Collaboration

A community arts programme in Eastbourne scheduled to coincide with the 2023 Turner Prize has been awarded £480,000 in funding from Arts Council England.

The funding will support Towner Eastbourne, the gallery set to host the Turner Prize later this year, along with a range of local partners, to boost creative and cultural opportunities in the seaside town.

The funding has been allocated from ACE's Place Partnership Fund, backed by the National Lottery, and will facilitate Eastbourne ALIVE, a project aimed primarily at children and young people and those from disadvantaged communities.

Headed by Project Director Sarah Dance, the project aims to create a new legacy for Eastbourne by broadening access to art and culture through creative experiences and activities in and around the town. 

“Our ambition is to place the town’s image firmly in the hands of young people, harnessing their creative energy for years to come,” Dance said.

The project, which is backed by East Sussex County Council, involves community partners including Compass Arts, which will curate a visual arts exhibition in hotels along the seafront, with an open submission programme intended to serve as a platform for vulnerable and disabled artists.

Devonshire Collective will work with local young people and marginalised communities to co-curate a series of commissions, events, talks and films inspired by the Turner Prize in multiple locations.

Towner Eastbourne is also set to deliver an engagement project that will provide exclusive access to the Turner Prize exhibition, artist-led activities and a digital and printed toolkit for Year 9 students in local schools.

The project will also engage East Sussex Public Health to measure the impact of creative projects on young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health. It includes a partnership with Talent Accelerator to encourage and support young people interested in creative industry careers.

“We know that creative opportunities can have a powerful impact on children and young people’s lives - supporting their confidence, encouraging them to develop and embrace new ideas, and helping them to build connections,” said Hazel Edwards, Area Director, South East at ACE.

“The creative skills development and career pathways embedded in this project will ensure that there is an important legacy to Towner Eastbourne hosting the Turner Prize.”
 

Mercury Theatre in Colchester has announced a partnership with four new associate theatre companies in a bid to broaden its appeal and develop new audiences.

The 530-seat theatre, which underwent a major renovation and refurbishment in 2021, will partner for three years with English Touring Theatre, Frantic Assembly, Graeae, and Paines Plough.

The companies will work with Mercury to co-produce new work and receive touring productions. They will also collaborate on community and talent projects.

Mercury Theatre's Creative Director Ryan McBryde said: "Partnering with these extraordinary, world-renowned theatre companies will allow us to broaden the scope of our work, deepen relationships with our local community and provide more springboards for artists across our region."

He added: "We look forward to learning more from our new associates, developing and improving our own practice, and ensuring we’re the best we can be, for all of the brilliant, diverse communities across our region.”

Scott Graham and Kerry Whelan from physical theatre company Frantic Assembly said: “Partnerships like this are exciting opportunities to grow, inspire and learn from each other, finding innovative ways to share work and process."

Croydon has shared its programme of arts and cultural events for its stint as London Borough of Culture.

The timetable will run from April through to March next year, featuring street festivals, dance, music and theatre productions.

It commences on 1 April with Oratorio of Hope at Fairfield Halls, an orchestral commission led by London Mozart Players involving more than 250 of the borough’s young singers and instrumentalists.

The programme has been arranged by This is Croydon, a partnership between residents, cultural groups and the council.

The group says events will focus on grassroots talent, unsung cultural heroes, young people and disability-led productions.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan commented: “Croydon has a rich history of creativity, diversity and talent, and I’m delighted that this will be reflected through a huge range of inspiring art and performances in their year-long programme.” 

“It will be a fantastic example of how culture can inspire and unleash the potential of the next generation as we build a better London for everyone.” 

Croydon’s year of events marks the fourth iteration of the Borough of Culture project. Croydon is taking the torch from Lewisham, which hosted the 2022 edition, following on from Waltham Forest in 2019 and Brent in 2020.

A project collating the diversity of arts and humanities research infrastructure in the UK is underway.

The Mapping the Arts and Humanities Project is being conducted by the School of Advanced Study, a postgraduate institution of the University of London.

It plans to capture the institutes, centres and networks supporting arts and humanities research across the country, to produce an interactive tool that will allow researchers to connect with potential collaborators outside of their existing networks.

The project teams also hopes the interactive tool will be used by policymakers to locate where policy-relevant expertise is concentrated, and external organisations to identify academic partners.

Dean of the School of Advanced Study and Chair of the Mapping the Arts and Humanities project board, Professor Jo Fox, said that despite having access to more information than ever before, research networks in the arts and humanities can still be hard to find.

“Our new map will provide a consolidated source of information that will help us all to find and connect with research activity more easily, and boost visibility for research infrastructure across the country.”

The project team have already collected hundreds of pieces of research infrastructure across the country but say they “have only just scratched the surface”. 

The final map is expected to launch in November this year, with the project team planning to share interim findings and insights from the mapping process on the project’s blog.