Youth Music Theatre in search for 300 creative young stars

The Youth Music Theatre UK is on the hunt for 300 young people (aged 11 to 21) to perform in its 2011 productions. In January and February a team of practitioners will be setting off around the country in search of the most talented actors, singers, dancers, musicians and stage managers. Group workshop auditions will be taking place in 19 cities to all corners of the UK and Ireland – from Plymouth and Belfast, London to Liverpool and Aberdeen. There are also plenty of opportunities for those wanting to play instruments and to work backstage. As the country’s biggest, most vibrant and most active music theatre for young people this is an exciting opportunity to get involved with the national company’s talented alumni and work with leading industry professionals.  The summer will be spent meeting new people, building new skills and having lots of fun. Places for auditions are filling up fast so aspiring performers are advised to book their places as soon as possible. Get Involved! To book an audition please visit: www.youthmusictheatreuk.org Tel: 0844 415 4858

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Ireland announces Year of Craft 2011

Craft NI and the Crafts Council of Ireland have designated 2011 as Year of Craft. The joint initiative features a comprehensive programme of workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations and activities to showcase the very best of craft made on the island of Ireland. All Year of Craft 2011 events in Northern Ireland will be listed on Craft NI’s website starting in this month, January 2011. Among Craft NI’s planned activities includes its annual August Craft Month programme taking place from 28 July – 30 August 2011. Craft NI’s newly-developed Craft Map of studios, workshops and other craft venues will also feature in the programme.  The online map enables visitors to plan and develop their own craft trails and activity itineraries. Other highlights of Year of Craft include the Annual General Assembly of the World Crafts Council - Europe, at Dublin Castle in June. As part of the conference, a public event will be held with the acclaimed British ceramicist Edmund De Waal. Craft NI will be inviting event submissions from early in the New Year. For more information on how you can get involved in Year of Craft 2011 Tel: 028 9032 3059. For further information please visit: www.craftinireland.com.

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Register now for Museums at Night 2011

Cultural institutions are being encouraged to complete their registrations for Culture24's Museums at Night 2011 by January, in order to take full advantage of the programme's media coverage. The weekend-long project, which last year saw over 280 museums and galleries across the UK open their doors after hours, will take place from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 May 2011. Over the weekend, the public can expect a mix of unique events including gallery gigs, twilight screenings, midnight murder mysteries and all-night sleepovers. Museums at Night aim to bring new visitors to museums and galleries. Last year 85,000 visitors attended the various events, nearly half of whom had never been to the visited venue before. Media coverage was also wide: the programme featured in over 200 articles across 158 publications. Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey, said: 'This is a tremendous example of museums thinking creatively about how they use their buildings and collections to engage with the visitors in new and sometimes unexpected ways. I thoroughly applaud Museums at Night and I am sure that this will be a hugely successful programme of events.' The Arts Council recently became a funder for the project, along with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; Historic Houses Association and Arts Marketing Association, adding to the support of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and VisitEngland. Arts Council Chief Executive Alan Davey said: 'Museums at Night is a wonderful way for arts organisations to reach new audiences and for new audiences to discover the wonders of the visual arts.  We want to encourage as many arts venues as possible to sign up and get involved in this exciting project'. For more information and to register your institution, visit: www.culture24.org.uk

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Street Art Exhibition: Contemporary Prints from V&A

A street art exhibition that explores artwork by both emerging and established street artist of Britain is to be showcased from January 27 2011. The exhibition will look at how street art has moved away from the painted wall into the medium of printmaking, creating distinctive and exciting visuals along the way. Artwork will be featured by such great street artists as Banksy, D*Face, Eine, Miss Tic, Shepard Fairey and Swoon. The themes explored in this exhibition ranges from ‘Politics and Propaganda,’ ‘Symbols and Characters,’ ‘Influences and Image making’ and ‘City and Street’ – all which looks at the defining elements of street art and the urban environment. The exhibition, held at The Gallery @ The Civic, Hanson Street, Barnsley, will be open until March 18. For further information please contact David Sinclair on: Tel: 01226 327011 Email: davidsinclair@barnsleycivic.co.uk

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Charlie's thoughts on October

Brrr, it’s cold out there. I smell bonfires and pumpkins... it must be Halloween or Bonfire Night... or both!

