KICKSTART BLOG

Ania Bond is working as the Arts Education Intern at Prema Arts Centre and joined through the Kickstart Scheme. Find out how she discovered the work opportunity and how she has got on in the role and what she has learned along the way (as well as how great the coffee is in the Vestry cafe ;-).

Our new team leader will be working within the Create Local team, supporting the existing creative catalysts in their work, and also facilitating the development of our new place-based alliances.

KICKSTART BLOG

Kate has been working with Can’t Sit Still as a Marketing and Production assistant for the last 6 months as an intern. She found her placement through the governments kickstart scheme. Create Glos role was to support employers in the arts, cultural and education sector to recruit young people.

A new culture board has been set up for Cheltenham to develop a new cultural strategy for Cheltenham

• The board includes representatives from cultural and creative communities

• They want to include artists and residents views in the strategy

• They have developed an online survey so they can get some feedback and hear your views on how culture is supported in Cheltenham

• Residents and creative practitioners are warmly invited to complete this survey.

The Great Jubilee Flag Project!

GL11 Community Hub and Cam and Dursley Creatives have come together to create an amazing Jubilee Project for the whole community to enjoy!

In early May Dursley Craft Market hosted a group of talented young people who launched a range of products for the first time. They have been attending a weekly class at The Quarry Chapel, Cam where they were taught a range of craft skills and approaches to making products with the view to sell.

In December I was excited to join the “Easy Read” Training with Inclusion Gloucestershire and to learn more about how I could communicate more clearly.

How can we make all our information easier for everyone to read?

In this blog post I share my learning in the hope that it can help others!

Debbie Christie - CG’s catalyst for Matson and Robinswood - tells us about a new project she’s been working on with primary school children in the local community in collaboration with photography students at The University of Gloucestershire.

Have your say! Thursdays 2-4pm in the static caravan at The Redwell Centre, Matson.

GLcommunities and GASP are looking for residents to contribute to a community podcast. If you have a hobby or interest, a burning issue you want to talk about, an interesting story, a bright idea, or if you want tot learn to record and edit your own audio content or present your own show, drop in to find out more.

We are so proud to have been instrumental in recruiting 60 young people in 23 arts organisations and schools in Gloucestershire, from Wyldwood Arts in the Forest of Dean, Loco Glass in Cirencester, Deepbed Radio in Gloucester, Kingshill House in Dursley to Bright Marketing in Cheltenham.

Twinberrow Sculpture Trail in Dursley woods has now got a beautiful new piece for people to view.

A group of Cam Mum’s led by Emma Scott and Stacey Dent-Beeston began working on the project through a scheme started by Create Gloucestershire, and Dursley Library as part of the Art for Libraries initiative.

Back in 2019, Wyldwood Arts embarked on an ambitious project to re-tell an important piece of Forest of Dean history – the remarkable story of the Mushet family – through a community-led stage production. Like so many arts projects, it faced numerous challenges throughout the pandemic, but the production team was determined to see it through.

In December, we joined Culture Matson partners to share the fantastic work being created and delivered by and for the residents of Matson, with visitors from Arts Council England.

The Everyman Theatre Education and Community team has been involved in running Arts Award for many years, from Discover through to Gold level. And most recently, they have taken Arts Award Discover to new audiences by integrating the awards into 2 creative community projects. The first of these was a collaboration between a local artist and a theatre company commissioned by The Everyman called “Displaced Child”.

For the third year running The Quarry Chapel, Cam has worked with members of the community to create a giant outdoor 3d Advent calendar, which is on show throughout the run up to Christmas.

Like many arts organisations, Forest of Dean-based community arts charity Wyldwood Arts has gradually been reintroducing face-to-face provision this year. In this blog post we hear from Associate Producer Liz Bell about the experience of delivering a community banner-making project in a post-pandemic rural environment.

20 local GCSE and A’Level students from Rednock and KLB schools in Cam & Dursley will be showcasing experimental pieces during Tyndale Arts Week. They created the work during a nine week programme called ‘Love Art? Create your Future! run by artist and educator Abi Nicol.

The new programme is scheduled for this autumn and we’re looking for young people ready to explore their next steps. Sessions begin on zoom on the 2nd November so get in touch if you would like to find out more!

Many library staff have been involved in the Art of Libraries programme – both in local libraries and in supporting teams. In this blog we hear from Jill Barker - who was involved with Create Gloucestershire as the development manager on the original Art of Libraries programme and reflects on the pilot. We’ll also hear from Curtis Fulcher who has recently joined the team as the development manager after Jill's retirement, as he brings us up to speed with new developments across the library service and a look to the future of creativity in libraries.

Brave Bold Drama, an award-winning theatre & community arts company created by Paul Lawless & Gill Simmons was one of the commissions. They brought their project ‘The Company of International Artists’ to children in Gloucestershire. We talked to them about the project, working with Gloucestershire Libraries and what they learnt changing their work from a live experience to a blended model of delivery - incorporating creative packs (delivered by post!), video downloads as well live online content.