THE NEVER ENDING SUMMER
FILM: Overview of the UK Art Takeover
As Covid 19 kicked in, we kicked off and managed to get sponsorship form LGfL to build a Community Lockin - a Fully functioning, Content Creation and Community Collaboration Hub (a green screen internet TV studio in a spare bedroom - but don’t tell anyone!)
Then Arts Council England gave us an Emergency Covid19 Grant to deliver a month of activity - a UK Art Takeover whcih kicked off in Parliament with over 30 speakers and saw pop-ups across the UK from Belfast to Cardiff to Cornwall.
Our first #ARTofCOMMUNITY20 Free Family Festival at the end of the month was so good we’re going to do it again, over the long weekend at the end of each month all summer:
29-31 May : Where community lives, Eden Project MORE >
26-28 June: Our Glasto in a field in Somerset MORE>
31 July - 2 Aug: Art Town at Camp Bestival in Dorset
28- 31 Aug: Gaz Mayall’s Rockin’ Blues at Notting Hill Carnival
25 - 27 Sept : Parklands Primary on the Seacroft estate in Leeds
Inspired by Darren Henley, CEO of Arts Council England, we want to launch a #CreativityRevolution to help the country out of Lock Down
THE SECOND COMING
Inspired by the second coming of Sir Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats we want to tap into the spirit of Punk 1.0 - the #ARTofPUNK - and give our kids and young people the inspiration, agency and encouragement to be Punk 2.0
This is not about class war. It’s not total anarchy. It’s not about politics, well nor party politics but it is about policy and we’ll call it out when it affects creativity, children and all our futures.
It’s about being human.
We’re not letting anyone slaughter our kids’ dreams. We want them to aim higher than high. To find their passion. Their art.
Read our blog here, inspired by Sir Bob Geldof.
Are you with us?
To be kept up to date on all this, SIGN UP HERE.
To sign up to speak, perform, facilitate or otherwise helps us make this happen, SIGN UP HERE
We pay all artists who work with us and our first month,as part of our #UKArtTakeOver in our #CommunityLockin, was made possible by sponsorship from the charitable trust LGfL and an emergency grant from Arts Council England with public funding from the National Lottery.
But we now need more match funded sponsorship. If you or your organisation value creativity, children and all our futures, SIGN UP HERE.
FRIDAY 29th MAY : KIRPA’S DAY (KIDS DAY)
A day inspired by the Aspiration of a young woman from Leeds, who dreamed of singing at a Festival
KIRPA’S BIG MOMENT
The film above shows the stream of Friday evening, linking here to the moment when Kirpa Suwali, a blind singer in a wheelchair took to the stage to make her life dream come true, to sing at a festival.
We put a call out to Ed Sheeran to Skype in with his thoughts but didn’t hear back. Next time maybe.
GRANDAD WHEELS ON ART
A large part of the inclusivity at the Festival weekend was inspired and co-curated by Grandad Wheels.
A MISSION TO MARS
As Elon Musk prepared to launch his own rocket, we went on a trip to Mars with our Festival friends at Now Press Play
A SWEET END TO THE DAY
Young soul jazz singer Sans Soucis gave a beautiful performance of her own songs to end our first day
SAT 30TH May : LEANNE’S DAY (MUM’S DAY)
blast off
An inspirational mum from the Seacroft Estate in Leeds and her boys watch the launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket while Nick makes a dynamite rocket that he launches just after.
COVENTRY’S CULTURE
Chenine Bhathena talks us through some of the exciting plans for Coventry City of Culture 2021 and her role in putting that community’s artistic program, rich heritage, and activism in the spotlight.
BERIMBAU MOVES
Two talented and engaging capoeiristas take us from Brazil to Liverpool, inspiring us to bust a dance and song. Best done barefoot…
BE RADICAL
From Banksy to Bob and Roberta Smith, hold tight as Arts Educator Anne-Louise Quinton leads this Art Activism workshop
FUNK GUITAR SHOWMAN
Brand New Heavies legend Simon Bartholomew lets us into his private music library for an afternoon of funky licks complete with disco lights!
A LEGEND TALKS AND TAKES THE STAGE
Given our punk theme for the weekend it was great to be joined by ex-Sex Pistols band member Glen Matlock but off the scale when he picked up his guitar to play some new material.
