arcadea's programme
- Training and Professional Development
- Artistic Programme
- Information Programme
- Regional Development Programme
- Projects
Training and Professional Development
Development Needs Analysis (DNA)
Arcadea’s DNA Scheme has worked with over thirty six artists over the last three years. It is a bespoke Professional Development scheme which works with individuals and groups towards professional development planning, project proposals and fundraising. Every artist comes to us with a different set of goals and this programme has led to the realisation of many of them. A number of artists have successful funding applications, projects, residencies, exhibitions and performances under their belts as a direct result of our work with them.
Mentoring Programme
Our mentoring programme has supported many Disabled artists who have worked in one to one situations with carefully selected mentors. We have developed a model of excellence where both mentors and mentees receive inductions training to begin the process. We have developed a pool of trained and experienced mentors to work with professional disabled artists. We have worked with mentors from organisations like New Writing North and Live Theatre and with many individual arts practitioners with tangible outcomes for the artists – one actor got an agent, a band got a demo CD, a singer songwriter recorded backing music for live performance, visual artists were invited to exhibit, one artist secured a residency, among many other examples. We hope to have a new intake of mentees and mentors towards the end of 2008.
Training Courses and Traineeships
Arcadea provides a number of training courses for professional Disabled artists, including facilitations skills, business start up and fundraising. There has been a significant shortage of training available to Disabled arts practitioners interested in moving into arts management. We created two traineeships aimed at individuals working within our organisation for six months each to examine and develop their knowledge and experience of arts management at a number of levels.
Networks
Arcadea introduced a number of Disabled artist’s networks as part of an initial research project in 2004. A large network of artists met at The Baltic to discuss a possible future for Disabled artists networking in our region. The networks have met several times over the last couple of years, identifying sector skills needs, ambitions for the future, contributions towards our artistic programme and Mimosa Festival. The artists are now loosely grouped into art form networks and will be working towards self-organisation and independence throughout our PLEXUS project. Networks are a crucial aspect of the peer support and access to information, skill sharing, collaboration and discussion that is so important in the professional development of disabled artists. Disabled artists can experience isolation and frustration but with regional, artform and cultural identity networks we can bring people together to develop their creative ideas and their work.
Artistic Programme
Cabarets
The Mimosa Club was created as a regional performance event, delivered in Darlington, Durham, Gateshead and Newcastle, aimed at showcasing Disabled artists at different stages in their careers. They give emerging artists at the beginning of their careers the opportunity to try out new material and ideas in front of a local audience, and to act as showcases for promoters of mainstream venues to see the talent available in the region and encourage booking of new disabled artists.
The Mimosa Club also features established artists who are involve din national and international touring. There is a supportive environment of peers, as part of building critical analysis criteria for our sector; recording a body of work; having reference points for development; and, supporting the development of the artists / critics involved.
Artists who have either compered or appeared at Mimosa Clubs include Mat Fraser, Julie McNamara, Laurence Clark, Caroline Parker, Caroline Bowditch, Pauline Heath, The Happy Pills, Grin and Bare It Theatre Company, The Lawnmowers, Flex Dance, Seven Stars, Luke Hardwicke, and you can read about many more in our gallery, directory and on our projects page.
Art Form Programme – Exhibitions, Theatre, Dance, Writing, Photography, Contemporary Art
You can read more about our artistic programme on our Projects page. We aim to create excellent projects which allow artists professional opportunities to both expand and share their work. We have held four visual art exhibitions in traditional and non-traditional venues and we have given advice to four other visual art exhibitions featuring the work of Disabled artists. We regularly present theatre, often with accompanying Master Classes from the practitioner, and support the growing body of theatre and disability work across the country.
We deliver participatory arts projects such as a dance programme facilitated by Caroline Bowditch and Writing for Change, a writing project facilitated by Vici Wreford-Sinnott and Valerie Laws. We are currently supporting Sycorax Rising a group of Disabled Women Poets. We have worked with a number of photographer and film makers and document all of our work through visual, audio and recorded image so that we have developed a unique archive in the region. We also work in contemporary art and are looking towards commissioning many new pieces of work over the next couple of years.
Mimosa Festival
You can find out more about our 2006 Mimosa Festival from its pages in our projects section. It was a highly ambitious festival which took place across the region in both high profile and new arts venues and programmed over 160 professional Disabled artists, 90% of whom were from this region. In 2008 we plan to deliver another Mimosa Festival with a heritage perspective so that we can share the history and culture of our community and also talk about moving forward in the 21st Century.
