Culture Shift update February 2018

Welcome to another update of cultural whatnots in and around Norwich. Hopefully you have all recovered from dry January, New Year's resolutions and any other stringent rules to follow at the beginning for the year. My challenge for January was getting my accounts done and I noticed on Facebook that many other people had the trial of submitting freelance tax accounts. Well my top tip for anyone who needs a bit of help organising their book-keeping is to try the application Pandle. It is free for most users and is designed for freelancers and sole traders. I am not in their pay by the way, but I have found it really useful for invoicing and book-keeping so am just passing on the love.

Other than that, I am now getting stuck into the next edition of Art in Norwich. If you have an exhibition or visual art event coming up between March and August 2018 in Norwich or Norfolk it's the last chance to be included in the spring/summer edition. It does cost money though as Art in Norwich is a collaborative marketing tool (find out here) which aims offer as much information for visitors and residents of Norwich and Norfolk. It's always really exciting finding out what is in store for the summer. There are some crackers too - a Damien Hirst exhibition at Houghton Hall, Alfred Munnings at East Gallery, Inheritance and Box on the Hill at Norwich Castle as well as exhibitions out of Norwich such as at GroundWork in King's Lynn, Bircham Gallery in Holt and more- there will be details on the Art in Norwich website and in the booklet which will out and about early March.

There are lots of half-term activities coming up at Norwich Puppet Theatre, The Garage, Norwich Playhouse and Norfolk Museums so check out their websites

Reminder 1st Wednesday Jam tonight at Platform Twelve at 8pm
Platform Twelve is a really nice spacious bar in St Benedicts who plays host to many small cultural events, - music, dance and quizzes. Every first Wednesday of the month is the Wednesday Jam with resident musicians the Cordeaux Trio who are joined by friends who come along and play a casual set. Anyone who wants to play, best get in touch beforehand but you can just turn up with an instrument and join in a collective jam at the end. It's free entry and although they don't do food, there is plenty around at the Bicycle Shop, Pizza Express and the relatively new Turkish place Haggle

Tomorrow Thursday 8 February
British Sign Language Cafe at The Garage - free event 10-11am  http://www.thegarage.org.uk/event/british-sign-language-cafe

New Impressions at the Crypt Gallery, Cathedral Close - closes on Saturday 10 February
The Crypt Gallery is in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral and part of the Norwich School (look for the blue door). There is currently an exhibition (until February 10th) of work by 16 Norwich-based graphic designers who have made posters which are reacting to the amazing collection of Renaissance books that Norwich owns, kept in the Heritage Centre in the main library. I went to a talk last week and learned that we have the best collection of books of that period, second only to Oxford and Cambridge libraries and that is mostly because they were kept intact and together when the City of Norwich bought St Andrew's Hall as a civic building. It meant that the collection was kept together. Designer Darren Leader in invited some of his friends and colleagues around Norwich to respond to the collection by using them as inspiration for new work. Darren himself worked on Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica which I have a particular interest in. Go and see it before it closes up on Saturday - details here

New exhibitions
Opening on Saturday 10 February The Square Box on the Hill at Norwich Castle
Standing atop the largest man-made mound in the country, Norwich Castle has dominated the City’s skyline ever since the 12th century. Witnessing the ever-changing cityscape from its heights, the castle has had many iterations of its own over the last 900 years. But what is the story of Norwich’s iconic and much-loved square box on the hill?

Built as a royal palace, Norwich Castle was a Norman showpiece with lavishly-decorated interiors fit for a king. By the 14th century, its walls no longer symbolised wealth and ostentation but conveyed power and authority as it became the County Gaol. After the relocation of the prison in the late 19th century, the Castle fell into a desperate ruin until its conversion into a public museum, which it remains to this day.

This exhibition illustrates Norwich Castle’s rich history through a stunning mixture of prints, photographs, paintings, architectural plans, memorabilia and archives, many of which have never been on display before. But the Castle’s journey does not end there; 'The Square Box on the Hill' will showcase the latest exciting designs for the Castle’s future as part of the HLF-funded ' Norwich Castle: Gateway to Medieval England' project.


At East Gallery, St Andrew's Street Norwich
7- 17 February 2018
Revealing Munnings: rediscovered drawings from the NUA archives

East GalleryNUA is to exhibit drawings by one of Norwich University of the Arts’ most renowned alumni, Sir Alfred Munnings. The fourteen drawings are to go on public display for the first time, after being uncovered in the University archive. They demonstrate Munnings’ emerging expertise as a draughtsman and his aptitude for capturing human and animal form while he was a student at the Norwich School of Art, now NUA. 

