Various Opportunities

The following opportunities and events for designer makers have recently been posted on the Designer Maker West Midlands website.
For further information on each opportunity including contact details and related links please go to www.designermakerwm.co.uk
Freelance Administrator needed for Designer Maker West Midlands - deadline 11 April
Stoke-on-Trent Ceramics & Design Festival is seeking a visionary Festival Director - deadline 28 April

UK Young Music Entrepreneur award 2008 - application process open
The application process is now open via the website below :
www.creativeconomy.org.uk/UKYME08
Applications are due by the deadline of 6 May 2008.
Please do read through the full information there about the award (including eligibility)
Sponsor a seat at Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Ludlow Assembly Rooms will soon be putting the second round of seat plaques on the back of sponsored seats at LAR. If you or anyone you know would be keen to help the Assembly Rooms by sponsoring a seat for £100 please do contact Paula Redway. Her direct line is 01584 813703 if you'd like to chat about it, or email Paula@ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk. The plaque can be in your name, that of a friend, your business, your children, in memory of someone, your pet or anyone else you wish, or you could promote your business.
With a footfall of 190,000, an event on every night of the week and the likelihood that the new seats will be installed for the next 10 years+, advertising on the back of a seat is a really cost effective way of reaching a wide variety of local people. If you or anyone you know would be keen to promote your business by sponsoring a seat for £100 contact Paula Redway or contact Tracey Fielding - LAR Finance Officer's direct line is 01584 813710, if you'd like to chat about it. The plaque can say whatever you like (up to 60 characters).
SINGING EVENTS AT OAK BARN, CLEE ST MARGARET, IN SOUTH SHROPSHIRE www.oak-barn.co.uk
SATURDAY APRIL 12TH
SINGING FOR THE TERRIFIED with POLLY BOLTON at Wandering William Barn, Foldgate Lane, Ludlow 2-5pm. £10 including refreshments. A light hearted look at ways of moving from speech to song without fear. Suitable for all those who have longed to sing but feel they can't or shouldn't!
TO BOOK PHONE 01584 823609 or email info@oak-barn.co.uk
SUNDAY APRIL 27TH
HARMONY SINGING WORKSHOP with PAULINE DOWN AT Oak Barn Centre, Clee St Margaret 10.30 till 4.30 .£25 including lunch and refreshments.
Pauline is an experienced choir leader and voice teacher with a wealth of beautiful songs to teach. She is a long standing member of the Natural Voice Practitioners Network. All her songs are taught by ear and interspersed with playful exercises for increased vocal freedom, group listening, developing rhythm and group sound. Her songs are drawn from folk, jazz, gospel and world music.
MAY 9TH-11TH
SINGING RETREAT at Oak Barn Centre, Clee St Margaret, (near Ludlow) with Polly Bolton, Sue Harris and Milly Cain.
A chance to rest, walk, sing and song -write in the glorious scenery of South Shropshire Hills.
The weekend will include a chance to song -write and arrange a capella songs, improvise with others, lots of group singing, Reiki treatments from Reiki master, Milly Cain, and singing walks.
Phone or email for details 01584 823609 info@oak-barn.co.uk
check www.oak-barn.co.uk for more details
Landscape Painting Exhibition @ MOMA ( The Tabernacle) Machynletth
If you like landscape paintings don't miss the powerful work of David Tress presently showing at MOMA ( The Tabernacle) Machynletth. The exhibition is on till the 10th May and travels to 9 other venues after that.
Open Monday to Saturday 10 - 4. Phone 01654 703355.
West Midlands Carnival Network website
www.carnivalconnect.co.uk Carnival Connect is a network for artists and producers in the West Midlands to promote work, share ideas and information and to receive training and networking opportunities. It is also a source of information for anyone wanting more information about Carnival Arts.
FAMOUS SHROPSHIRE LEGEND RECEIVES THE EPIC TREATMENT

Wild Edric is very much a localised legend in Shropshire, mainly connected with spooky appearances on the Stiperstones, and his supposed burial there, awaiting the day when he will re-appear with his soldiers to fight against evil. He has been included in children’s stories, including a graphic version, and there have been local arts projects, poetry performances and even an opera. The legend, and the historical facts upon which it is based, are worthy of comparison with the national and regional tales of King Arthur, and other freedom-fighters such as Robin Hood and Hereward the Wake.

A new book: Wild Edric: A Narrative Poem by Nigel Sustins, aims to put Edric in the same league as the better-known legendary heroes. There are many mysteries associated with the legend. Who was Godda, the ‘fairy’ woman whom he married, and where did Edric die? Is he really buried beneath the Stiperstones? Nigel Sustins’ book answers these questions by re-creating the story in the form of epic poetry: not intentionally rhyming, but carrying the narrative along at the pace, and with the vitality, of a breathless horseback ride across the landscape of South Shropshire. The poem attempts to make Edric and Godda convincingly human, and emphasises their love for each other which has potential for both heroism and tragedy.

The new version was inspired by seeing a remarkable sequence of paintings, based on the story of Edric, by Shrewsbury artist Rod Shaw, exhibited at Machynlleth (associated, of course, with another great freedom-fighter, Owain Glyndwr). One of these paintings is reproduced on the cover of the book.

The poem is commended by Gordon Dickins, writer and photographer, author of
A Literary Guide to Shropshire:

‘This beautifully written narrative poem breathes new life into the story of the eleventh century leader who fought against the Normans and lived, loved and died in that haunted area around the Stiperstones. The story is compelling, and the landscape in which this tale of honour, betrayal, loyalty and love is set lives on in the mind’s eye long after the final words. A unique work, one which deserves to be read, enjoyed and remembered.’


Wild Edric by Nigel Sustins (£6.50 ISBN: 978-0-9558589-0-1) is published on 25 March by


MARCHLAND BOOKS
Rose Cottage, Wentnor, Bishops Castle,
Shropshire, SY9 5EE Tel. 01588 650590 n.sustins@tiscali.co.uk
Funding:
Community Cash Awards
Community Cash Awards are grants of up to £5,000 to help young people set up a project that will benefit their community. You just have to come up with an idea for a project that will improve life in a local community in the UK. Maybe a new basketball court, a music studio, a youth club, sex education workshops in schools, a youth advisory board, even a local magazine. Anyone who is aged 14 to 16 and is in school but struggling, or aged 16 to 25 and unemployed or working less than 16 hours a week are eligible to apply.
Projects must:
- be run and managed by people between the ages of 14 and 25;
- clearly benefit the local community;
- benefit the people running the project;
- be a new or developing project.
The following are not eligible:
- formal groups or organisations;
- expeditions or overseas travel;
- fundraising activities for charity;
- trips and outings, unless they have educational value.
Funding of up to £1,000 is available for 14 to16 year olds and up to £5,000 is available for those aged 16 to 25.
Call free on 0800 842 842 or visit the Prince's Trust website for more details.
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
deadline - 28 April 2008
Within the UK, the Trust makes grants to both organisations and individuals for activities that relate to:
- peace and conflict resolution;
- promoting racial justice;
- power and responsibility; and
- Quaker concerns.
The Trust tends to fund work that is on a national level and there are no maximum grant limits although the Trust does stress that budgets need to be realistic. The next deadline for applications is the 28 April 2008.
For more information, visit www.jrct.org.uk/text.asp?section=00010002.

Live event free training

Hi All,

In order to ensure my new Technical Assistant is fully up to speed I have produced a course designed to take her through everything she needs to know as quickly as possible. I am opening that course to anyone who would like to benefit from it. As long as a participant can fit in to the schedule they can attend.
I see the main benefits as being…


It’s free!
It’s interesting.
It’s project based and will provide hands on practical experience of running live events.
It’s a cost reduction for LAR users such as LADS who rely heavily on technical assistance.
Many of the skills are transferable to other work environments
It’s a fabulous crash course if you are running an arts program in a village hall or other small venue and wish to be safe and cost effective

Please take the time to look through the attached and feel free to pass it on to anyone whom you think it might benefit. We can be flexible if you see something that would really help you. We can run modules together in a whole variety of ways if you want to purchase at times outside of the schedule.

Regards

Roy Loveday
Head of Facilities & Technical Manager
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
1 Mill Street
Ludlow
Shropshire
SY8 1AZ

Box Office 01584 878141
Admin 01584 873229
Fax 01584 872252
Email royloveday@ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk
Website www.ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk

Qube Exhibition Invite

Please come and join us at Qube Gallery for some light refreshments and meet wildlife photographer Mark Sisson creator of - "Challenging Behaviour: A photographic perspective on some challenging environments and interesting behaviours in our wildlife"

Friday 11th April 6-8pm

Click here to download your invite www.qube-oca.co.uk/challengingbehaviour.pdf


All work is for sale

Qube Gallery
Oswald Rd
Oswestry
SY11 1RB

Mike Hatch at the Abbey

Mike Hatch is having an exhibition at the Abbey in Shrewsbury 20th - 27th March. Please support his work by visiting the Abbey on Abbey Foregate during this time.

