Barbarians at the gates of Rome

dis/ordered

On the 23rd and 27th September 2017 as part of research leave from Manchester School of Art, I gave a performative presentation of new work written for The Big Anxiety Festival at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. I called the work dis/ordered and it was an hour-long exploration of experiences in my own life seen against a backdrop of what I describe as the reductivism of all our mental difference into neat pathological and market-based models. Because of the sensitive nature of some of the material I shared, I asked that it wasn’t filmed or webcast, but rather be seen as two distinct performances of a new body of work. It happened live, and that was it.

Since the work was shown, I’ve been asked if I’ll perform it in full again, and I guess the answer would be - it depends on the context. What I have done however, is make a 12 minute online taster of the work, which whilst alluding to some of the more sensitive material, doesn’t go into any detail, but provides a flavour of the work. So whilst it may seem to jump from theme to theme, it’s simply the skeleton without all the flesh, the blood and the passion. Please feel free to get in touch with me about this work.

Parramatta Girls 

Up until the early 1980s, ‘children at risk’ were held at Parramatta Girls Home in Sydney and subjected to unwarranted punishment and abuse, as has emerged in the current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. You can read about the extraordinary collaborative work that utilised the world’s highest resolution 3D immersive environment and was central to The Big Anxiety Festival. Here is a short and powerful film of a former Parramatta Girl, Jenny McNally which tells us much about the power of the arts and of telling story to make sense of and address, trauma. 

Harmonic Oscillator & Critical Care

For those of you interested in coming along to the event at HOME on 23rd January, (described on last week's blog) where Vic McEwan and I will share our work on The Harmonic Oscillator and launch of the book Critical Care, registration details are by clicking on the image below.

...an exciting new conference on arts, health and recovery!

Making, Materials and Recovery: Perspectives "from the inside"

Research about Art and Health straddles many fields and topics. However, related literature presents two issues: an over-attention to evaluation, which is argueably detrimental to artistic research in arts and health; and a lack of first-hand experiential perspectives on sickness and recovery. 

The panel explores recovery as a process of (mutual) learning, where art making and recovery translate into new forms of practice and knowledge. Having worked on wellbeing practice and theory, we now wish to gather personal experiences of art and recovery to question the importance of an "insider's" perspective. 

We are interested in: the nature of the knowledge and practice generated by an experience of sickness and recovery; the role making/art play in new forms of knowledge and practice. How such knowledge changes the nature of academic knowledge? How it shifts our conception of knowing, teaching, and research? Can experiences of sickness, recovery and art be considered research methodologies in their own right? Can such experiences be incorporated into our practice as academics? What value can they have for our institutions?

We invite presentations including, but not limited to the following:

art and recovery as knowledge-generating processes 

uses of different art forms in recovery - what is the role of materials? 

usefulness of anthropological concepts in this field

new modes of analysing and communicating art and recovery from inside, including but not limited to writing

institutional responses to sickness

recovery and social justice within the academy

asset-based approaches to sickness

To submit a paper click HERE.

New £4.5 million funding programme to support local social action 

A new funding programme supporting communities to take action on issues which matter locally has been launched by the Big Lottery Fund and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The Placed Based Social Action programme will support established partnerships to put social action at the heart of plans to make a positive difference in their local area. The £4.5 million of National Lottery and government funding aims to increase the capacity of communities, civil society organisations, public sector bodies and businesses to work together to address priorities which matter to people locally.

Phase one of the programme is open to expressions of interest until 28 November 2017. During the first phase, successful partnerships will have one year to work with a support contractor to design their local action plan. In winter 2018, these partnerships will be eligible for a funding award of up to £240,000 to put these plans into action. Partnerships that want to develop and expand their plan for a further three years will be eligible for a further funding award of up to £255,000 in early 2021. Read more HERE. 

European Youth Foundation: Grants for International Youth Activities 

European Youth Foundation (EYF) is offering grants of up to €50,000 to support the work of international non-governmental youth organisations (NGOs) based in the 50 signatory countries to the European Cultural Convention (47 member states of Council of Europe plus Kazakhstan, Holy See and Belarus). Strategic priorities for the programme are decided biannually and for 2018 - 2019 these are:

  Access to rights

  Youth participation and youth work

  Inclusive and peaceful societies.

Grants can cover an international one-off activity or an annual work plan. Eligible organisations can apply for a grant of €25,000 per year for up to two years’ work. Where a grant is awarded for 2018, the same amount will be awarded in principle for 2019, based on the validation by the EYF of an interim report after one year. NGOs wishing to apply for a grant must first be registered online. The deadline is 1st April 2018. Read more HERE. 

Funding for projects that support women & girls in disadvantaged areas 

Rosa, a charitable fund set up to support initiatives that benefit women and girls in the UK has awarded grants totalling £766,580 to 55 projects across the UK through the second round of the Woman to Woman fund. This fund, supported by the so-called 'Tampon Tax', will support groups that work with women and girls from disadvantaged communities or in disadvantaged areas. Grants include:

£6,000 to Dynamic Support Manchester for a series of workshops to support refugee and asylum-seeking mothers

£6,802 to support the Dundee Women's Festival's 2018 event

£19,477 to BelEve UK to support a programme of workshops and mentoring for teenage girls.

The next round of Woman to Woman funding will open for applications in the New Year and those interested should sign up for news at: www.rosauk.org. Read more HERE. 



Tech for Good Funding Programme 

Comic Relief has teamed up with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to deliver the 2018 Tech for Good funding programme. The programme recognises the importance of digital technology and its potential to address some of our biggest social challenges and the 2018 funding programme will aim to help 12 not-for-profit organisations to develop their digital products or services. Successful organisations will receive funding of £15,000 - £47,000 for nine months alongside access to dedicated technical expertise and an intensive support programme between July 2018 and March 2019. This will include a residential camp at the start to connect the funded projects with leading tech for good experts, and ongoing mentoring and report back days. A public ‘wrap-up' event at the end of the funding will allow the projects to show what they have created with the grant and support.

The application process will open on the 13th November and the closing date for applications will be the 20th December 2018. Read more HERE.



Granada Foundation -
North West of England

Organisations (preferably with charitable status) based in the north-west of England are invited to approach the Granada Foundation with imaginative proposals for projects that will encourage and promote the study, practice and appreciation of science and the arts. The Foundation aims to make the region a richer and more attractive place in which to live and work. Currently, applications from projects that will engage and inspire people of all ages to take an interest in science are particularly welcome. Preference is given to new projects; festivals and other annual events are supported but there is no guarantee of year on year support. The Advisory Council of the Foundation meets to consider applications three times a year with the next meeting scheduled for February 2018. Read more HERE.  

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