Elemental

We recently received this exciting opportunity for new and emerging Street Artists with Mintfest’s International Summer School:

Mintfest International Summer School for Street Arts.

Newly emerging professional street artists, or students of drama or theatre with an interest in working in the outdoors, are being offered the opportunity to spend a week working with leading national and international street artists to develop their skills and talents in the run up to Mintfest, 2010.

They will work on a show, created by their course tutor, which they will showcase at the end of the course to large audiences and industry professionals alike at Mintfest, Kendal’s International festival of street arts.

Now in it’s fourth year, Mintfest has already become one of the UK’s largest and most significant street arts festivals. It is a member of Without Walls, a consortium of 8 of the UK’s most strategically significant outdoor arts festivals, whose aim is to support the development and creation of outdoor work in the UK.

The week-long, residential course will take place in Kendal, Cumbria from August 29 - September 5, 2010.

The course is open to both UK and International artists and will cost £200, which includes all accommodation, tuition fees and meals. There will be a maximum of 30 places available, and demand is expected to be high, so people are advised to apply early.

The deadline for applications is 26 March 2010.

The Mintfest International Summer School for Street Arts is the first of its kind in the UK!

If you know of individuals who may be interested in taking part, or organisations who this information may be of interest to, please do forward the information on.

For an application form and information see the website: www.lakesalive.org.

Completed application forms should be returned to: Jenny Graham at Kendal Arts International jenny@kendalartsinternational.com.

Should you need any further information or have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Jenny on 01539 720252 or email as above.

Liz Pugh and John Wassell from Walk the Plank were the keynote speakers at the ‘elemental’ event in the North West. They talked about their experience in relation to the region’s theme:

“In the North West our focus is on how local authorities and producers of Street Arts and Circus can use the prospect of a large international event in their city to promote a relevant programme of outdoor activity.”

They began by showing an example of their work from the Manchester Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, see below:

Here is the presentation given by Liz and John:

Download the PDF here.

Liz and John gave an insightful, honest and human account of working with large scale sporting events and how this has impacted positively on the artists they worked with, individuals and the company as a whole - quite inspiring.

The elemental team would like to extend a big thank you to Liz and John for stepping in at last minute, and again to Maggie Clarke and her team at Xtrax for their help in giving the North West event, a regional feel.

To see more about the North West region click here.

Marta Almirall Elizalde was a guest speaker at elemental in the North West on Friday 5th June 2009. Marta talked about her experience as Artistic Director of Roseland Musical and Director of Festivals and Traditional Culture in Barcelona - pre and post Olympics.

Below is the presentation Marta gave at the event at Manchester City Library, prior to Xtrax later that evening.

To download your own copy of Marta’s presentation please click here for the pdf.

To find out more about the North West region click here.

Do you have comments or opinions about the sector or presentation, if so please let us know by commenting below!

On Friday 5th June, Julie Tait from Kendal Arts International joined at the Manchester Central Library for Elemental North West. (Here is a brief synopsis of the event).

Julie Tait used two presentations introducing Kendal Arts International then Lakes Alive:

Lakes Alive:

To download copies of the documents please click the relevant document names - Lakes Alive, Kendal Arts International

For more about the North West please click here

In the setting of Manchester Central Library on Friday 5th June elemental North West took place prior to the x.trax showcase starting that evening.

Verena Cornwall from the Circus Development Agency was our chair for the day, firstly introducing the unfortunate news André Pérusse our keynote speaker had missed his flight due to a Montreal road incident.

Fortunately, Liz Pugh and John Wassell (Co-Founders & Co-producers) from Walk the Plank stepped in to talk about their work for the closing ceremony of Manchester’s Commonwealth Games.

Starting with a little context from London 2012 Creative Programmer for the North West, Debbi Lander, she talked about the three areas that were her priority:

Moving on to talk a little about the curating and commissioning of the ‘We Play’ initiative and the ‘Inspire’ programme for smaller scale projects.