SUN 31ST MaY : PETE’S DAY (GRANDAD’S DAY)
A day inspired by a Grandad, a Punk 1.0 who is teaching his 3 grandsons to code
ALL HAIL PUNK 2.0
We had a fantastic chat about life, the universe and everything with Jah Wobble, former member of Public Image Limited with old mate and ex Sex Pistol John Lydon, now of Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart. It was great to be able to get Grandad Pete on for a chat too before his tea.
DON’T MENTION CUMMINGS
We tried but it was hard to talk about creativity with The Observer’s political cartoonist,Chris Riddell, without mentioning politics and every time we did he drew it.
SKYLARKIN WITH DJ DEREK
What better way to kick back for our #LittleBigLunch than to the sweet ska and revitalising reggae sounds of DJ Derek, spun here for us by DJ Count SkyLarkin
A CO-DRUM CIRCLE
Just look at all the smiles on the faces of the 500 or so people who joined Tom Morley in Zoom for the afternoon, to drum and make music together - a joyous sight
COOKING UP A STORM
We were blown away when top chef Rosemary Schrager offered to join, us but knew it would only end in tears when she suggested bringing La Voix with her
CLASSICAL CHILL
We started winding down from a weekend of our lives with a series of improv classical, violin and piano pieces by Noel Vine and Andrew Quartermain
KERNOW CALLING
After a wonderful performance at our #ARTofBUDE Pop-Up it was lovely to be able to welcome local musician Richard Ash back to the stage at Eden
LOUNGING ABOUT
At the very last minute we managed to connect with The Logues, a young two piece band from County Tyrone who payed the festival out on guitar and penny whistle and provided the perfect conclusion to a theme of Punk being reborn that ran through the weekend, inspired by an Irish man from south of the border whose song Rat Trap was as relevant then as it is now, as Nick points out here.
TEN THEMES
The weekend will break out across ten key theme areas:
CREATIVITY - talks and activities to remind us what it looks and feels like and why it’s important
COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS - sessions inspired by the Community Activity Camps run at Eden Project
WHAT’S YOUR ART? Download our template, join our global campaign, print it on a t-shirt here
ART ACTIVISM - tips and tricks in talks and workshops on how you can change the world
ECO AWARENESS - where better than Eden Project to reconnect our planet and how we might start doing things differently
SLOW FOOD - we’ve never had more time, and possibly less money, so why don’t we look at food again?
MAKER CULTURE - there’s a lot of talk about the ‘Three R’s’, but the fourth R is Wroughting - making. Let’s Create
COLLABORATIVE MUSIC - Live Aid was yesterday with the band on the stage. Now the audience makes music
EDUCATION - Is Creativity as Important as Literacy? Are we teaching it out of our kids? How’s your home schooling?
SONG OF THE DAY - we have an anthem for each Day - ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, ‘I Will Survive’ and ‘All Together Now’
BEER FESTIVAL - we hope you don’t mind, but we’ll stop and savour a beer every once in a while
ARTISTS NEEDED LIKE NEVER BEFORE
This is a community event and by, with and for everyone.
We want to see big name performers alongside school children, their creative carers and even grand parents.
If you’d like to perform, sing, dance, make, share, create, help or sponsor SIGN UP HERE NOW
Thanks to our sponsors at LGfL and an emergency grant from Arts Council England with public funding from the National Lottery and its players to whom we are very grateful, we have some budget available to pay some artists who have no other income.
GET CREATIVE WITH OUR CO-CHAIN REACTION
One of the best Sunday’s we’ve ever spent in Cambridge has to be the Chain Reaction Day organised by the Cambridge Science Centre.
Basically everyone had a table and had to create a contraption, an invention that was started by a string being pulled on the left of the table and ended pulling a storing on the right of the table, that started the next table’s contraption and so on.
And we thought there’s nothing to stop us doing that in lock down so here it is - the co-chain reaction, cos co means together so let’s build one big one, together.
A COLLABORATION
OK so we’re nothing without you, but even less without them… our collaborators.
Our #COLLABORATE20 Year was inspired by a business woman at Google, A music from Studio 54 and a global guru who used to be a head in a school in Derby that thought it was Disneyland
O TO THE M TO THE G
These are going to be festivals like no other in venues like no other and it’s all for you, for us for them
We’ll reveal more over the weeks ahead
Sign up here to be first to hear
While you’re waiting look what we get up to at Camp Bestival - our spiritual home, our birth place where Rob and Josie Da Banks’s art inspired our journey - and see what we did all last year and tap your to toe this.
No. Get up and dance!!!
As Action Jackson said to us the other day: