News from March 2010
QuicksmART - Training with a heart!
26 March 2010
"Speakeasy’s experience of A+M is of people who care. Nurturing creativity, and creative people, should never be a formulaic process. Training with A+M has made us feel valued,
supported, considered and cared about. That’s a legacy equally as strong as all the practical stuff we’ve learned."
Another of our legacy programmes was QuickSmART, a concentrated residential programme for arts managers and leaders tasked with the strategic and organisational development of
their organisation. QuickSmART provide an opportunity to review the way in which an organisation works and underpin its long-term viability, compare experiences and share and
develop real plans for organisational growth and change. Debbie Kingsley delivered the programme for us, very fitting as in her former role of Arts Development Officer in
Coventry, Debbie was a key component in setting up Arts+Media. QuickSmART allowed a learning community of senior arts professionals to come together to share
practice and integrated practical action learning tasks as well as mentoring support for the duration of the programme.
REPAST - our final project…
22 March 2010
Arts+Media will be closing its office-based operations at the end of March 2010, although the website will continue to offer services under new management. It has been a long and interesting voyage enlivened along the way by a number of people who have given a great deal of time, energy, commitment and enthusiasm to the venture. You know who you are and, on behalf of A+M, please accept our heartfelt thanks and gratitude. When A+M were considering how to mark the end of our era we wanted to achieve four things: to celebrate our achievements; to thank the numerous people who have helped us enormously along the way; to offer a final blast of the creative professional development we are famous for and to leave some questions in our wake.
REPAST is an exciting collaboration between A+M, curator Anne Forgan, and Blanch and Shock Food Design, working together on our mutual passions: food and art. REPAST will take place in a disused industrial unit, provided by Ian Harrabin, Managing Director of Complex Development Projects. This typifies a working relationship that many artists will need to emulate in the future to offer a platform for work that exists beyond traditional spaces. Ian says: “The Far Gosford Street area is one of the last historic areas in the city centre, giving it a unique character, but it is pretty run down. However, it has clear potential .....a vibrant living and work quarter designed for creative companies and groups.” We have done a great deal of thinking about questions of survival, considering where the sustenance that professional development brings in all the different stages of growth might be found in the future, and how artists might use what is available in innovative ways when there are no uncomplicated alternatives. What makes artist-led initiatives important is because that’s where artists coalesce to build ability for their own practice. Blanche and Shock have been given a brief to use the space creatively to achieve the aims of our event. We hope that REPAST will provide a little context (and nourishment) to the discussion.
For more information on Blanch and Shock you can either check out the following PDF BS.pdf or visit their website at www.blanchandshock.com/
Are you having enough fun?
02 December 2009
Today I had the pleasure of a trip to Manchester to check how much fun people there are having. Arts and Media had commissioned me to re-run a course I once ran in 2001 for New Work Network called “Are You Having Enough Fun?”. Then things had seemed to be in the balance and I had to keep a careful check that the “fun” quotient did outweighed the “infuriatingly soul-destroying” quotient. Now the answer is a simple ‘yes’ and I’m considering launching an “Are You Having Enough Sleep?” course. An engaging and mostly voluble group had gathered at the Chinese Arts Centre and it sounded as if most of them were not anxious as to whether they were having enough fun, just whether it was possible to wring any further fun out of their already fun filled lives. I hope they weren’t expecting the actually training day to be fun. I’m a theatre director not a trainer and so I spent most of the day feeling rather anxious. Nevertheless, it was interesting to hear different people’s approaches to their artistic work, what they value and feel reward in, whose opinions they value and what makes them happy. I would be fantastic to see them all at work doing their thing. Initially I was worried there was too much time for the material I had prepared but spending a long time thinking about something allows you to interrogate it closely, to move beyond the reflex answers and I ended up rather wishing I was on the course not running it.
James, Stan’s Cafe http://www.stanscafe.co.uk/
Equate Video Diary
21 October 2009
As many of you know it can be a very solitary world as an artist. Arts+Media work with a wide range of practitioners who come in a variety of guises. Our blog offers you an insight into how other artists’ approach to creativity, exploring their thoughts, feelings and how they work. Please feel free to comment on these blog entries at the bottom of each section…. or let us know if there is something you would like to feature.
As part of the Equate project Lesley and Adam, have been using the A+M blog to write about their thoughts and ideas… here’s Adams latest video entry, so sit back and enjoy!
Follow this link for more information about the Equate project
Lorsen Camps - Beauty in the Disregarded: Beauty in the Disregard(shed)
29 September 2009
As many of you know it can be a very solitary world as an artist. Arts+Media work with a wide range of practitioners who come in a variety of guises. Our blog offers you an insight into how other artists’ approach to creativity, exploring their thoughts, feelings and how they work. Please feel free to comment on these blog entries at the bottom of each section…. or let us know if there is something you would like to feature.
Local Artist Lorsen Camps latest exhibition “Beauty in the Disregarded: Beauty in the Disregard-shed” has just finished, find out his thoughts….
Beauty in the Disregarded: Beauty in the Disregard-shed was set within a large shed at the front of Earlsdon Primary School. I call it a shed but it’s more formally known as a Centre for Contemporary Art and had come out of the Bob and Roberta Smith show at the Mead gallery, early 2009.
"I organised the BITD exhibition, showing work alongside Martin Green and Joanna Rucklidge. It comprised collections of found objects carefully displayed and ordered. We invited the public to bring in objects that they found which then became part of the work.
"I am still reflecting on the success of the last show (550 visitors over three weeks, and more importantly lots of positive feedback, comments and public involvement) and am eager to use this as a springboard onto my future projects. I am aware that this can be a time when momentum slips and I want to combat this.
"I’ve learnt the importance of evaluating my exhibitions and for me the process is not complete until this is done. I am creating a 2-3 page document where I will consider what worked, what didn’t, lessons learned and areas for development. Aspects to focus on include marketing, logistics of setting up an exhibition, ways of developing networks and following up leads and contacts. I am currently planning what’s next – targeting forthcoming exhibitions and deadlines. This encourages me to make new work and keep within a given timescale."