Elevate

On behalf of the Arts Inc partners and Art Bridge Evolve artists, we would like to thank those who were able to attend the Odyssey Event on Tuesday 29 January 2019. Thanks also for your invaluable contributions as to how we can work together to remove disabling barriers to Gloucestershire’s arts sector. Please find documents relating to the event below.

To watch the films referenced or shown during the Odyssey event, please click on the following:

Click here to watch the Carnival Arts Partnership’s film about Universal Design of Instruction
Scroll down to watch Elevate commissioned artists’ films: Louise Brown’s ‘Pitch Up’ research & development film and Hand in Glove’s ‘Docking Station’ excerpt

Also, if you were not able to attend or to stay for the evening session, please do click here to watch Art Shape’s short 25^th Anniversary Celebration film.

If you have any queries, or would like to discuss joining the Arts Inc partnership (or partnering with us in another way), please don’t hesitate to contact Lucy Garrett at Lucy@artshape.co.uk or 01452 863855.

Elevate Project Commissions

In 2018, Art Shape invested in 3 projects delivered by integrated teams of professional artists, with the aims of:

Developing new collaborative relationships between disabled and non-disabled artists
Supporting the development of new work, artistically enriched through involvement of a diversity of artists / performers
Supporting shared learning within those artistic teams across the projects / productions and organisations in the Arts Inc (Elevate supported) partnership

About the Commissions

Arts in Motion (AIM) – Tea Service Project

AIM, a Spike Island (Bristol) based group of artists, created a tea service incorporating their own artworks at John St Gallery, SVA, Stroud.

A diversity of other disabled and non-disabled artists, curators, producers and arts curators (including the Elevate partners) joined AIM; to bring and share their own artwork and to engage in conversation, workshops, tea and cake!

Click here to find out more about AIM.

The Tea Service was accompanied by AIM's exhibition within SVA's John St Gallery, shown between 6 - 21 October 2018.

The tea service sittings were held on Saturdays 6, 13 & 20 October which involved the following artists, facilitators and activities:

6th October: Writing/Spoken word with readings by Betty and Dave
Facilitators: Colin Higginson (Visual Artist) and Amy Spencer (Writer)
Aim artists: Betty Sargent and Dave Pearse

13th October: Plate design, looking at both tradition and modern examples for inspiration
Facilitators: Colin Higginson and Maisie Fortune (Visual Artist/Ceramist)
Aim artists: Jeff Johns and Chris Rose

20th October: Drawing - Alternate ways of making drawings
Facilitators: Colin Higginson and Helen Grant (Visual Artists)
Aim artists: Jonathan Barr, Lindsay and Chris Rose

Louise Brown – ‘Pitch Up’ production R&D

Louise is a Director, Arts Manager and Producer with extensive experience in inclusive dance and performance (e.g. through work with GDance, The National Star College and Diverse City).

For this commission, Louise has collaborated with disabled artists Jonny Cotsen and Suzie Birchwood. They created a family-friendly show with accessibility, including audio-description, embedded from the outset of the creation period and in the fabric of the piece. In the first creation week, the team benefited from feedback from an audience at Milestone School in Gloucester.

To get a flavour for the piece being created, watch a short film:

About the team:

Performers: Jonny Cotsen & Suzie Birchwood

Sound design: Jonathan Leith

Audio-description consultant: Chloe Clarke

Designer: Sarah Dicks

Mentor: Nickie Wildin

Photographer: Jack Offord

Film Maker: Lee Precious

Palantypist: Shelly Holley

Producer: Lucy Ellis-Howell

Assistant producer: Michelle Lee

Hand in Glove – ‘Docking Station’

Hand in Glove, founded in 2009 at the University of Gloucestershire, produce workshops that explore a visual and sonic method of devising performance, and create productions in which collaboration and inter-disciplinary practices are paramount.

The company uses a playful approach using back-stories, fragments of dialogue, set elements, lighting, props and costume to establish the structures through which gestures, motion and choreography emerge. It is an approach that draws on individual performers’ possibilities and improvisation, and is thereby strongly aligned with good inclusive practice.

Hand in Glove have staged successful theatre productions and street performances in Cheltenham, London, and Stroud where the company are now based.

Click here to find out more about Hand in Glove.

About ‘Docking Station’ (working title)

The collaborators worked on material that resulted in a short film, using the concept of the body / bodies as a means of personifying a journey, and exploring use of the cameras themselves in unusual and/or different ways.

The team created some new writing from which they improvised to create character, situation, plot development, gestural vocabulary and action. They also created some sound material, both to feed improvisation and for the resulting film.

The predominantly professional 15 company members include writers and performers, most of whom have other artistic practices as well (e.g. visual artists, musicians).

In line with Hand in Glove’s usual practice of working in a space that’s evocative and has textures within it, they held workshops in Springhill Co-housing Community in Stroud (a communal house).

The collaborators aim to enter the film into competitions and to promote it to curators and film / arts festival producers internationally.

About the team:

Writer / Director: Jim Brook

Writer / Performers: Barbara Bridger, Claire Smith, Scott Peacock

Performers: Caro Tate, Chris Bailey, Jane Garbetts, Janet Smithson, Liz Cowan, Mark Unsworth, Mary Brazil, Megan Cru, Olga Przysuszynska, Paul Munns, Peggy Frois, Stuart Wilding, Uta Baldauf

To find out more about Docking Station and/or Hand in Glove, contact: Dr Jim Brook (01453 298 791 / 07714 720 859)