The Dell Cr[e]ater

The Dell Cr[e]ater is a new creative space for Peachaven. McMc Arts are working with Peacehaven Town Council & Grimshaw Architects to realise this project.

Peacehaven Town Council has an inspiring vision for the development of the Dell in Peacehaven which will transform the site and the public’s relationship to it for ever.  Utilising the natural amphitheatre created by the Dell Crater itself, the aim is to create a striking and dramatic destination in this exposed and elemental landscape.  Cr[e]ater will be a versatile public space for creativity and engagement, and a place to pause, be inspired by the location and enjoy an excellent cup of coffee.

Cr[e]ater will house:

• A flexible outdoor performance space with good technical facilities
• A creativity centre for young people
• A coastal café and bar
• Coastal Gardens and Trail

 

Isle of Thanet Gazette: “Students wow panel”

Isle of Thanet Gazette, 7 June 2011: “Year one BTEC Film and TV students have wowed a panel of art, media and marketing professionals.

Bob Bennet, Ben Jayson, Natasha Mitchell, James Smoker and Michael Thompson presented their idea for a standalone video tower to promote the forthcoming arts festival, Blink, in Margate on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

The panel, made up of Clair Chamberlain from The Corner Shop PR and Marketing Company, Verity McArthur of McMcArts – producers of the event, Sophie Jeffrey of Margate Arts Culture and Heritage, and Rebecca Smith, editor of the Thanet Times, were impressed by what they thought was an original concept presented in such an organised, creative and professional way.

The team will be given a budget of up to £5,000 to develop their idea further.”

 

Sugar Beast Circus: funding news

We are delighted to announce ACE funding towards the research and development of a new show by The Sugar Beast Circus, to be produced by McMcArts in 2011 and premiered in London in January 2012.

The Sugar Beast Circus is a performance company that aims to develop ambitious and ground-breaking new work that breaks down barriers between theatre, big top & live art.

The new show will be an interactive, promenade performance bringing together innovative and challenging new artistic collaborations. The work will be substantially developed through two confirmed artist residencies, in the UK and La Breche Circus Development Centre, France.

“Jacques Derrida suggested that to be haunted by a ghost is to remember something you have never lived through. [ The sugar beast circus show] Milkwood Rodeo is like a physical manifestation of this idea, a strange melancholy ghost story…a remarkable, spine-tingling piece exploring the theatrical possibilities of circus, mixing the glamour of the sawdust ring with visual art”.
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

http://www.sugarbeastcircus.com/

 

Press release // BLINK: MARGATE

Major artists collaborate to bring spectacular free event to Margate’s Seafront

On Saturday 27 August, for one night only, the seaside town of Margate in Kent will undergo a miraculous transformation. Multi-award-winning choreographer Wayne McGregor, extraordinary theatre ensemble Pan Optikum and innovative soundscape artist Scanner will collaborate to create a one-off, spectacular night-time event, BLINK.

Thousands are expected to gather along the seafront as buildings come alive, people take to the streets, stunning fire structures appear on the beach and the spectacle unfolds. BLINK is a celebratory event that will re-imagine not only the seafront, but also the sea and sky beyond.

Wayne McGregor | Random Dance will work closely with Pan Optikum in the months ahead to create a cohesive artistic vision for the event which features the 100-strong BLINK Dance company – a troupe of local people who will perform alongside professional dancers for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. German performance company Pan Optikum – who specialise in epic, outdoor, spectacular events – will ‘animate’ buildings, create stunning, large-scale fire objects, and interweave the theatrical and pyrotechnical elements of the show. Electronic wizard and super-talented musician/composer Scanner will provide the soaring sounds to complement the sights.

BLINK is coming… You won’t believe your eyes.

One of the busiest and most in demand choreographers in the world, Wayne McGregor has carved out time in his 2011 schedule to be part of the project saying ‘Margate has an intriguing and enduring appeal and I was captivated by the opportunity to create something so site specific and outdoors. The parallel horizons of sky and sea, sea and beach and beach and town provide a rich canvas for dance,performance and sound. Made by, with and for local people BLINK should challenge the senses.’

