Choosing My Project
I have chosen to work on the Family Arts Festival project and I am really excited to get planning.
The brief is as follows:
“From 18 Oct – 3 Nov 2013 there will be the first UK-wide festival of family arts events. From music to theatre, to circus, art and dance, all events are designed for families to enjoy. Along with Arnolfini, M-Shed, The Architecture Centre, Bristol Hippodrome, Scrap Store and SS Great Britain, Watershed have joined the initiative. We are using the Family Arts Festival (FAF) as a pilot for exploring how we can offer a more joined up programme to families around the harbourside.
Your challenge is to plan a programme of activity within the Oct half term holidays as part of the FAF. Through the activity we would like you to explore how you could bring the work happening in the Pervasive Media Studio (PM Studio) to a family audience. PMS is out research lab which brings together a network of over 100 artists, technologists and acafemics to explore the future of mobile and wireless media.
Working with the talent in the PM Studio you need to engage families in the new merging technologies and ideas that are being developed in the studio.”
Deadlines
Watershed online copy deadline: 16 Sep 2013
Event details confirmed on FAF website: 18 Sep 2013
Outline Budget
Watershed budget: Workshop facilitators £400 / Materials £300
Core budget: Room hire £2200 / Marketing and Promotion £500
I have chosen to work on this project because I see myself going into public engagement or learning and participation. I hope to gain invaluable experience and learn about producing arts and cultural events aimed at a family audience.
I am also very interested in the ‘joined-up approach’ that is at the core of this project. It is going to be very exciting working with a host of other local organisations in the harbourside area such as the Arnolfini and MShed to see what we come up with together and as individual arts orgranisations. It is going to be a great opportunity to see how other organisations in the Bristol art world operate and how their way of working compares to Watershed’s. I am also very interested in working with technology and deepening my own knowledge of its possibilities. Trying to bring a new audience to the PM Studio, which is not traditionally family-oriented, is an exciting assignment.
The brief is fairly open and I already have lots of ideas for events and activities inspired by PM Studio projects and people. What about a digital storytelling adventure along the lines of These Pages Fall Like Ash or a site-specific theatre production with guided walk like Give Me Back My Broken Night? What about dance workshops inspired by Danceroom Spectroscopy nano-science, or design your own spacecraft workshops? There are our new magicians in residence who would be very popular. The themes I have initially identified are magic, illusion, adventure, immersive experiences, and of course, technology.
The skills I will bring to the project include my knowledge of Watershed values and ways of working and my familiarity with the PM Studio. I am creative and artistic and love installation, which I think could work really well here. I have experience in marketing (communicating with colleagues across departments and with audiences, copywriting, promotion, design work) and I think I show good leadership skills as I am pragmatic, energetic, ambitious and have a real can-do attitude.
I am going to be working with Hannah WW (who works at the PM Studio), Louise (who works in arts engagement) and Amy (who works in events organising). I am looking forward to getting together as a team later this week to draw up our initial group response to the brief, start following up some of our ideas and designate roles and responsibilities.