September 2008
Beacon Award
"I am passionate about Community Arts. I've been doing it for 20 years and still believe in it as much as when I first saw what it could do in a Film Workshop in York all those years ago. I still believe in it because it's about believing in people. Community Arts is about people's lives, and believing that everyone has the capacity to be creative, the right to experience creative opportunities, and the possibility of a life-changing experience as a result.
If you're not passionate about people, go and get another job - go and be an Artist, not a Community Artist. As well as having a creative skill and wanting to share this with others a Community Artist must have empathy, integrity, respect for others, a commitment to the people and processes they are working with and the ability to provide participants with a safe space for creativity.
I am so proud to have been awarded a Beacon Award this year from The Arts Council of Wales. This award recognises a long journey for our organisation from its early days with Manpower Services funding in the Vale of Glamorgan, through working with Valleys' communities in the Miners' Strikes of the 80's and into a new era which holds both opportunities and threats for the Community Arts Sector.
My hope for the Beacon Awards is that we use them to create new and exciting work, that we use them to do the things that we dream of but can't usually achieve on our tight funding budgets and with the daily struggles to survive. This award for me is like a breath of fresh air, a breathing space, a chance to let our ideas fly. We have worked so hard to get where we are today, we should celebrate what we have achieved."
Alex Bowen, Director
(Excerpts from a new article in next issue of NCA -National Campaign for the Arts - magazine).
Jobs Jobs Jobs!
Thanks to funding from The Arts Council of Wales, with a Beacon Award to recognise excellence in our work, and also with new funding from the Rural Development Programme for Top of the Mountain, a 2 year programme of creative activity in Betws (where we are based), we now have some exciting new posts in our Community Arts organisation.
We are looking for highly experienced, creative and motivated Community Arts Development Workers, Project Workers and a Business Consultant to help us create our new Business Plan for the future.
We will be advertising these new posts this month on this website, on the WACA website and in the press, so come back again soon to find out more about these new opportunities in our dynamic and creative team.
Surf Cult 2008
6th-23rd September, Porthcawl, Bridgend
Surf Cult 08 is a celebration of the lifestyle and culture of the surfing world, rolling onto the shores of Porthcawl for its second year this September. Valley and Vale is a partner in this project which fuses together surfing and surf/skate culture, including music, art and film screenings.
The festival, housed in Porthcawl Grand Pavilion in South Wales, offers an action-packed programme including a multimedia arts exhibition, innovative music events, two film nights and the Tsunami Surf & Skate Cup (including beach games for the family).
There is an absolute feast of films this year in the Surf Cult Festival, with UK premiere 'On The Push' (eco surf film), a very interesting true life surf travel documentary called Surfwise, action-packed Substance, and local skate boarding film Who?
Check out these film trailers to wet your appetite:
Surf Cult takes place from Sat the 6th right through to Tuesday the 23rd of September and forms part of New Light Project in the Borough, which we are also part of, running photography and digital art workshops for young and older people across the Bridgend area.
This is a Bridgend County Borough Council Arts and Culture Service initiative and we have enjoyed working in a postive partnership with our local Council on this project. For more information on the events please visit www.surf-cult.co.uk and www.newlightbridgend.com.
Alyson's drama blog
"Workshops
in schools are about to start back after a busy few weeks of summer schemes.
This year the theme was the elements, and the young people took part in
dance, drama, film, art, and even a trip to Techniquest interactive museum
in Cardiff! Not even the rain could put a dampener on us, and everyone had
a great time.
The new school year is set to be a busy one in the Drama Department, both with continuing projects and the start of new ones. Cynffig Comprehensive School worked hard last year creating a play about relationships, so I'm looking forward to putting that hard work onto the stage. New projects include Bettws Primary School where we will be working around wizards and magic, with the theme of Harry Potter. One project I'm particularly excited about is a One Act Festival with Back2Back Theatre Company based around the theme of Image to be performed by the end of the year. This project will include devising four small pieces of theatre."
Alyson Evans, Drama Development Worker
Betws Community Arts Workshops
We are busy planning a programme of new local work in our village of Betws in the Garw Valley, thanks to funding from The Arts Council of Wales, The Rural Development Programme, and Bridgend County Borough Council.
At Betws Primary School we are facilitating a new Community Arts Project, working in all art forms in the school as part of the school curriculum, bringing a creative atmosphere to the school and working in partnership with them on a range of issues and themes over the coming year as part of their Community Focussed Schools initiative.
In our Centre, Sardis Media Centre (pictured), we are offering new workshops
for the local community in dance and drama, parents and toddlers' dance,
photography workshops and a film and drama workshop for young people in
the village.
Dance Developments
We have many new projects this autumn, with a new boys' dance project in Bridgend, an inter-generational dance project and a new dance exchange with TAN Dance. You can read more about our projects in the Dance Department section of the website. Here are a couple of the new projects:
Dance Across the World
Across the Bridgend Borough we are developing new dance and creative movement projects. Maes-yr-Haul Primary school is very passionate about learning about other schools in different countries and has links with schools in Africa, Nepal and South America. During th summer term we worked with Year 6 to explore Africa and learn about their music and dance, and what dance means to people in Africa. This Autumn Term we move to South America with Year 3 and aim to join the annual Christmas Performance in Maes-yr-Haul with our creative dance piece. The children will be learning about South America in their curriculum time so that they can bring their ideas and inspirations to the dance session. They are all very excited about this.
Maes-yr-Haul Primary school became the first school in Bridgend to achieve the prestigious International School Award which recognises the quality and depth of the international dimension in their curriculum.
To read more about their international links go to www.maesyrhaul.com
Small Steps
Last term the girls at the Berwyn Centre enjoyed creating movement inspired by the film High School Musical which they loved. The lively soundtrack from the film couldn't stop the children moving, and it was a joy to watch them.
Using the film as the starting point for the workshop, together we choreographed a dance with fun and games. The parents were invited to watch the dance and the creative workshop, so that they could see the group working together, and we had lots of good feedback. This session is back this autumn term to begin a new project at The Berwyn Centre in Ogmore Vale on Mondays 4-5pm for ages 5-7 years old. This is part of our Childrens' Dance Development Programme.
Drama Developments
After the summer programme in the community, school workshops will soon be starting back with an exciting new project at Ynysawdre School with Back2Back Theatre Company. We will be working towards a One Act Festival focusing around the theme of Image and what is means to be 'perfect.' The festival will include short performances, both scripted and devised by the young people to reflect the pressures on young today to 'fit in.' The production will also include movement, multi media, images and music, to create an enjoyable yet powerful performance.
Other drama developments include more emotional health workshops working with young people across the Bridgend Borough, new dates and venues for the tour of our play The Long Way Down (adapted form a book by Nick Hornby), and launching new emotional health resource packs which we have created with local young people, to be used in schools to encourage dialogue and awareness of many issues affecting young people's lives.
Media Developments
We are working in Parc Prison in Bridgend, making a short film with some of the men and using interviews and animation to explore bullying and how to deal with it in the prison; bullying is a big problem within prisons and this film is being made for the induction programme to raise awareness and create a more positive community in Parc Prison.
Other new media developments include a New Light photo project, working in partnership with Bridgend County Borough Council in this project and exploring Bridgend from different angles and with young and older people in the Borough. We are also starting a new Film Club in Betws, making a film about Food Co-ops in schools in Wales, working an several films with Advocacy and Health projects and services, and applying for new youth projects and films with First Light Movies Awards and a digital storytelling project with The Heritage Lottery fund.