Exciting plans for Voices and Visions for 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

2013 saw a fantastic Visual Arts Exhibition which was accompanied by two brilliant and emotional performing arts showcases at Worcester Cathedral. Some schools had an arts grant to bring practitioners in and the two evenings were a fantastic success. Then in October we ran Pop Icons, the search for the best young singer in the county which was won by Hayley Jones from Redditch. As part of winning the event Hayley will represent the county in a large scale event called OMG Live which is taking place at The LG Arena in Worcester next April.

 

For 2014 we want to build on this and continue to make Voices and Visions a fantastic arts project for all young people in the county and those that work with them. Our plans for 2014 are as follows:

 

To develop the offer for Voices and Visions further by allowing arts organisations to also be part of the programme and apply for funding.

 

To begin with we will have a loose theme for the programme which will be Heroes and Inspiration. By that we could mean Stories, Family, Famous People, Unsung Heroes, People from History, Events, Places, and War etc. It could mean taking an existing project and working out what you have found so inspiring about it. Please feel inspired by the theme and to use it to tell us about your work!

 

There will be two events at The Cathedral. We will continue to have a Visual Arts Showcase and to accompany this there will be a Performing Arts Showcase.

 

We are also delighted to offer up more venues across the county and we are looking to run smaller events at Libraries and Heritage Centres across the county. Further information will be given in the New Year but we hoping that these venues will act as either places where you can find your Heroes and Inspiration but also have these events showcased there.

 

In addition to this there will be a grant pot where schools and arts organisations can bid for small grants of up to £500 for either an artist(s) or to run an event. We envisage that take up for these grants will be high.

 

We are running an event at County Hall on Thursday 30^th January at County Hall from 4.30pm where I will give you more information about the programme and you will also be able to meet with partners in Libraries, Schools and Museums. Please can you let my colleague Diane Thomson know whether you plan to attend no later than the 23^rd of January. Diane's email is dethomson@worcestershire.gov.uk; it would be great if you can come along to be part of all of this!

 

Best Wishes

 

 

 

 

Steve Wilson

County Arts Officer