Interviews with Illuminate Bath artists

Artswork Media students have made a series of short films about Illuminate Bath, including interviews with all the artists. It's lovely to see the festival again on film.

Here's one to give you a taster. You can find them all on Vimeo


Illuminate Bath 2010: The Luxarbourscope - Sarah Johnston from Arilda Tymko on Vimeo.

Shining Success for Illuminate Bath

Radiant Convections by Rachael Vartoukian at St Michaels Church. Image by Edward Lockyer.

Poems of movement and illumination by Sam Drew and Graphic comms students, projected on the Pump Rooms, Bath

I've been hopeless at blogging lately but now the festival has finished I have time to write about it. Over 20,000 people saw the projections and events which is amazing.

It was fantastic to see the big smiles on peoples faces as they came across the artwork and projections in the street.



21 different events took place over two weeks (1 – 13 November), showcasing creative work by over 100 students, graduates and staff from Bath Spa Uni. A further 100 volunteers and participants were also involved behind the scenes.

There are loads of great photos on the Illuminate Bath website



Can't wait to start planning the second Illuminate Bath which will be in early 2012, but I'm going to take a much needed holiday first!

Festival news

Illuminate Bath starts one week tomorrow. Eek. Lots of work still to do before then but it's great to see it all coming together. I'm really looking forward to the launch party. Lots of interesting people coming including The Mayor. It should be a great evening. I just need to decide what to wear!

The Relays Team 

Olympic Stadium Aug 2010

Last month we visited the Olympic Park in London. It was really exciting to see it, I think it's going to be amazing. The Olympic stadium will have seating for 80,000 during the Games. It was really interesting to hear that the back stage area and changing rooms for athletes etc will actually be under ground level, beneath the floor. After the Olympics the capacity will be reduced and it'll be turned into an Athletics stadium.

Lucy English performing

Here's a great example of performance poetry from Lucy English. Lucy is one of the country's top performance poets and a lecturer at Bath Spa.

Bringing poetry to Keynsham Music Festival

On 4 July I went to Keynsham Music festival. Local people and students were performing their own poetry on stage and I wanted to be there for moral support. I haven't seen much performance poetry before so I didn't really know what to expect. I thought it was honest, insightful and hilarious at times. I was so impressed by the performers, it takes a lot of confidence to stand up in front of people, especially as some of them had never done it before.

Creative stuff at the K3 Games

On 11 June 2010 I was involved in some creative workshops at the K3 Games. The event is about encouraging young people from local Secondary schools in Bath to try new sports. It takes place every year at the University of Bath. Through Relays we've introduced some fun creative activities.

Bath-based artist Tim Vyner, worked with 25 young people who all had a go at painting on a huge 10 meter long roll of paper. Everyone had a great time and the finished picture is fantastic. My particular favourite is Usain Bolt by the finish line.

Gravity Vomit are the very friendly student society for Circus skills at the University of Bath. Everyone always asks about their name. They say it's because gravity pulls down, so they throw up. Anyway, they were also on hand to encourage people to have a go at hula hooping and plate spinning and show off a few of their amazing juggling tricks.  

IlluminateBath 1 - 13 November 2010

Here's our new festival logo. Hope you like it.

We're really busy working on IlluminateBath. Less than four months to go. It's really exciting to see it all coming together.

Free Performance Poetry Workshops in Keynsham

RELAYS and Bath Spa University are running two free performance poetry workshops in Keynsham, open to everyone. Come and find out how to make your poetry leap up and surprise people!

Lucy English, performance poet and senior lecturer at Bath Spa University, will help you with your confidence and delivery.

Those who attend one of the workshops will be invited to present their poems to a captive audience at the Keynsham Music festival on 4th July!

Dates and Times:
Monday 28th June, 6.30pm – 8.30pm or
Wednesday 30th June, 11am – 1pm

Venue:
The Key Centre, Victoria Methodist Church, Charlton Road, Keynsham

To sign up for a workshop and for further info please call Arilda on 07817 527102.

This project is run in partnership with Keynsham Music Festival.

RELAYS support for student-led projects

Third year students on some courses at Bath Spa University have the option of taking a Creative Enterprise Project module. Students devise and manage their own projects and many include public events. This year RELAYS is supporting some projects which involve significant community engagement and create a positive legacy.

• Livia Stoica is organising a project in collaboration with Bath Fringe Festival to promote cultural diversity and raise awareness of Romanian culture. She has organised a Romanian party for the launch of the Bath Fringe Festival featuring traditional Romanian cuisine and live music from Balkan band Paprika Reloaded. This event takes place in the Fringe Spiegeltent on the Rec ground in Bath on 28 May. The party is followed by a visual exhibition about the fragmentation of Romanian identity in Green Park Station Foyer in Bath from 29 May - 1 June.

• Joel Breen is organising an 'Evolution of Dub' club night on 11 June at the Weir Lounge club in Bath. Joel is interested in the values behind early Reggae music (i.e. self-expression, peace, freedom, togetherness and community) and exploring how these characteristics are still prevalent in these new genres of music.

• Creative Writing student, Bernadette Howley, organised a series of poetry workshops in two local schools in February, followed by a showcase of the young people's work and a celebration of poetry at a community festival on 1 - 3 May in Larkhall, Bath. The project aimed to encourage people from all walks of life to engage with and enjoy poetry.
  

