The South West Culture Digest - Autumn/Winter 2022
For this Autumn/Winter edition, we’re rounding up the good news from the last few months and heading into the festive season with a selection of events and creative opportunities in the south west, including the final week of the internationally acclaimed British Art Show 9 in Plymouth! We recap on the new National Portfolio and take a fresh look at some of the brilliant projects supported by our other funding programmes in 2022.
With Christmas Day and the New Year just around the corner, there’s many unique and affordable ways you can celebrate – as well as support the sector.
Dive in.
If you have a good news story or an opportunity you’d like to share with us, get in touch.
Good News
New investment backing culture and creativity in the south west
117 organisations in the south west will receive funding for the next three years
Last month, we announced the organisations offered funding through our 2023-26 Investment Programme, so that more people in more places have access to fantastic art and culture right on their doorsteps.
Arts organisations, museums, and libraries in every corner of the south west - from Bodmin to Bristol, Ilfracombe to Isle of Wight, and Watchet to Weston-super-Mare will benefit from this public investment.
Take a look at our Twitter thread for the headlines and take a deeper dive in our online story.
Projects Update
A round up of investment in 2022
While lots of this year’s focus was delivering the Investment Programme, the continued hard work of other Arts Council England funding streams never stopped - from National Lottery Project Grants, Developing Your Creative Practice, and the Capital Investment Programme – applications were developed, processed, and awarded. Here is a celebration of that hard work!
Since April 2022, the south west has proudly supported more than 300 individual artists and creatives; over 140 organisations; and at least 20 building and place-based projects.
Individual artists we have supported include: Fozia Ismail, who is known for her Somali supper clubs, secured Developing Your Creative Practice funding to help her develop ‘Audible Tapestries’; and Ellis Grover, the high walker balance artist, who also successfully secured funding to develop their practice.
Organisations from across the region received funding towards their projects. From the Canal & River Trust who will work with the national waterways to engage young people in a site specific project in Gloucester to Cornwall’s Shallal, their sustainable Knitted Together project, and Wardrobe Ensemble for R&D for a new show, watch this space!
We have also supported a number of building projects, which are at the heart of culture led regeneration. Take our island priority places – from the Isles of Scilly’s transformative Museum and Cultural Centre development to Department, the former high street store taking on a new lease of life on the Isle of Wight. We are also pleased for Create Studios, who will officially launch their new Swindon space in 2023!
Free and low cost festive events across the South West
Celebrate the holidays and head into 2023 with our selection of free and low-cost events. Whether it’s a creative workshop, a family gathering at a musical event or meeting friends at an exhibition, we’ve got plenty of options to put you in the festive spirit.
Including a new exhibition at Quay Arts produced by young people, supported by our National Lottery Project Grants. The multi-partner exhibition features the outcomes from a year long project exploring the Isle of Wight’s UNESCO World Biosphere status. On display you can see artworks, including films, costumes, sculpture, flags and murals, that showcase the activity of creative workshops, field trips, gardening, pop-up displays and online blogs that took place. The project’s five partnerships comprised of secondary schools and young people aged 14 - 18, artists and cultural organisations, who collectively explored the flora, fauna, landscape, people and traditions of their unique island home. The exhibition will be on display until 4th February at Quay Arts, Isle of Wight.
Opportunities
Wellbeing Community Connectors - based at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Age UK are looking for two Community Connectors working with cultural organisations in Exeter to engage with residences aged over 50.
Join Trigger, the creators of PoliNations and Hatchling UK
Be a Finance and Operations Manager, or an Administrator for Trigger. The roles are pivotal to the coordination of the organisation – renowned for its outdoor, site-specific and contemporary performances across the UK.
Deadline 3 January 2023
Exeter Northcott Theatre is looking for a new Director & CEO
The performing arts centre is on the lookout for a passionate Director & CEO to bring new perspectives and skills to the team.
Deadline 3 January 2023
Two new roles with the Arts & Culture team at Turner Sims, Southampton
Head of Engagement and Participation and Head of Arts Marketing Communication roles to join the music organisation’s senior management team.
Deadline 4 January 2023
Help deliver John Hansard Gallery’s innovative programme
As a Community Curator, you will help generate new projects with communities and artists and present fresh approaches to socially engaged projects with schools, colleges, community groups, and families and young people in Southampton
Deadline 8 January 2023
SW Spotlight: British Art Show 9, Plymouth
This autumn, the internationally acclaimed touring festival British Art Show 9 arrived in Plymouth and has been impressing audiences with its range of fantastic contemporary art.
Celebrating recent art made in Britain, 37 artists are presenting their work across four city venues, exploring the themes of healing, care and reparative history; tactics for togetherness; and imagining new futures.
The festival is organised every five years by Haywood Gallery, and has been to Aberdeen, Wolverhampton, Manchester and now Plymouth. The exhibitions are featured at KARST Gallery, The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth and MIRROR at the Arts University Plymouth until 23 December, and there’s still a chance to catch the fantastic work at The Box before the exhibitions between 28-30 December and 3-8 January.
The festival has returned for a second time after the success of its first appearance in Plymouth in 2011. Together with Plymouth Culture, and with support from Plymouth City Council and local transport providers GWR and Plymouth Citybus, the event has shown the collaborative ambition of the cultural sector in the region.
The festival offered an opportunity for artists and audiences to experience the art together, as The Box welcomed artists to the city while their work was on display and ran tours of the exhibits with BAS9 curators.
If you’re not able to make it down for BAS9, The Box has you covered. Throughout spring 2023, it will be showcasing a host of fantastic work, focusing on powerful women and highlighting Plymouth’s extensive fine art collections.
From Saturday 4th February contemporary art shows by female artists Sue Williamson and Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, plus an exhibition of drawings from our historically important Cottonian Collection will be on display.
Looking Ahead to 2023
Want to banish those January blues?
Thanks to National Lottery players, we were able to support 10 million artists’s January challenge 2023, which supports wellbeing in this often bleak, cold month, by encouraging us all to take part in everyday creativity.
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