Highs and Lows in the Arts

So much keeps happening, the highs and lows of working in the arts. On the the former front, today a heap of thank yous arrived from Instow School, with lots of words for sound, and material that appeared to be from a lesson or session where the idea had been run with, and the pupils had written more structured poems as a result, as well as photos including a picture of one pupil holding up his list of 56 words - hopefully with pride! but who likes having their picture taken?! It made one feel that the workshops had gone even a bit better than we'd thought.

This followed hot on the heels of a print copy of 20x20 Magazine arriving - and what a delicious addition to any library of literary magazines it makes. Beautifully produced, in its trademark square format, I was as ever really struck by just how good the work is (and not just because I had a piece in it...).

And these followed on from a great review of the stories we did at the Garden of Awen in February, in Tasty Fanzine! Always nice to be appreciated. Apparently Widsith & Deor 'are genuine entertainers' - well, we do (with some tales anyway!) aim to make people laugh as well as think.

We also got a thank you from the person who booked our 'Temptation and Redemption Show'. And 'Not What One Was - A Brief History of the Concept of Justice' a series of political philosophy short snappy essays on current affairs (Cartwheels Collective Publishing's latest book) is starting to sell.

On the downside, the wonderful Northcott Theatre (Exeter's largest theatre) has gone into administration, incredibly. This is very bad news for the arts in E.Devon, as they not only put on a great range of productions from ballet, opera and conventional theatre to contemporary dance, visual/physical theatre and puppetry, but also have a gallery space, massive outreach in the form of a community company and youth theatre, and too much else to mention. It would be disastrous if they were allowed to close. As well as being a huge blow for Exeter University students as it's a resource for drama students and does cut price tickets for everyone who studies or works there.

And of course there are funding cuts everywhere. We storytellers are organizing a fundraising gig in aid of the Centre for Contemporary Art in the Natural World (CCANW) at Haldon Forest Park over Easter, as they, like Spoken/Written, had to resubmit a funding application, and were set the unenviable challenge of raising £20,000 in two months.

Moreover Spoken/Written will, in all likelihood have to split into two with the larger newsletter becoming a paying only service in early summer, as of course, it has only been given funding until the end of July. Shoestrings are getting thinner, and more organizations, groups and artists are having to exist on them. Here's to a spirit of rising to the challenge - it's the only attitude that will keep the arts sector afloat in difficult times.

Check out; 20x20 Magazine

http://www.20x20magazine.com/

Tasty Fanzine

http://www.tastyfanzine.org.uk/gigs64feb10.htm#GardenOfAwen

'Not What One Was' at Cartwheels Collective Publishing's Webshop

http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/Web_Shop.html

Fundraiser for CCANW

http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/W%26D_Host.html

Centre for Contemporary Art in the Natural World

http://www.ccanw.co.uk/

A Day in the Office of...Part 2

  Taking a day this week - the Financial Times Magazine e-mails wanting to get in touch with Wayne about Van-tastic and his van conversions, people who've had them and live in their vans. The Sunrise e-mail wanting Wayne to give a presentation for their traveller festival goers about van customization, do something like workshops; and they've seen Jo's and Mel's pages and want eco-building. Immediately we try to get in touch - not long after (and it can take a while - he lives in a van without reliable mobile or internet signal) we make contact. He's up for doing both, and then we discuss the fee split for Dorchester Play Day who've asked us again this year. Meanwhile Mel says she's up for being interviewed as well (the landscape designer who lives in a van!) and is up for doing the eco-structure/den building part of the Off the Grid event by the Sunrise, as she's done loads of eco-builds as part of the sculpture park, and Jo is in NZ. The Sunrise also book us to storytell. While talking to the Sunrise; 'we want a van conversion' 'what - actually a van converting during the festival? do you have one, would it be a festival goer's? or would he have to bring one? or -?' 'oh we hadn't thought of that' - I suggest a van surgery, where people come in with questions about how it's done, problems they've encountered, like 'I've built a bookcase, but how to I stop the books falling out?' (answer - strap a bungee across on two hooks), and stuff. Then he asks about a presentation and showcase - I suggest one or two vans to show people round, Wayne's own amazing vehicle (the cooker is a lovely old bureau in dark wood), and another...he likes the ideas and books it.  

