Working at Robinson Howell Partnership

Youth Music Theatre in search for 300 creative young stars

2011-01-05T15:31:00.001Z

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

2011-01-05T15:30:00.001Z

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

2011-01-05T14:32:00.001Z

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

2011-01-05T13:52:00.001Z

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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2011-01-05T13:42:00.001Z

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Charlie's thoughts on October

2010-11-01T11:40:00.001Z

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

2010-09-20T12:25:00.001+01:00

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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An iBone for Charlie!

2010-08-04T16:25:00.001+01:00

I got into the office this morning to discover that my iBone had arrived! You see, all you have to do is ask for things nicely and they arrive the next day! I'm so happy... now how do I get it off the screen and into my bowl?

Many thanks to Stephen Mellows-Facer (Spot On Ste) for helping to send it to me.

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Charlie’s Thoughts On July

2010-08-03T15:14:00.001+01:00

July has been mostly wet, with a chance of rain and a hint of downpour, it’s been so bad I’ve not even felt like going out for a walk for fear I’d have to swim home. So my word of the month is ‘drenched’ and it looks like it’s going to stay that way until Christmas.

As you can tell, I’m in a grump and I don’t plan on dragging myself out of it. Everyone seems so busy and all they want to do is eat biscuits and cake and chocolate and then they don’t bother to give any to the starving Labrador in the corner, oh no, they just sit and work and leave me to it. Well, I might be exaggerating there a bit; I mean Sue and Lyndsey played a very strange game with me last week. It involved a big pile of audience questionnaires, chocolate drops and me. Basically they kept putting chocolate drops on the floor on top of the piles and then whichever drop I ate first was the pile I’d chosen. Very unfair if you ask me – they kept taking the chocolate away, and then putting it back and I was very confused... but at least I got some chocolate that day. Apparently it was to select the winner of the Spot On prize draw, I chose a lady called Sally from Barnoldswick – maybe Sally will bring me some chocolate drops?

Rob’s been really busy writing school reports, I thought that was what the teachers did for the pupils, but he says he has to do it for his practitioners, what with him being an agent and all... I don’t get all this terminology. He’s been out on an agent’s day again in Avenham Park; he could have taken me, but no... he didn’t. He took Lyndsey to Pendle Vale College and they worked with some pupils there to help them think about their future and the type of activities they might want to get involved in, but he didn’t take me (I’m sulking). When he’s not going off being an ‘agent’ he’s in the office doing mailout. Sounds to me like big things are happening, he’s written a lot of stuff about the magazine and the future – I didn’t know Rob could see into the future but from what he says I think mailout is definitely in it.

On the other side of the office, Sue has been busy using her enormous brain to calculate the sums that make Spot On happen. Lyndsey and Sue have been busy making the autumn brochure and getting things ready for the start of the autumn season and they’ve been off to see some people in Preston about ‘The Guild’. It sounds very ominous... I’m not sure who ‘The Guild’ are, but there were a lot of them and they had to present something in front of a big group and they got asked lots of questions. I suppose I’ll find out more soon enough.

Sue went to Essex for the NRTF, I think it was a conference for Naughty, Rebellious Theatre Fans but Sue says it’s the National Rural Touring Forum. She spent a whole week with some Canadians and she talked to lots of Swedes...aren’t they a vegetable?

Then when she came back she had some meetings with some new promoters who are going to start putting shows on in their village halls in spring next year. I like the Spot On promoters, they are always really excited and enthusiastic about their job. I just wish they’d put on more shows for dogs – I’ll fill out a questionnaire and make sure that comment is in there. Speaking of the questionnaires, we had a new member of staff in the office this month, Eoin has been helping Lyndsey and Sue. He has been putting all the information from the questionnaires into the computer so they can use it for reports. It can’t have been a very fun job but he seemed to enjoy reading all the comments from the audiences and looking at some of the drawings they did.

Apart from having a whole week off, Lyndsey has been glued to her chair this month. I’m worried she’s going to get square eyes if she stares at the computer screen any longer. She’s been planning her workload and is being very productive, the Spot On brochure is done, the tickets are on order, the website is being worked on... she says she just needs to find a cure for world hunger and establish world peace next Tuesday by 5pm and then she’s got everything done on her list. I wish I could be as enthusiastic as she is. So she can do more work remotely, Rob and Sue are getting her an iBone for.. What’s an iBone for?... I want an iBone! Lyndsey says it’s something to do with Apples, so I ate an apple core today in the office, I’m waiting for the delivery of my iBone, and I hope it’s a big one.

