Please note that applications are now closed for this initiative. If you would like to find out about the KIND project, please feel free to email Lara.schwab@rosehilltheatre.co.uk.
This 12-week course will strengthen your connection with the community in West Cumbria, enabling you to design your own creative projects with a group of Cumberland locals, building your confidence in working with others creatively.
Who is this programme for?
We are really interested in meeting anyone that is excited about working with communities to do creative stuff, we are excited about people applying who might not have done any training like this before, for one reason or another, you might have felt nervous about taking part, or worried that you weren’t good enough. We want everyone from actors to activists, community connectors to crafters, musicians to makers. Whether you are passionate about performing arts, live art, film, photography, music, education, or comic art: this opportunity is for you. So what are you waiting for? Join the culture revolution.
What will the programme consist of?
This year-round programme will invite you to develop your knowledge of participatory, social, and community arts whilst working on your own creative skills.
You will create events, activities, and experiences with and for people in West Cumbria. Using what you learn, and with the support of We are Here! and Rosehill, you will design and deliver co-creative projects with specific groups and organisations. We want to work with people inspired by the communities of West Cumbria, who are curious about how creativity can become part of everyone’s everyday lives. The specifics are below.
Phase 1 (November 2023-February 2024)
10 weeks of weekly Tuesday evening online workshops
2 intensive weekend residencies on the 18th/19th of November and the 24th/25th of February
Ongoing 1 to 1 mentorship
Workshops to develop your work, both independently and in collaboration.
Sessions exploring practical production skills for making and delivering your work.
Phase 2 (March 2024 -November 2024)
Match funding to enable you to develop your own community creative programme with the community of West Cumbria.
Continued support through monthly online group sessions and one-on-one mentoring from Unfinished Business.
Criteria for application:
Both professional and nonprofessional artists/arts workers are invited to apply. You are not expected to have a social art practice already or be a professional in the field; however, if you are and believe this opportunity would be helpful for you, we welcome your application.
Formal qualifications are not required.
You must be 18 +.
Be based in / close to / or connected to the West Cumbria / Cumberland area.
Be able to commit to the entire programme.
Our recruitment approaches
We are particularly interested in hearing from people who are under-represented in the sector, such as those who identify as D/deaf and disabled, those from low socio-economic backgrounds and people who identify as part of the Global Majority. Using the term ‘Global Majority,’ we refer to people who identify as black, asian, brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south and have been racialised as ‘ethnic minorities’.
Any other questions?
For an informal conversation about the project, or if you experience any challenges with the application form, please contact Hannah Kessler at Hannah.kessler@rosehilltheatre.co.uk or call 01946 514571.
Bursary:
All participants will receive a £600 bursary.
Plus, where appropriate and needed, we will also provide additional support with the following:
access to computers and the internet for online sessions
accessibility and support needs for example:
British sign language (BSL) interpretation support for Deaf applicants in one-to-one meetings and translation of applications made in BSL into English.
childcare costs to cover in-person events.
How to apply?
Applications are now closed.
Who Is Involved?
Rosehill
This project is developed as part of Rosehill’s new project, KIND, which will aim to unite communities, support well-being, and help reduce isolation across Whitehaven and surrounding areas. The project will be led by two new Community Producers and a team of dedicated Community Creatives who will initiate, lead, and deliver on projects that blend creative well-being, social prescribing, socially engaged art, and community collaboration by, for and with the people of Whitehaven and beyond.
Unfinished Business
This unique opportunity is devised and delivered by Unfinished Business. Drawing on their experience making Social Art projects, Unfinished Business will structure the programme around three core themes: Dialogue, Ritual, and Participation. Focusing on each of these, you will be invited to explore new ways to harness your creativity to bring people together, empower communities and affect positive change.
Unfinished Business are artist/performance maker Leo Kay and producer Anna Smith. They have been creating work together for over 12 years and have created and presented work across the UK and abroad, in arts centres, theatres, festivals, broken-down hotels, church halls, bedsits, above pubs, and in houses. Since 2019, they have focused on working within community contexts, making Participatory Social Art with groups of people. Their current practice, The Bakery of Slow Ideas, encompasses a range of projects which use the actions and metaphors within sourdough bread baking and vegetable fermentation to counter the societal normalisation of hyper-productivity and extractionism. It offers tools for resistance to the inevitable outcomes of these unsustainable modes, including exhaustion and burnout on a personal, societal, and ecological scale. Creative engagement, dialogue, and ritual become nourishment, rest, reflection, and digestion strategies. UB has developed and presented different elements of this work across England with organisations such as Derby CAN, Heart of Glass, Cambridge Junction, Rosehill Theatre, and in several arts and educational settings in Belgium, Germany, and this year in Italy and Brazil.
www.thisisunfinished.com
We Are Here!
'We are Here!' is the Creative People and Places initiative for West Cumbria, funded by Arts Council England. There are 39 Creative People and Places projects across England, all governed by a consortium of local stakeholders. ACTion with Communities in Cumbria (ACT) is the lead organisation for this project and chairs our Consortium that includes Theatre by the Lake, Rosehill, Prism Arts, Cumberland Council, Florence Arts Centre, West Lakes College, The Centre, and Sellafield.
At the heart of the We are Here! programme is the commissioning of a Citizens’ Assembly for Cumberland, defining what culture means to the people who live here and how they can be supported to achieve this visit.
We Are Here! is interested in how the communities of Cumberland can play an active role in the global conversation around the value of culture and creativity within society and how the learnings from those conversations can have practical applications here in West Cumbria, helping enhance the quality of life in our communities. Through a newly developed Citizens Assembly, We Are Here! will facilitate a discussion that includes artists from around the world but is held at a hyper-local level, resulting in genuine, real-life applications and decisions that will directly inform how culture and creativity are supported in Cumberland now and in the future.
It is intended that artists on this programme will get the opportunity to work with and alongside local West Cumbrian communities to develop co-created artistic projects where the people of West Cumbria influence the design and content of the projects. We hope that these projects will contribute to the Citizens Assembly programme, providing evidence for the panel of community members to consider the future of Culture in West Cumbria. Examples of places where artists might co-create projects with communities include The Centre in Maryport or Warm Space in Whitehaven, with local focus groups or other interested grassroots organisations. We define co-created work as including design and delivery weighted toward community input, where artists work as conduits for the communities they work with, making space for their projects exciting and attractive to the groups they are collaborating with.
