Collaboration Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Arts & Heritage Alliance MK

February 13, 2015

Great War MK Project Update

Great War MK is a collaborative project led by the Arts & Heritage Alliance Milton Keynes (AHA-MK). It explores the impact of the First World War on the communities of Milton Keynes – an area now covering six towns, 41 villages and 1/4 million people – through research, commemorative events, participatory learning activity and community workshops.

This Heritage Lottery funded project enables partners from the AHA-MK membership collectively to commemorate not only the stories from 100 years ago but also their legacy for modern Milton Keynes. Our aim is to inspire active participation amongst both native and new communities in Milton Keynes – in interviews, workshops and creative activities to produce informative and engaging new works. Great War MK will generate film screenings, music, dance, performances, archive material, exhibitions and installations, all of which will give fresh insights into the turmoil – and creativity – of those times.

If you want to get involved with Great War MK you can attend a workshop or come along to an event, all listed here or get in touch here.

You can find out more about the projects on our Vimeo page: http://vimeo.com/greatwarmk and Facebook www.Facebook.com/GreatWarMK or follow @AHA_MK #GreatWarMK on Twitter.

Great War MK Programmes and Events

Festive Road – Milton Keynes-based carnival company Festive Road are building full
size WW1 tank that will form the backdrop to their new performance informed by the tensions and challenges of frontline fighting. This outdoor artwork will be presented at night in various locations around Milton Keynes.

The Banner Project – Working with a talented textiles artist, Vinny Stapley, Westbury Arts Centre aims to create over 500 banners informed by the stories and memories of WW1. These beautiful commemorative banners will then be used to create a large-scale dance performance. Working with renowned choreographers Helen Parlor, Effie McGuire-Ward and Chris Bradley, a team of over 100 dancers will take part in this act of remembrance.

Cowper & Newton Museum – Working with Olney RFC the Cowper & Newton Museum will stage a commemorative Rugby match in January 2015 – in memory of local hero Edgar Mobbs. The Museum is also developing a Songs and Poetry Evening and an energetic Old Time Music Hall, breathing life into 100 year old music and verse, as well as presenting a new animation inspired by life in the trenches.

Frontline – MK Gallery is working with four local schools to explore the concept of conflict and how artists have represented war and wartime in their work. Groups of students will be visiting the Imperial War Museum and working with artists to develop their own artworks – culminating in an exhibition at MK Gallery project space in June 2015.

Living Archive – Working with a group of talented young people, professional musician Steven McDaniels will be supporting the development of new songs and music inspired by the WW1 stories held by Living Archive. These new songs will be performed at an event in May 2015. In addition, Living Archive will be developing digital stories bringing new life to re-mastered Living Archive Band recordings.

Independent Cinema MK – Local independent cinema company ICMK is exploring the ideas of propaganda and truth in their work creating stop-time animations with school children. These animations will form part of several ‘WW1 style’ screening events to take place around Milton Keynes, alongside other WW1 relevant film and footage.

Serving King and Country – Deanshanger Village Heritage Society have undertaken a research project to uncover information about the village in the WW1 period. Research will uncover life on the home front, those that served, those in reserved occupations – working on the land and at the famous E & H Roberts Iron Foundry. This project will result in exhibitions, creative workshops with school children, walks and archive material.

MK Heritage Association – Through support from MKHA, these local history projects also form part of Great War MK. These include:

Simpson History Group’s research project to better understand the lives of the men represented on their war memorial, work to restore the local memorials and production of a booklet to commemorate their sacrifice.
Bucks Constabulary Museum’s WW1 exhibition
North Crawley Historical Society’s research project to track and commemorate all those who fought and died from their village, producing an exhibition and booklet.

November 6, 2014

Calling all musicians to be part of Paraffinalia @Festive_Road

Festive Road is looking for brass, wind and percussion players who would like to take part in Paraffinalia, a fire festival in Campbell Park on 20^th December 2014. We invite you to accompany us on the darkest of days…

Over November and December we are offering music workshop sessions which will culminate in a processional piece and a musical performance to accompany the fire sculptures and performances which we have planned. This is an amazing opportunity to work with Musical Director Tim Hill, of the infamous Tongues of Fire. Have a look at his website: http://www.tongues-of-fire.co.uk/

The musical rehearsal sessions are as follows:

Wed 26^th November, 7-9pm at Bath House, Wolverton

Wed 3^rd December, 7-9pm at Bath House, Wolverton

Sat 13^th December, 11am -4pm at Parks Trust, Cricket Pavilion, Campbell Park

Sat 20^th December, morning rehearsal tbc and performance 7-9pm

It’s not essential that you attend all the sessions as long as you can attend at least two and the event itself of course!

Please contact Jessica or Jitty at Festive Road if you are interested in taking part:

jitty@festiveroad.org.uk
jessica@festiveroad.org.uk

If you want to know more about the event itself, please do have a look at our website: www.festiveroad.org.uk

July 11, 2014

Walking with Giants, Dinosaurs and Samba Bands, 20th July #MadeinMK

Once again, Milton Keynes based Festive Road will be producing this spectacular parade of giant puppets which invites guest carnival groups from across UK, participation from many local schools and community groups, as well as some jaw dropping processional structures made by Festive Road artists.

The event will begin to warm up on Midsummer Boulevard, Grafton South, near thehub:mk, from 9.30am where participants and audiences will be gathering ready to walk with the Giants.

At 12 noon the parade will process up Midsummer Boulevard, through Midsummer Place and up to MK Theatre District, where more Street Theatre is being staged, including the amazing Weirdy Beardies and the un-missable Crimplene Millionaire.

