With a strategic partnership with Time Out, participating galleries have also benefited from extensive media coverage. Over 4,000 people are now subscribed to the First Thursdays e newsletter and the First Thursdays website receives more than 10,000 unique monthly visitors. Organisationally, First Thursdays is strengthening ties between participating organisations and helping to reinforce Whitechapel Gallery's position as a hub for East London's cultural landscape. We hope that Time Out First Thursdays continues to stimulate growth in the visual arts industry in East London as well as other economic activity in the surrounding boroughs. Above: Whitechapel sign. Photo: Zaber Ahmed Time Out First Thursday received ÂŁ45,000 in 2008 through our Grants for the arts programme
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This year we awarded Transfabulous ÂŁ5,000 through Grants for the arts to host their third annual festival of transgender arts DJ Holestar performing at Transfabulous 2008. Photo: Alison Henry
Absolutely fabulous
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Music with
Attitude On 1 April 2008 Attitude is Everything became one of our regularly funded organisations and were awarded charitable status in recognition of their commitment to equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion. Having previously received funding through Grants for the arts, the organisation is now fully focussed on realising its potential, both in terms of service growth and financial sustainability.
Attitude is Everything was founded in 2000 as a response to disabled people's desire for fair treatment at music venues, clubs and festivals - addressing an apparent lack of awareness in the music industry of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and its obligations. Since launching as a pilot project eight years ago to promote and nurture inclusive policies the organisation has rapidly developed. Their many success stories include working with Festival Republic, Channelfly, The Great Escape and Glastonbury. Attitude is Everything improves disabled people's access to live music by implementing a groundbreaking Charter of Best Practice in music venues, clubs and festivals across the UK. The Charter forms a strategic set of aims and objectives that are grouped in three stages - Bronze, Silver and Gold - that benchmark achievement and encourage venues to strive for the Gold ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. To ensure that the conditions of the Charter are sustained, each venue must also agree to be ‘mystery shopped’ by a team of disabled gig goers and musicians who feedback their experiences to each venue, to identify strengths and weaknesses. The Charter has so far attracted the support of 44 music venues across the country. The charity also run a regular club night entitled Club Attitude to showcase the talents of disabled and non disabled musicians and DJ's, and to promote best practice by demonstrating to the industry how to put on a fully accessible evening of events. These occasionally include Sign Language Interpretation and Audio
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Above: Troi Lee stewarding at the Wireless Festival Opposite: Jo Whiley signs the Attitude is Everything Charter. Both photos courtesy of Attitude is Everything
Description. Previous headliners include The Mystery Jets, Art Brut and the Foals, with DJ sets from Alexa Chung, Alan McGee, Stevie Chick and 80's Matchbox B line Disaster. The importance of the drive toward equal accessibility highlighted by the work off Attitude is Everything has attracted high profile patrons for the charity, who continue to help raise awareness. Those patrons include respected musician Robert Wyatt, former Creation Records founder and industry figurehead Alan McGee, Blaine Harrison, Mat Fraser and Susan Hedges. ‘I am happy to support Attitude is Everything because physically impaired youngsters should be able to join their aesthetically impaired peers in debauched evenings of binge dancing, where one can witness first hand the bang, wallop, screech, crash, bang, thump, thump of musical entertainment!’ Robert Wyatt. In July this year the charity held a launch event at the AKA Bar in central London to
mark this milestone in the organisation's development and celebrate its achievements. The launch marks a year of activity for Attitude is Everything with subsequent presence at the Liberty Festival in London and with a major gig set to take place in early 2009. ‘Attitude is Everything are looking to build on the success of the last seven years as a project and develop our Charter of Best Practice, Mystery Shopping and Commercial Services to reflect our new independent charitable status. We have been through a rigorous business planning process funded by Arts Council England and will be implementing change and further streamlining many of the services that we offer, in order to improve Deaf and disabled access to live music events for many years to come.’ Graham Griffiths, Business and Operations Manager, Attitude is Everything. Attitude is Everything are one of Arts Council England, London’s regularly funded organisations receiving £90,000 in 2008/09
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13 Punchdrunk 2008 The Masque of the Red Death. Photo: Stephen Dobbie
Theatre with punch ‘Punchdrunk is delighted that Arts Council England is investing in innovation and artistic risk. Being site located on an epic scale, the success of the company's work has always depended on adventurous partners and the participation, talents and dedication of literally hundreds of people over the past six years. The phenomenal success of the seven month run of The Masque of The Red Death, co produced at Battersea Arts Centre, has taken Punchdrunk's vision of experiential theatre to the next frontier of perception. Regular funding, in support of some of the company's core costs over the next three years, makes a fundamental difference to the company's chances of strategic development and our continuing capacity to push the boundaries of experimental practice for great artists and audiences alike.’ Colin Marsh, Producer and Felix Barrett, Artistic Director at Puchdrunk Punchdrunk are one of Art council England, London’s regularly funded organisations, receiving £85,000 in 2008/09
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Rising in the East In response to disproportionately low numbers of funding applications from East Asian artists, we set up EAST (East Asian Strategic Training) in 2006 in partnership with Chinese Arts Centre; a programme of courses, workshops and events designed to support and develop careers.