Yet another busy month at RHP HQ. The whole team (apart from me) have been out seeing Spot On shows. They’ve got this campaign going at the moment it’s called ‘£2 a year keeps the arts here’, so they’ve all been out giving speeches about how important it is to support Spot On and show that government ... Nick Cameron is it?..  that we are here to stay. It’s meant quite a few quiet nights at home for me, which I like because I’m mostly sneaking onto the sofa when everyone is out.

So far they’ve seen Mervyn Stutter, Charity Shop Cabaret, Clive Carroll, Susannah Hamnett, OperaXposed, Rainbow Beach and The Kosh. November looks jam packed with more shows, so it looks like a few more nights alone for me. They’ve posted loads of photos and even got some video footage so keep looking at the Spot On website for new updates.

As well as gazing into the future and finishing the next Spot On menu for promoters for Spring 2011, Sue has also been meeting some people from the Netherlands. Sjoerd and Valentijn came over to start some ideas about our Preston Guild project, Sue and Lyndsey had two busy days showing them around Preston and further afield, they even went to a pub quiz with Lyndsey and they won! Sounds to me like they’re a clever bunch of people. Sue says they’re working on some really exciting ideas for 2012 – I just wish she’d work on taking me for a walk this afternoon instead.

I did get to go on a visit recently. Lyndsey and Sue drove to Chesterfield to meet the mailout board members and collect all the paperwork because we’ve started a new role as administrators of mailout. It seems to involve a lot of paperwork and extra computers and lots of transferring of files and information at the moment, but apparently it will help make the plans for the electronic magazine and the new website loads easier. You can keep up to date with the new website by visiting www.mailout.co.

As we’re doing lots more mailout and getting so much busier we’ve been advertising for a new Information Assistant. We had 76 applications, and we had to read them all and shortlist down to 6 people. It was very hard because so many people were excellent. Some even had PhD’s, but unless it was in dog walking or grooming I wasn’t interested. We’ll be interviewing the candidates in early November, so I’ll be sure to let you know who is going to work for us. The new post will be good for me too because today I got told I’ve been given a promotion at work, I am now the IT Manager. I’m responsible for our IT accounts and our social networking sites. I’m hoping the new Information Assistant will help me with this as my typing is still a little rough. (Sorry)

So Sue has been out delivering a seminar to Manchester about worklessness, and she went to Lancaster to meet up with the Northern Rural Touring Schemes. And Rob is still on his infuriatingly named ‘LEAD’ course, and he’s been to London and even went to a spa with Cartwheel Arts to do some consultancy work. He says he didn’t take his swimming trunks, but we all think he secretly had some treatments while he was there. He’s been up to something called Podulation as well – I don’t understand it but it involves Pods and Creative Partnerships. He’s even Podcasting now!

Lyndsey bought a house this month. It’s been a long time coming and she now spends a lot of time talking about bathroom fittings and boilers, but we think she might be able to use her brain for work purposes again soon so that’ll be nice. I have to say a special happy 1st year at Robinson Howell for Lyndsey. On the 1st November she’ll have been here a whole year, I don’t know where the time has gone, I also can’t remember what it was like before she came, but I am a dog of very little memory.

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Charlie's Thoughts on August... and September

Let me begin with an apology to my faithful blog readers, I am fully aware it is mid September and I haven’t even blogged August yet. Well I’ve been busy ok... it’s tough being a Labrador in a busy working environment, sometimes you just have to prioritise... and I had a bone that I needed to work on.

My word of the month(s) is ‘hectic’, seems like nothing ever stops in this place... well, I say that but I did manage a holiday to the kennels in August, Rob and Sue went to Pisa and Lyndsey is literally packing her bags as a I type as she jets off for a holiday in Crete this week, that’s why I thought it was time to blog again, I go a bit quiet when she’s not around.

