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Edinburgh Festival Fringe
LoudScribble @ Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022
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After years of attending, working and consuming the Fringe, this year is time for me to return as performer.
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I've been working as a poet and spoken word artist for some time and have been writing on and off for years.
Now I'm jumping in feet first with my own one-man show, sharing my casual ramblings and even inviting the audience to do some writing of their own.
Tickets for LoudScribble are available here
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My thanks to colleagues at theSpaceUK who have made this event possible and have all promised to use their free passes to come and be supportive too. Cheers guys!
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Other poetry work around Somerset​
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Besides my own work I have been fortunate to receive several commissions in recent months, largely from my friends at Seed.
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During lockdown 2021 I was asked, along some fellow artists, to work with the public (at a social distance of course) to create work for First Buses and Buses Around Somerset. I created as many as 20 short poems, some of which made their way onto the sides of buses.
Then as a follow up project, again with collaborative artists, I was invited to create some written work for advertising spaces around Bridgwater.
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Much of this work will be in place in the autumn of 2022 and displayed at the Engine Room, the home of Seed Sedgemoor.
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My other recent commission aimed to support vulnerable people during lockdown, specfically those who could not comfortaby access onine resources. After 8 weeks of creative phone calls myself and Rachel Gundry created a book of our work and that of the participants across Somerset. The book, MOSAIC is available from the Seed website at a cost of £5 each. These funds go back to spporting future comminty based arts activity.
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In 2020 I applied to be on the Board of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
This was my "Statement from Candidate"
Background
The Edinburgh Fringe has been a huge part of my life and career for over 25 years. Now, following a career in the participatory arts sector and supporting a wide range of creative communities, I feel excellently equipped to support the development of the Fringe Society with a position on the Board of Directors. In the late 1990s, with a degree in Drama and Sociology, I started in youth work and youth arts work. I developed school projects and outreach programmes for Theatre Peckham, south east London, and facilitated young people’s decision making in Twickenham and across Richmond, including helping young people to appoint a first CEO to a fledgling Connexions Service.
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I then worked for British Youth Music Theatre with a portfolio to arrange places on residential courses across the UK for those experiencing barriers to participation. This role allowed me to work with multiple partner organisations and develop long term strategies for embedding engagement with youth organisations such as refugee groups, young carers groups, social services and schools’ Gifted and Talented schemes. Moving to the south west, I started working for Bath Festivals as Education Projects Manager, giving me the chance to work directly in primary and secondary schools, as well as alongside a series of authors and artists on festival events. This opportunity highlighted the value of a festival as a transformative platform and I also helped developed my practice as a creative writer.
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I spent a period of time working freelance, as I am again now, which included writing and filming online resources for an OCR blended-learning platform. For nearly three years, until last year, I was Head of Creative Learning for Wiltshire Music Centre (WMC), a 300-seat concert venue. Here I was responsible for a budget of around £500K and managed a team delivering year-round music projects with schools, two youth orchestras, older people’s creative engagement across the county and for a unique monthly music programme with learning disabled young adults, entitled Zone Club.
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I also bring Board experience having previously served as a Trustee and school governor. I was a trustee at Theatre Peckham, 2004-09. In 2010 I was invited to the board of Creativity Works (CW) in Somerset, an arts and health charity offering significant support to adult social care. From 2012-16 I served as Chair for CW including presiding over their second successful round of ACE NPO funding.
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Over a similar time, I have also been a primary school governor and Chair of Governors. I chair the Business Sub-Committee and in recent months have chaired the Covid-19 working group to oversee the remote provision of the school and the plans for wider opening in September.
Lockdown has invited many changes. I have been involved in various online projects, in lieu of face-to-face contact. I currently produce an online festival for a fringe venue company, (on which more below). The music-making session, Zone Club, which I still project manage for WMC has moved to an online provision, has so far generated 4 new songs in 5 sessions, including one music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAadnUNfKag), with plans for a CD/DVD by the New Year. My monthly Acoustic Night, which I hosted live in a local venue until March, has also moved onto Zoom, in order to support local artists and musicians and combat the isolation of recent weeks.
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Above all else I offer a life-long passion for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and for constantly seeking to engage the participation of others in theatre and the arts. I have worked most extensively with young people and especially with those from disadvantaged backgrounds. I have supported older people and recognise the value of connecting with the adult care and charity sector to better facilitate their engagement. I have also supported artists and teachers in a variety of projects, from generating classroom activities to hosting industry events to running teacher training sessions at Bath Spa Uni and by genuinely listening to levels of need so that projects can be responsive.
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I thoroughly recognise the unique challenges of running the Fringe Society in this current climate, indeed of running any arts organisation that relies on a communal shared experience. I would hope to offer expertise, humour and a pragmatic approach to the short, medium and long-term aspirations for this wonderful festival, this weird experience, this month-long test of creative endurance, this crazy thing that we call Fringe.
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Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue experience
My association with theSpaceUK goes back to 1996, when our operation was just Venue 45. My then girlfriend (now wife) and I ran the box-office. In recent years I have helped the organisation expand to the extensive venue provider it is today, as Venue Manager of Symposium, Surgeons’ Hall and back to Venue 45 last summer. Annually, I have trained Box Office and Technical staff in the ethos of our operation and have been available as pastoral support for our staff, given my background in youth work.
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In a hiatus of not actually working for theSpaceUK in the early 2000s, I brought my youth centre to the Fringe and we ran our own venue. Theatre pieces, a film project, two rock-bands and a breakdance crew all descended on Venue 250 which I arranged from scratch. By this I mean, as with all pop-up theatres, I arranged lighting, staging and all the compliance issues for fire safety and theatre licencing.
In addition to running venues for theSpaceUK I have also supported new artists, by instigating seminar sessions with theatre professionals such as Chris Grady (chrisgrady.org) to give new companies an insight into the Fringe experience. I still take great joy from seeing newly arrived companies take in the breadth, depth and magnitude of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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This summer, in lieu of a Fringe Festival we can attend, I have produced our online@theSpaceUK festival with around 80 shows and three sessions of live, streamed performances.
Many thanks for reading,
Karl