As the Giants prepare themselves, there will be a fabulous programme Street entertainment which includes a Dance workshop from FolkDance Remixed, Music performances from Rhythm of the City and other Samba groups and also Street Theatre from Jon Davison and Pocezcka!

9.30 -10am: Walking with Giants Samba – live music performance

10am-10.30: Folk Dance Remixed – dance participation & performance on street

10.30 -10.50am: Pocezcka – acrobatic performance on the street

10.50am -11.15am: Rhythm of the City and MK Maracatu Dance –dance & music performance

11.15-11.30: Body of a Clown – performance on the street

11.30: Extreme Ramblers –walkabout entertainment, Concrete Circus – walkabout entertainment

12 noon: Parade leaves

Walking with Giants forms part of the MK Festival Fringe programme, full listings here: http://mkfestivalfringe.com/whats/#all/1/list

March 19, 2014

Highlights from Chairs Note March 2014

Arts Council Grant awarded

It was great to be able to announce at this week’s Forum that AHA has been awarded just under £30,000 by the Arts Council for our “MK Audiences” project. This is part of the Arts Council’s “Audience Finder” initiative launched over a year ago, which Adrienne Pye of the Audience Agency told us about at an AHA meeting in November 2012, with a view to creating an “MK cluster” within this national initiative.

New AHA website

Thanks to all of you who commented on the pilot version of the new AHA website recently circulated. The response was generally very positive, thanks to the enormous amount of work that has been put in. Suggestions have been taken on board wherever possible, and the new website will hopefully go live next week. The address is unchanged: http://www.aha-mk.org.

Discussions with thecentre:MK

Thanks to all those who sent in ideas of eventsexhibitions/activities AHA members might wish to mount in thecentre:MK. We took the whole list for discussion with the centre last week. They seemed impressed with many of the ideas and very positive about offering opportunities in the centre, and are due to get back to us next week.

Registering AHA as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation

Following the preparation of a draft for the Charities Commission, and discussion of this at our January AHA meeting, we have now made the formal submission to the CC. The process thereafter may take as little as a month, but it might be significantly longer.

Guardian profile for MK

In case it hasn’t reached you by other routes, Monica Ferguson did an interview with The Guardian earlier this week: see http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/2014/mar/04/monica-ferguson-stables-milton-keynes-festival.

Midsummer Boulevard workshop

Many thanks to our Vice-Chair, who participated, on AHA’s behalf, in a 3-day workshop at the beginning of February, the aim of which was to produce a blueprint for developing the eastern end of Midsummer Boulevard. No doubt there’ll be a report on the outcomes in due course: we’ll keep you posted.

Lobbying MK Council on their 2014/15 budget

Thanks to those AHA members who commented in response to my request for responses to MKC’s budget proposals, and especially to those who took the trouble to write to the Council.

Member News/Opportunities

Voluntary work wanted: Raihana Sohrabi is looking for voluntary work as a junior accountant to gain experience. Currently studying AAT level 3. E-mail raihana.ahmad03@gmail.com.

First artist call-out for 2014 Festival Fringe: Information is attached. Please feel free to share this with friends, contacts, networks, etc. Contact Anita Allen anita@mkfestivalfringe.com or on 07952 237421 for an application form. http://mkfestivalfringe.com/callouts/

January 24, 2014

Made in MK 2013 Highlights

Made in MK took place between 28^th June and 15^th September 2013.
Through this project the Arts and Heritage Alliance – Milton Keynes (AHA-MK) provided the collective marketing umbrella for 150 events across the Borough of Milton Keynes – these included workshops and courses, exhibitions, dance, heritage activities, performance and fringe activity in the public realm.
Activities were delivered by over 40 organisations from AHA-MK and Milton Keynes Heritage Association (MKHA) membership and beyond.
Over this three-month period Made in MK attracted nearly 50,000 attendees.
MK Festival Fringe, Proms in the Park and the Arts and Culture Festival (in Campbell Park) all recorded increased audiences in comparison to last year
AHA-MK commissioned five new artworks, designed to celebrate Milton Keynes, which were displayed in and around the city centre during the summer
Through working with media partners MKFM and MK Citizen we ensured that Made in MK received significant press coverage and Destination Milton Keynes hosted all our listings online.

The level of collaboration and co-operation shown by our members and partners continues to impress us – we are working hard to make this process as easy as possible. SoC 2012 was a pioneering year, which proved to the sectors the value of working together on a large-scale joint venture and Made in MK has allowed these relationships to develop even further. By pulling together in this way, MK arts and heritage organisations are able to achieve a critical mass, and promote a cultural offer that spans the Borough.

Funding for this project came from four sources:

Arts Council England with match funding from the MK Collection
We secured £5,000 from MK Community Foundation to allow us to offer 5 commissions to artists (and further commissions were offered by MK Festival Fringe), with a brief to celebrate Milton Keynes and engage members of the public.
MK Council also provided funding for the production and distribution of marketing materials, in recognition that we were continuing the legacy of SoC on a significantly smaller budget.

Organisations involved in AHA-MK have told us that they were very pleased to be involved in this project:

‘Made in MK’ provided a strong legacy for the 2012 Summer of Culture programme, contributing to Milton Keynes’ aspiration to be distinctive and World Class. (David Hill, MK Council)

The Gallery was delighted to support the ‘Made in MK’ campaign. Thematically, it linked perfectly with our summer exhibition and events programme ‘MK Calling’ (Katharine Sorensen, MK Gallery)

‘Made in MK’ played an important role in helping to bring many of the disparate creative programmes across MK together into one cohesive audience offer. (Jessica Rost, MK Festival Fringe)