We have since recorded a 100% increase in successful applications to Grants for the arts with almost £250,000 of funding being granted to artists of east Asian descent over the last two years. Opposite: Publicity image for On the face of it 2008 taken at Platform China studios, 798 Art District, Beijing. Photo: Lushan Liu
Dancing in the streets - and on chairs Now in its second year, Big Dance 2008 was organised by the Mayor of London with significant funding from Arts Council England, London. We invested a total of over £100,000 in special commissions to help ensure that a wide range of Londoners were able to take part and enjoy the festival. We contributed £50,000 towards The Big Dance, with a cast of thousands of Londoners performing in
Trafalgar Square and we also invested £40,000 in lottery funds in The Big Chair Dance, part of the Capital Age Festival. More than 200 older Londoners took part in a 20 minute performance at the Southbank Centre, which was devised by professional choreographers to be performed sitting down. Below: The Big Chair Dance by Capital Age. Photo: Hayley Madden
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'The East scheme shed light on the Arts Council as an accessible funding organisation. As well as receiving valuable information, I felt encouraged as a practising artist from the East Asian community to ask for support. I was ecstatic when my funding application was successful as it’s allowed my work to develop in both a national and international context.' Jenevieve Chang Jenevieve Chang is a movement based performance artist living in London who took part in EAST network and seminar events. Jenevieve received £4,840 in funding through Grants for the arts to visit Beijing artists studios as an artist in residence. This lead to a new work called On the Face of it that was showcased at Camden People's Theatre in June 2008.
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Above: Joe Dunthorne reading from his novel Submarine at Bardens Boudoir, London Word Festival 2008. Photo: Gloria Kim. London Word Festival received ÂŁ4,540 through our Grants for the arts programme
More than words 2008 saw a Grants for the arts award go to the inaugural London Word Festival (LWF), an innovative, multi arts festival spread over several venues in the East End. The eclectic programme featured over 100 poets, novelists, spoken word artists, comedians and musicians - the likes of Joe Dunthorne, Josie Long, Richard Herring and theatre collective 1927. LWF aims to promote emerging talent, commission new work and introduce London audiences to international artists such as Saul Williams and Joshua Ferris. Sarah Sanders, our Literature Officer, talks to LWF cofounder, Tom Chivers. Tom, please tell us why you think the capital was ready for a London Word Festival? Is there any reason why you chose East London? London has one of the most vibrant live literature scenes anywhere, but lacks a real
festival devoted to promoting new, quirky and innovative 'word arts'. LWF fulfils that. We are excited by testing the edges of 'literature', by encouraging a cross artform approach. Having worked to develop audiences for music, comedy and live literature in East London, we all knew this would be the ideal place to stage LWF. It also gives us the opportunity to work with some wonderful venues such as Hoxton Hall and Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. Can you characterise your audience? Were you surprised by the queues around the block for many of the events? Audiences for live literature tend to be difficult to pin down! Certainly, our programme encouraged audience diversity. However, we are a young festival run by three people in their twenties, and our audiences reflected that - so lots of students, young professionals and (as Josie Long pointed out) cardigans and askew haircuts! We were delighted that many of our events were sold out... I think what was most
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gratifying was how we attracted, for instance, music fans to a poetry event or bookworms to a comedy night.
but with top quality artists from a range of disciplines. Not your traditional literature festival event, certainly!
