Black Country Touring is seeking a Creative Producer with an interest in creating live performance in unusual and everyday spaces to engage local communities and profile Black Country stories.
Alongside the Artistic Directors the Creative Producer will lead and manage the Company’s projects and productions from concept through to delivery, producing high quality work that reaches and speaks to diverse audiences across the Black Country and beyond.
Full time*, permanent role: £25,951-£27,905 pro rata.
*BCT is open to discussing alternative arrangements for the role, such as freelancers or job share. Full details and application pack available at : www.bctouring.co.uk/vacancies
Application deadline : Friday 12th November (no specific time).
Friday 5th November
The New Art Gallery Walsall
Festival of Lights lantern workshop at Caldmore Community Garden with artist Sam Mace.
Free, drop – in, all ages welcome, 5 – 6.30pm
Sunday 7th November
Lantern parade at Caldmore Community Garden
Free. Assemble at 5.45pm for 6pm parade.
Puppet & shadow performance by The Fetch Theatre, 6.30pm
Wednesday 10th November
Baby & Me
10.30am – 12pm & 12.30 – 2pm
Multi – sensory sessions for parents and carers and babies aged 0 – 24 months. Explore colours and
light projections, discover new smells, feel new textures and listen to a story.
£2 per session.
Booking essential; call 01922 654400
Tuesday 23rd November
Tuesday Tots: Play with Clay
11am-12pm
Make mini models of birds, crocodiles and tortoises!
£2 per session.
Booking essential; call 01922 654400
Art Bytes
Art Bytes is an inter-school art competition which celebrates and champions young people’s
creativity. It’s proven to nurture talent, raise ambition & develop confidence.
Primary, secondary & SEND schools can sign up to the 2021-22 competition until the end of
December.
Find out more at : artbytes.co.uk
The 2020-21 annual report from the Creative UK Group, the first combining the forces of Creative England and the Creative Industries Federation, can be downloaded here ANNUAL REPORT.
The Creative Industries Federation response to the Chancellor’s Budget and Spending Reviewcan be downloaded here.
Creative Black Country
An invitation to join ‘Write, Create and Perform’ with Rupinder
CBC’s Dudley Createsteam is inviting girls and women to take part in a series of FREE weekly online
creative workshops with Rupinder Kaurstarting Tuesday 2nd November from 6.30pm – 8pm.
If you would like to book a space on the 6 week course please fill in your details here to book your
space.
Find out more about the sessions here.
Down the Arbo – a 2021 Creative Connection Commission
This short 6 minute film by Bostin’ Creative Arts & Theatre is a beautiful love letter to Walsall’s most famous green space, combining over 100 contributions from users of the Arboretum who have been
sharing stories and memories over the last nine months.
Read more about the project here.
Offsite 9 is an ambitious program of work launching January 2022 to coincide with British Art Show 9 which is taking place in Wolverhampton.
CBC has started to share more details of some of the work that it is commissioning over the coming months that will explore the themes from British Art Show and showcase how the touring exhibition is inspiring and informing some of the commissioned works.
Read more about the projects here.
Join Caldmore Village Community Garden for the Festival of Lights and enjoy the illuminations from 1st -7th November.
A week of creativity, music, poetry and performing arts in Caldmore to light up the whole community.
With funding from Arts Council England, The National Lottery Community Fund and Black Country Touring, and support from Creative Black Country and The New Art Gallery Walsall, there will be lantern workshops at schools and at the Community Garden, poetry workshops, and puppet operating workshops, poetry slams and performances, fire performances, live music, stories from around the world, shadow theatre, puppet theatre and a lantern procession!
Full programme is available here : http://caldmorecommunitygarden.wordpress.com
Walsall Council on Tour: Andrew Clayton and colleagues reflect on their involvement in the visit of the Women’s Tour
With the podium set for the start of the Women’s Tour in the Walsall Arboretum, this historic green space was the perfect setting for the fan zone. Within the safety of the park the fan zone was the focus for showcasing aspects of cycling and health and fitness for all of the community to engage in. Pop up stands by local cycling clubs, University of Wolverhampton and Road Safety ambassadors were joined by British Cycling and Cycling UK who, amongst other displays, setup a pump track and bikes to try. Local school children attended and participated in the activities on offer- with some riding a bike for the first time. Prior to the official start, Walsall’s local cycling clubs, including Aaina Community Hub, No Limits to Health CIC, Walsall Arboretum Community Cycle Club, and Midland Mencap, led out the Tour in a community participation ride which was a proud moment for those involved and spectating. Twenty one student volunteers from Walsall College’s Public Services course played a key role in securing and stewarding the event under the supervision of the event and Tour managers. The volunteers were highly praised by the event co-ordinators for their professionalism, politeness, work hard and response to guidance throughout the day.
Walsall for All, a programme which aims to create strong and integrated communities in Walsall, helped to promote the cultural aspect within Market Square. Nash Dom, Afghan Community and Welfare Centre, UIsland CIC, a community ESOL group and other community members came together to support the event and showcase different aspects of their culture by displaying traditional clothes, art work, and accessories, offering traditional sweets, and other elements that are unique to each culture. Residents had the opportunity to engage in conversation with those who are representing each culture, find out more about the country and its traditions, try on traditional clothes or accessories and have a cup of tea with sweets.
Andrew Clayton was heavily involved with the Poetry in Motion activities. Andrew has no previous experience of tricycles or mobile events, but having thought about how to contribute to the day’s events he was trying to work out how poets and bicycles could be matched against each other. Then the perfect vehicle came up on eBay and everything began from there.
Ian Henery is a past Poet Laureate of Walsall and published author. He heard about Poetry in Motion and set about recruiting from his network of contacts to ensure enough poets were present on the day to deliver their well-crafted words. He himself spoke at Gallery Square under the shadow of the New Art Gallery.
Phil Buckley, a noted local photographer and local Facebook group administrator joined the project to help promote the event and also introduced Prof. Gatrad OBE, DL who agreed to give a short address from the poetry trike during the day. He outlined the benefits of mode switch from motor vehicles to bikes and foot, the way small changes add up to benefit our climate, and how we can all play our part through project such as his WASUP initiative.
The event was a roaring success despite bouts of heavy rain, rather strong winds, and quite low temperatures for the time of year. In four hours over a dozen local poets ascended the platform across five locations and delivered work on a range of subjects from current affairs and cycling to mental health, identity and the effects of pandemic and lockdown on society.
Music was provided by Maurice Malcolm, and Al Barz concluded the day of poetry with his audi ence enthusiastically shouting “Lycra” and “Biker” in response to his prompting.
The future looks bright both for the bike and the poets. No doubt they will be back, although as Andrew observed afterwards, it’s probably better to go for a summer’s day with a light breeze and some proper sunshine!
The day brought with it a range of additional offers to spectators and local residents – a hive of stalls and activities in the Arboretum itself, the maker’s fair in the Town Centre under the gaze of Sister Dora’s statue, and big screens in strategic locations including Gallery Square.