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Charlie's Blog for June

2010-06-30T12:13:00.001+01:00

See the full gallery on posterous

My word... another month gone! And what do I have to show for it?... Well, I’ve had a lovely holiday!

So the word of the month for me is ‘holiday’. I took Rob and Sue away for a couple of weeks (well somebody had to hold the camera and pitch the tent) and left Lyndsey to run the office while we enjoyed a selection of Scottish Islands. I went to Arran, Islay and Jura and had a very relaxing time, mostly jumping in the sea, chatting to local deer and walking Rob and Sue. I liked it so much I even brought a few friends home with me (sheep ticks) but they’ve gone now which everyone seems really pleased about.

While we were away Lyndsey had a fun time in the office, she’s been doing something technical with all our websites again, apparently there’s a things called Posterous and you write to it and then all your websites and social networking thingy me bobs all post the same information. I don’t understand all this stuff but she says it is saving her lots of time and meaning she can contact lots more people with one piece of information. Sounds a bit preposterous to me... get it?!

Lyndsey and Paul Hartley did some work together about the Plugged In project, she had to go all the way to Rhyddings School to show the pupils there how to work the fantastic database of arts activities she built for them and she had a bit of an adventure to Darwen on the way back. She has also had her hours increased so that she can do more things with mailout magazine so I get to see her for a whole extra day a week!

Rob has been off out with his Creative Partnershipping again, he did a creative facilitation day with Cath Ford at the Solaris Centre in Blackpool, they had lots of fun and Cath made a fantastic photo collage of all the things they created.

The team left me to manage the office last week while they had an away day in Belthorn, any excuse for pie and chips at the The Dog (how appropriate). Many important changes at RHP were discussed and much pie was eaten, but at least they brought me some chips home so I didn’t totally miss out on the day.

Did I mention I was in The Guardian a few weeks back? There was a work related dilemma about office dogs and I felt compelled to reply with my perspective. I got Lyndsey to post it to my blog; you can have a read and let me know your thoughts on office dogs. I’m pro office dog myself. Of course because I got in The Guardian, Rob got jealous and had to get in on it too, so last week he discovered that he was in it as a cartoon drawn by the Visual Minutes Company at a Curious Minds event he attended. I got Lyndsey to post that one too so Rob didn’t feel left out. I suppose it’s just Sue and Lyndsey left, I wonder what they’ll do to get in the papers?

Speaking of Sue she has been busily programming the next Spot On season. She says it’s a bit like doing a big jigsaw, and sometimes you don’t have all the pieces, but I know she’ll figure it out soon. She is currently suffering from a serious case of answer-ma-phone-itus, lots of people to call and lots of answering machine messages heard, maybe everyone is on holiday? Speaking of which, I could do with another.

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Rob in The Guardian

2010-06-30T11:25:00.001+01:00

We reckon Rob must have been a little bit jealous about Charlie's exploits in The Guardian a few weeks ago. If you look really closely at a picture drawn by the Visual Minutes Company at a recent Curious Minds event you'll spot him!

Anyway, we thought you might want to have a read of the article

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Who Needs The Arts? ... We All Do!

2010-06-28T16:54:00.001+01:00

We've just helped to produce a new leaflet which advocates some of the many arts organisations based within Pennine Lancashire. For more information visit the blog www.whoneedsthearts.wordpress.com and have your say!

Download now or preview on posterous

WhoNeedsTheArts_PDF.pdf (1142 KB)

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Charlie gets published in the Guardian!

2010-06-21T15:24:00.001+01:00

Our office dog Charlie is a very clever Labrador. He contributed to the Guardian's Work Ethics section a couple of weeks ago (12.06.10). We thought you might want to have a read.

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Charlie’s thoughts on May

2010-06-01T14:09:00.008+01:00

May... a month of two Bank Holidays.

I like Bank Holidays, the working week is shorter, but quite why the banks need two holidays in May I’m not sure. What I do know is that everyone in the office is ready for a holiday, although looking out of the window this morning I suspect any holiday we have will have to be a wet and cold one.

The word of the month is ‘numpty’. It seemed to be the favourite word in the office, if it wasn’t being used to describe the election candidates or BT; it was mostly being used to describe me. Yes, I may have caused a bit of a fuss this month in the office as I decided to start limping and yelping a couple of weeks back. They took me to the vet, and after an injection and an anti-inflammatory spray I’m feeling a bit better. Trouble is they won’t take me on walks because the vet says I have to rest – I am not a happy pup. To make matters worse there has been a great deal of taunting from those around me – there was a peacock in my garden last week; he knew I couldn’t come out and see him off because of my bad shoulder. I wonder what peacock tastes like?

