Genesis Kickstart Fund project activity | October 2021
30 September 2021
Images: Dr Sita Thomas, Dark Skinned Representation cr. Mathushaa Sagthidas (_inventory platform), Katie Scott (Box of Tricks Theatre)
The £1 million Genesis Kickstart Fund was launched to support freelancers in the creative sector and specifically to help them survive and thrive in an environment transformed by Covid-19. 41 grants of mostly £10,000 have been allocated to creative freelancers throughout the UK, to produce future-facing arts projects.
Here is an update on the projects that have upcoming activity in October.
Digital Art
Where I’m Coming From | _inventory platform
Conceptualised and curated by Linda Rocco and Rhine Bernardino, co-directors of _inventory platform, Where I’m Coming From is a month-long digital programme dedicated to languages that are present and spoken by migrant communities in the UK.
The programme aims to open up conversations around the exclusivity of language in accessing the production and consumption of arts and culture, alongside considering the wider cultural presence of underrepresented artists and groups in international art debates. It challenges the assumed position of the English language and its hegemonic stature as a given and universal form of communication. In doing so, Where I’m Coming from highlights the beauty, intricacies and complexities of a multitude of languages featured through the project.
Week 1 – Thai
Week 2 – Tamil
Week 3 – Burmese
Week 4 – Ewe
Where I’m Coming From begins on 4 October. Find out more about the programme
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The Museum of Austerity | Sacha Wares
The Museum of Austerity is a mixed-reality exhibition that preserves memories of public and private events from the austerity era.
Room 1 of the exhibition, previewing at London Film Festival, records personal stories of disabled benefit claimants who died between 2010-2020. Combining verbal testimony, original music and ground-breaking volumetric capture, this exhibition invites audiences to contemplate close-up the human impact of austerity.
Co-produced by English Touring Theatre, the National Theatre Storytelling Studio and Trial & Error, this powerful installation combines the skills of theatre/XR director Sacha Wares with the in-depth knowledge of John Pring, editor of Disability News Service.
The Museum of Austerity previews run from 6 – 17 Oct. Book tickets
Film
Sudden Connections | Bristol Old Vic
Sudden Connections is the latest project in the Bristol Old Vic’s talent development programme, Ferment, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The project is a series of 5 original short films made by emerging South-West artists, using their talent to harness big, bold ideas within small and powerful digital experiences.
5 Oct – All The Threads You Left Behind by Anna Rathbone.
12 Oct – The Season of Burning Things by Gouled Ahmed and Asmaa Jama
19 Oct – Retail Therapy by Ash Kayser
26 Oct – Lessons Taught to Boys and Girls by Muneera Pilgrim
2 Nov – A Love Letter to Penelope Cruiser by Caroline Williams
Weekly releases of the original short films will begin on 5 October. Watch on YouTube or Instagram.
Theatre
Box of Tricks’ Associate Artists programme | Box of Tricks Theatre
Box of Tricks Theatre have announced its 2021/22 Associate Artists, as part of the theatre’s inaugural one-year paid programme for freelance creatives.
The Associate Artists are:
Lee Affen – Sound Designer
Lucy Carter – Lighting Designer
Jenni Jackson – Movement Director
Alice Longson – Production Manager
Katie Scott – Designer
Each Associate will be embedded within the company, supporting the company’s professional development programme and developing specific aspects of their own creative practice. They will also explore the needs of the wider creative community of offstage artists across the north of the UK.
Find out more about the Associate Artists
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Landing Bolts | Sita Thomas
Landing Bolts is a theatre-based project spotlighting welsh creatives, who tell stories of who they are, and the change they want to make in Cardiff today. The R&D took place over the summer, integrating skateboarding, choreography, music, spoken word, verbatim text, film, fashion and photography and culminated in an outdoor sharing at a skatepark in Cardiff. It also included workshops with young people.
Sita Thomas worked with a group of creative freelancers, including artist and choreographer Reuel Elijah, artist and writer Sadia Pineda Hameed, poet and writer Hanan Issa, fashion editor Nicole Ready, and film production company Redbrck, Marcus Georges and Nick Wotton.
Watch the behind-the-scenes film documentary
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Best Seat in Your House | Young Vic
The Young Vic’s production of Hamlet will be the second show to be streamed via the theatre’s new home-viewing platform Best Seat in Your House.
Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife, The Good Fight) makes her YV debut as a new kind of Hamlet. Jumbo reunites with her long-time collaborator, director Greg Hersov, to bring us this tale of power, politics and desire.
The show will be streamed live for four performances, beginning on 28 October. Book tickets
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Protest | Creative Juices
Creative Juices is an organisation that nurtures, develops and facilitates the creation of new music theatre and opera work. Its Genesis Kickstart Fund project, Protest, is a collaborative project with composition students and performers from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Over the summer, Creative Juices has been working with RNCM composers Cally Stathan, Kevin Dorvil and Henry Page, and freelance librettist Gareth Mattey on three short 10 minute acapella operas on the theme of Protest. A live presentation of the works will take place in October.
Look out for more information on Creative Juices website
Photography
Photographic Garden | Sustainable Darkroom
Sustainable Darkroom have launched the UK’s first photographic Garden initiative in the Northern Sustainable Darkroom facility in Leeds, to discover, support, and facilitate the research and development of sustainable alternatives to photographic processes.
The non-profit organisation created a 1-year Darkroom Garden Residency for a small group of creatives to work with them in the photographic garden, with the support of relevant scientists, horticulturists and artists to advise on aspects of the research.
Find out more about the photographic garden
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View the full list of Genesis Kickstart Fund recipients
