Culture Northumberland Research Interviews #3
Claire Venus with Leila D'aronville and Gez Casey + your invite to join a live podcast recording.
Good afternoon all.
Claire here. I’m aiming to publish more of the behind the scenes of our current research into the possibilities for Culture Northumberland. You can find our previous posts here and here.
Last week, I meet with the director of North East Cultural Freelancers Leila D’aronville and Gez Casey, a Relationship Manager from Arts Council based in the North East. I’ve known both of these brilliant colleagues a long time and we’ve seen a huge amount of brilliance, resilience and change in the cultural sector in that time…
We met at Dance City. It’s been years since I’ve been but I felt right at home. Their new cafe partnership with West End Refugee Service is innovative and thoughtful. Please read more here and support their brilliant work if you’re in town or via their crowd funding campaign. They say;
Our vision is to be a place where great food and drink offers the context for conversation. At the heart of The Seven Bridges lies a deep commitment to empower refugees and asylum seekers through training and development opportunities.
With a menu created in collaboration between our Head Chef and WERS volunteers, we’re aiming to showcase the rich techniques and traditions of those who volunteer there, whilst enabling them to improve existing, and learn new skills, and gain experience which will become a stepping stone to future employment.
Before Gez joined us, Leila and I talked about;
Pressures on our sector and the bright spots of great work
Membership
Diverse income streams
Multi-hyphen work
Neurodivergence, access, inclusion.
Arts Council applications
North East based NPO and sector organisation support for cultural freelancers
The North East Culture Partnership Annual Forum in Durham (Mon 4 March, free tickets here)
Communications to our subscribers, members, supporters.
Working in the North East with an international lens
Continuing the conversation…
Leila and I are going to record a podcast episode on a topic with are both passionate about; Generosity.
And the best news you’re all invited!
More here. This is a total test of a new format for us and we’d be delighted if some of you want to join us live.
Our podcast will be an hour long and we’ll explore; Generosity, reciprocity and leadership in the arts and cultural sector. You’ll be welcome to ask questions in the chat live on zoom or leave them here in the comments?
Join us 16th Feb at 10am and help shape our conversation, provocations and next steps.
On Arts Council Project Grants
As you may know, we have applied to Arts Council twice in the last three years for ambitious Culture Northumberland projects and been turned down both times. I’ve also applied to DYCP twice and been turned down twice and now I’ll wait 3 years to re-apply.
Gez (at Arts Council) was very reassuring about the new Project Grants application process in Grantium (ACE have simplified it and given us more resources) so I’ve checked it out for myself and included some helpful links below.
“We don’t expect your project to change the world but we do want it to make a difference”
Arts Council
Easy Read Project Grant guidance (under £30k)
AI read Audio guide to applying (under £30k) - 1hour 35 minutes broken down into tracks.
Offline version (word doc) of the application form.
The enormity of devoting over 20 years to work in the cultural sector and still not being sure footed on a funded path for myself and for those I write into funding applications has crushed my spirit this past year.
and I are grateful to Northumberland County Council and North East Cultural Freelancers for supporting this important pause project and our research into how we better galvanise the right route to support the work we do.You can support us by sharing this newsletter with your colleagues.
If you are an artist or cultural freelancer and want to support us with an annual membership donation of £35 (limited price)1 you can upgrade and in exchange we will support you with advertising. More here;
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Membership offer
Thanks for reading. We’d love to here more from you in the comments or in reply to this email.
Claire
Claire Venus
Culture Northumberland
Thanks so much to our recent supporters;
, , Lindsey Mclaren, Louise Mabbs, , Republic Gallery, Dex Hanlon, Dispel Develop - you’ll learn more about their work soon.Price of membership doubles to £70 at the end of January. Membership for organisations will be introduced following the end of our research project in April.