Following Debbi, Julie Tait (Director of Kendal Arts International) talked the work her company are involved with and they work on the premise of partnership and sustainability with around 15 – 20 core partners.

Julie talked about the pilot projects they have worked on and a little more about Mintfest, leading us into her presentation about Lakes Alive – moving from “small scale to large scale in one big step”.

Liz Pugh and John Wassell, then stepped in to talk about the work of Walk the Plank, and showing a piece of video to illustrate their closing ceremony work and with the limited timescale of making:

Something to be truly in awe of…It helped their organisation step up to the next level, strengthen core staff ready for the next large projects – Liverpool 08 opening and currently working with Kinetika on ‘Imagination: Our Nation’

After a short break, Marta Almirall Elizalde arrived with her translator and talked about her work as an Artistic Director and her work as Director of Festivals for Barcelona City Council. She spoke about the lessons to be learned from Barcelona Olympics and what happens after large scale sporting ceremonies.

The presentations of the days speakers will be online very shortly, to read all about elemental in the North West, please click here.

Were you at the event? Do you have any burning comments or feedback – lets get people talking on elemental…

Marta is currently the Director of Festivals and Traditional Culture in the Institut de Cultura of the Barcelona City Council. She is also Artistic Director, choreographer and dancer of her own dance company ROSELAND MUSICAL. To date she has been artistic director and choreographer for a range of events including the Barcelona Olympics and the UEFA Champions league final in 1999.

In 2007 Marta Almirall received the National Dance Award from Generalitat de Catalunya DID (International Dance Day Prize) from the Association of Professional Dancers and Dance Companies of Catalonia in recognition for her work on the approach to dance for children and young people.

For more about the North West click here.

Elemental in the North West takes place on Friday 5th June in conjunction with the start of XTRAX.

Director, Kendal Arts International

has more than 20 years’ experience working in the cultural sector. She was Director of the National Association of Youth Theatres 1991-1993 and has since worked with a broad range of international, national and local cultural organisations and public sector bodies. From 1989-2001 Julie was based in Birmingham and focussed on community arts, arts-in-education and arts in criminal justice developments including setting up a new community music organisation (Sound it Out), devising and implementing a new education programme for Birmingham Town Hall and an education strategy for The Drum (the then new black arts centre) and acting as fundraising consultant to Clean Break Theatre Company and Dance United. She worked with Birmingham City Council on the Towards the Millennium Festival, a joint programme between Birmingham cultural organisations, the South Bank Centre, St David’s Hall in Cardiff and BBC Radio 3 where she developed and co-ordinated the artistic programme alongside Anthony Sargent (now CEO of The Sage) and Sir Simon Rattle. She worked on a number of additional festival developments with South Asian Performing Arts and Dance (SAMPAD) and the Birmingham International TV and Film Festival as well as co-founding the Birmingham Book Festival in 1998. She produced the grand opening of the National Cycle Network for Sustrans and partners in 2000 in Centenary Square, Birmingham.

Since moving to Cumbria in 2001 Julie has focussed on developing and delivering projects which bring together highest quality arts with the stunning and varied landscapes of the County. In 2006 she founded Kendal Arts International (KAI) and, in partnership with Manchester International Arts, piloted Mintfest (an International Street Arts Festival in Kendal) which has grown rapidly in scale and reputation. KAI has since piloted a number of other outdoor arts initiatives and has now been commissioned to deliver one of three Legacy Trust UK projects for We Play, the North West’s Olympic Legacy programme. This will be a new Cumbria-wide outdoor animation programme, called Lakes Alive, which will invest a minimum of £4 million in outdoor arts development over the next 4 years .