We started August with Rob’s birthday, best not say how old he was but he’s still not as old as I am. Nine and a half times seven makes me sixty six and a half. I should be getting my bus pass by now. He got a very interesting book about caravans, they look like really big kennels to me, and maybe I shall get myself one when I retire.

Cath Ford came to see me, she said it was to discuss plans for all the Creative Partnerships stuff she’d be doing in the new term but I knew it was really so she could tickle my ears while I fell asleep on her foot.

A nice man from the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce came to see Rob and Sue. It all sounds very grand, I think it’s a big palace where people talk about shopping, Rob and Sue said that they are joining so maybe I’ll get to visit. What with Chambers of Commerce, Rob’s Lunar Group and Sue’s DINNER Club, me and Lyndsey are starting to feel a bit left out. Maybe we’ll start a club... perhaps the Association for Anyone who Regularly Goes Holidaying (AARGH), I think everyone needs a bit of AARGH in their lives.

Yet another acronym thingy-bob keeps getting mentioned in the office and this one is really cruel. Rob has started a LEAD course, now I’m sure we’d all agree that talking about leads is not kind when one has no intention of walking one’s Labrador... people should be more careful when they invent these names! Anyway, he’s got some funding from Business Link so he can go on his ‘LEAD’ course. And Sue has just come back from ‘The Claw’, she says it’s a Clore short course about change management but I think that Clore sounds like the baddie from a Marvel comic, and really, what is change management? Is it where you count all the money in your pocket?

So, as the guard dog of the office I’ve spent a lot of time meeting and greeting the many visitors we’ve had, Louise the Business Angel has been back to make Rob and Sue think about their core values, I was a bit upset that ‘Labrador’ wasn’t one of the key words on the list. Julian from Action Factory came to see Rob and they decided who was going to design the new mailout website – it’s really exciting because we’re not going to be doing a paper version of the magazine anymore, nope, it’s all going electronic. So, Source Creative are going to build us a fantastic website so that we can upload articles and people all over the world can read and contribute.

Sue has been all over, she’s still working on something for Preston Guild and she’s busy sorting out a big meeting in Manchester about routes to employment for young people. In amongst all that she went to Edinburgh Fringe for a week and spotted some new talent for the next Spot On season, and she’s nearly finished building the menu for the Spot On Promoters to select their shows for Spring 2011. Sue is always busy looking into the future and she does it all without a crystal ball, we’re just about to start the Autumn 2010 season and she’s already planning Autumn 2011!

This week Sue flies to Canada, (she says it’s not a holiday) she’s going to see lots of artists who want to work in the UK, maybe they’ll be in the next Spot On brochure? I just hope she brings me back a moose... or a bear... or even some maple syrup.

Lyndsey is off on a well deserved holiday to Crete this week, maybe she’ll bring me some feta cheese and some olives? She’s already been to Edinburgh and spent three days rushing from one show to another, again I have to question whether it really was work, but she says she did enjoy going up there and being part of the Fringe. When she came back all the publicity for the Spot On season was ready to be parcelled up and sent out, some most of the time I’ve just listened to Lyndsey parcelling up packages with the scary brown tape dispenser. At least she has a nice man called Tom who comes and collects the parcels; he’s our Spot On courier.

Everyone keeps taking about cuts and I don’t think they mean cuts of meat or other interesting things to eat. It’s all a bit worrying as I’m told that my food is paid for with arts pounds.  There’s a big campaign called ‘I Value the Arts’.  Sue has started tweeting about where arts pounds end up.  Some of them in my food bowl.

Everyone has been so busy in the office and we all realised that the mailout stuff we’re doing is going to make us even busier so we all decided to advertise for another member of staff. So we’re looking for an Information Assistant to help us out in the office, you can find the job description on our website.

And finally, yesterday I went for a day out with Rob and Sue, we were followed all the way back home by a mysterious cube. Rob says it’s his new project, Sue says it’s a new meeting space, and I think it’s my new kennel. Hmmmm!

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