News from the Network - 27 July 2007
Contents
Events and Training
1. Colors from Hills at the Drik Gallery (Dhaka, Bangladesh, to 1 August)
2. Asylum Road (London, UK, 30 July – 1 August 2007)
3. "as the mother of a brown boy..." (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, UK, 3-27 August)
4. Curfew – Ashe Music Theatre Ensemble (London, UK, 16 August - 16 September)
Resources
5. Cultural Well-being and Cultural Capital by Penny Eames
6. New Creative Community : The Art of Cultural Development by Arlene Goldbard
7. Focus on Community Dance in Arts Professional
8. The South looks back - a photo special
9. “Dealing with the marks of their origin”
Opportunities
10. Shape Arts - A free night out might be just the ticket!
11. Creative Exchange is offering two part-time internships
Events and Training
1. Colors from Hills at the Drik Gallery
Dhaka, Bangladesh, to 1 August
“Colors from Hills” is a group exhibition of artists from Chittagong Hill Tracts led by Kanak Chanpa Chakma.
The exhibition runs at the Drik Gallery2 from 19 July - 01 August' 2007, from 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM
For more information visit www.drik.net
2. Asylum Road
London, 30 July – 1 August 2007
The Fortune Group (Pan Intercultural Arts) presents Asylum Road – a series of scenes tracing the history of refuge and asylum in London, from the Huguenots who introduced the word “refugee” to a well known character we do not normally think of in this context.
This story of refuge is told by young refugees and asylum seekers in the unusual setting of a shipping container. Come and be drawn into these moving and resonant scenes in short 30 minute performances.
Performances are in Coram’s fields Guildford St, WC1 on 30 & 31 July and 1 August at 8pm and 9pm.
Places are limited (only 15 per performance) so please book in advance.
Tel: Ellie Stout on 0207 833 2111
All places are free. Donations are welcome
www.pan-arts.net
3. "as the mother of a brown boy..."
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 3-27 August
Chickenshed are proud to be taking "as the mother of a brown boy..." to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The production shows how a mother remembers the life, and untimely death, of her mixed race son and his struggle for identity in a multi-racial society.
Told through dance, physical theatre, live music and multi-media, this story will take you on a stark journey to find the truth behind an individual's life: choices made; relationships lost and found; self-fulfilling prophecies; injustice; but most importantly, love.
At Zoo Southside (Venue 82, 117 Nicolson Street) from 3 - 27 August, everyday except Wednesdays, at 14.45.
For advance tickets, please contact the Fringe.
For tickets from 3rd August, please contact the Zoo Southside Box Office on 0131 662 6892 or go to www.zoofestival.co.uk.
Tickets are £8, (£6 conc.) - Previews on the 3rd and 4th of August are £4 (£3 conc.)
Visit the Chickenshed website to see videoclips from performances and rehearsal. http://www.chickenshed.org.uk/
4. Curfew – Ashe Music Theatre Ensemble
London, 16 August - 16 September
(Source: Hackney Empire)
The twenty-five strong award winning Ashe Music Theatre Ensemble return to the Hackney Empire Theatre for an extended Summer season with their uplifting Reggae musical, set on the mean streets of inner-city Jamaica. The Ashe Ensemble draws on Jamaica’s rich cultural heritage of music, dance, pantomime, parable and roots plays and create an enthralling piece of musical theatre
We meet Satta, a ruthless don who rules the downtrodden Barracks community with a loaded gun and Trevor, an idealistic, Garvey-quoting reggae singer who wants to use music to ‘up ye mighty race’. We witness their struggle to influence impressionable local youth Gungo, a young man at the crossroads between good and evil, where violence and entertainment are the main avenues to power.
Curfew has received awards for five of the eight nominations from the International Theatre Institute (Jamaica Centre) Actor Boy Awards:
Michael Holgate, Artistic Director of ASHE is Caribbean Project Manager for Creative Exchange project – HIV/AIDS: The Creative Challenge – Engaging culture and creativity in HIV/AIDS prevention.
Hackney Empire 16/08/2007 to 16/09/2007 at 19:30
Tickets cost, £16.50, £14.50
To book go to http://www.hackneyempire.co.uk or tel: 020 8985 2424
Visit www.asheperforms.com for more about Ashe
Resources
5. Cultural Well-being and Cultural Capital by Penny Eames
In May, Creative Exchange was delighted to host a workshop with Penny Eames where she developed some of the themes from the second edition of Cultural Wellbeing and Cultural Capital which is now available from the Creative Exchange bookshop.
This new edition would be useful for anyone working with communities or in the arts and cultural sectors. It has chapters on:
Theory
Culture, Well-being and Cultural Well-being
Cultural Change and Dynamics
Reconciling Cultures
Cultural Capital - The Concept
Making it happen
Community Connectedness
Analysing your Culture
Planning and Using Culture
The Need for Arts Investment
For book reviews and comments on the 1st edition or if you would like to order a printed copy of the publication, or to find out more about Penny Eames, visit www.pseconsultancy.com
To purchase and download a copy in Pdf format visit the Creative Exchange bookshop at http://www.creativexchange.org/bookshop
Price: £8.00
6. New Creative Community : The Art of Cultural Development by Arlene Goldbard
In July, Creative Exchange was delighted to host a workshop led by Arlene Goldbard on the Ethics of Community Arts Practice. Arlene has written about her work in regard to ethics as well as many other aspects of cultural development in her latest book New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development.
