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JumpstART!

It’s full steam ahead finishing off everything for the exhibitions that start this week in Lowestoft and Ipswich and next week in Bury St Edmunds. Please come along and view the amazing work that the students have produced. Time has just flown by and we would like to thank all the artists for all the hard work they have put in to pulling it altogether. Thank you Kasia, Hannah, Linda, Mark, and all our volunteers!

Ipswich Exhibition was
Wednesday 15th June 1.30pm – 5pm Pickwick Room at Ipswich Town Hall, IP1 1DH
You can also view the exhibition on Thursday 16th June 10am – 5pm

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Lowestoft Exhibition was
Thursday 16th June 1.30pm – 4pm Coconut Loft, 8 Waterloo Road, Lowestoft, NR33 0AA
The Lowestoft Exhibition will be up in the Coconut Loft for a week.

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Bury St Edmunds Exhibition was
Tuesday 21st June 1.30pm – 4pm The Cloisters, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1LS

The next module will be Musical, Words and Pictures. The explore days will be in August and the module will start the week of 29th August. The module will be led by poet Dean Parkin and the students will use art, music and words to create a film.

For more information on the Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich modules contact Charlie Meyer at [email protected] or telephone 01986 873 955

For more information on the Lowestoft modules contact Fran Speight at [email protected] or telephone 01986 873 955

Creative Company

Creative Company is aimed at adult family carers, who are welcome to attend by themselves, or with the family member with dementia for whom they care.

Taster sessions for the new Creative Company project took place in Hadleigh in early June, after which regular, fortnightly sessions start as of Friday, 17th June.

You can read the dates and venues on our web page at www.suffolkartlink.org.uk/our-work/creative-company/

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Regular sessions take place between July and September 2016 (there will be a break over the summer period). These will be led by the artist Sara Harrington, after which the Creative Volunteer will gradually take over running the group, with the support of the artist and Suffolk Artlink.

Plans are already in hand for launching the project in Stowmarket, with the first taster session, led by artist Caitlin Howells, arranged at the Stowmarket Community Centre, Hillside on 8th July.

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Clown Round

The last month has seen the Clown Doctors complete their first block of sessions at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, where they have been settling in very nicely. The team at the hospital have been wonderful at welcoming Dr Dizzy and Dr Misschief and they are very much looking forward to working with them again soon.

Suffolk Artlink are delighted to receive funding from D.C.R. Allen for the second year running for the Clown Round Project, as well as receiving a donation from the Freemasons on the same day.

As well as the usual action on the wards, Dr Dizzy and Dr Quiver are readying themselves for a trip to Calais to spend some time sharing their skills with refugees who are currently living in what remains of the Jungle. They will be well equipped with Fidget and Hamish books to hand out and hopefully can spread some smiles and silliness along the way.

Bridge Project

Things have been rounding up at some our Bridge Project schools over the last month. Grove Primary has completed their version of the Fourth Plinth to display artworks of their choosing. The first display is obviously the marvellous Viking characters they have been working on over the past few months. This plinth will then be handed down to the following year group to take charge of for the next academic year, continuing the legacy of the Bridge Project.

Pakefield Primary has also finished their project, culminating in an eye caching mural of the children’s learning behaviour characters. A long day was spent with artist Joel Millechip, completing the artwork, with it becoming the buzz of the school!

Projects are continuing on at Red Oak and Westwood Primary over the next few weeks as well, with Reydon Primary getting ready to start with artist Kasia Posen.

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Creative Employment Programme

Gecko in Ipswich are recruiting! They’re looking for someone to join us here at Gecko for an exciting six months from the beginning of August. Over that time, they’ll be developing their new show – The Wedding; creating their first international co-production, called The Dreamer, with Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre; touring their current shows Missing and Institute nationally and internationally; develop and deliver a supporting programme of workshops and talks with Suffolk MIND, to run alongside Institute; hold our autumn intensive workshop at DanceEast; and deliver masses of education workshops. Phew. Which is why they need you! It’ll be a great all- round experience for you, with a great team.

For more information about this opportunity visit our Creative Employment Programme page at www.suffolkartlink.org.uk/cep/

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Suffolk Artlink’s Tenth Birthday Party

Suffolk Artlink celebrated our tenth birthday with a fantastic bash at The Cut on 20 May. Thank you so much to everyone who came along – especially the people who took part in the event, which profiled work by JumpstART students, young adult carers who had taken part in Interchange, Suffolk at Play participants and still buzzing from their success at the Amplifier gig, the Coolville Band sporting their very own Coolville t-shirts, generously donated by one of the parents.

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The event was an opportunity for people to find out more about Artlink and for us to officially launch our 10for10 campaign, which aims to raise £10,000 towards 10 more years of changing lives. Thanks already go to our Administrator, Miles, for raising £258 by doing a 20 mile walk, also TravelQuest of Woodbridge who have contributed £1000. This takes us a good step along the way towards our target.

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Next up was the Great East Swim, where we had a team of 14 people swimming to raise funds, and then the Orwell Walk where Hayley takes up the challenge to walk from Ipswich to Felixstowe. To support the campaign visit our Just Giving page: www.justgiving.com/Suffolk-Artlink

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Of, if you would like to get creative or take part in your own challenge, visit our website for details of how you could raise money for Suffolk Artlink:
www.suffolkartlink.org.uk/support-us

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Suffolk at Play Celebration Event

Late last month we celebrated the final round of the Suffolk at Play project, with a joint event, held first at Cedars Park Community Primary School and then, later the same day, at Cedrus Park Residential Home.

Over 460 children and staff filled the school hall to watch the animations and enjoy a special performance by Dean Parkin of his poem, ‘Bubblewrap’. The children involved each received a copy of the DVD, the booklet containing stories and images from the project, and a certificate of participation.

The Cube arrived – having been much admired at our own 10 for 10 Celebration in Halesworth the week before – and is now pride of place in the school reception area. Latest reports, as sent by Mrs Uttley, are that … ‘The children love it! We have had two shows for other year groups so lots of parents have been past it!’

In the afternoon, the children who took part in the project joined us at Cedrus House where residents and families gathered in the cinema room to watch the animations and join in a final rendition of some of the songs created during the project.

There have been so many lovely comments, with people saying how much they enjoyed taking part in the project and how much they got out of the experience. Here, by way of example, are just a couple of emails received immediately after the event.

“It was indeed a lovely celebration yesterday. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and the film is just fabulous. I would like to share it with my managers in Care UK. I think we should show of such a fabulous project. Once again, a great big thank you to you and all of your team for giving us such fun.” The Manager, Cedrus House Residential Home.

“I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the care home yesterday and interacting a little with the residents. I would like for my two kids to help as much as they possibly can, and if it is possible, we would like to visit the residents during the summer holidays, and perhaps read a book to them or with them.” Mother of Cedars Park Community Primary School pupil.

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Although we have completed the main body of work, we will continue to run some Suffolk at Play workshops, as a lead up to the Bumper Celebration at the Museum of East Anglian Life (MEAL) on Saturday, 10th September.

These will include craft activity sessions at the Library, to coincide with exhibiting the Cube there in July and craft and animation sessions at MEAL during August.

Creative Employment Programme