In July, I gave a presentation about my residency for Writing West Midlands (http://www.writingwestmidlands.org) along with Canal Laureate, Jo Bell (http://belljarblog.wordpress.com). Anchor woman for the morning was Roz Goddard (http://www.rozgoddard.com) and it was so good to share experiences with writers I admire and who do so much to promote writing with others. Roz asked Jo and I if we would post the notes for our talks on our respective blogs, so that is what I’m doing, and I do believe I’ve beaten Jo to it! Mind you she’s been a bit busy going across the Bristol Channel in her narrow boat and getting over bronchitis so I’ll let her off.
I am in the process of writing a report to the Arts Council who funded my residency and thinking where my next funding might come from. If you would like to support my work, or have any funding suggestions to make, I would be very pleased to hear from you. In the meantime I hope fellow writers will find the notes below useful, and you may also be interested to know that I will be talking about the subject of funding at The Writers’ Toolkit on Saturday 23rd November when I will be on one of the discussion panels. I heartily recommend this annual event to any writer as it is packed with sound advice, information and networking opportunities.
See http://www.writingwestmidlands.org/?s=writers+toolkit
Notes for presentation at Writing West Midlands Writer Networking Morning
6th July 2013
Summary: My background, How it came about, What I have achieved, Conclusions
Background
Poet – Musician – Performer – Facilitator – Promoter
Published 3 poetry collections
Recorded my own CD
Created own website
Worked with all kinds of people, all ages, abilities and disabilities
Strong interest in oral history and personal stories – reminiscence training – edited 2 books of reminiscences
Motivated, driven, pro-active
Eclectic polymath – don’t fit into a box, exhausting trying to do so many things, wanting to find a way of combining my creative skills, maximise on my strengths through one project.
How it came about – piecing together a jigsaw
Lived in Black Country until moving to Kidderminster in 2006
Needed to connect with where I live
Catalyst – tour of the town by local historian and author Melvyn Thompson
August 2011 wrote first poem about the carpet industry
Went to see district council arts officer who made lots of suggestions of ways forward
Started visiting Museum Archive and talking to key people late 2011 – Museum of Carpet hadn’t opened yet.
Had clear idea what I wanted to do – write poems, monologues and songs from interviews, perform and publish
Applied for WCC grant but not successful
Got local funding to work at local day centre – wrote – shared individually & to group
Worcs Arts Partnership – voluntary body run by county council arts officer – sub group – voluntary member – told them about my project – they loved idea and ‘adopted’ it by allocating a small amount of funding for me to spend as I thought fit
District arts officer (on that sub group) offered me funding so did project at centre for people with dementia which match funded small amount per session
Shared work produced plus some from previous project
Contacted local district councillor and he gave me funding to work with people within walking distance of my house. Great pleasure sharing what I had written directly with these people – in a room at a nursing home, with a couple in their living room
Museum of Carpet had opened Oct 2012
Had kept them in touch with what I was doing
Wondering how to use Worcs Arts Partnership money – deadline approaching – suggested to Museum they have Writer in Residence. They knew the quality of my work and immediately said yes.
Contacted Jonathan Davidson – suggested I use WAP money as match funding for ACE application – include workshops
Museum said would like to work with teenagers and looked after children.
Put together project idea also including w/s for adults
Got funding. Agreed timetable with Museum Manager.
What I have achieved
Set up a blog and have posted new work every week since mid April. Having a deadline focuses the mind! NaPoWriMo 2011 good practice for this! Also posted work by guest poets and writing by others I’ve come into contact with
Set up Facebook Page and Twitter account both of which I’ve kept active
Started writing to local press and got coverage in local newspapers
Interviewed Museum volunteers who once worked in the industry, looking for the nugget in what they tell me which I can turn into a poem or song
Ran writing workshops for adults and young people.
Forged links with local youth centre, posting their work on blog which they printed off, laminated and displayed in youth centre.
Ran workshop including photography for looked after children – notoriously very difficult to get them to attend but filled 10 of 12 places – came from across Worcs. Produced Powerpoint calendar from their work (designed by one of young people).
Gave performances for local groups who contacted me when they saw project mentioned in local paper – Sight Concern & residential care home
Managed to get local film company to produce film of one of my songs for free – now on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxl9kX3bgJk
Got more funding from district council to put on 2 performances of show about Kidderminster with local singer/songwriter. One performance site specific – amongst exhibits in Museum of Carpet.
My work part of installation at Kidderminster Arts Festival – audio files in a forest of carpet
Conclusions
Worked far more hours than covered by funding (as always)
Museum is fledgling self-funded organisation which has not had time to build up infrastructure. Staff very supportive but limited capacity so have had to be sensitive to their needs and be able to get on and do it!
This has worked because I’m fascinated by subject and have strong links with location
If I was worried about something I asked for advice from others
Continually asked for feedback from people to include in report to ACE and inform me of how it was going. But you can’t capture glowing faces!
All the time looking for ways of linking others back to my project and making them aware of it eg wrote poem after Civic Society tour, now on their website and another linked one; asked for information from people on an established Kidderminster Facebook group and got lots of responses which are now combined in one song ie I went to their group rather than waiting for them to come to my page.
Want to continue residency, put on more performances and work towards a publication. Looking for more funding for residency, have lots of material for publication so looking for publisher and have product to sell by way of performances. Pretty chuffed with how it’s gone!
Weaving Yarns 