The book has been described as “an inspiring, foundational book that defines the burgeoning field of community cultural development. Through personal stories, rousing accounts, detailed observation and histories, Arlene Goldbard describes how communities express and develop themselves via the creative arts. This comprehensive, photographically- illustrated book, which covers community-based arts such as theater grounded in oral history and murals celebrating cultural heritage, will appeal to the curious non-specialist reader as well as the practitioner and student.”
For more information about Arlene Goldbard and her work and publications visit www.arlenegoldbard.com
The book can be ordered from New Village Press at www.newvillagepress.net
Cost; $19.95
ISBN 0-9766054-5-7
7. Focus on Community Dance in Arts Professional
Issue 149 of Arts Professional (2/7/7) includes a special focus on Community Dance including an article “Everybody can dance” by Ken Bartlett from the Foundation for Community Dance.
For more information on the Foundation for Community Dance visit www.communitydance.org.uk
8. The South looks back - a photo special
The August edition of New Internationalist is a special on Photography in the Global South edited by Shahidul Alam founder of Drik Photo Agency.
From the New Internationalist Website: “In the rich world we consume millions of images from the Global South – from Africa, Asia or Latin America. Often they accompany news stories from these regions or calls for donations from aid agencies and charities.
But how often are those pictures actually taken by people from the South? With the advent of the internet and digital photography it should be easier than ever for Southern photographers to represent their own reality.
It isn't happening; the information flow is still – and probably increasingly – dominated by Western media and media-makers. In next month's issue of the New Internationalist photographer Shahidul Alam, founder of the award-winning Bangladeshi photo-agency Drik, explains why this is so. And his selection of stunning photos from Southern photographers shows us what most of the Western press is missing.
For more information on this publication visit: www.newint.org
For more information on Drik visit www.drik.net
9. “Dealing with the marks of their origin”
Kim Hope, Executive Director of Themba Theatre company presented a paper entitled “Dealing with the marks of their origin”: The Interactive Themba Theatre Company’s methodology for play creation, interactive theatre process and training at the International Federation for Theatre Research Conference – “ Theatre in Africa- Africa in Theatre”. The conference which had a stream dedicated to theatre and social change took place at University of Stellenbosch, South Africa from 10-14 July 2007.
For more about Themba Theatre Company visit http://www.thembahiv.org/
For more about the International Federation for Theatre Research Conference visit http://www.firt-iftr.org
Opportunities
10. Shape Arts - A free night out might be just the ticket!
Do you enjoy going out in London? Are you interested in meeting new people? Fancy a free night out? If you have a car, some spare time and would like free tickets to the best London has to offer, why not volunteer as a Shape Tickets Access Assistant? Shape Tickets is an accessible booking service that removes barriers for deaf and disabled people to attend London’s arts, culture and entertainment events.
Volunteer Access Assistants collect Shape Tickets members from their homes, enjoy the event with them and take them home again afterwards. You’ll get a free ticket the performance or exhibition, and can even claim back your expenses.
Shape are looking for people London-wide to be volunteer Access Assistants. Volunteers should be willing to commit to doing at least one trip every month, but hours are very flexible as events take place on evenings and afternoons, midweek and weekends. The only pre-requisites are that you have a full valid driving licence and access to a car. All volunteers will receive disability awareness training prior to their first trip.
To find out more about becoming a volunteer, call Shape Tickets on 020 7619 6166, minicom 020 7619 6161, email volunteer@shapearts.org.uk or visit www.shapearts.org.uk/shapetickets/
11. Creative Exchange is offering two part-time internships
Creative Exchange, the network for culture and development, is offering 2 internships from September onwards to support the organisation’s work in the following areas:
a)Information & press support tasks:
- Cataloguing our small resource collection
- Desk research on arts, culture and development literature and resources
- Creating a press database and archive
b) Development support tasks:
- Building from scratch a comprehensive information and contacts database
- Desk research into prospective funders for the organisation’s programme
- General assistance for development and fundraising when needed
If you
- are a student or recent graduate on a relevant university course (e.g. information management) at the time of the internship
- are energetic, enthusiastic, resourceful and a team player
- have good communication skills, both written and verbal
- can do most of the work unsupervised
- have desk research experience
- have office experience and are computer literate (pc/ Mac environments, Microsoft Office package, including Excel proficient)
- have a demonstrable interest in Creative Exchange’s work
Internship FAQs
- Due to space constraints, Creative Exchange’s internships are mainly developed from your own home with bi monthly meetings and email or phone contact to supervise your work.
- Your time commitment: we expect a commitment of 2-3 days per week, two days working from home and one day working in our office.
- What we can offer: travel expenses allowance, work materials if needed, a Creative Exchange partners’ membership for one year, free access to all our events
For more information on who we are and what we do visit www.creativexchange.org
If you are interested, please send an email to admin@creativexchange.org with an up to date CV and a covering letter including the following:
- which area(s) you are interested in and why
- when you would be available and for how many days per week
- details of your computing and research skills
- details of any experience you have had that shows your initiative and ability to work unsupervised and as part of a team
- your interest in culture and development
- what you hope to gain from an internship with us
Deadline is Friday 17 August until at noon.
We will contact short-listed individuals only by 24 August 2007.
Contact:
Ledy Leyssen, Administration & Projects Coordinator
Email: admin@creativexchange.org
Tel: 020 7065 0980