WAP
Newsletter March 2017
The
Launch
A Big Thank You.
Well,
what a great launch we had for 1000 Days. Let’s begin with all the thanks.
First to the Hive and especially Laura Worsfold and Caroline Hill for their
help in letting us use the venue. The Hive is a venue very close to my heart
and it was great to host the event there.
Then a
big thanks for Caroline Mitchell Wise for the WAP inspired Cupcakes. They were
lovely to eat and went down a treat. Then a final thank you for Martin Humby
and his photographs.
On the
organisation front a big thanks to my team of Sue Church and Diane Thomson for
all their organisation skills and a huge thanks to the wonderful Debbie Birch
for her help in making this all happen. It was Debbie who worked with me to
organise the programme and without her it would not have happened.
It was
also great to have the Nunnery Wood School Brass Band play too. They were
brilliant and gave the event a great atmosphere – and so good to hear the Rocky
Theme too!
The Delegates
We had
over 100 people attend. They came from a wide number of organisations ranging
from Visual and Performing Artists to Local Authorities to Local Arts Forums It
was also great to see The Elmley Foundation, The Bransford Trust and The
University and we had representatives from all over the county.
The Programme
We had
a packed programme. We used the theme of journeys and I got dressed as a
conductor to give a sense of theatre to the event. Basically it was an excuse
to dress up!
The
event was opened by Judith Elkin who gave an eloquent introduction about the
1000 Days Strategy and about the progress that has been made with WAP over the
last seven years. I then talked about the format of the event and also talked
about how WAP has been transformed in that time.
We then
had a speech from Charlotte Gregory from Vamos who talked about ambition and
the role that WAP has played in supporting the company. It was great to have a
local arts company, now working internationally to open the event.
We then
went into the Children and Young People strand and had presentations from Natalie McVey from Worcestershire Libraries
and Learning who talked about the role of the Children and Young People's
Group, Merie Ergelsfield from Regency School who talked about the support of
the WAP network, Katie Hodson who discussed the Moving on Staying On project and
we had a brilliant poetry performance from Oakley Flanagan the 6th
and latest Young Poet Laureate.
From
young people we went to Arts and Health and in the absence of Jan Higgitt I
gave an overall context of the work of New Prescriptions before handing over to
Debbie Birch and Laura McFall who presented our project with West Mercia Police
'Inspiring Futures Through the Arts.
Both Debbie and Laura spoke with eloquence and clarity.
We then
looked at Arts and The Economy and we had presentations from Manda Graham and
Cathy Mager from the Ring, an arts project which is taking place over the next
two years on the waterways of Worcester and Droitwich. This was followed by
Helen Mole from Worcester City who talked about the ambitions of the arts in
Worcester to drive the visitor economy.
Our
final priority was Artistic Resilience and we heard from Lee Farley and Sally
Morgan who gave presentations about Jump Start and Sally's Open Studios. Lee
turned his presentation into a performance thanks to Naomi Rule from Ovary
Acting.
It was
then back to Judith and then to our new Chair, Anne Hannaford to close the
event. Every guest speaker spoke with clarity and passion and so a massive
thank you from me. It was much appreciated.
Feedback
Feedback
has been so positive. Delegates spoke about the warm atmosphere, the scale of
projects and the feeling of positivity. But in many ways I feel the hard work
starts here and that there is still so much to do.
Thanks
for reading!
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