17 - 30 May
Creative Individuals Norfolk
Creative Individuals Norfolk
Creative Individuals Norfolk was an initiative that emerged as a direct responses to the Covid Crisis. The scheme was a way for the Festival to support freelance creative workers, who continue to be some of the hardest hit in our creative community, while bringing vital cultural activities to communities during this crisis.
These six projects each received £3,000 from Norfolk & Norwich Festival to support a mix of communities across Norfolk, including people who have experienced homelessness, refugees in Great Yarmouth, and a network for Black and People of Colour creatives in Norfolk.
As well an financial assistance, the Festival worked with each of the individuals over nine months to help support and deliver the projects.
Applications are currently open for the second round of Creative Individuals Norfolk funding, Posters, Pamphlets and Other Paraphernalia
Find out more about Posters, Pamphlets and Other Paraphernalia
Bill Vine - A Sonic Exploration of The Green Spaces of NR3
Bill is an experimental composer, performer, improviser, audio/visual artist and ‘luthier electronique’, whose work explores audience engagement, performance practice, field recording and the re-use of purpose built electronic musical instruments. Bill’s project saw the creation of a musical composition from field recordings of the green spaces of NR3. Working with residents from the area, he will carried out sound-walks to both inform the composition of the piece, and encourage discussion amongst NR3 residents about their environment.
Emma Bernard - ACT NOW @ The Corn Hall
Emma is a freelance theatre director and arts participation specialist, whose work propagates creative partnerships between experienced artists and communities, combining high artistic ambition and inclusivity. ACT NOW! was an urgent response to the isolation and frustrated creative energy, both of freelance theatre artists and the residents of Diss, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Emma curated a series of masterclasses for local people at Diss Corn Hall, led by professional freelance artists and inspiring a series of short performances.
Hear from project assistant Matt on his experience of ACT NOW! here, or or find out more about the project here.
Genevieve Rudd - Yarmouth Springs Eternal
Genevieve has worked as a Community Artist since 2011, and engages with heritage, cultural or environmental themes with organisations in Norfolk & Suffolk, and as an Associate Tutor/Artist at the Sainsbury Centre. Yarmouth Springs Eternal explored the natural world, reflecting upon isolation and anxiety experienced during COVID-19. Participants were invited to listen, look, smell, touch and taste to share the experience of seeking out hope and watching spring unfold. The project engaged communities in Great Yarmouth, including adults who have experienced homelessness and migration.
Read an update from Genevieve on the project here.
Laura Hopkins - Brutal Arithmetic
Laura is an established theatre designer with over 30 years of experience. Brutal Arithmetic is a collaboration with photographer Jim Mortram and the Dereham community whose struggles with long-term unemployment, illness, social isolation and a failing welfare state he has documented for 15 years. A series of live one-to-one cello performances and online exchanges formed the basis for a new, fully-staged song-cycle.
Website: Small Town Inertia Website: Laura Hopkins
Lewis Buxton - Bo(d)y Talk
Lewis is a poet whose work centres on male body image. Through poetry, Lewis explored sexuality, sport, and men’s relationship with their bodies. Bo(d)y Talk worked with men from disengaged communities in Norfolk & Norwich to create an inclusive and kind poetry show, focussing on: the male body, making space for men’s vulnerability, and engaging their emotional literacy.
Sascha Goslin - Supporting Norfolk's Black & POC Artists
Sascha is a freelance producer who focuses on actively empowering and enabling others, researching and creating resources for others and aiming to increase access and inclusion and impacting positive change. Her project will be a supportive network which will connect Black and POC artists and creatives with venues, programmers and organisations locally, increasing inclusion and representation in Norfolk. The network now provides creative people with the opportunity to meet others, collaborate, share resources and discuss what the community needs to grow and thrive.
Read more about the project so far in Sascha’s latest blog post here.
Apply for Creative Individuals #2
Posters Pamphlets and Other Paraphernalia
We are now seeking proposals from creative individuals and communities for CIN #2. The new initiative builds on what we’ve learnt through CIN #1, with an enhanced focus on community engagement, a clearer relationship to outcomes during the Festival, and with a stronger critical focus.
Deadline for proposals is 12 noon on Monday 26 July 2021.
Read More
We know the vital role creative individuals play in the arts ecology. And we know freelance creative workers have been some of the hardest hit during Covid-19 pandemic. Writing for our Festival Blog, Festival Production Officer Ailsa McKay explains just how pivotal Freelancers are to the Creative Sector, and what we’re doing to support them.
Masthead credit: Wayfaring ©Nick Read Image credits: Bill Vine ©Helen Vine, Emma Bernard ©Elaine Duigenan