Rob has been out and about again. He says he has been having a lot of meetings about being an ‘Agent’. He even went to London twice for the National Creative Agent Sharing events; it takes a lot to train to be James Bond these days! All these meetings seem to involve quite a lot of cake, especially the ‘Agent Drop Ins’, if they are dropping in perhaps they should lay off the cake, they’ll only end up hurting someone or themselves.

Sue has spent a lot of time being inside this month. Not much fun having to complete the Arts Council annual submission but it’s done now and she can celebrate. We all spent some time looking through Sue’s piles... of possible touring companies for the next Spot On season. She gets hundreds of applications and they all live in a big pile at the side of her desk. She even took a photo to prove just how much she has to look through each season!

This time Lyndsey and Rob got to make some choices too so hopefully all the promoters will like what they have chosen. Sue says the theme is ‘austerity’, whatever that means. I like the show with the poo in it; it’s called ‘The Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business’. Sounds like my kind of show.

We’ve had a busy time for visitors in the office. We had some students from Tor View Community School (a special school catering for young people with a wide range of specialist educational needs) they came to help us with a page of mailout. They spent the whole day thinking about why art is important to them and how they could document that within the magazine. Their visit was part of a series of visits to help them think about work experience opportunities. I think they liked the idea of an office dog - well they spent a lot of time stroking me anyway.

You can look at the next edition of mailout and the Tor View page really soon. It should be being distributed this week to all of our subscribers. If you want to know more or see the previous edition just visit our e-magazine.

And finally, it was Sue and Rob’s wedding anniversary last week. I forgot to get them a card so I am sending my belated wishes in this blog. With love, from your numpty dog. x

Charlie’s thoughts on April

2010-05-04T16:30:00.005+01:00

Another month down and what do we at Robinson Howell Partnership have to show for it?

Well, we had a bit of a chat this afternoon in the office and we realised that we haven’t been out much this month and Rob says it’s because of the ‘newt axe year’. I think that’s what he said, I’m not sure what he means though, I mean, do the newts have axes or are we hitting them with axes? I don’t think I like the sound of it either way!

Sue says the word of the month is ‘reporting’. It is apparently year end (I think she has confused December and April again) and that means she has to make up ... I mean ... calculate lots of facts and figures and put them into pretty spreadsheets with coloured headers and complicated maths that Rob has to help with.

So it has been a staying inside kind of a month, which has not been fun for me.

Lyndsey and Sue are planning the Spot On Autumn season, Sue is keeping lots of information inside her head and then in a few weeks it will all spill out into a Word document and become the Spot On menu. Lyndsey has finally finished all the Spot On parcels – she did a little dance for joy in the office and then celebrated by tidying out the stationery cupboard (it never moves... get it! Sorry, bad joke). So now we have lots more room for all the new boxes and bags and sticky tape for next season!

There has been the occasional outing to see a Spot On show. Sue, Lyndsey and Rob have all been out to see things, and Lyndsey is still writing up all of her adventures in her blog. She has even roped in a friend now and he has been taking some really great pictures for the Spot On gallery. If you haven’t seen a show yet you better hurry, our last show is in early July and then there’s a little break before the autumn season starts, and those parcels start all over again!

It feels like April has been a month of getting ready for things, while the Spot On Team have been getting ready for the next season, mailout has been getting ready for another issue. Rob has been asking lots of people in arts organisations to write about all the amazing things they have achieved, so we’re getting lots of letters to put in the magazine. Speaking of post... is anyone else sick of the election? All we seem to get now is leaflets about voting for people... what about dogs, I say. Where is the Chocolate Labrador Party? I’d vote for them every time. They could use my manifesto about more bones for working dogs, equal rights for canine employees, implementation of wee-mail as a valid message service and of course regular walking for all staff members (preferably with me as supervisor).

I’m on a roll with an election campaign all of my own. I think I might go type up my manifesto right now.

Charlie’s Blog for March

2010-04-07T10:27:00.004+01:00

Thank heavens for that! March seemed to take forever to get finished; I’ve been waiting for the official word on British Summer Time you see, hoping that it might finally signal the end of my moulting... it hasn’t happened yet.

So I’m still hairy, I’m still tired (totally confused by all this moving clocks forward – forwards to where?) and most importantly I’m still grumpy. But not so grumpy as to refuse to write my blog again, so here is my blog of thoughts on March.