  Next day the morning, and early afternoon and evening are all spent filling in a form for the Autumn Festival (for a storytelling show), and a query arrives from the Woodland Trust in Hertford wanting a willow artist. Thinking that I too should have gone to Bicton College while the now-legendary degree in Environmental Arts and Crafts was running, we again e-mail Mel, who later e-mails that yes, she'd like to do the event in question. It's great to be appreciated, and good to see the website working for the artists it supports. 

 

   No two days are the same (though some are crushingly boring - copy and pasting days for instance, filling in too many hit and miss forms for money or other stuff you may well not get, proofing copy, updating the hyperlinks, uploading a far-too-big-website on software not made to deal with it and.....- yes REALLY boring). 

   Why do we do it? The insecurity, the...reminds me of that wonderful quote from Dario Fo's 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' about touring theatre - 'the nylon sheets' 'the greasy breakfasts'...One reason might be that some people are just too pig headed to not be self-employed... Another might be what Jarvis Cocker once said - 'You're talking very unimaginative people here...just couldn't think of anything else to do...' I think I'll go with that one.      

A Day in the Office of...Part 1

When people ask what's a typical day for the Collective, I can't answer. Things I do or have done at different times include; being an Editor, of course, researcher (of history, folktales, Spoken/Written stuff and more), administrator - dealing with e-mails and enquiries for the whole Collective, passing on details, contacting potential leads, writing up descriptions for brochures or schools, artists dictating details of their workshops or diary dates over the phone, writing lists of keystage requirements for education workshops and events, sometimes negotiating fees (I hate that!), filling in forms, designing posters, flyers, programmes, cards, leaflets, making signs. For the leaflets and posters I haven't designed, proof reading them, writing copy for the website or proofing the pages I haven't written copy for (when there's time!), designing webpages, doing photography for the website (my pride and joy are probably Sonia's Market Stall tiaras and Wayne's Pavilion Hire pages), assistant leather workshop host, willow workshop helper, typing invoices, rehearsing for shows, keeping the site map updated for the 500+ page website (and failing dismally of late), stall-keeping stalls for Spoken/Written and 'Porlock', making free gifts, helping design the book and chapbook covers, if only by attending to the lining or spacing, writing blurbs, prelims, bios, co-wrestling with the nightmare of PDFs for the printer, replying to subscriber enquiries and signing up new subscribers, copying out incorrectly formatted entries for Spoken/Written (!), thanking donors, requesting donations, chasing up PayPal, clearing up the mess of plaster, tape, leather bits, wire, holly (ouch!), ivy, willow, pastels, paper, card, etc., of the Studio where much is made including bodymasks and smaller masks for storytelling, gauntlets, etc., so that the stock keeping of books, chapbooks and pamphlets can be done...packing props safely, unpacking them again, repairs to damaged ones from time to time where possible, folding covers for stapling, editing page layouts, dealing with shops regarding books, proofreading the Rants of the Week on the website, arranging photoshoots (like when Devon Life ran a piece on Mel's willow sculpture and fencing) or video stuff (like doing a basic video for Ben's juggling) or images for festival brochures, helping set up the Pavilion now and again, and clearing up after workshops, collecting materials for workshops like gels from the Northcott Theatre, setting up performance spaces and of course performing/storytelling.....and as so many say, writing comes last - squeezing in poems at odd moments or a strict hour set aside to write prose to continue a novel...

   Well this is an answer to what's a typical role or day, and an answer to - you've not done x? sent 100 submissions in a year? been to z event? Why not? The above list is why not...