The drawings are in urgent need of conservation, so the University is launching a public appeal for help to raise the funds necessary to preserve these extraordinary works for future generations.
https://www.nua.ac.uk/thegallery/


Concerts this week
​Presented by Norfolk & Norwich Chamber Music group
Steven Osborne pianist 
John Innes Centre, Colney
Saturday 10th February 2018, 7:30pm
​with a p​re-concert talk by Misha Donat at 6:15pm

Prokofiev, Sarcasms and Piano Sonata No 8
Ravel, Miroirs (Noctuelles, Oiseaux tristes, Une Barque sur l’océan, Alborado del gracioso, La Vallée des cloches)
Debussey, Images. Book II (Cloches à travers les feuilles, Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut, Poissons d’or)
Prokfiev, Piano Sonata No 8
​Tickets from Theatre Royal Box Office​ 01603 663300

Thursday 15 February Assembly House Music presents
Alauda Quartet 1pm

​More music at www.musicinnorwich.org.uk​


Get Creative Festival 17-25 March 2018
The Get Creative Campaign and Voluntary Arts have joined forces this year and are running a Get Creative Festival where you can register your events as part of a national drive to Get Creative 
From 17 - 25 March 2018, the Get Creative Festival will see people coming together to be creative in their local community. Building on the success of this year's Get Creative Weekend and our own Voluntary Arts Festival in recent years, the new Get Creative Festival will be a merger of these two major events. Voluntary Arts will be working with an increased range of partners to promote this call to action and demonstrate the range of incredible creative activities that can and do take place across the country on a regular basis.Visit the new Get Creative Festival website to add your event to the map and access free toolkits and templates to help promote your event.
www.voluntaryarts.org

Build a giant nest!
Community artists Claire Gebbett and Rebekah Boone are building giant nests with community groups and want you to join them - here's their message about how you can get involved
The Nest Project community arts group is gaining momentum. We have been busy building land art sculptures with groups focussing on natural or recycled materials, encouraging a connection to nature, being creative, caring for the environment and being mindful.  We are applying for Arts Council funding to run a year long project working with communities and organisations creating sculptures in their outdoor spaces.  Our workshops are a great fun, helping people to get outside and collaborate together.  We can deliver the workshop as a drop in which makes it great for open days, fetes, celebrations or as a fundraiser.  A stipulation of our application is that we find partners who are interested in working with us and would be happy to provide their space as an open air gallery for a landart sculpture.  At this stage, no commitment is needed other than to register an interest in working with us.  We will contact you as and when we obtain funding (April 2018) allowing you to book a workshop if you so wish.  So that you can see the Nest Project in action, we are running a free session at Whitlingham Country Park on Wednesday 14 February - see here for details. Please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to register interest to work with us and please feel free to forward to any other groups you know of who may be interested

Artpocket at Lion House Studios in Muspole Street
Artpocket are qualified art teachers Hannelore Baxter and Rebecca Tough who run a whole range of art classes for children and adults at their studios in Lion House, Muspole Street. They have a range of courses, for both leisure and professional development as some are accredited so it is worth exploring their website

NEW! Art classes for the under fives...
Fun one – off family workshops, running throughout the year. The next one is Saturday 10 February 
Get creative together – explore colours, textures and materials and make something to take away and treasure!
Come and share a morning of craft with your child to celebrate Valentine's together. Make a Valentine's colour themed chunky weaving and wool wrapped heart that you can enjoy as a piece of wall art at home.

Enjoy using a range of textured materials and even bring strips of fabric from an old treasured t-shirt or baby grow or even some beach combed/ foraged items that you can weave into your own personal woven story on the day. 

£6.50 (1 adult and 1 child per session - additional children £2.00) Limited spaces - prior booking essential via their website. 

Norwich Film Festival 2018 - Call for short film submissions
Want to get your short film seen, win cash and software prizes, and scoop a prestigious trophy?
Make sure you submit your short film to Norwich Film Festival 2018. Early Bird submissions are now open!
Now in it's 8th year, the festival is a British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) Qualifying Short Film Festival and was also chosen by The Metro as one of 'the top UK film festivals you need to know about.'
Films should be no longer than 25 minutes long and must have been completed after January 2016.
This year's categories include Best Short Film, Best Animation, Best Documentary, Best Student Film, One Minute Movie and the return of The East Anglian Award. This award is given to the best film hailing from Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire; and has either been made predominantly in the region or by filmmakers either living or studying in the area at the time of production.
Early-bird Deadline: 11 February 2018
You can submit your short film here: http://www.norwichfilmfestival.co.uk/submit-your-film
Any questions, please do get in touch at: [email protected]

City of Sanctuary
Last week I went to an event at Norwich Arts Centre to celebrate a year of the City of Sanctuary campaign in Norwich
​ run by a voluntary steering group​
. I had only heard a little about this campaign 
​which is intended to encourage people to support 'strangers' coming to this city​ - a tradition that we have had for many centuries 
- it was a lovely atmosphere with a series of performances and inspiring inspiring speeches. It was really interesting to hear about the variety of initiatives taking place in our city to welcome and support refugees and asylum seekers
​ including a lovely film made by the children of Avenues School​
. You can see some photos from the evening on the Facebook post.