The word of the month for March is ‘moving’. It’s nonstop here at Robinson Howell. They’ve published another edition of mailout, seen six Spot On performances in nine rural venues, been to Birmingham, Wigan, Manchester, Buckinghamshire, Lancaster, and Altringham... oh the list seems endless!

So what have they actually been doing in these places? Well, I had a quick word with the team and they said they have all been working, but I’m not so sure. I mean, Lyndsey and Rob said that they’d been ‘Plugged In’ to Whalley Abbey, apparently it was a mini conference with young people from two schools and arts providers in Lancashire. They called it a ‘Conversation’, (sounds like sitting around and talking to me). They came back with lots of flip chart paper all covered in notes and Lyndsey said she was tired from typing all day.... a likely story!

Lyndsey and Rob had already been out the week before with the dancers from Ludus again. All the way to Wigan to see four schools and ask the children and teachers about the project, they apparently did some dancing too! Doesn’t sound much like work to me!

Rob went to Birmingham for a Creative Partnerships conference. He went with ten young people from Peel Park Primary School in Accrington, as well as Cara (she’s the school coordinator). I like Cara, she has dogs too. And then he went to a SOC meeting... a whole meeting about socks! How exciting, I like socks. He insists it was a School of Creativity meeting, but I don’t believe him.

Sue started March in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire on a training course about leadership – that might be something about walking dogs on leads but I’m not sure. She’s been out on loads of busy adventures this month, the Arts Council asked her to go all the way to Altringham to represent rural arts at a market research event, and she’s been to lots of meetings about arts and culture. She started a new project for Manchester City Council, something about paths and journeys to employment – again, she’s just teasing me with words associated with walking. A few weeks ago she was on Radio Lancashire promoting some Spot On shows, I listened in and I was very proud.

Sue also had a meeting with the ANOB - what’s an anob? Something to do with how nice it is in Bowland and around Dunsop Bridge, I’ve been there and it is really nice– really good walks and lots of ducks. Anyway Sue came back with a story of another office dog who works in a really nice office that’s got its own wood burning stove and a place for walking boots – wow. There’s lots of them and they're available to rent. This dog is called Josh and he works for the Anob. I really think that me and Josh need to meet up. We could have a ‘conversation’ or something just as pretentious. (It’s the AONB: The Forest of Bowland, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - Sue)

Speaking about Spot On, Lyndsey, Sue and Rob have all been out on adventures to see the performances across rural Lancashire. Lyndsey has been writing up her (not always successful) travels in her blog and she still seems to be having a good time. She learnt how to spin a plate at one event, and she learnt loads of stuff about Nell Gwyn (whoever she is) in another one. I just wish some of the venues were dog friendly so I could come and see what all the fuss is about. Sigh... I suppose someone has to look after the office while they’re all out having fun.

The last day of March and they’ve all left me again, this time for a creative facilitation day in Oswaldtwistle. They do give these things fancy names – just a way of disguising the fact that they’re all out enjoying the last day of March without their office dog. I suppose all this working now means that it must be holiday time soon. It’s definitely time for my holiday, and maybe even a doggy chocolate Easter egg? I’ve been really good... even wrote my blog on time this month and everything!

2010-03-01T16:07:00.002Z

Well, February didn’t last long did it? Seems to be getting shorter and shorter between blog times, or maybe that’s because I’m having longer nap times.

Everyone seems to have a blog now. I’m a trend setter you know. Lyndsey is now writing up her adventures with Spot On – she gets to go out on trips to see all the shows and then she writes them up in her blog on the Spot On website. What’s even stranger is because she doesn’t have a car, she’s doing it all with public transport to see if she can get there and to encourage people to think more environmentally about the way they visit different parts of Lancashire. I think she’s mad. And we’ll soon see her change her tune when it starts to rain and she has to wait an hour for a bus in the cold, then again, apparently that happens to her a lot on the bus journey between Blackburn and Preston so maybe she likes it!

Ruth from Mailout has started a blog because the e-mailout website is being rebuilt. So anyone who wants to find information about the magazine we edit will just have to look on the blog, or facebook, or twitter, or they could just email Ruth as well. Whatever happened to just writing someone a letter eh? Not that I could do that either.

You might have picked up on the fact that I’m a bit fed up this month. It seems everyone has been out doing things and enjoying themselves and they’ve been leaving me here more and more. Worst of all, my chosen word for February is ‘Love’. Now I know it’s not an unusual word for February, Valentine’s Day and all that, but I reckon I’ve had just about enough of it all... Can you tell who didn’t get a card this year?