The Big Picture World

The Big Picture World Record Attempt Artist Brief

The Brief
Audiences Central wants to appoint an artist or artist/design team to break the world record for the largest photo mosaic in the world, as the culmination of our ‘Big Picture’ project.

The current record is 94,392 photographs covering an area of 562.85m2 (6.058.46ft2). Both numbers need to be surpassed in order to break the record.

Background
The Big Picture is an exciting new arts project that aims to encourage attendances and participation from adults throughout the West Midlands in the C2DE Socio Economic Group by inspiring them to take, use, view and manipulate photographs

This region wide photography project is an accessible and relevant way for Midlanders to engage with, and experience, art at a very local and personal level.

Over a six month period (Jan-June 08) people throughout the region are invited to submit photographs, through The Big Picture website and/or participating arts venues, which they feel define their experience of living and working in the Midlands during 2008, building a detailed visual snapshot of the region, its people and communities.

Six participating galleries throughout the Midlands region are also running education, outreach and enhancement activities as part of The Big Picture. These activities ware being funded by the campaign and although they will be incorporated into the galleries regular programmes, they will specifically target the C2DE groups and fit in with the broad theme of The Big Picture.

Big Picture Activity
There are several ways that audiences will can engage with, and participate in, The Big Picture between Jan and June 2008, these are:

· Attend an event and/or participate in a workshop at an arts venue throughout the region
· Participate in a PR/marketing activity or campaign i.e. “In the Frame” launch roadshow
· Take, submit and/or manipulate a photograph on The Big Picture website.

All of these activities are very different, particularly those in galleries, as each one is tailored to meet the specific needs of each audience to encourage attendance and participation (which is the overriding aim of the project).

Unfortunately the end result of this targeted and bespoke approach is that there is no single region wide end result for the project which participants feel that they have contributed to (which we want them to do as part of the Taking Part Survey).

This world record aspect of the project was the main communication hook for the media when the project was launched w/c 21 January and resulted in over £550,000 equivalent advertising spend of media coverage in one week. The BBC is keen to continue promoting The Big Picture and Midlands Today in particular has committed regular coverage (subject to editorial decisions) to the project in order to help us break this record.

Objectives
The objectives of the world record attempt are:
To pull together all the regional, targeted activity undertaken as part of The Big Picture
To engage large numbers of people within the West Midlands with photography, and subsequently the arts.
To obtain extensive national, regional and local publicity for the project.

What is actually required?
Audiences Central requires an artist/artists to design and produce the world record photograph mosaic (montage) which will be larger in size than the current world record (as detailed above).

The successful artist/artists will work with images supplied via The Big Picture website www.inthebigpicture.co.uk, the galleries and in community workshops to design the mosaic and then produce this large scale artwork.

Audiences Central will provide support for the operational aspects of the project, e.g. the physical production of the individual photographs.

We are currently working with The New Art Gallery Walsall regarding the possibility of producing and displaying the mosaic vertically on the side of their building. If approved Audiences Central will source relevant material (inc scaffolding, safety equipment etc) but the artist/artists will need to be comfortable with working in this unique environment.

In addition this brief also covers 6 half day workshops to be run across the region during April and May which will involve producing small elements of the final mosaic.

This is a great opportunity for a local artist/artists to work on a large scale, nationally recognised project which is funded by Arts Council England and is supported by the BBC. The Big Picture has already attracted a great deal of interest from the arts and audiences region wide (and in some cases nationally and internationally) and the world record attempt will be a high profile culmination to this already much loved project.

The successful artist/artists may be interviewed/profiled on national, regional and local media. They must be available to undertake this aspect of the project, and enjoy being interviewed and working with the media. Audiences Central’s Big Picture PR consultant would liaise with the artist on this and other Big Picture media coverage. Depending on funds, there may also be the possibility of additional work to produce pieces of artwork which can be used to aid the legacy of the project.