Many of the LWF venues hadn't programmed literature before. When you approach these venues, how do you sell it to them? We aim to work with our venues as partners, so it's important they're fully on board with what we do. This is a good time for live literature and clued up venues know that. It was fantastic ramming out Cargo, which usually hosts club nights and music gigs, for Saul Williams' spoken word set.
Can you tell us who the most exciting artists are for you at the moment? If I have to choose, from poetry, Chris McCabe, whose second book Zeppelins is due out in the autumn. Writers: it's gotta be Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine, who's awesome. Devon's Hannah Silva is one of the most unique spoken word performers I know.
How would you describe a LWF event to someone who was unsure if it 'was for them'? Entertaining and challenging. A good night out with fun and quirky word related games,
Below: Vesna Maric performs for Book Slam at Celebrating Sanctuary in June 2008 Photo: Rafael Estefania
Podcast’s a winner At the Sony Radio Academy Awards earlier this year – the radio industry ‘Oscars’ – it was Book Slam that took the Sony Radio Gold Prize for the Internet Programme category.
commute) and it presents the best of the event, plus interviews and new writing in,we hope, an intelligent but accessible way.’
Book Slam is London's best literary club night, featuring emerging talent as well as more established names like Will Self and Irvine Welsh. The accompanying podcast beat off tough competition from guardian.co.uk's Islamophonic and Sounds - Mark Ronson from Times Online to win the prize.
Book Slam Co host Patrick Neate was awarded two grants from the Arts Council’s Grants for the arts scheme. One for Book Slam (£19,864) and another for Book Slam podcasts (£20,000)
‘The idea of Book Slam is to recognise that literature is not an arcane medium with a place only in libraries and academia, but a vital part of popular culture. At Book Slam, therefore, we try to 'relocate' literature. Conceptually, this has meant putting poetry and prose alongside the best music and comedy, enabling people to encounter poetry and prose in an another environment - first, in the kind of bar or nightclub where people want to socialise; now, through the podcast, in cyberspace. The podcast is around 50 minutes long (the time, incidentally, of the average London
Patrick Neate
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Creating aspiration Exploring creativity can form a process of transformation for young people, giving them confidence and direction at the start of their careers. Caroline Bray, Arts Council England's Regional Development Co ordinator for Arts Award, explains how the Award has helped to champion the benefits of creative activity. Creative Britain, Creative Apprenticeships, Creative and Media Diploma‌ These are just some of the programmes and initiatives underway to help the UK, and young people in particular, to discover and make the most of our innate creativity. A useful starting point in the creative process can be Arts Award, a national qualification that recognises how young people aged 11-25 develop as artists and arts leaders, and Below: Young people from Francis Bacon Maths and Computer College leading film workshops as part of thier Silver Arts Award. Photo: Emma Ghafur, Tiger Monkey UK LTD
helps them pick up useful skills such as communication, team working, planning and leadership along the way. Arts Award was launched by Arts Council England in October 2005 in partnership with awarding body Trinity Guildhall. A flexible framework is what makes Arts Award unique and this approach is highlighted by the variety of centres that offer the award. It can be run anywhere young people aged 11-25 are taking part in the arts: from youth clubs and arts centres, community groups, schools and colleges to youth justice projects or organisations working with challenging young people. Each young person sets their own challenges in an arts or cultural activity supported by a trained professional. Whatever art form they're interested in, wherever they are, whatever their individual circumstances or ability, Arts Award works for a wide variety of young people. From those with no experience in the arts to those who have well developed skills, it focuses on the individual young person and assesses personal development, not skill levels. Young people gain Arts Awards at three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold, which correspond with levels one, two and three on the National Qualifications Framework. In formal education settings Arts Award can be used within the curriculum or to accredit activities that take place outside school hours. The individual learning approach and portfolio based assessment make it a useful test run for the new 14-19 Diplomas for both teachers and young people. It is also an approved qualification for additional learning in these diplomas. As well as recognising young people as artists, Arts Award recognises the importance
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Since its launch in 2005 Arts Award has developed fast, engaging over 20,000 young people and making 8000 awards - a testament to its growing success. Left: ‘King of The World’ body armour and performance working with Tiger Monkey at Haringey Support Centre Coppetts Site. Photo: Alistair Lambert for Tiger Monkey UK LTD
'I found it very inspiring - it made me realise that I would like to do something creative as a career.' Young parent, All Change, Islington. All Change uses the arts to promote social inclusion within education, social housing, health, social care and regeneration schemes. ‘I can't wait to get my Arts Award because then I know that I have got something to be proud of and to look back on and remember.’ Tiger Monkey, Good Drinking Guide for Girlz project, Tiger Monkey UK, Barnet. Tiger Monkey UK aims to develop the social inclusion of children, young people and adults of all ages, backgrounds and abilities through creativity.