Valentines Day came and went. Rob, Sue and Lyndsey went out on Valentine’s night to see the first Spot On show of the season. It was called How to Build a Rocket, by Farnham Maltings. They went all the way to Whittington Village Hall – didn’t see Lyndsey offering to travel there on public transport! But I suppose three people sharing the car was a bit greener than it just being for one person. They all said how much they enjoyed it – Lyndsey and Sue won raffle prizes (apparently Lyndsey must be some sort of lucky charm because Sue doesn’t normally win). There’s a review and some pictures of it on the new Spot On website, so have a look. If you go and see anything from the season you can tag your photos with ‘spot on lancashire’ and add them on Flickr to the Spot On Lancashire group. It all sounds a bit complicated to me, but I suppose Lyndsey would help you if you got stuck.

The new Spot On website was launched and it looks really good, it’s all bright and colourful and it seems to be full of information that is constantly being updated. Check it out and let us know what you think. New things will be added all the time as we upload photos to the gallery and Lyndsey adds to her blog, so it’s not the sort of website you visit once and never again.

The other Lindsey got married this month. For those of you who don’t know there have been a few Lindsey/Lyndsey(s) in my life. Lindsey Gregory, now Lindsey West, used to be based at Robinson Howell Partnership. Apparently it was a lovely wedding, lots of happy people, food, dancing, cake .... sniff, I wasn’t invited so I don’t know for sure. But I’d like to congratulate her and her husband anyway.

I’ve been working hard to tell Lyndsey how I feel about her. I can’t greet her any more enthusiastically than I do already every morning. Much to my embarrassment really, I’m moulting you see, and most of my winter coat is shed down Lyndsey when she comes to work each day. I think I’m just going to have to leave it as a platonic relationship – I mean she is a work colleague after all.

Rob is still working on the Plugged In project, now they’re planning a mini conference that will happen at the end of March. They’re trying to get lots of people to meet the groups they’ve been working with so they can all talk about providing more opportunities for young people in their local area.

He’s off to Wigan again soon to evaluate those dancers with children in schools, more super power related conversations to follow I expect.

Sue has been out and about talking to more people about Spot On and how they could put more shows on across Lancashire. She’s got some funding for the International Village of Culture (IVOC) project, I think it means more shows and more chances to commission work from international artists. I’ll keep you informed with that one because it sounds really interesting. But she’s going to be on the radio on the 6th March, maybe she’ll talk about IVOC a bit more then.

They’ve all been working hard on mailout here, every couple of months it just creeps up and then suddenly the office is full of people reading the proof and checking for spelling mistakes and stuff I can’t help with. I do my bit by distracting them.

This edition is about Politics and the Arts; they made mailout rosettes in the office. I helped with the glue. We’re thinking of forming a mailout party and going for the election – my manifesto will increase the rights of dogs working in the arts, more bones in the workplace and compulsory nap times during office hours. What would be in your manifesto? Let me know.

My Thoughts on January

2010-02-03T15:52:00.003Z

Hello all,

I have only one word to describe January and that word is ‘parcels’.

Parcels have been arriving and departing at the Robinson Howell office pretty much every day – in fact there was a point where I was worried that they were going to put me in a parcel, and I have been avoiding Lyndsey every time she gets the parcel tape out just in case she is tempted when no one else is looking.

I believe the parcels contain things to do with Spot On, Lancashire’s Rural Touring Network. Lyndsey and Sue did a lot of jumping for joy when a big van arrived with the Spot On brochures, and since then they’ve been working hard to send them out to lots of people across Lancashire.

Apparently there is also a PDF of the brochure that they’re sending out... Not exactly sure what a PDF is? Productive Dog Fund?... If it is I’d like the money to be spent on bones please!

I’m quite excited about getting to see some of the events that are advertised in the brochure, the first show is on the 14th February and it’s about building a rocket! There are some really great bands, loads of fantastic drama, a circus act, and some people are coming over from Canada to do some comedy. I’ve noticed two shows about Pigs, but I’m a bit disappointed because I haven’t seen anything specifically about dogs, maybe next season.

If you’d like to have a look too just visit the Spot On website. Speaking of the website, apparently that is being re-designed at the moment so I’m looking forward to playing with that when it’s all finished.

Rob is still busy working with Paul Hartley on the Plugged In project, they’re trying to map all the arty activity that happens in Bowland and Oswaldtwistle . Sounds a bit strange to me, but Lyndsey and Rob have been having fun drawing circles on maps in the office, and it keeps them occupied I suppose.

