Latest update
It’s been an interesting few weeks, both in terms of work and personal life. I turned 30 last weekend, so i’m starting to come to terms with the fact that i’m not in my 20’s anymore! It’s a strange thing getting older, but anyway enough about that…
Made contact with Rick at the subrooms again. He’s still looking for bands to support the acts they are putting on for the Fringe Festival, so if you are in a band or know a band who might be interested, get in touch. I still haven’t met Jill Franks, but hope to sometime in August. I’ve heard on the grapevine about a celebration she is organising for the 175th birthday of the subrooms, so would love to get involved in this. And i’m going to get together with Rick and Nick Buckle to talk about the Stroud Music Scene. Unfortunately the open mic nights at the subrooms are stopping, so there is going to be a gap that needs filling…
Talked to Jeremy from Stroud Fringe this week. They haven’t had any luck getting anymore funding so are pressing ahead with one stage at the bank gardens, and the outside forcourt of the subrooms. No youth stage :-(, and at the moment no workshops although i want to look into possibly finding some funding to run these. I plan to talk to Sue at the space about this. It’s a shame that its been such a struggle for the fringe this year, however i did have positive conversations with jereny about next year. I know from talking to Stroud College, that they would be keen to be involved, possibly they could provide and sponsor the youth stage? I’ve asked him to keep me in the loop about progress, and offered my support and help for anything the fringe might need me to do.
Last week I went with George to Taunton to meet and discuss the development of the South West Music Forum. It was interesting for me to hear about what was going on in different areas of the region, how different areas approach things, and meet lots of new faces. Having had time to reflect here are my views: a)There is definately a need for having a South West Music Forum, to share information, support, training, talent, joint projects and show a united front as a region with relation to music, and for members to have a broader view of not just what’s happening in their patch but what’s happening else where too. b)There are forum’s for design and theatre that are already established and successful and we should be looking at these and learning from them. c)Every member will have their own agenda. We should be finding the common links between us and focus on these to take the forum forward. Why do we want a forum, and how will we benefit? d)There seemed to be a great deal of focus an a SWMF website. I do see the benefits of this, but i also think it would take a lot of work, it would need someone to work on it, where would the money come from? I think there are otherways we could benefit that coulc have more impact.e)I agree with George about celebrating acheivements, and using the forum to promote our successes and share ideas.
Today I went to Colwell Arts Centre in Gloucester and met Jo Bousfield and Sam Etheridge. Jo is Theatre Development Coordinator for Theatre Gloucestershire, so is kind of the equivalent to GMF for theatre. She’s been in the role for a long time so i wanted to get her insight into how to approach the role, any advice or tips she could give me, and share a bit about what i was up to and keep up the contact so that perhaps in the future we could collaborate on some projects. She was very generous with her time and sharing her experience and i got a lot out of talking to her. It reinforced the need for me to set up a Stroud Music Forum, and to do some consultation in Stroud. She also gave me a good contact for someone at the Gloucestershire County Council who gives advice about funding so i’m going to follow that up. She then introduced me to Sam who works for GLOSS arts education agency. We had a long chat and some interesting things came out. It seems they have very few musicians on their books, and most of the time get in people from Bristol to run projects! She mentioned some training we could tap, for workshop training and arts award training. This is very intersting (the arts award) and i want to look into this further. I think this could be quite appealing to schools, and other educational settings. Or could even work in a youth centre or something, maybe the rock school project. Then Sam told me about a project she used to work for in Bath called Creative Factory that sounded really great. The project folded due to lack of funding, but was based at Wiltshire Music Centre, and was funded by youth music and virgin mobile. They put on week long courses in the half term that sound similar to the Rock School Project i want to do, but on a larger scale, with some great tutors, and it all sounded very exciting. I think it had also had other strands in hte past including rehearsal space, advice, mentoring, and training. She gave me some names of people to contact to find out more. And lastly she gave me contact details for Sarah Everitt who works for Creative Inclusion so i’m going to follow this up. They work with children and young people with disabilities delivering out of school arts projects and opportunities. Sounds great.
So i’m feeling like i’ve got lots to be getting on with, but i’m pretty excited about developments. Will endevour to keep you updated with progress. Bye for now.
2 years ago