...on with the show

Why oh why the SUN burning? Well, it was on the street just blowing around like a piece of trash. Why not the MAIL? Good question, but it was just time and place. Often the dear old BBC show us images of people in far-off places, waving flags and pictures of our illustrious leaders - whilst setting fire to them - and shouting this and that. I thought I’d simply do a restrained and uptight northern version - I just wouldn’t have wanted to wrap my chips in it. 
Worthless bilge. 

Sorry this weeks blog is slightly shorter and slightly more functional than normal! I’ve got my work cut out over the next few weeks. HOWEVER, I urge you to keep a-checking this blog as I’ll shortly be updating you on the Dementia and Imagination research. Some interesting jobs are imminent. I’ll be facilitating two networking events in January - one in Liverpool, the other in Manchester. They are going to be focused on substance recovery and have a BIG FAT EUROPEAN MANIFESTO feel to them! More soon. Next year will see the return of a Pathways into Arts and Health Course for Artists + responding to your requests, something similar aimed specifically at those of you with medical or public health inclinations - Good Grief! 

So - on with the show...

I am thrilled to be invited to speak at the 5th Art of Good Health and Wellbeing International Conference on Arts and Health in Sydney. Organised by Arts and Health Australia, this years conference will welcome the Director of the Baring Foundation, David Cutler and I'm thrilled to say, Arts for Health 'alumni' - Claire Ford who will be sharing her work on the iPad engAGE project. For my part, I'll be exploring some ideas about authenticity in arts and health, particularly in the way we understand our cultural value. If you've not seen it, the short film below is a 'teaser.'

Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund 

As part of the Cabinet Office Centre for Social Action, the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA), will run a £14 million Innovation Fund to support the growth of innovations that mobilise people's energy and talents to help each other. The Innovation Fund will focus on four areas. These include:

· Helping people to age well, particularly by supporting people over 50 to have a purpose, a sense of well-being and to be connected to others

· Enabling people with long-term health conditions to have a better quality of life, particularly through the use of peer to peer networks and groups

· Supporting and encouraging young people to succeed and find employment, for example through mentoring, coaching, and peer-to-peer networks

· Using new approaches to "impact volunteering" to mobilise volunteers to increase and enhance the outcomes achieved by public services.

Through the programme, charities, social enterprises, public services and for-profit businesses can apply for grants of between £50,000 and £500,000.  While applicants can be established in any part of the UK, the benefits of their proposals should focus primarily or significantly on England.  To apply organisations need to submit an Expression of Interest form by the 31st October 2013. Read more by clicking on the birds nesta (sorry)

Artist/Designer for Learning Resource

Tate Liverpool and Mersey Care NHS Trust are seeking to recruit an artist/designer with demonstrable experience of designing learning resources in a variety of settings. 

This is a temporary fixed term freelance opportunity, for a six-month period commencing November 2013 – April 2014. The fee is £6,000.

 The successful candidate will be expected to research, design and evaluate a prototype for a portable accessible learning resource. The purpose of the learning resource is to support individuals or groups in facilitating self-directed learning and engagement with art in gallery and community settings. We expect that within the design concept full consideration of digital tools be explored.

Closing Date for Applications: Friday 1st November 2013. 

Interview Date: Monday 11th November 2013.

For an Artist Brief and information about the application process  contact Alison Jones Programme Manager Public and Community Learning on email: Alison.jones@tate.org.uk

Tuesday Sessions

Mai Abu ElDahab and Anthony Huberman

Tuesday 22nd October, 6.30pm
Camp and Furnace, 67 Greenland St, Liverpool L1 0BY

For the first time, curators of the 2014 Liverpool Biennial Mai Abu ElDahab and Anthony Huberman will discuss the material and methods that have informed their thinking for the forthcoming edition of the Biennial.

Mai Abu ElDahab is a curator from Cairo, living in Brussels. From 2007 to 2011, she was director of Objectif Exhibition, a non-profit contemporary art space dedicated to producing and presenting solo shows by international emerging artists, as well as curating many related events and publications, co-published with Sternberg Press. Most recently, she produced a record of artist songs performed by the band Concert entitled Behave Like an Audience, also with Sternberg Press, 2013.

Anthony Huberman is a curator and writer from Geneva currently based in San Francisco, where he is the Director of the CCA Wattis Institute and Advisor/Founding Director of The Artist's Institute in New York. Previously, he worked as chief curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, curator at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, curator at SculptureCenter, New York, and director of education and public programs at MoMA PS1, New York.

Free, booking required. To book your place, follow this link. http://eldahabhuberman.eventbrite.co.uk/ 

...here's a song that a friend played to me - shared because its lovely.