Rob’s been out quite a bit watching dancers in Wigan; he says it’s a project for Ludus, another excuse to get out of walking me I think. He has been asking lots of school children what they want to be when they leave school; so far a lot of them want to be vets, I’m pleased about that.

Rob came back last week and had a whole conversation about which super power he’d have if he could choose one – I have yet to see him running around the office pretending to fly or using his super human strength, but I’ll keep you informed. I think if I had to have a super dog power it would be turning invisible so I could get away with sleeping on the sofa and stealing things out of the cupboard. What would your super power be? Drop me an email or a Facebook message and let me know.

They had a team day last week at Clitheroe Castle, spent all day talking about the future and planning loads of projects on post it notes... didn't take me though... it's a dogs life!

2010-01-06T16:23:00.006Z

Charlie’s thoughts on December

The best thing about December was that I got presents and I got to go away for a week’s holiday at the end. This blog is not however about such things. It is supposed to be about how hard I work at Robinson Howell Partnership Ltd. Because of that Christmas malarkey though, it was a shorter month at work than usual. What did we do?

Sue and Lyndsey have been running around like puppies sorting out the next tour for Spot On. It’s quite exhausting watching them. Sue says it’s like doing a giant jigsaw with someone changing the picture on the box all the time. Not sure about this though – dogs are not good at jigsaws. Things seem to be in place and will apparently be on the website very soon.

Lyndsey’s been talking to my mate Stephen at Source Creative a lot about how they can make the Spot On website even better than it is now. That sheep is still on the front page but I think his days are numbered!

Rob’s been making friends with a thing called a Creative Partnerships Database – whatever that is. Well I say making friends.... I’m glad he doesn’t talk to me like that.

Rob and Lyndsey have started an evaluation project with Ludus. It’s in Wigan... maybe they’ll bring me back some pies.

We’ve had snow – lots of it and it looks like we’re going to get more. I like snow. It’s fun and I like chasing snowballs. It’s a good job that we do our computing in that cloud thing as poor Lyndsey couldn’t get in just before Christmas. Her bus still hadn’t come after she’d stood in the cold for an hour and a half. We’ve re-named it the Wuss Bus.

We had a competition before Christmas. People had to answer a question with a chance of winning a highly prized, beautifully crafted effigy of me made of fur. I think it’s called a puppet but I’m not at all sure about where you’re supposed to put your hand. Ooh Err! It was won by an extremely lucky person who works at the Arts Council called Claire Eddleston-Rose. I hope she looks after it. There was also a competition to win some tickets to see a Spot On event which was won by someone called Una who works for Brouhaha in Liverpool.

Like I said I went away for a week’s holiday at the end of the month. I went to Devon. There wasn’t much snow down there but it was a bit chilly. I’ve put in a picture of me and my mate Jess who’s a rather cute black Labrador. Black Labradors are the second best thing to brown ones. We did lots of running around together and took our people out for lots of walks in the countryside.

I’ve been thinking more about this dog union thing - a union for dogs who work in creative places. I’ve come up with a name - British Association of Rather Creative Canines (BARCC ) – now I just need a manifesto and perhaps some members. Let me know if you’d like to join, I’ll post the information on my Facebook page.

Speaking of Facebook Lyndsey has been asking me to come up with acronyms for the Robinson Howell Partnership page. So far we’ve had ‘Reindeer Hauling Presents’, ‘Really Hate Parsnips’ and (following the staff Christmas party) ‘Returned Home Plastered’. If you have any other suggestions you could post them on our Twitter page.

New Years resolution – eat more bones, form a canine union and take my work colleagues out for more walks.

Charlie's Thoughts on November

2009-12-03T08:16:00.008Z

Is it me or is it just too dark outside?

Much has been happening at Robinson Howell during November, Sue and Rob have been out and about around the North West. Sue is busy going to see lots of performances that are happening through Spot On, she’s just started programming the new season and she seems very focussed on lots of pieces of paper which are spread all over the office. I have been helping her by making sure she gets plenty of fresh air every day.

