Culture Works » Collaborate to Innovate!

Participants

Michael Evans: Solo Learning Services

Michael is the Founding Director of Solar Learning, a former National Programmes Director of Changemakers Foundation and a founder and first CEO of The Keyfund. He has worked in children and young people’s education for 20 years, and has managed and directed, local, regional and national programmes in that time.

Amongst the programmes Solar Learning delivers is a London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Inspire Mark Awarded project called The Urban Games & Hip Hop Project and a Youth Enterprise Hub

Lewis Atkinson: Community IT Academy (CITA)

Lewis is CEO of CITA which provides IT support and services for the 3rd sector.
Lewis is an experienced fundraiser and project manager with a wealth of knowledge about other groups in the NE regional VCS. He also specialises in low cost IT solutions.

"No-one can do this kind of thing alone, the support of the group and access to specialist help and thinking would be invaluable to the continued development of CITA".

Gloria Ronschi: Aether & Hemera

Aether & Hemera create reactive spaces that cross the borders of architecture, interaction design and site-specific installation art. Their projects range from large-scale installations and public art to interactive videos and product design.

"We participate in Public Art for reciprocal enrichment: on one side we hope to provide engaging and poetic artworks while on the other partnerships with communities, artists and other professionals have become an important part of our creative process; their knowledge, ideas and values inspire and improve our practice."

Wendy Parvin: Global Networking Women (GNW)

Wendy is a founder Director of Global Networking Women which provides services to connect and strengthen individuals and organisations that have female entrepreneurs at their heart. "I want to lend my efforts to ensure UK based GNW becomes the respected organisation to support women's business internationally. It is also crucial that it strives to be the voice that understands, takes a stance and advocates for better conditions for women in business - becoming the key influencer in accelerating female entrepreneurship within the national strategic domain while brokering collaboration within an international framework."

Paul Kelly: A Better Noise

"After doing a strange assortment of jobs from van driver to psychiatric social worker, I worked for 10 years as a booking agent / tour manager for improvising musicians. Now I'm one of 4 people running A Better Noise promoting improvised, experimental and exploratory music in Newcastle."

Carmel Rice: RiCERiCE

"Even after starting my own business Designer Maker is still my preferred title. RiCERiCE allows me to create and sell beautiful jewellery and decorative homeware products. I also currently work part time as a technician demonstrator, this provides me with the perfect opportunity to share my knowledge and skills with students who are eager to learn. The overall aim is to share the knowledge that I have with those ready and willing to develop their own talents and abilities."

Tim Jago : Ice Creams

Ice Creams specialises in creating unique commissions, exhibitions, and facilitating youth workshops. "After studying at St Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, and graduating with a Masters in Glassblowing at The University of Sunderland, I formed my own artistic and literary creations company. Through this I create personal and corporate commissions, arrange exhibitions and host workshops for children. For a personal commission for Alan Shearer, I created a one-off digital print depicting an optimistic view of his life after football. For Nissan, I designed and crafted two contemporary hand-blown and engraved wine glasses. Recently I collaborated with the pop-up creative retail, gallery and workshop space, Made In Newcastle."

Tracy Gillman: Beg Borrow Steal

Beg Borrow Steal creates innovative and collaborative theatre performances, supported by delivering education and community drama projects.

"As a company Beg Borrow Steal cares about creating interesting theatre performances for everyone in a collaborative and sustainable environment, telling epic tales in unusual spaces. The ‘Collaborate to Innovate’ programme will enable Beg Borrow Steal to develop and progress our collaborative aims, not only creatively but as an effective and engaged business".

Chris Batstone

Chris's details are to follow but in the meantime he is... "committed to working with people from disadvantaged backgrounds to support their creative skills, learning and development. My priorities are green issues, climate change and sustainability and my aim is to work with people from disadvantaged backgrounds to support their creative skills, learning and development."

Andrew Gooding: Manager, Lynemouth Community Trust

Steffe Orme: Director, TrueNorth Media

TrueNorth Media specialises in Multimedia/Video Production and Training
Steffe would like to provide a platform for people to tell stories to help give people a voice.

