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Issue 4 11/11/2019

A note from Sharon Gill, CEO.

Welcome to Issue 4. We all hope you have been enjoying our quarterly newsletter. Please do provide any feedback.

We have been very busy over the summer helping in the preparations and delivery of the co-created community led Diversity Festival nestled in the annual Rotherham Show. With funding from many different partners, including the Arts Council, Awards 4 All, We Great Place and UK Research and Innovation to mention a few, guided by ROAR, REMA and SENSE the organisation worked with many local volunteers and groups and over 150 artists and performers to put the two day event together. Audience figures for the whole show over the weekend exceed 75,000 and the feedback has been amazing.

EGG, our artist led development programme is gathering speed. Funded through WE Great Place, the participants from Rotherham and Barnsley have been learning about social media profiles, and Instagram in particular, online sales platforms and the next session will be covering video footage for social media sites from your phone. Its not too late to take part!

During October we were delighted to host the South Yorkshire Music Hub regional meeting here at our base on Westgate. Just a reminder our drama studio is available to hire for flexible purposes.

Coming up we will be working with the company Home Instead introducing artists to develop creative practice with dementia patients who find themselves house bound. This is an Awards 4 All funded project and will be delivered in the New Year.

A little further afield, ROAR have been working with the Doncaster New Fringe, who have secured the use of a shop front for exhibition purposes in the town centre. This has great potential for artists across the region.

Keep an eye open for upcoming workshops and events like the excellent Skills Share day where participants went from electronics to drawing to textiles to oil paint to sculpture in a matter of hours, all in addition to our regular Life Drawing and artist talks.

Have a great winter and hope to see you in 2020.

What's been happening?

ARTIST TALKS

After a quiet time in August, we kicked of our Autumn term with a great and well attended Artist Talk with Dr Ed Daw, Reader/Lecturer of Physics at the University of Sheffield.

Ed was part of a team that confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, 100 years after Einstein's predication, heralding a new frontier in astrophysics and cosmology.

The talk did not simply focus on physics however, but the connection between physics and blues music. A gifted musician, Ed discussed these connections whilst also playing different phrases and pieces on the piano.

Following on from this talk we welcomed Martin Archer, a composer and improviser based in Sheffield. Martin has extensive experience within his field, including co-founding the Discus Music label, as well as acting co-director of the avant choir, or "anti-choir" as they have been coined, Juxtavoices.

Our Artist Talks are open to everyone and anyone who wants to come, they are also free and happen on the 2nd Wednesday of the month.

ARTIST EXHIBITIONS & SKILLS SHARE DAY

In October we welcomed artist Sarah Cassels to show a collection of her work in Buzz Gallery. Sarah is a new member of ROAR and her work is incredibly absorbing in terms of media choices and content. You can see some of her work below (the first couple of images were taken at her exhibition). The showcase was well visited and drew interest from the many people who pass through the gallery every week.

On October 19th we hosted our first ever Skills Share Day. The idea behind this was for artists to get together and learn directly from each other. Although this was initially directed at those who were sharing as part of the event, we opened the doors so that anyone who wanted to come along to learn but not share, could do at the affordable cost of £5!

Local artist and ROAR member Amanda (Minx) Daley showcased her exhibition - Truth and Lies - at the Coterie Gallery, officially opening on Monday the 4th of November, it is on show until the 16th of November and is well worth a look in if you are available. The exhibition which she described as an honest view into some of her personal truths, a great way to explain the collection of work which delved into politics, her love of Frida Kahlo as well as an insight into her experience battling cancer.

Black History Month Poetry Recital & Little Mayor Day

As part of this years' Black History Month events organised by REMA (Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance) Amy attended a poetry recital at the Unity Centre on October 14th which was led by Dr Debjani Chatterjee.
A selection of women who had attended the workshops in the run up to the recital performed their pieces, and it was a really powerful experience. You can read her blog about this here.

We were also very happy to invite Olivia Hodges to ROAR on the 31st of October who was acting Mayor for the Day. Olivia very much enjoyed experimenting with our VR machine as well as exploring our space here on Westgate Chambers.

RAD & LIFE ACT

RAD (Rotherham African Drums)-

After performing at a range of events throughout the summer, and into the early Autumn at the Diversity Festival and Gainsborough Gala, RAD were very happy to receive the news that they have successfully secured £5,000 worth of funding to support their ongoing growth and development. The money was granted from South Yorkshire Community Fund and will be coming from the following: Rotherham Community Endowment Fund, and the The Liz & Terry Bramall Distribution Fund.

They have also launched their own website, where you can find out more about their weekly sessions, as well as how to book them for a performance: www.rotherhamafricandrums.com

Watch this space!