Jane McMorrow and Verity McArthur of McMcArts who are producing the event, will be responsible for delivering its large scale ambition:

Leader of Thanet District Council, Councillor Bob Bayford says that the impact of an event like this on the town cannot be underestimated: ‘We welcome the spotlight on Margate that BLINK provides. With the forthcoming opening of the Turner Contemporary gallery it’s our time and certainly our turn to give something celebratory and lasting to the community and to visitors.’

Jane McMorrow and Verity McArthur of McMcArts say: ‘Although we are sure the memory of this event will live for some time in people’s minds, the real legacy of the project will be the skills that people learn during its development, the people they meet, partnerships that are cemented and a real spirit of positivity going forward. BLINK is as much about this as anything else.’

BLINK has been developed in partnership with Turner Contemporary, Theatre Royal, Margate, Kent County Council, Thanet District Council, University of Kent, The Dreamland Trust, South East Dance and Thanet College.

Commissioned by: Arts Council England

Produced by: McMcArts and Canterbury Festival

For free updates on the development of the projects and details of how you can get involved, sign up at www.blinkmargate.org (full website coming soon.)

For further information please contact Chloe Pritchard-Gordon or Ben Chamberlain at The Corner Shop PR on 020 7494 3665 or email Chloe@thecornershoppr.com; ben@thecornershoppr.com

Download the full press release [PDF 209KB]

EVENT INFORMATION:

BLINK MARGATE

Saturday 27th August at 9:15pm

THIS IS A FREE EVENTFor more details visit www.blinkmargate.org

Blink, Margate 2011 // A case study in collaborative…

It’s mid January in Margate. Around 20 people circle round a huge table on which stands a mock up of the town, constructed from photocopied pictures and foam board. People point, measure, discuss, shake their heads, scribble.

A scene reminiscent of a military planning group, it is in fact a production meeting for Blink, a large scale performance to take place on August 27 August before around 7,000 people, involving choreographer Wayne McGregor and his company Random Dance, the German action theatre ensemble Pan Optikum, the musician Scanner – and around 500 local people from Thanet who will be involved both on and and off stage.

Most importantly it is a many-tentacled collaboration between artists, arts professionals and local organisations and people. Others taking part include the soon-to-open Turner Contemporary, Thanet District Council, Theatre Royal Margate, Kent County Council, Margate Regeneration Partnership, Kent University and Thanet College.

Collaboration is nothing new in the arts, but we have now entered an era in which money is scarce and resources are stretched – and in which central government is asking the arts to be part of how we rethink localism from the ground up.

“At this point when arts organisations are struggling to keep their heads above water to deliver their primary commitments, it’s actually a prime time to pool their different resources,” says Verity McArthur, co-director of McMc Arts. McMc Arts, a production company who specialise in large-scale collaborative public events, are co-producing Blink with the Canterbury Festival.

“Those resources could be financial, but it could be different skill sets, it could be access to different audiences and participants,” says McArthur. “It’s almost about provoking people to think outside their organisations; the danger of the current climate is that people might become inwardly focused in order to survive.”

Blink is the result of a local Arts Council South East initiative. “The original ambition was very clear,” explains Sally Abbot, Director of ACE South East. “It was about trying to create a range of different opportunities for audiences and artists, and making sure that those audiences got exposure to the very kind of high level international work that would begin to begin to meet the artistic aspiration of that bit of the region.”

So key to the project’s aims is its potential legacy. “The idea is to get a whole bunch of people working together on the delivery of this,” says Jane McMorrow, the other “Mc” in McMc Arts, “and that they then continue to exist as a group who will continue to look for opportunities to work together again.”

“It’s a kind of no brainer really, to make sure there’s a really strong collaborative core at the heart of any project like this,” explains Sally Abbot.  “And that is not just about taking people with you or about finding additional resources, it’s about something much more fundamental which is about ensuring the greater value of bringing all those together, not just in terms of brain power, but in terms of collective ambition.”

If good collaboration is about finding shared goals, the opening of the Turner Contemporary on April 16 this year was one of the big reasons that convinced McMc Arts to pick Margate as the venue for Blink. Director Victoria Pomery was already working hard to make sure that the gallery exists within a strong network of local partnerships.

“The arrival of a new art institution can be potentially very, very difficult,” says Pomeroy. “So it’s about thinking around how a building isn’t parachuted in. So when Verity and Jane came here they saw the potential of something in Margate which could support making something like Blink happen.”

