We had our first partner meeting yesterday for the Youth Music Mentoring scheme, which the Arts and Regeneration Unit will be coordinating. Following a successful 6 month pilot, which ran as part of the Gallery 37+ project, the scheme is to be expanded to run for the next two years.
Youth Music Mentors aims to improve the life chances of young people through music-based mentoring. Funded by DCMS, Youth Music Mentors provides young people, who need additional support, the opportunity to achieve musical and social outcomes, with support from a trained mentor.
The programme is being delivered by a range of partners across 16 areas of England, including Youth Music Action Zones, community music and arts organisations, Music Services and city councils.
Here in Leeds, the project is being coordinated by Leeds City Council and delivered by four partners:
The Old Chapel Studios
The Hunslet Club
Cloth Cat Studios
Lifeforce Productions
Each partner will recruit, coordinate and provide guidance, training and support to young people to become 'mentors', who will in turn support a number of 'mentees' in a range of skills including music production and engineering, CD production, radio, programming and production.
The young people involved as mentors will be offered the chance to gain their Bronze Arts Award, a nationally recognised vocational qualification.
It was great to meet everyone yesterday and we are really looking forward to working with them all on this project. This is the kind of project that can make a real difference to the lives of young people who have become disengaged as it uses the medium of music, in which many of them already have interests and talents, to help them develop, musically, personally and career-wise.
Do check out the partner websites to see what other services and activities they provide for the young people of Leeds.
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Monday 27 April 2009
Emerge New Work Festival
Last Friday afternoon, I was introduced to the team working on the Emerge New Work Festival, which commences on Monday 20th July 2009.
Emerge is a collaboration between:
The Arts and Regeneration Unit is supporting the event and Leeds City Council is happy to offer up its Carriageworks venue to host some of the performances.
New work in new venues...
All 3 venues have been open less than 3 years. All the work will be completly new and created for the festival. Much of it is created by students and emerging artists, although the submission process is open to all. The dealine for submissions is 30th April, so if you're extremely quick, you might just make it! Go to the website for more details: http://www.emergefestival.org.uk/
Edinburgh Festival
The Emerge Festival is supporting the artists from Leeds who are taking work to The Edinburgh Festival this year. Leeds has a history of success at The Edinburgh Festival. In 2008, Leeds-based collective, The Paper Birds, were awarded a Fringe First award for their show, 'In a Thousand Pieces'.
Light Night
There is also an opportunity for artists involved to win a £400 commision for Light Night, which takes place on 9th October 2009. Light Night is coordinated by The Arts and Regeneration Unit at Leeds City Council.
Emerge is a collaboration between:
- http://www.stage.leeds.ac.uk/ - the new theatre in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at Leeds University
- The Carriageworks - the Leeds City Council run theatre located in The Electric Press Building just off Millennium Square
- Seven - an independent not-for-profit arts space in Chapel Allerton, Leeds 7
The Arts and Regeneration Unit is supporting the event and Leeds City Council is happy to offer up its Carriageworks venue to host some of the performances.
New work in new venues...
All 3 venues have been open less than 3 years. All the work will be completly new and created for the festival. Much of it is created by students and emerging artists, although the submission process is open to all. The dealine for submissions is 30th April, so if you're extremely quick, you might just make it! Go to the website for more details: http://www.emergefestival.org.uk/
Edinburgh Festival
The Emerge Festival is supporting the artists from Leeds who are taking work to The Edinburgh Festival this year. Leeds has a history of success at The Edinburgh Festival. In 2008, Leeds-based collective, The Paper Birds, were awarded a Fringe First award for their show, 'In a Thousand Pieces'.
Light Night
There is also an opportunity for artists involved to win a £400 commision for Light Night, which takes place on 9th October 2009. Light Night is coordinated by The Arts and Regeneration Unit at Leeds City Council.