There are lots of ways that you can get involved 
​in the City of Sanctuary ​
as a business, school, sports club, community space or even as an individual. 
​Its a campaign rather than an organisation so it is a case of making a pledge to support the values of refuge and sanctuary. Specifically they are looking for host families to give temporary accommodation to refugees and also 
​they are promoting 
Welcome Wheels - a crowdfunder led by Bicycle Links, launching on Wednesday 14th February, to raise money to provide bikes (and locks, lights, helmets and cycle proficiency training) to asylum seekers and newly resettled refugees in Norwich. Please share widely so we can get this project moving forward - there is massive demand for it among the community and it will have a really positive impact on the lives of a lot of people!
​ ​
We're really excited about the future of City of Sanctuary in Norwich, so thank you for joining us and helping us to reach out to new networks, and please keep spreading the word! 
www.facebook.com/NorwichCofS/​

Great Yarmouth cultural networking opportunity​
​If you live or work in or around Great Yarmouth​ there is a new opportunity to get linked up with other people in Yarmouth
CIRCULATE: Friday 9 February, 6pm a​t ​The Drill House, Great Yarmouth

SeaChange Arts launch Circulate, a quarterly network and social event for artists, creatives, and those working across the community and cultural sectors this week.
Offering a mix of informative presentations, networking opportunities and great preview performances, Circulate is an opportunity to mix work… and pleasure! 

This month, join us to enjoy a drink and a chat with presentations from Julia Devonshire, Cultural Lead for Great Yarmouth Borough Council and Helen Johnson of the Great Places – Making Waves project.  We’ll also have Start East on hand with news of their business support programme for creatives.

SIGN UP: for Soap Box – a quick fire news round where you can share your project or activity. Email [email protected] to register.

We’ll have news of our new Associate Artists programme, Artist Directory and then performance and music into the evening.
Get along early for a FREE hot soup and a roll!
Do please share with your own networks.  Further information on the website.

Circulate is part of Making Waves Together, a wider partnership project led jointly by Great Yarmouth Borough Council and Waveney District Council, and funded by the national Great Place Scheme, which is seeing communities and organisations in both areas work together to boost the cultural offer and drive cultural re-imagination as a way of supporting success in the seaside towns.  Great Places has been supported by a grant from Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund.


Early-Mid Stage Dementia Training for Art Practitioners
Wednesday 21st February 2018, 9.30am-4pm
Edith Cavell Building, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7TJ.

This session provides an introduction to dementia, explores effective ways of reducing challenges faced by professionals and carers and how best to involve people in creative activities.
Price to attend is £40
To book, please email [email protected] or call 01953 713390 for more information. Please note spaces are limited.
​
The Assembly House Arts Prize
​The Assembly House Trust has started a new arts prize, this year with an emphasis on print-making. It comes with some amazing prizes, including £4000 cash. Entries are open now for a short window until 15th  February so get on the case straightaway ​. The entry form is available on this page from Tuesday 6th February.

Offered to an outstanding Norfolk-based candidate, the winner will receive a bursary of £4000, access to a Norwich studio space and an exhibition at The Assembly House. For the inaugural year The Assembly House Trust are working in partnership with Print to the People, who will be offering the winning candidate free access to their high-quality printmaking studio in central Norwich.

Brief : ​Create a new body of artwork inspired by Norwich and Norfolk, to be exhibited at The Assembly House.

Prizes
£4000 Cash Bursary
Studio Time, Materials and Mentoring from Print to the People (Worth £1000)
Six-Week Exhibition at The Assembly House
Inclusion in the Norwich Print Fair
The winning candidate will be chosen by three judges, representing The Assembly House Trust, Print to the People and Norwich Print Fair.

Timescale
6th February 2018 – Entries Open
15th February 2018 – Entries Closed
2nd March – Email notifications to all entries
9th March 2018 – Winner Announced
6th July 2018 – Exhibition Opens
28th September – Exhibition Ends

​Full details and entry criteria here​

​Job opportunities
Norfolk and Norwich Festival are looking for a Volunteer Organiser and two interns for the next NNFestival
Find details here https://nnfestival.org.uk/about-us/vacancies/

For more job opportunities sign up for the Norfolk Arts Forum newsletter here or read the current newsletter update here

The Shift Norwich: Culture Shift, Design Shift, Digital Shift
Developing and promoting Norwich as a city of culture

Marion Catlin
Director Culture Shift network 

Telephone 07946 261651
LinkedIn Marion de Mello Catlin  Skype marionecatlin
Twitter accounts marionofnorwich and norwichcultcity
Website: www.theshiftnorwich.org.uk

Culture Shift Network is a free communication resource for the arts and cultural community of Norwich. If you would rather not receive email updates please email back asking to unsubscribe. Please feel free to forward on to other networks and contacts, and if you would like to be added to the list for your own copy, please email me at [email protected] or visit www.theshiftnorwich.org.uk. Thank you