Finding where shared goals lie is key to activating the project. They approached Random Dance partly on the strength of their creative learning programme. Wayne McGregor will be working with 100 young people from the town. “For Wayne,” says Jasmine Wilson, Creative Learning director at Random Dance, “this project is absolutely about participation. It’s all about those 100 young people.”

A further 400 local people are being recruited to work together behind the scenes – some to assist with the pyrotechnics. The local further education college is proving to be an invaluable partner. Students from Thanet College are pitching to run a local media campaign. “That campaign has been built into their timetables for next term,” says Jane McMorrow. “That way we’re helping to deliver the college’s ambitions.”

For McMorrow the key to successful collaboration is time. “What we try to do is build a good amount of time into the process. There’s not a real perception of how long it takes to build a collaborative event of this scale. We’ll have had a 20 month lead time to this project which in my view is about right, particularly when you’re creating a new piece of work. Things have to happen organically in this process in order to be really solid.”

Sally Abbot cautions that there is a lot of work to be if that kind of solidity is to be achieved. “If it’s not a good collaboration between McMc Arts, Canterbury Festival and locals, then this won’t result in a sustainable piece of work. I think McMc Arts have quite a challenge on their hands. It is quite a skill to get right.”

Jane McMorrow agrees that that is crucial. “Because only then will you have a piece of work which responds sincerely to the place and the local people. And that’s what’s going to allow people to see Margate in a very different way and hopefully inspire the audience to want more. So next time you do something like this, the local skills and experience are already there. You don’t have to ship it in. It’s only one little step. It’s not going to solve all the problems or significantly alter the whole arts infrastructure,” she says, “but it is going to make a difference.”

Video of production meeting, Margate 2011

Blink Margate

A version of this article is published in Arts Professional [subscription only]

All photos by Drew Hart Photography

January 2011 // Blink production meeting, Margate

Stratford is Rising

In March 2009 McMcArts started to work with Stratford Cultural Forum to deliver a significant arts programme for Stratford, signalling the  area’s status as an emerging cultural, social and economic powerhouse.

We’re thrilled to announce that the result of that collaboration is now up and running. Stratford Rising is a major new consortium of Stratford’s cultural players (pictured above) that is spearheading a trailblazing artistic programme.

By drawing in national and international arts organisations as well as fostering local talent, Stratford Rising is putting this culturally rich East London area firmly on the map. For a community undergoing massive changes in the run up to the Olympics, we think Stratford Rising is a key part of how Stratford is going to create its new identity.

Our role was very much about helping the Stratford Cultural Forum develop their offer and understand how they could develop their collective capacity into something that was really going to work well both locally and nationally. We think that Stratford Rising is a great way to get the message out about the amazing work that’s going on in one of London’s most up and coming areas.

In September 2010 Stratford Rising announced the appointment of Debra Reay as their first Project Director. McMcArts would like to congratulate Debra; we think she’s the perfect person for this role and look forward to what we know is going to be an exciting programme.

Below: The Stratford Rising website

A useful conversation

In July Elizabeth Lynch invited a group of leading practitioners working in the field of learning/participation/youth arts/arts education to a conversation hosted at the Royal Festival Hall.

We discussed

1. How we talk about and describe our work – to ourselves, to artists, to funders and partners in other sectors.

2. The relationship between participatory work with young people and communities and the increase in participatory practice by contemporary artists.

Over the past few years, there have been shifts and changes in the way we talk about learning and particpation. Some find the term ‘education’ limiting. For programmes aimed directly at young people, they are very clear that the word education is a turn-off. However other words bring their own limitations. Often people working outside our sector aren’t clear about what we mean.

At the same time, the UK are Europe’s leaders in this field of practice. It is also very exciting to see many leading edge artists requiring participation to create or complete their art and there are multiple cross-overs in terms of shared processes and values with the work we do. It seems like a good time to be thinking about how we effectively communicate the creative work we feel so strongly about and where we locate it within the wider arts world.

28 people came to the first event and another is being planned for this autumn, to be hosted at Sadler’s Wells. If you are interested in attending please contact elizabeth.lynch@btconnect.com