World Record Rules
There are a number of rules that the successful artist/artists must adhere to in order for us to apply for the world record title. These are:

· The mosaic should be constructed of individual photographs and may be fixed to the floor/surface with an appropriate fixative
· The individual photos used for the mosaic can be any size
· The subject matter of the photo and the subject matter of the overall mosaic are irrelevant to the record as is the number of artists involved.
· The final overall image is one that should, in essence, be recognizable one when viewed in its entirety.
· The placement of the individual photos can be worked out by a computer, but the final mosaic must be created physically as the record is for a mosaic not for a digital image or massive computer print out.
· A qualified surveyor should officially measure the surface area.


The successful artist/artists, in conjunction with Audiences Central, Arts Council and the BBC will decide on the image that will be represented in the final mosaic. However to maintain the regional pride which has been initiated with this project it is recommended that this image is something recognisable as the West Midlands and/or The Big Picture project





Location
As this project is all about engaging people with the arts, it is proposed that the world record attempt will continue along this theme. The rules for the world record do not restrict the number of people working on the mosaic so it is proposed that the production of the mosaic would, where possible, involve members of the public (through the workshop part of this brief).

Timing
The Big Picture project finishes at the end of June so it is planned that the world record attempt will take place over the weekend of the 28 June. A detailed timing plan will be developed in consultation with the successful artist/artists however a brief outline of timings is as follows:

Activity
Date
Artist brief circulated
w/c 25 Feb
Deadline for artist brief
18 March
Artist interviewed and selected
25 March
Community venues selected
April
Community workshops start
April
Community workshops continue
April, May
Collating images, online preparation
June
World record attempt
28/29 June


Budget
The artist fee to include travelling costs for the world record mosaic and 6 half day workshops throughout the region (locations tbc) is £9500.

Materials for the workshops and world record attempt will be provided separately. If any additional work is commissioned this will also be funded separately.


Next Steps
Please provide a proposal outlining costings, background about yourself, initial thoughts on how you would approach this commission and examples of previous work that is relevant to this project (either in scale or style) to Kerry Endsor by Tuesday 18 March.

The short listed artists will be invited for interview on Tuesday 25 March.

Brief prepared by:
Kerry Endsor
Marketing Consultant working on behalf of Audiences Central
601 The Big Peg, 120 Vyse Street, Birmingham, B18 6NF
M:07811 949987
E: kerry@smartypantsmarketing.co.uk

Public Art Project Brief

Public Art Project Brief
Who Rugby First (Rugby’s town centre company), is looking for an artist with experience of working in the public-seating realm to deliver a public art commission for the Regent Place area in Rugby town centre.
Where The area is located in the town centre of Rugby, Warwickshire between a triangle of three roads and surrounded by small, independent retail and office units housed in period buildings. Regent Place is currently laid to pathway, plants and shrubs. A statue of Rupert Brooke along with an interpretation panel of his life, stands close to the centre.
What The commission of a long-lasting (up to 15 years), durable, safe, low maintenance piece or pieces of public seating which will acknowledge the town’s literary heritage, enhance the space, encourage users to discover more about the writer and help raise the tourism profile in the town.
The seating is to be inspired by literary figures connected with Rugby and Rugby School. Eight specific writers have been identified (some living, some dead) although the artist’s input is welcomed on the final list. Materials, design, size and function are all within the remit of the artist.
The Consultation group has expressed an interest in exploring public interaction as an element within the seating. Community Involvement One aspect of the project is to involve local young, Rugby writers. The form, degree and purpose of this involvement are yet to be fully defined.
Fee At this stage we are asking for your quotation for the design, production and delivery of the chosen work. How to Apply At this stage we are asking interested artists to send us:
1. A short proposal statement (500 words) 2. A sketch of your proposed design 3. An artist statement4. A quotation for design, production and delivery of finished work.
For further information, please contact Jan Dunseith, Project Officer, on 01788 533839 or via jan.dunseith@rugby.gov.uk

Shropshire Open Art Exhibition

Call For Entries ...
The 2008 Shropshire
Open Art Exhibition
(Open To Artists Over 18 Living or Working in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin)
First Prize: £1000: Sponsored By: ‘Exciting Spaces’
Under 25’s Prize: £400: Sponsored By ‘Manbat Ltd.’
Peoples Prize: £500: Sponsored By: SADAA
(Other Prizes & Awards To Be Announced)
Deadline For Entries: May 23rd 2008
Information & Entry Forms: Send SASE to SADAA 2008 Open Art
Exhibition, The Gateway, Chester Street, Shrewsbury, SY1 1NB.
Download From: www.gateway-gallery3.co.uk
Collect From: The Gateway & Belmont Arts Centre