Rob is out Creative Partnershipping a lot, although I suspect he is driving to Blackpool to eat ice cream on the sea front without sharing it with a certain Labrador. He’s been all the way to London without me too, he said he had a meeting, but I think he took in a show – he even went first class! He’s also been working with Paul Hartley on a project called Plugged In which is about young people doing five hours of culture or something like that. Paul has a dog too called Monty. He’s little and he goes to work with Paul’s partner Joe. She’s an artist and he’s very skilled at sitting on his bed in the studio so he doesn’t get any paint on him. We working dogs should stick together. Is there a canine union anywhere? Anyway, Monty said that if anyone wants to look at what Joe paints in her studio you can check out her website here

Lyndsey has well and truly settled in to the office, she has been reading a lot and Rob and Sue keep giving her folders of work to look at. She seemed to enjoy the editing of mailout, apparently she had to write a review about a Girls’ Guide to Rocking, but I’ve been watching her very closely in the office and she hasn’t rocked from side to side once! Even Lyndsey went out to visit the people who design our websites, and again I was left to man... errr... dog the office. She is learning to tweet and is spending a lot of time on Facebook – she says it’s for work but maybe you should check out what she’s been up to. She says on Facebook you have to search for Robinson Howell Partnership, and on Twitter you can go to it here, You can even be my friend on Facebook now, just look for Charlie Brown – there are a lot of us, so you can make it easier to find me by filtering the results and typing in my workplace which is, of course, Robinson Howell Partnership.

Speaking of new friends, I got an email this week from two dogs in Cumbria who’ve been reading my blog. They sent me a picture of themselves and they look like really friendly canines, perhaps they would join the canine union with me and Monty. I’m not sure if they have jobs like me but they certainly have someone to type their emails like I do.

We’re all looking forward to Christmas; the advent calendar has been dusted off and is ready to go up on the wall.

In the post this morning came a big letter addressed to Charlie Brown, Office Dog – that’s me. Sue helped me open it and it was an advent calendar for dogs – wow – I’m not sharing it. To be honest I don’t really know why I have to wait and just have one bit each day. It would be far more efficient for me to have it all at once.

Charlie's October round-up

2009-11-05T16:15:00.006Z

I know, I know this is a bit late and I’m sorry to my followers who’ve complained. It’s still only November 5^th. I do have an excuse.

Rob and Sue went off to Northern Cyprus for the last week of October and left me in the kennels – Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the odd week there - I get to bark and sniff with lots of other dogs. But my typing’s a bit ruff and I need someone to help me put paw to keyboard.

So what happened here at Robinson Howell Partnership in October? Sue Started the month in Canada which is where Labrador is so I feel I’ve got an affinity with it. She went to a place called Moncton in New Brunswick and spent most of the time in dark theatres watching showcases – well that’s what she said but I’ve seen photos of her on a boat and at the beach. I like beaches – Labradors and beaches go well together. She went without me! She says she saw some good stuff and made friends with a man called Alan who she is planning an exchange with – maybe I’ll go along next time – just to check out the beaches.

I had to go into kennels again while Sue was away. Rob went up to Newcastle/Gateshead to a Creative Partnerships day. He calls himself an ‘ Agent’ but believe you me, he’s no James Bond! He says it was really good – a kind of open forum thing where they did lots of talking.

Just as soon as Sue came back Rob went off again, this time to Swindon – That sounds like a nice place too - I wonder if they have beaches? He went to a conference called the Magic Roundabout. I wonder if Dougal was there. He met lots and lots of arts officers and raved about a really creative school called Isambard which sounds like an odd name to me but...

Spot On Autumn tour carries on. Sue’s dashing all over the county to see Opera Singers, Dancers and big pigs. There’s still things happening and Sue says it’s all on the website.

The big news is that the new Lyndsey has started – I’m slowly building the size of the pack. I greet her really enthusiastically when she gets here in the morning and she seems pleased to see me too. I did do a bit of begging yesterday but it turned out she was eating Salad – yukgh – what’s the point of salad?

Hey – you know I said that Sue & Rob had been to Northern Cyprus. They went with the Blac kburn People’s Choir and came back all smug and stuff ‘cos they say they’d sung for the President and first lady. I also found this picture of them singing to a dog which sounds much cooler to me. (The picture is copyright Katherine Palmer and the dog is clearly the best bit)

The Builders have been in here. I’ve really wanted to help with the tiling but was kept out of the way. You know what – It’s a dogs life round here.

2009-09-28T18:16:00.003+01:00

My reflections on a sunny September

Well it’s been a month since I first put paw to keyboard. A big thank you to all who read my blog last month. What’s been happening then? There’s been lots of coming and going here at Robinson Howell – I’ve had to do lots of enthusiastic greeting of new and old friends.

This picture is what the office looks like from where I sit

I’ve kept having to drag Rob and Sue away from their desks to take them for a walk and give them some fresh air and exercise. They’ve been working too hard.

