Suffolk Artlink September Newsletter 2014

Giving A Bit
Do you shop online? If so you can sign up to Givingabit, so each time you buy from certain online sites we will get a donation. 

“Givingabit’ is a free service that enables you to support a chosen charity or good cause purely by shopping online. It does not cost you any more than the purchases you would have made anyway, you just visit the shops via www.givingabit.com. You may even save money as you are rewarded with the most up to date discount codes, daily deals, sales and promotional offers.”

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Annual Report
We now have our annual report up and ready to read on our website. You can find it here on our About Us page.
In 2013/14 we managed 14 projects, engaged with 2239 participants, delivered 487 workshop sessions, reached an audience of 42,588, employed 69 artists and supported 31 volunteers.

Forge-me-not Visitors
The Forget-me-not pilot project visits are coming to an end at Ipswich Hospital, Asterbury Court and the Sue Ryder Stables Day Center and we are beginning to evaluate the impact the project has had on the participants. Part of our evaluation process has involved Dementia Care Mapping, this tool has been used observe any changes that the creative intervention has had on the well-being of people with Dementia and complex needs.

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Culture Club
Creative sessions start next week with the Gainsborough Library art group, we are running visual arts sessions for older people living independently within the community, with the support of a Creative Volunteer. Dance and Reminiscence sessions will also be taking place at the St Johns Lunch Club in Mildenhall. 

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JumpstART!
Jumpstart Textiles Print and Pattern module starts in Bury St Edmunds today. We have 11 students on the course who will be working with artists Genista Dunham, Jacqueline Davies, and Jules Carpenter. We will be working on silk painting, block printing, t-shirt painting, sewing and creating garments of clothing.

JumpastART Lowestoft will be starting the next module this Thursday. The module will also be in Textiles, Pattern and Printing. The course leader will be Jules Carpenter from Craftco in Southwold. Guest artists will be Jenny Nutbeem and Holly Scholfield.
We will be making a trip to Norwich as part of the module to look round the castle and look at some of the textiles on display. 

 

Clown Round
Doctor Haystack, Doctor Misschief and Doctor Fidget are pleased to welcome five new trainee Clown Doctors, Frank Wurzinger, Jenny Holland, Kimberley Moore, Lesley Wilson and Lucy Enskat. 

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Congratulations!!
At the beginning of this year the Clown Doctors invited local artists to join them for a training play day. Artists learnt about the Clown Round programme and what it is like to work as a Clown Doctor. Suffolk Artlink recruited five trainee Clown Doctors, last month was the first of many training sessions for the artists. There were so many wonderful, weird and funny Clown Doctor names coming out of the training day, names and specialities are still to be finalised. Watch this space as we hope to introduce the new Clown Doctors very soon. 

Suffolk At Play
September sees the start of Suffolk at Play at Felixstowe Academy, with year 7 and 8 students taking part with members of the local library Top Time Group – it will be good to get started again, and this time we are welcoming a new volunteer to our work, Jennifer Barrett.

Jenni is a Skills for the Future trainee at the Museum of East Anglian Life, working in Collections and Learning and is also currently undertaking an MA in Museums and Galleries in Education; hopefully taking part in Suffolk at Play will support both her practical skills and experience and contribute to her academic studies.

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Activities Unlimited Fun Day
We are looking forward to working with Kate Munro and Caitlin Howells at the Activities Unlimited Fun Day in Lowestoft on 13 September – apparently we’ve been given the run of the art room and the music room, so anything could happen … I’ll let you know how we got on next month.

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Creative Employment Programme
There are several opportunities for young unemployed people to do a paid apprenticeship or internship at an arts organisation in Suffolk. To find which ones you can apply for see our Creative Employment Programme page here.

Currently there are opportunities at New Wolsey Theatre, Dance East, Neon Street, Eastern Enterprise Hub and Suffolk Libraries.

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Obscure Secure
Exhibition at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
Hayley Field, one of Artlink’s Co-Directors, has been working on an exciting personal collaborative project with fellow artists Claudia Bӧse and Jacqueline Utley. Paintings and drawings selected from the stores include work by Connie Winn, Peggy Somerville, Anna Airy, Effie Spring-Smith, Kathleen Walne, Helen Kiddall, Prunella Clough, Beatrice Lithiby, Lucy Harwood, Miss E M Every.

6 September 2014 – 18 January 2015
Opening reception: Saturday 6 September, 11am to 1pm. All welcome
Gallery Open: 10am-5pm, Tuesday-Sunday

The project has been developed and supported by Colchester and Ipswich Museum Art Curator, Emma Roodhouse and funded by Arts Council England.

More information about Obscure Secure can be found at obscuresecureproject.wordpress.com

‘About’ Paid Commission by Words and Women
Carrying on with the theme of women artists we thought (although it is not a Suffolk Artlink project) some of you might be interested in a commission Words and Women is launching ‘About.’ The commission means 4 writers, selected through an open competition, will not only be given paid time to write but will be mentored by Words and Women as well as theatre director Adina Levay and performance poet Hannah Walker.

The deadline for competition entries is midnight on 26th September, 2014.

More information about ‘About’ can be found on www.wordsandwomennorwich.blogspot.co.uk

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