Thursday 23 April 2009
We've just finished updating all our pages on the Leeds City Council website. Take a look at www.leeds.gov.uk/arts to find out things like:
- how you can get involved in arts and cultural activities in Leeds
- what opportunities there are for young people to participate in the arts
- how we can help you or your organisation with advice and financial support
- how you can gain your Bronze, Silver or Gold Arts Award and other career development opportunities in the arts
- information and links to many arts organisations and venues in Leeds
As promised, you can also find out who we are and more about what we do, including full contact details and who to speak to to get arts and culture-related information, advice and support.
Monday 20 April 2009
Let us introduce ourselves...
Hello there!
Thanks for stopping by. You are reading the very first ever Arts and Regeneration Unit blog. It's new territory for us. We've always been great at doing what we do but what we haven't always been the best at telling everyone about it. So here we are, boldly immersing ourselves into the (now not so) new digital age. Perhaps a little bit later than everyone else, but we have been very busy. We do hope you'll continue to drop by to read about what we've been up to.
Let me introduce our team.
The Arts and Regeneration Unit at Leeds City Council is part of the Arts and Events service. We are here to support and local artists and arts organisations, to promote partnership working within the arts and cultural sector and to create opportunities for local people to take part in the cultural life of their city.
We provide grant funding for a large number of arts organisations, both large scale (such as West Yorkshire Playhouse, Northern Ballet Theatre, Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House and Yorkshire Dance Centre) right through to small community arts organisations and local arts festivals and workshops. You can download a full list of organisations that we support, or find out how to apply for grants, on our website at www.leeds.gov.uk/arts
We also organise, coordinate, and support a whole range of our own different projects and events to make the arts accessible and beneficial to everyone in Leeds. Here's a list of some of what we're working on at the moment:
We've plenty more to tell you but for now I need to rush off for a meeting. In the next blog, I'll introduce us all individually and say a little bit more about what we all do.
As they say in text speak, TTFN.
Thanks for stopping by. You are reading the very first ever Arts and Regeneration Unit blog. It's new territory for us. We've always been great at doing what we do but what we haven't always been the best at telling everyone about it. So here we are, boldly immersing ourselves into the (now not so) new digital age. Perhaps a little bit later than everyone else, but we have been very busy. We do hope you'll continue to drop by to read about what we've been up to.
Let me introduce our team.
The Arts and Regeneration Unit at Leeds City Council is part of the Arts and Events service. We are here to support and local artists and arts organisations, to promote partnership working within the arts and cultural sector and to create opportunities for local people to take part in the cultural life of their city.
We provide grant funding for a large number of arts organisations, both large scale (such as West Yorkshire Playhouse, Northern Ballet Theatre, Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House and Yorkshire Dance Centre) right through to small community arts organisations and local arts festivals and workshops. You can download a full list of organisations that we support, or find out how to apply for grants, on our website at www.leeds.gov.uk/arts
We also organise, coordinate, and support a whole range of our own different projects and events to make the arts accessible and beneficial to everyone in Leeds. Here's a list of some of what we're working on at the moment:
- Light Night – the biggest event in the city’s cultural calendar, “like urban planning by Daft Punk”, held on the 2nd Friday in October
- Breeze International Youth Festival - a chance for young people to try out a range of artistic and cultural activities and to showcase their talents in June
- Breezereads – a year round programme of events and opportunities that encourage young people to read more, improve their reading skills and raise their literary aspirations
- Get Creative - professional quality performing arts workshops in July for young people who may not otherwise have access to the arts
- Black History Month – participatory projects every October spreading knowledge and awareness of black history, cultural heritage and positive contributions to British society
- Holocaust Memorial Day – an annual day of commemoration in January for communities affected by the Holocaust
- Youth Music Mentoring – a two-year project that aims to improve the life chances of young people through music-based mentoring
We've plenty more to tell you but for now I need to rush off for a meeting. In the next blog, I'll introduce us all individually and say a little bit more about what we all do.
As they say in text speak, TTFN.
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