Last month I told you about the cloud that was coming that all the computers were going into. It’s arrived and we’re apparently part of the IT Farm now. I’ve not been a farm dog before but I’ve met some – hopefully that will be fun.

Lots and lots of people wanted to come and work with us. There were 49 applications to be the new Information and Project Administration Manager . This involved lots of bits of paper, lots of reading and lots of umming and arring. I liked the ones who talked about me in their applications. Last Tuesday Rob, Sue and my friend Lindsey from Curious Minds spent the day meeting five of them. Rob & Sue said they were all brilliant but they decided on someone called Lyndsey. I gave her a good sniff and she ticked my ears really well so she’s all right by me. She’s not starting for month or so but we’re all already excited.

Spot On shows are just starting for the autumn so that means a few evenings out for Sue, sometimes I get to go along too but I usually have to sit in the car. They must be good ‘cos people always come out smiling. The Spot On Website is still new and more and more information will be on it soon, (Apparently when Lyndsey comes to work with us), but it’s got all the details of what’s on. There’s a sheep on the front page but it’s a boring sheep - I watched it for ages but it never moves – It just stands there on the right hand side.

The other thing that happened was the CreativityWorks Awards. I’m still really cross with Rob & Sue about this - I think there should have been a category for Most Creative Dog. I reckon I’d be in with a chance. How many other dogs in Pennine Lancashire can write a blog? Despite that there were lots of nominations and some really good people won. I’ve not met them all but I gave the nominations a good sniff when the post man brought them. Rob’s thinking hard about what to do next with the awards. There’ll be a big change next year and Rob’s looking for suggestions.

Schools are back. I can hear the kids playing at the school next to our office. That means a lot more Creative Partnershipping . We’re working with lots of schools - Some in Blackpool. It has been known for me to go along and help Rob by running along the beach between meetings.

I’m a Labrador; Labrador is in a place called Canada. That means I’m sort of Canadian. That’s why I should be going to Canada next week instead of Sue. She’s going to something called a “Contact East Showcase” to look for things to bring over for Spot On. She’s been before – It’s my turn!

Rob’s off away too. He’s going to Newcastle to a Creative Partnerships thing. Then he goes to Swindon. I understand that it’s a historic town on the edge of the Cotswolds - sounds like good walking country but what do I know – I’m only a dog.

Welcome to Charlie’s monthly Blog

2009-08-25T19:15:00.000+01:00

For those of you who don’t know me, I am the office dog at Robinson Howell Partnership Ltd. My prime role is greeting visitors enthusiastically but I’ve decided to start a monthly blog to tell you what’s been going on.

These are my reflections on August.

It’s been wet hasn’t it?

I think that Sue and Rob have found August a bit frustrating. They always say that August will be quiet and that they’ll be able to get tonnes done, “I’ll do that in August” they say. I say August is still only four weeks long. That said, lots has gone on.

It’s hard to believe but I’ve been working from Robinson Howell Partnership from the start and on 12^th of August that was five years. This was seen as a milestone and there was a cake and a bottle of fizz but, guess what, I didn’t get any of it. Where was mine? That’s what I want to know.

There have been a number of deadlines. The next season of Spot On is now finalised and the brochure with the printers. You'll be able to download one from the Spot On website soon. The next issue of Mailout is finished and due on door mats sometime in early September. Mailout is great, it's the national magazine for participation in the arts. You can subscribe here.

There’s going to be a new member of the team here at Robinson Howell, (I hope they like dogs). We don’t know who they are there but the job has been advertised. It’s for a Information and Project Administration Manager and will be for twenty hours a week. Details are on the front page of the Robinson Howell Partnership Web site.

Rob’s been talking a lot about Computers. They’ve now got those newfangled iPhones and are going to work in a cloud. No that’s what I thought but apparently it’s something to do with computing over the web. We’ve had a string of visitors coming to advise us on what we needed. (I greeted them all enthusiastically). Some of them said we needed to spend thousands on a big whirring box in the corner. Apparently the cloud means that Rob and Sue can work anywhere.

The other thing that’s coming up is the 5^th CreativityWorks Awards. Rob’s been soliciting nominations but the closing date is not for a few days yet. On the tickets it says that there’s a prize for the best red accessory at the event. I wear a red collar. I’m hoping I’m in with a chance and that the prize is something cool like a dog chew. If you want to go you can get tickets at www.creativityworks.info

It’s Mintfest this weekend. Rob and Sue are going and will hopefully find some more exciting things for Spot On.

That’s me done

See you in September