Lakes Alive

Lakes Alive is a new programme led by Kendal Arts International (KAI), working in partnership with Manchester International Arts (MIA), and one of only 3 in the North West which will form part of the region’s We Play Olympic Legacy programme and the Cultural Olympiad programme for London 2012. It is a Cumbria-wide outdoor animation programme of regional, national and international significance and reach. At its core is an annual high profile, international site-specific event or series of events and an annual season of bespoke street arts festivals and events across Cumbria developed in partnership with each locality culminating with the flagship festival Mintfest. It will also feature a programme called Made in the Lakes which will commission new outdoor performance work created and showcased in Cumbria (then out on tour regionally, nationally and internationally) and community participation, education & skills development and longitudinal research/documentation/evaluation strands. Lakes Alive is a member of the national consortium Without Walls.

For more about the North West click here.

Elemental in the North West takes place on Friday 5th June in conjunction with the start of XTRAX.

Currently I am the creative programmer for London 2012 in the Northwest and my role is to curate, shape and develop a programme of innovative regional activities for the CULTURAL OLYMPIAD. I started this job on 1st November 2007. The core of my job revolves around WE PLAY -a four year cultural legacy programme running from 2009 – 2012 in the Northwest.

From 1990- 2005 I was co-director of arts and media research and production unit, SHINKANSEN (evolving performance through media technologies) and FUTURE PHYSICAL (placing the body at the centre of digital interaction) in London. With these two organizations I was deeply involved with the production of live events from the small to large scale and international touring and the research and development of the relationship and integration of live performance and new media technologies. These sites are reference and archives for this era of my work. www.connectivity.org.uk and www.futurephysical.org and www.creativeuser.org

In the TRANSITION YEARS from 2005 – 2007 (between London/producing and northwest/programming, I worked with FACT, English Heritage, Independents Biennial (Liverpool), Youth Music and Culture Northwest doing research, consultancy, artistic programme development and planning.

My first job was in advertising in 1988

I studied anthropology in Bristol at the University of West England.

I love film, philosophy, travel, new media and dance……..debate and dialogue………. new and emerging trends, practices, cultures and communities.

For more about the North West click here.

Elemental in the North West takes place on Friday 5th June in conjunction with the start of XTRAX.

Without an once of a doubt, André Pérusse is a man of many talents who knows his way around show business. He begins his training with the renowned Grand Ballet Canadiens, where he expresses himself through the art of movement for more than ten gratifying years; he later discovers an interest for the work that goes on behind the scenes. It isn’t long before André is able to build a strong reputation for himself as an event planner both in the business and artistic worlds. However, it is in 1994 that his artistic and professional strengths are celebrated when he is invited to orchestrate Céline Dion’s magisterial wedding.

After meeting Luce and Lucie Rozon, André travel’s across Europe, visiting some of the most grandiose and influential cities in the world, searching for street artists with impressive talent, in the most appreciated European festivals. He comes back from this trip, his head pounding with creativity and innovating ideas for the Just for Laughs Festival. It is in 1997, that the Street Art department was officially created for the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal.

For more than 14 years now, André is nourished by the same passion; the love to travel across the four extremities, while acquainting himself with those who live for the urban lifestyle. Street Art is presented on an international level, yet the show keeps its initial North American feel, allowing an incredibly flattering mix to be created, and especially, it allows the audience to constantly be pleasantly surprised. In 2008, more than two million people had the opportunity to appreciate this cultural event at the 26th edition of Just for Laughs.

Without ever disappointing, André knows how to keep us wanting more. Year after year, from one festival to another, our sense of desire for his creativity is constantly awakened. With his beautifully designed mind, André never seizes to impress us.

For more about the North West click here.

Elemental in the North West takes place on Friday 5th June in conjunction with the start of XTRAX.

The X.trax showcase is only a week away; if you haven’t already registered and would like to attend, please complete the online form to ensure that you receive the full service.