of technical and support roles, such as marketing, stage lighting and web design. Young people also document their progress and can choose any media from writing to filming, recording or web based, to build a portfolio of their work. Over the past year, participation in Arts Award has grown rapidly: in June 2007 a celebration was held to mark the 1,000th Arts Award in England; at the end of July 2008 there were over 1,000 in London alone. In London, Arts Award has been particularly successful with young people who are disengaged from or struggle with formal education. Many of the Arts Award centres working with young people that are not in education, employment or training have reported that the majority return to school,
gain a place at college or work having completed courses designed around Arts Award. Arts Award works for arts organisations by providing a ready made framework to support young people’s creative development that can fit with most sustained projects, and provides national recognition for the quality of education work. It also encourages young people to take advantage of arts organisation’s ‘offer’ since Arts Award requires young people to work with professionals. In London over 80 arts organisations are already running Arts Award, alongside 60 schools and 43 youth settings. Please call Caroline on 020 7608 4107 to discuss how to get involved!
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Children Welcome the World On 4 July 2008, over 450 school pupils from the five London Olympic boroughs (Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Newham and Waltham Forest) joined forces at the Hangar in Woolwich, to celebrate their involvement in 'Welcoming the World', a Creative Partnerships London East and South, and London 2012 education project exploring the cultural landscapes of where young people live. The celebration event, which took part during Shine Week (the new national festival celebrating the talent in all young people) included activities such as watching and reviewing the films produced, writing and drawing on postcards to be sent to International Inspiration schools in Azerbaijan, Brazil, India, Zambia and Palau, learning acro balance and juggling skills and exploring ideas about how to celebrate Paralympic Handover.
'Welcoming the World' was designed to encourage young photo journalists, film and music makers from schools across the five host boroughs to showcase their local areas to the rest of the world. It is an important first step towards empowering young people to understand their local and regional community, and to reach out to young people internationally - sharing values and thoughts and starting an invaluable dialogue. The project began in February 2008 with two elements: 'My World' (a photography and music project) and 'Our World' (a film and music project). The schools have worked with leading experts in film, photography and music including photo journalist Gideon Mendel, film director Pratibha Parmar and music director Mike Dixon. Funded by Creative Partnerships London East and South and Arts Council England and delivered in conjunction with the five Host
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Borough education leads for 2012 Games, this pilot education project is an important early strand of the London 2012 Education Programme which is about inspiring young people to join in, capturing their imaginations, helping them realise their potential in whatever context that may be.