Information Programme
Mimosa Magazine
Mimosa Magazine replaced the old NorDAF News in 2005. There has been both an increase in demand over the last couple of years and also in terms of raising and maintaining the profile of Disabled people, Disability Culture and Identity, and challenging negative perceptions of Disability. The magazine is available in a range of formats and features artists from the region and also those working nationally and internationally.
The magazine provides a voice for Disabled people in the region, it provides an opportunity for us to communicate the diversity of the Disability community, to challenge negative perceptions, report on positive creative achievements, give opportunities to Disabled artists of all art forms to be featured with examples of their work. You can download the magazine from our downloads page.
The Arcadea On-Line Gallery
Arcadea’s on-line gallery showcases the work of artists working across a range of art forms from the North East Region. If you would like us to consider your work for inclusion please contact us.
Information Resource Area
Our Newcastle office base houses a unique Information Resource Area for Disabled people and Disabled artists. There is a reference section of relevant publications and periodicals, information on training and professional development, access to funding information and support, internet access and some on site training opportunities.
The Resource area also has an IT suite, digital video and stills cameras, sound recording facilities and a high quality printing area. We have funder finder for groups and individuals which has live on-line links to all funders listed. It is an area which assists in the career development of disabled artists in the North East and also provide valuable infrastructural support to both disability arts groups and organisations and mainstream arts organisations. If you would like to use any of the resources all you need to do is contact us to book a time slot – sorry it cannot be used on a ‘drop-in’ basis due to the staffing requirement of the area.
Reports and Research
As an organisation with a lobbying and campaigning role it is essential that we are involved in research relating to artistic and cultural equality. We have undertaken a number of action research and pilot projects over the last few years and have also conducted extensive sectoral research and consultation. In 2005 we worked with Northern Cultural Skills Partnership and The Lawnmowers to research the sector skills aspirations and needs of Disabled artists in the North East.
We are interested in further mapping the work of Disabled people in the arts in the North East and if you would like to get in touch to find out more about what we do and how we might be able to support your work please do contact us.
We are currently involved in research in Newcastle City area - Newcastle City Cultural Disability Equality Consultation – where we are talking one to one, to groups and conducting research and analysis into Disabled people’s experiences of Art and Culture particularly in Newcastle. The consultation will further inform arcadea’s MIMOSA PROJECT and the findings will be made available to other interested parties.
Community and Social Entrepreneurship
Arcadea is also be action- researching through practice, new community enterprise initiatives with groups of artists who wish to self organise, exploring entrepreneurship models and we will be looking into the income potential of Disabled artists. In a climate of the ‘cultural economy’ we will also be exploring ‘cultural currency and value’.
Arcadea’s director is continuing her own research into her ideas towards a cultural model of Disability and plans to launch that in 2008.
Arcadea’s director will also be supported by arcadea as part of her professional development as a practitioner and one of the only trained and qualified Disabled theatre director’s in the region to devise and direct a Disability Theatre Lab pilot project to explore the need for a professional Disability Theatre Company in the North East.
Information Sheets
A range of sheets aimed at professional development from a Disability perspective are available by contacting arcadea, covering fundraising, professional presentation, roles of Management Committee / Board, professional practice, pr and media strategies. They are available in a range of formats.
Digital Resources and Services
Our Information Manager is also a digital arts practitioner in film and photography and has documented all of our activity in stills, audio and digital video to broadcast quality over the last two years. We have produced show reels for a number of the artists who’ve worked, with us whether they be full performances, informal ‘sharings’ of work or artists talk presentations. This has both built our own archive and our capacity to case make on DVD but also has provided a service to Disabled artists in the recording of their work – for their own fund-raising, as a record or as a professional show reel. We make these services available on the basis of the other programme commitments we have.
Regional Development Programme
Our Regional Development Programme covers our research work in understanding Cultural Disability Equality, Disabled people’s experiences of Art and Culture in the 21st Century and also community development projects like Giant Leap; it covers examining a regional strategic framework to support Disabled people and their experiences of Art and Culture; and, it covers our work with arts organisations and venues to promote Cultural Disability Equality beyond access and legislation, profiling the voices and ideas of Disabled people in the cultural landscape.
Projects
You can find out more about our work on our projects page.