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Supporting Artists and the Arts

Supporting Artists and the Arts

by Julien Boast, HFC CEO & Creative Director

Although the theatre is now closed to the public for our exciting and ambitious redevelopment project, our Arts Development team are still very much open for business, continuing to support professional artists and working with schools and young people to bring arts to local communities across Cornwall. Thanks to support from the Arts Council, Cornwall Council and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, our Arts Development work spans the entire county with opportunities created for individuals to perform and create in diverse theatre spaces including care homes, schools and colleges, village halls, museums, galleries and gardens.

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. The team have attended the Royal Shakespeare Company Play Making Festival with students from Treviglas, Brannel, Redruth, Humphry Davy, Liskeard & Callington schools performing on the RSC’s main stage; delivered workshops for youngsters from Pondhu and St Breward primary schools and held “end of term” pop up and performance events for our Youth Dance and Theatre Companies at The Burrell Theatre and Perranporth Beach.

As we reflect back on the last 6 months, highlights have included work on 26 Creation Space projects, week long residencies in 17 local venues allowing professional artists to develop and test new work and the staging of Nick Darke’s ‘Hell’s Mouth’ by members of the HFC Youth Theatre, which was critically acclaimed as ‘THE BEST YOUTH THEATRE SHOW EVER SEEN’. Many of the young people taking part in this production have been members of our Youth Theatre for many years, using the opportunity and experience gained with us as a spring board for working with other professional companies or indeed pursuing a career in the arts. This year’s graduation cohort has seen 8 young people go on to either drama or dance schools or studying performance at a higher level.

Talent Development of professional artists is a key focus for us with the team offering mentoring support and encouraging artists to reflect on the work they have done in the past and talk about what they would like to accomplish going forward. Over the last six months, we have supported 160 artists through one to one sessions including our Associate Artists, such as Jethro Compton who is currently The Little Princess in Vienna and Emily Dobson who recently worked as choreographer on WildWorks’ 100: UnEarth at The Lost Gardens of Heligan.

Whilst we continue to prepare our building to hand over to the building team, the Arts Development team will be working tirelessly across the community to ensure that the power of performance can continue to inspire, educate and be enjoyed. Coming to an unusual performance space near you soon……

 

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Wealth of dance skills developed across the South West

Wealth of dance skills developed across the South West

Hall For Cornwall, Plymouth Dance and Dance in Devon CPD Dance Card Bursary

The CPD Dance Card Bursary is a partnership support programme set up by Hall For Cornwall, Plymouth Dance and Dance in Devon which has impacted on the development of a wealth of skills in dance practitioners and artists across Cornwall, Plymouth and Devon from 2010 onwards.

The CPD Dance Card Bursary has been available from 2010 to February 2018 aiming to open up opportunities for individuals working in the dance sector to attend training and continuing professional development events that are self-determined, specific and high quality giving ownership over career development and ensuring that a diverse experience and range of skills are brought back into the South West.

The organisations within the partnership value the wealth of skills and knowledge of dance practitioners in the South West and the CPD Dance Card Bursary has enabled many practitioners to access high quality, career enhancing training in a national and international context whilst still working from a base in Cornwall, Plymouth or Devon.

Over the course of 8 years of Dance Card activity 134 people across Cornwall, Plymouth and Devon have received the CPD Dance Card Bursary which across this time has had a total spend of approximately £30,000. It allowed individuals to apply for a bursary of up to £250, making up to 75% of the overall costs of each practitioner’s professional development project which could take place anywhere in the world. A broad range of activity has been explored by dance practitioners from wired aerial training to Dance for Parkinson’s CPD to the Gaga Intensive in Tel Aviv.

The partnership organisations are working together to review the Dance Card programme moving forward so that we can best support artists from Cornwall, Plymouth & Devon so we are not taking further applications at this time. However there are many opportunities for dance practitioners across the South West, so subscribe to our newsletters and social media channels in order to keep informed about developments for the future of dance!