Don’t miss an opportunity to see some fabulous new outdoor work at this year’s X.TRAX International showcase in Manchester including 65 street arts performances of:
New additions

Saturday June 6th, 11.15 –12.30

International Panel Discussion Exchanging Views Speakers: Yohann Floch (Hors Les Murs/Circo Strada) Jordi Duran (Fira Tarrega) Adam Gent (Theatre Bristol, Bournemouth Arts Development, Hoodwink) Chair: Fiona Gasper (Outgoing Executive Producer for Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture 2008)

The discussion aims to explore the following ideas:

What are the factors currently influencing the development of street arts in the UK?

How does this compare with the factors affecting international colleagues in Europe and beyond?

How much is artists’ work affected by these wider political and funding agendas?

The discussion will create a forum for delegates from different countries to exchange information about what is driving the creation of street arts in their country, to broaden our understanding of the international context, and from this to find common areas of interest or concern. PLEASE RSVP TO Nicole@xtrax.org.uk if you want to attend this event.

Bootworks– Une Boite Andalouse In addition to the Little Box of Horrors on Friday and Saturday, Bootworks will do some performances for delegates only on Sunday morning of Une Boite Andalouse, a film for one person at a time based on the Bunel /Dali classic Un Chien Andalou.

Elemental – Friday 5th June 1.45 – 5.00pm Delegates may be interested in attending a discussion organised by Arts Council England as part of the Elemental initiative on Friday 5th June 1.45 – 5pm. Elemental is an initiative taking place across England that will feature speakers and conversations from the inspirational practice of UK and international street arts practitioners. In the North West the focus is on how local authorities and producers of Street Arts and Circus can use the prospect of a large international event in their city to promote a relevant programme of outdoor activity.

Speakers will include:

Debbi Lander – Cultural Olympic programmer, North West
Julie Tait – Director of Kendal Arts International and Lakes Alive Festival
André Pérusse –Director of the Street Programme for Juste Pour Rire festival, Montreal
Marta Almirall Elizalde (Director of Culture for Barcelona)

To book your place please and for details of the venue please contact gemma@elementalexchange.org.uk - 0121 2448080

Programme details can be found on the Xtrax website

New shows this year include:

New commissions from the Without Walls consortium including

Fittings Multimedia Arts Sputnik (Sat & Sun)

A young woman seeks a structure that fuses her body and spirit with a machine. This is the first outdoor show by leading disabled company Fittings featuring Award Winning dance Claire Cunningham.

Bootworks The Little Box of Horrors(Fri & Sat)

Sit inside The Box and experience a terrifying nightmare, you’ll be clinging to your seat with dread…

Punchdrunk The House that Jack Built (Sat & Sun)

I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down…..The House That Jack Built is a quirky dance theatre work in which three characters create a world made from straw.

Metro Boulot Dodo Hansel and Gretel (Fri, Sat & Sun)

Press play on your mp3 PLAYER, pick up the pebbles, watch out for the witch and don’t get lost on this surreal and magical audio/performance tour.

The Ballet Boyz Laws of Motion (Sat & Sun)

The first outdoor dance piece by this celebrated company.

Kazzum Paper People (Sat & Sun)

Two paper sellers tell tales as they manipulate newspapers into characters and landscapes. A young peoples theatre company celebrating diversity and difference.

The Mancunian Steam & Pressure Navigation Co. Galvanium (Sat & Sun)

A mysterious musical artefact, The Galvonium is a classic example of genius pushed to the edge by the Vexations of Love

- New shows from Mimbre, Whalley Range All Stars, Hoodwink, Dream Engine, Walk The Plank and more…

- International performances from Prêt-à Porter, 17 Hippies, Circo Ripopolo, El Tanbura, Bilbobasso, Kawa Circus, Cie les Decatalogues and Cie Joe Sature.

The X.trax showcase is a unique opportunity to meet and network with others working in the street arts sector from the UK and internationally.

Over 150 programmers from the UK, Denmark, Belgium, US, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Portugal and Canada have already registered: make sure you are one of them.

Programme information and booking forms are on our website which is regularly updated. For programme information click here.

To Register click here.