Current Projects
Community Cinema in Nottinghamshire
Cinema in village halls and community venues has a long and distinguished history, both educationally and as one of the ways that culture helps develop social networks and communities. Working with Broadway, I have been examining the current programme for support of community cinema in Nottinghamshire, for the County Council, researching the current and likely future operational models, and writing a comprehensive handbook for local promoters.
Business planning for Leicester Digital Media Centre
As the next major element of the development of the city's Cultural Quarter, a new digital media centre is currently being built in Leicester. At the invitation of the City Council and Andy Whitman, Chief Executive of the centre, I have been assisting with the development of the business plan for this ambitious project, which will bring a wholly new level of new media activity to the city.
Do artists make great places, and if so, how?
With Comedia I have for some time been thinking about a research project to examine what it is that artists contribute to making places, and how we can make the most of their contribution. The contribution of the quality of places to economic, social and environmental development, and to well-being, is increasingly recognised. Artists have long played a part in the quality of places, but there is not at the moment a clear understanding of the evidence of what their contribution is and how it can most effectively be brought to bear in making places that make life better. Comedia is considering a project, building on recent schemes and programmes which have engaged artists in development, to provide a robust, research-based foundation to guide the way that the potential of artists to contribute to the quality of places can best be deployed by private, public and third sector organisations.
The essence of this research project is to identify and examine the distinctive characteristics which artists bring to places, and to our appreciation and enjoyment of them. The project will consider the ways in which the contribution of artists in the context of making places is deployed, identify how it can best be done and develop recommendations and guidance to assist in making the most of the resources which artists represent. We want to ask the question, what is it that the contribution of an artist creates, which would not be there otherwise?