'Creative Partnerships is pleased to be working with The London Organising Committe of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to explore ways in which schools can engage with the exciting opportunity that London hosting the 2012 Games presents. The project has brought increased understanding of where pupils live, creating and building upon friendships between young people who come from all over the world.' Steve Moffitt, Director, Creative Partnerships London East and South
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21 The four year London 2012 UK wide Education Programme will launch in autumn 2008 with nationwide inschool activity designed to celebrate the Paralympic Handover on 17 September 2008. Creative Partnerships London East and South were established as two of the first 16 Creative Partnerships areas in 2002, delivering programmes in schools in Hackney, Islington, Newham and Tower Hamlets (East), Greenwich, Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark over a four year period. In April 2006 the two merged to form one Creative Partnerships area delivering a joint creative programme in eight boroughs. On 1 October 2008, the three Creative Partnerships teams in London will come together to form a new independent organisation delivering three new schools programmes in the capital. Opposite page: Children and young people from the five Host Boroughs write postcards to other children around the world as part of the Welcoming the World celebration event
Well London logo competition - calling for entries! Well London is a programme that encourages healthy living in 20 of the capital's most disadvantaged areas, through community led interventions that can improve well being and the everyday environment. The alliance has launched a competition to design a new logo, aimed at residents of the 20 Well London areas, that will embody the vision of a healthier London. All submissions should use no more than two colours; have a blank/white background; and contain the slogan 'Communities working
together for a healthier city'. For an application form and terms and conditions, visit the Well London website: www.londonshealth.gov.uk/well_london.htm
Deadline for submissions: 5pm, 30 September 2008 The Arts Council's strand of Well London is Be Creative Be Well. This project aims to engage local communities in the arts and creative activity to improve their local parks and open spaces; enhance their mental well being; and explore new ways to get physically active.
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Let the
Run! at Greenwich and Docklands International Festival 2008. Photo: Doug Southall, Pepper Pictures. The festival received ÂŁ160,000 in regular funding for 2008/09
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Games begin!
2012
On Sunday 24 August 2008, London officially becomes the host city for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are inordinately proud that four of our regularly funded organisations will be performing in the Beijing Olympic stadium to mark the handover moment. The National Youth Theatre will sing the National Anthem, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra, after which dancers from CandoCo and the Royal Opera House will welcome the world to London 2012. Created and staged by The London Organising Committe of the Olympic Games (LOCOG's) Ceremonies team, the show will reflect London through dance and music, and will be watched by around 1.5 billion people worldwide. Around the UK, communities are planning their own celebrations to respond to this momentous occasion. A network of big screens will carry live footage from the handover ceremony in Beijing, while local authorities are being invited to mark the day by flying a specially designed flag. These festivities will move up a gear over the weekend of 26-28 September, when the
Cultural Olympiad launches. This four year festival will celebrate creativity, offering new ways for people to engage with the arts, and representing the very best of British talent. Taking the theme of 'Open up', the launch weekend offers unique access to cultural spaces and events around the country, encouraging people to take part in imaginative activities they may not have done before. To find out what's planned near you, go to www.london2012.com/culture Arts Council England will then be launching our flagship project for the Cultural Olympiad, Artists taking the lead, later in the year. 12 artists' commissions will celebrate the culture of each nation and region, creating great art in unexpected places. Keep an eye on our website for more information on this. There are many more ways to get in involved; you can apply for funding for creative projects inspired by London 2012 through our Grants for the arts programme, and we expect many of our regularly funded organisations will deliver associated events as part of their core business. We believe that London 2012 will create new cultural opportunities right across the country. August is just the beginning of this four year journey, and we hope you all feel inspired to join in and take part.
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Useful links Artichoke - www.artichoke.uk.com Attitude is Everything - www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk Battersea Arts Centre - www.bac.org.uk Big Dance - www.london.gov.uk/bigdance/ Book Slam - www.bookslam.com Continental Drifts - www.continentaldrifts.co.uk Creative Partnerships - www.creative-partnerships.org London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games London Word Festival - www.londonwordfestival.com Punchdrunk - www.punchdrunk.org.uk Time Out First Thursdays - www.firstthursdays.co.uk Transfabulous - www.transfabulous.co.uk Well London - www.londonshealth.gov.uk/well_london.htm
Arts Council England, London 2 Pear Tree Court London EC1R 0DS Tel: 0845 300 6200 Fax: 020 7973 6590 Textphone: 020 7973 6564 Email: enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk www.artscouncil.org.uk Charity registration no 1036733 Š Arts Council England, August 2008 Cover image: Monkey: Journey To The West, performed at the Royal Opera House in July 2008. Photo: Mire Noelle Robert. Royal Opera House is one of our regularly funded organisations and received £26,961,420 for 2008/09