Digesting thoughts about meeting with Carol, Geopark presentation and meeting in a couple of days with Claire Doherty from Situations.
Still spinning from Re:view bursary activity finally beginning – ie meeting Carol Carey – and our presentation to the Geopark partners. During presentation felt very supported by the Director of TCCT and was offered practical help by Torbay Council Arts Officer Plus, the Geopark partners very visibly shifted in atmosphere from guarded to enthusiastic relaxed and friendly by end of meeting. Message was to plough on and to organise contacting individual partners for consultation for each project location so that we can finally build our funding proposals.
Just keep thinking how grateful and relieved I am to have a-n support throughout this period.
Presentation to Geopark partners; TCCT; and Torbay Council – who we are, what we are proposing, what are our core values/why?
We cite ‘over the horizon’ (2012) as our pilot project to communicate our core values – we are committed to producing well-researched projects which are embedded in place; we produce projects in partnership with non-arts organisations; we take art to the audience, straight to the heart of communities. By building in defined periods of research for each project we believe we encourage relationships to form between all those involved in place and the artists – for example, at Berry Head NNR we were formally introduced by the Director of the Trust and the Education Officer to the Head Ranger at the Reserve. She, in turn, intorduced us to the volunteer rangersand volunteer staff. We met
Have travelled to Bristol Temple Meads station and am sitting in the glorious Cafe-Bar with Carol Carey, Development and Project Manager with Somerset Art Works.
We had a long phone call back in April, plus, for this meeting Carol had asked me to send her my CV, project proposal and links to blog, web-sites and recent project sites.
Am immediately completely overwhelmed by Carol’s generosity and an understanding of how focused she is in her response to the intensions we have for Smooth Space.
First comments are cautionary – we are making a huge step in scale from our inaugural project at Berry Head (funded by a small G4A of less than £10 000) to the 3-year programme we are now proposing which has 3 projects per year, each with 3 to 5 new commissions plus 1 or 2 small interventions (1 commission per intervention) per year throughout the programme. Total budget – massive! Carol’s feeling is that it would be a significant feat to convince funders when we have not yet established a track record. And our Smooth Space web-site is not good!
Then we begin to talk about Smooth Space presenting to TCCT, the Geopark and Torbay Council on Monday. Carol explains the Elevator Pitch – 1-minute max to say: who you are; what you are; what you do – ie, artistic vision and mission. Also recommends creating a business plan for the programme to look in detail at cash flow across the 3 years and to develop our timeline to include actions against specific dates. Carol explains that we need to translate our aims and objectives in to Actions which will show how we will achieve our outcomes. We also need to be aware that the Geopark partners have planning backgrounds – they know about concepts like vitality and engagement – and we need to convince them that our organisation can deliver these – this is the value or worth of Smooth Space.
We recently learned that Torbay Council and the Geopark successfully applied for a G4A to fund research into developing Torbay’s annual Geopark Festival. The Geopark Partners have appointed Situations (Bristol) to produce the report. I had contacted Claire Doherty from Situations when I was writing my proposal for the an Re:view bursary (before Torbay Council submitted their G4A application!) and Claire responded very positively with an offer of professional development support. So, my next Re:view meeting is with Claire at Situations on Friday – 4 days after our presentation to Torbay Council and the Geopark Partners.
Carol’s advice is to be courageous and talk directly to Claire on Friday about Situations’ recommendations/vision for the Geopark and to describe clearly the project Smooth Space is developing with the Geopark partners. Carol also says that we need to hear from Situations what their report will say about the role for artists who currently live and work in Torbay, and whether there is a place for local artists (ie, us). We need to sell our activity and vitality to Situations – we need to persuade them how lively the local arts economy is!
We spoke for more than 2 hours – and Carol’s experience and empathy make me feel as though a door has opened into a place I could never reach on my own.
Smooth Space has met with project partners – Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust – to firm up host sites for a 3-year rolling programme of projects across the Bay.
We are now scheduled to make a presentation to English Riviera Geopark; Torbay Council and TCCT outlining our proposed Bay-wide project and our values as an organisation. The purpose of the meeting is to secure firm commitment from all those present which will push the project into its next stage.
Have had a slow start to this bursary opportunity – Smooth Space submitted a small G4A in April and we proposed the Re:view award as part of our match-funding. I had initial conversations with the curators/arts orgs who had offered their support and then came the 6 week wait until we heard the outcome of our application.
The delayed beginning has actually turned out to be a positive thing as Smooth Space is now fully engaged in getting our next initiative off the ground. We were approached by the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, our partners for ‘over the horizon’, at an Open Space event hosted by Arts Council England in Torbay in October last year. TCCT asked if we would partner them again, but this time for a much more ambitious project.
Have now arranged meetings with all 4 curators/arts orgs and they will coincide with fevered activity as we finalize support and partners for Big Project, agree strategy and write more funding bids. Am hoping for guidance/insight/critical thoughts while we are in the midst of this.
My first Re:view meeting is with Carol Carey from Somerset Art Works. We had a long phone call in April where Carol asked a lot of careful questions about recent practice and Smooth Space future plans. Meeting now arranged for Thursday in Bristol.
Trying to think of everything I can in order to prepare.
Finally looked back over the first work I made in the SW to steady (or possibly unsteady) myself.
On A May Evening (documentation), sound installation, Art Farm Project, Devon (2006)
