Here is what has been happening over the last month and what is coming up at Suffolk Artlink:

Creative Employment Programme

Flipside Festival, Gecko and Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds are all offering paid internships to young people aged between 18 and 24 and are unemployed.

The current opportunities are all marketing and administration roles and are well suited to people wishing to gain experience of working in the arts, as well as those looking for the more general experience to be gained from a six-month internship, that they could then apply in other industries.

In case you do not know these organisations, here is a bit about them.

Flipside Festival is a family festival of Brazilian culture. Last year’s festival included literature, art, music, food and drink, children’s events, dance, cooking demonstrations, capoeira and football – a great weekend for all the family celebrating Brazilian culture.

Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds presents a vibrant, year-round programme of drama, music, dance and comedy, featuring many of this country’s leading companies and performers. It has built a reputation of producing quality dramas and productions including the ever popular annual pantomime.

Gecko has become an award winning and internationally acclaimed company, led by Artistic Director Amit Lahav. With an expanding ensemble of international performers and makers, Gecko creates work through collaboration, experimentation and play.

To find out more about the internships and how to apply go to  http://www.suffolkartlink.org.uk/cep/

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JumpstART!

The studio projects are progressing well, we cannot believe we are nearly half way through. In Lowestoft we have been exploring different art mediums recently, including inks. The ink washes have been a favourite with the students who have created some very special effects building up the layers on their paintings and using it in combination with drawing.

Still to come is a day out with illustrator John Williams, looking at buildings and urban landscapes, and a trip to Barrington Farm in Walcott, Norfolk for a workshop led by artists with learning disabilities.

In the Bury St Edmunds Studio Project students have worked on using acrylic, gouache, watercolour and charcoal, trying out portrait painting, still life, and working in the style of famous artists. On 24th March we will be taking a trip to the Ipswich Museum and Art School Gallery.

We look forward to telling you more about those trips in the next newsletter.

Rock Up

Last month Candida, Rock Up’s project officer, attended the Music Inclusion Conference in London, along with dozens of other musicians and project officers from across the country. They had all, in one way or another, been part of the Music Inclusion for Children and Young People initiative by Youth Music, the national funder; our involvement was via Phonic – the precursor to Rock Up.

Candida was asked what she considered to be the most important elements of running an ‘inclusion’ project, and her answer was instant; ‘Time, you need time, and lots of it, to build trust, to gain the confidence of these young people – you can spend months just proving to them that you will come back each week, and only then might they pick up a guitar and start to take part in the session.’

We have been running Rock Up in Lowestoft since November 2014 – but it follows on from almost a year of activity under the banner of Phonic and the young people now know and trust us enough to begin really to take part.

In the last four months, over 45 young people have dropped in to the sessions, some just to sit and observe (although experience tells us it’s only a matter of time before they start to play something), some to slap on the headphones and lose themselves in hours of keyboard playing, and others to share lyrics they’ve written and songs they’ve learnt. Ten of those young people have taken part in one-to-one sessions with tutors Matt and Bryan, learning keyboard, vocal and guitar skills.

The last part of the evening has become our jamming session, with the young people helping one another to work out how to play certain chords, playing along together – and generally sharing some of the skills, information and attitudes they’re acquiring.

They also patiently teach the Project Officer how to play the songs they’ve been practising. It’s taken a long time – and she’s not sure she’ll ever have enough time to master Chasing Cars – but it has been worth every single second to get to this place.

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Culture Club

This month we have been running Music and Memories sessions with a group in Brandon and two groups in Stowmarket. Led by poet Dean Parkin and musician Maurice Horhut, they played a variety of songs and tunes on the piano and encouraged people to share their memories and stories connected with the music. Dean will be using the memories gathered to produce poems which we will be able to share soon.

The creative activities for Carers and Cared for in Eye continued this month. Led by artist Kate Warner, the group has been print-making and weaving. Here are a few images of the wonderful work they have produced.

 

Suffolk at Play

Having successfully completed Suffolk at Play in Felixstowe earlier this year, we are now looking forward to starting the project in Lowestoft after Easter, where we will be working with Year 8 students from East Point Academy.

We are holding a taster session for the adult group at Lowestoft Library on Wednesday, 8th April, when we hope to recruit members from the Top Time and Creative Writing groups to join us in the project.

In the meantime, the animations created by Lowestoft participants in the Art of Play are now posted on the Lowestoft Living Archive website – definitely worth checking out at http://www.lowestoftlivingarchive.co.uk/archive 

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Clown Round

The Clown Doctors have been doing their rounds visiting children and young people at Ipswich, Colchester and James Paget hospitals for the last six weeks. Artlink’s newly recruited Clown Doctors have completed their training and joined the Clown Round team on the hospital wards.

Professional Development Days form an integral part of Clown Round. Wednesday 25th March will see the team of eight Clown Doctors come together for one of these days. They meet four times a year to practise their bubble blowing and puppetry, brush up on their jokes and circus skills, and generally develop their ability to be very silly and make children smile.

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Giving a Bit

Join Giving a Bit and choose us as your charity.

Giving a Bit enables you to donate to your favourite charity whilst shopping on line. You can do this either by going to their site or using their widget. A wide variety of shops, including Viking, Amazon, Sainsbury’s, Dominos, John Lewis, Expedia, thetrainline.com and others are involved, each donating to us when you use their site through Giving a Bit.

All we are asking you to donate is a few minutes of your time – it’s the shops that will give us the money.

Here is the link to our Giving a Bit page,
https://www.givingabit.com/communities/details/142262/suffolk-artlink

Somewhere to … Create Ipswich

Join Somewhere To — Create Ipswich on 12th March 2015 at CSV Media Clubhouse in Ipswich for a fantastic live Q&A session with a panel of creative industry experts. This is not connected to Suffolk Artlink but we thought that some of you may be interested.

This amazing opportunity is for anyone aged 16-25 and spans over a wide range of creative disciplines from photography and media to festivals and fashion.

Their experts will be available to give you invaluable advice on the next moves you should make to progress your career in a creative industry, as well as making some amazing connections, too!

FREE Networking lunch!

To book go to http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/somewhereto-create-ipswich-tickets-15663844982

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To find out more about Lowestoft College ring 0800 854695