Quick update on various RELAYS projects

I've been really busy lately with project planning so I haven't got round to posting anything for a while. Here's a quick update on a few of the projects I'm working on:

Illuminate Bath:
The festival of Illumination is now called Illuminate Bath. The dates will be 1 - 13 November 2010. The programme is starting to take shape and will include a mixture of installations/ artworks, performance, creative workshops, artist’s talks and debates across various locations in Bath city centre. The finale will be a spectacular light and sound performance taking place in Southgate Square hopefully.

Postgraduate students from Bath Spa's school of Art and Design have done a fantastic job developing the Illuminate Bath branding and we should have a festival website to launch in the coming weeks. Also next week our new Festival Coordinator, a 2nd yr student, starts work in the office with me on a summer work placement.

Performance Poetry at Keynsham Music Festival:
I'm organising two Performance Poetry workshops in June in Keynsham for students and community members who would like to perform their own poetry at the Keynsham Music festival on 4 July 2010. The workshops will be led by Lucy English, a lecturer at Bath Spa University and one of the country's top performance poets.

RELAYS Biennale:
Continuing with the performance poetry theme we're planning to support a group of Bath Spa Uni creative writing students to go to the Eden Project in Cornwall on 25-26 September where they'll be performing their own poetry as part of the RELAYS Biennale. This will be the first of two events showcasing highlights from RELAYS, Eden’s community programme and other events designed for the Cultural Olympiad. The second biennale will take place in 2012.

Mediabus travels to Bath Spa University

A double decker bus with a difference visited Bath Spa University last week as part of a RELAYS supported tour of SW Universities. Nine students took part in a one day project to produce two short films about their expectations and feelings about the forthcoming London 2012 Games.

The Mediabus was at the Newton Park campus on Thursday 18 March. The day began with a lively group discussion about London 2012, focusing on how hosting the Games might benefit the UK. The students then split into two filmmaking teams and agreed who would take on the main roles of director, producer, presenter, camera and sound. After an introduction to the equipment and some further planning, the students set off around campus to gather the footage they needed. At 3pm they returned to the bus to upload their footage and edit the films together.

Thanks to everyone who took part in a really fun and productive day! The completed short films will be available to watch on the RELAYS website in the coming weeks and screened at events around the region.

Hundreds of Jugglers descend on Bath

On Saturday 27th February, almost 350 juggling and circus skills enthusiasts from around the country descended on the University of Bath for the annual juggling and circus skills convention, Bath UpChuck 2010.

Bath UpChuck is in its second year, organised by students from the University’s juggling and circus skills society (Gravity Vomit) and supported by funding RELAYS and ICIA.

Attendees got the chance to try out juggling, diabolo, poi and contact ball as well as hula hooping and body popping. The evening show in University Hall attracted almost 300 people (nearly 100 people more than last yr) and received rave reviews. Congratulations to everyone involved on an amazing event!

Circus skills at Bath Spa Uni (18 Feb)

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Juggling and circus skills taster workshop at Moreton on 18 Feb. It was great to see about 20 students there. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the chance to practise their skills and have a go at juggling, poi, staff, devilstick, plate spinning and diabolo. Special thanks to Gravity Vomit (students from University of Bath) who led the session.

Hopefully the workshop will have inspired some Bath Spa students to come to the Bath UpChuck on Saturday 27 Feb.

Bath Festival of Illumination update

Plans are progressing and we're supporting a group of students to lead on marketing and sponsorship. We're aiming to develop the festival logo, branding and website ready to launch at the end of April.

Last week Arts and Business led a training session in arts sponsorship for students and staff at the university. It was very informative and I think we're now in a much better position to put together a sponsorship package and proposal. We're also busy encouraging students and staff to get involved by producing creative work for the festival.

Bath Literature Festival (27 Feb - 7 March 2010)

RELAYS and Bath Spa University are supporting a series of nine events taking place during the Bath Literature Festival. Each event focuses on a different genre of writing. Featured genres include poetry, life writing, journalism, ghost-writing, travel writing, translation, the graphic novel and historical fiction.

Bath Spa University is a world leader in the teaching of creative writing. In recent years more than fifty graduates have had their work published or broadcast. The University is committed to bringing the best new writing and writers to a public audience.

Bath Spa University creative writing students will work with the Literature festival producers to research and introduce these events.

See the Bath Literature festival website for details of the programme and how to book tickets.

Bath UpChuck, Sat 27 Feb 2010, University of Bath

I am supporting students from Gravity Vomit, the circus skills society at the University of Bath, to organise the Bath UpChuck. It's a one day juggling and circus skills convention featuring workshops, games and a professional evening performance. Try your hand at juggling, poi, staff, devilstick, plate spinning, balloon modelling, diabolo and much more…Everyone welcome.

It takes place from 11am - 7.30pm in the Founders Sports Hall at the University of Bath. The evening performance starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are £4 for day event, £4 for evening performance, or £7 for both combined. For more info visit the Bath UpChuck website.

Bath UpChuck is supported by: University of Bath Alumni Fund, ICIA University of Bath, RELAYS and The Legacy Trust UK.

Gravity Vomit will also lead a one-off free Juggling and Circus Skills Taster Workshop for students at Bath Spa University on 18 Feb.

Funding application submitted

I've been very busy for the last few weeks working on a funding application for the Bath festival of Illumination in 2010 which has now been submitted. We've applied for funding to commission up to three artists to develop new work to be exhibited during the festival. If successful it will make a huge difference as working with professional artists will help to inspire lots more young people and attract larger audiences.

We should hear the outcome in 12 weeks (Mid April) so fingers crossed!