ISLANDNESS – Online Conference & Workshop
When: Fri 7th June 11am-1pm. Online via Zoom
Booking: FREE to attend, places allocated on a first come first served basis (capacity of 60).
Book via Eventbrite: Click here to for more info and to book your place
Access: Live captions will be available via Otter.ai
We’re working with Visual Arts South West to form a series of events ‘How Can I Stay? (I don’t want to not want to stay)’ which aims to support creative people in the South West who face barriers due to a lack of cultural and public infrastructure, access needs, isolation and injustice. The programme runs from June to October 2024 and includes four in-person gathering as well as two online seminar/workshops.
And we’re kicking things off on Friday 7th June with our lead for the IW Creative Network Georgia Newman (Creative Island Deputy Director) and artist, researcher and lecturer Dr Laura Hopes, collaborating on an online workshop and conference exploring the idea of islands and their social, cultural and geographical place in time – are they places for endings or locations for beginnings?
We take the metaphor and reality of the island as an area of interrogation. In many ways, island communities and artists working within these communities are at the forefront of the stress-tests of how to sustain an artistic practice, far from metropolitan centres.
In our workshop, we will use case studies of arts organisations working on and between islands, who can show us how to celebrate the cultural distinctiveness of these creative communities – to explore the split identities, choosing island life because of rather than in spite of its distinctive framing.
Chaired by artist, researcher and lecturer Dr Laura Hopes, we will hear from Tammy Bedford and Jeremy Brown from Culture on Scilly in the Isles of Scilly, Heather Fulton of Atlas Arts in Skye in conversation with artist Lauren Gault and Djamila Boulil from the University of Groningen in conversation with Georgia Newman, Deputy Director, Creative Island and lead for the IW Creative Network.
Djamila Boulil is a lecturer on Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship at the University of Groningen (NL). Her research explores professional cooperation in the cultural and creative industries (CCI). She takes a macro level perspective, using quantitative data and social network analysis to map the rural parts of the Dutch CCI. In her upcoming publication she is working on seeing how this ecosystem supports young (performance) artists, connecting their early career environment to the publicly funded system she mapped with Quirijn van den Hoogen in 2022. In her spare time she volunteers on the board of TalentWeb Groningen, a foundation that aims to retain young talent in the rural North.
Georgia Newman is Deputy Director for Creative Island – the development agency for culture on the Isle of Wight. Creative Island plays a pivotal role in nurturing all aspects of Island culture, with arts organisations, libraries, heritage services, and cultural education. In 2022 Georgia founded the IW Creative Network, which supports creative freelancers and organisations, which she manages and delivers as part of Creative Island’s talent development offer. The IW Creative Network is a growing community, supporting artists, creatives, and start-ups on the Isle of Wight by building resilience through skills sharing and talent development. It offers creative business support, training, networking events, off-island research visits, resources and profiling through an online creative directory. It aims to nurture and inspire, allowing creatives to thrive and become more sustainable in their practice.
Dr Laura Hopes is an artist, researcher and lecturer in Fine Art University of Plymouth. Her research focuses upon the implicit relationship between climate change and colonisation, focussing intently upon land practices including agriculture and urbanisation. She explores a methodology increasingly built around the ethics of friendship and vulnerability and sees this as a collaging together of disciplines, experiences and materials. Through extensive collaboration within the collective Still Moving and with academics and experts in diverse fields, her expanded practice encompasses writing, conversations, film, performance, installation and multi-disciplinary exchange.
For more information and to book your FREE place via Eventbrite, please click here.
This online event has been convened by Dr Laura Hopes and Georgia Newman. How Can I Stay? is devised with members of the VASW Steering Group: Erika Cann, Laura Hopes, Amanda Lynch, Rocca Holly-Nambi, Georgia Newman and Melanie Stidolph; and supported by VASW. The project is supported with funding from Postcode Local Trust.