Life Act-

Life Act has had a very busy few months welcoming new staff members and performing at a range of community and education events! Caroline and Charlie officially started their roles as practitioners and have begun to work with the group to create content for their new show. Life Act performed their signature piece ‘Silent Scream’ at the Diversity Festival and at Clifton Park Museum. In addition, Life Act were also invited to performed at Magna as part of the Harms of Hate Education event. Some members of Life Act sang and read poetry at New York Stadium as part of their work to raise awareness of hate crimes. In between this busy schedule of events, Life Act celebrated Halloween by having a special Halloween party. Members created a spooky freeze-frame and danced to some Halloween disco classics. A frightfully good time was had by all!

Life Act has a new website, www.roarlifeact.com. As well as finding us on Facebook, you can also fund us in Twitter @ROAR_LifeAct and Instagram. Please follow up to stay updated with our work!

What's next for ROAR?

In the upcoming months we have some exciting projects coming to fruition, including beginning GLOW a 9 week artistic project working with people who are living with dementia and who are receiving home care. This is in partnership with Home Instead Senior Care. We are in the process of recruiting an artist to fulfil this brief.

We are also planning an event - "RAW Talks"- alongside SheFest for March 2020, which will showcase a number of self-identifying female artists working in Rotherham and the wider region. ROAR member Amber Topaz will also be performing her show at ROAR on March 14th as part of the festival.

Excitingly, we are in the process of planning an exhibition as part of Sheffield's Festival of Debate for 2020.

Workshops

16th November- Automaton Workshop with Matt Butt, 10am-3pm. Learn how to make a simple automaton construction. Book here.

27th Nov & 4th Dec- Ceramics Workshop with Matt Butt, 6-8pm across both dates. More info TBC, please keep an eye our on our social media for more information regarding this event.

We are open minded to workshop ideas. Please contact us if there is anything you would like to learn!

Rotherham's Diversity Festival, September 2019 @ Clifton Park - a review

What an amazing weekend, the sun was shining and the crowds were smiling.

Located in the heart of the Rotherham Show, we were able to host many of Rotherham's smaller voluntary groups representing protected characteristics with a market stall so they could share information and raise a little money to keep their groups going for the rest of the year.

We welcomed a new addition thanks to Alex McClean of the AlgoMech festival, of a Live Coding tent, funded by Innovate UK which was really busy. Our stage hosted world famous musicians such as Tongesayi Gumbo, who programmed an afternoon of African culture, and Balladeste who hotfooted straight from Sardinian to our event with their beautiful string based compositions. Drum machine literally brought the audience running and Sahara rounded off the event to huge crowds.

None of that would have been possible without the support, commitment and dedication from the small team and the army of hard working volunteers, our sponsors and funders- including the Arts Council, Awards For All, WE Great Place and RMBC. To see more find us on facebook.

Flux Capacitor - Creative People and Places

The exciting announcement in August of our success at securing investment from the Arts Council over the next four years for our Flux Capacitor project has kept the consortia members very busy. The programme is about change, and working differently, and that takes a lot of planning! We have gone live with the Facilitators role, to help the Consortia develop a system of governance, and we will soon be recruiting for the big position of Doc Brown, our project director, who will guide the successfully delivery of our emerging co-produced vision.

We were delighted to host a visit from the Arts Council's CEO Darren Henley, the lead for the North, Pete Massey and our liaison Stephanie Simm this week and show the progress Rotherham has made across the board in supporting art and culture.

The programme will not begin in earnest until spring next year, but we would be delighted to hear from anyone who wants to contribute and get involved. Please email team@rotherhamroar.org with you contact details and a little bit about why you are interested and we will be in touch.

Grimm & Co secure funding bid via the Arts Council's Small Capital Grants fund!

Fellow NPO organisation Grimm & Co have secured £499,999 in funding from the Arts Council, allowing them to purchase a 250-year-old Methodist church on Talbot Lane in Rotherham, which closed earlier this year due to dwindling congregation numbers. This will be the new location for Grimm & Co transforming the space into an ‘apothecary for the magical.’

You can read more about this great news here.

Every month Amy interviews a member of ROAR to find out more about their artistic practice. This is written up and published in Chase magazine, a pull out of the Rotherham advertiser. You can read the past member interviews on ROAR's website here.
Chase magazines are dotted around the town but you can also read it online here.

ROAR currently have 119 members
.
Interested in becoming a member of ROAR? Find out more on our website.

If you have any further queries or questions you can contact us on team@rotherhamroar.org or call 01709 835747

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ROAR has been supporting emerging and professional artists living or working in Rotherham since 2005, and is a National Portfolio Organisation, funded by the Arts Council.

You can find out more about us and what we do here.

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Rotherham Open Arts Renaissance · Westgate Studios · Westgate · Rotherham, South Yorkshire S60 1AN · United Kingdom