Nikolas Barrera: Co-Director ¡VAMOS! Festival

"Since 2006, ¡VAMOS! Festival has delivered to over 70,000 people in North East England a vibrant, accessible and diverse programme of 200+ events celebrating Latin and Lusophone cultures. Our activities are aimed at all age groups and delivered in close partnerships involving Newcastle University, Theatre Royal Newcastle, The Sage Gateshead, Tyneside Cinema, Northern Stage and Dance City amongst a total of 65+ partners".

Katie Banner: Co-Director Creative Communities

(tryout website)
Creative Communities is a not-for-profit community interest company based in Spennymoor, County Durham. "We were established to help bring about community regeneration in the North-East of England through developing skills and knowledge of the arts and creative industries and helping people in these communities to establish facilities to practice these skills."

Rachel Powell

Rachel is a NESTA graduate. She designs, sources, creates and distributes “high-end” ethical textiles that all have a fantastic story to tell from Peruvian Pima Cotton to Madagascan and Cambodian Silk supporting impoverished farmers, keeping family units together, whilst celebrating and nurturing specialist textile skills. "Collaborate to Innovate would enable me to take the business to a new level based around principals that I truly believe in, that by working together we can achieve more".

Mike Hirst: MD DAS360°

"DAS360° is a UK based micro business delivering digital services to the cultural sector. Past projects have included audio digitization, working with glass plate negatives, podcasting and video editing. Current interests include working with European cultural data via the Europeana Portal to develop new search tools and apps to enhance cultural delivery and working with UK partners to develop search tools to deliver cultural content via the Google Earth browser. Re-imagining of identity, both personal and collective demands collaboration - it is for this reason that projects like Collaborate to Innovate are important".

Alex Finnegan: PuppetShip CIC

PuppetShip's aim is ‘To inspire and enrich the lives of children and families through the transforming power of performance and participation in creative activities’. Alex has received national awards in recognition of his work as a social entrepreneur. "Participating within Collaborate to Innovate seems like the opportunity I have been waiting for, to develop a new paradigm within cultural sustainability"

David Humes:The Byker Centre

David is Secretary of the Byker Community Association and a member of the Byker Centre Board. Although relatively new to the third sector he finds himself working alongside "a small but massively experienced group who all have a deep commitment to increasing the social capital of our community. We are just about to launch the Byker Garden which sees a £500,000 investment in the grounds of St Michael's church located in the heart of the renowned Ralph Erskine "Byker Wall" estate. We'll be holding arts & cultural events alongside providing horticultural training all against the most amazing views of the Tyne, its bridges, Newcastle & beyond. Personally I can't overstate the positive benefits I've seen in myself from the opportunities I've been allowed & will work hard to help nurture positive sustainable change in others".

Anne Allen: Director Barnard Castle Vision Community Interest Company

Barnard Castle Vision researches and realises projects in culture and economic development. "Collaborate to Innovate will help to generate new ideas and think about things differently - I’d like to understand SROI more as a model to proving value".

Nick James: Mushroom Works

Mushroom Works provides affordable studios to creative people, enabling them to grow and thrive.

Monjer Rashid: Operations Manager, Creative and Performing Arts Factory

CAPAF delivers workshops in creative and performing arts (dance,drama, music, fashion, film, photography, and social media),and provides events management, and training for trainers/facilitators in creative and performing arts,and cultural event management.

Jen Hayes: CC-Creative Workshops

CC-Creative Workshops is a collaboration between education, business and young people.

Anna Clough: Labour of Love

Anna is a costume & prop designer maker who has recently graduated from CCAD. With a background in visual merchandising & textile design. Anna hopes to utilise her various skills in developing the Labour of Love textiles network, encouraging the collaboration of women through practical skills. Labour of Love aims to create connections between women who design, and women who don't necesasarily see themselves as ‘creative practitioners’. They may, for example, be women with industrial skills such as sewing, people who’ve attended evening classes for leisure purposes or people who've been taught skills by mothers or grandparents as part of a cultural tradition.

Don McDonald: West End Perfection

WEP engages young people in music production workshopsand promotes youth music talent.
Don is an experienced youth worker/club promoter/events organiser, who is commited to trying to give young people people from disadvantaged areas opportunities to engage in the arts.

Dennis Healy: Gateshead Citizen's Advice Bureau

Dennis is Company Secretary of the Gateshead Citizen's Advice Bureau which provides information, advice, guidance and legal advocacy. Dennis is interested in establishing a collaborative network that supports the people of Gateshead to achieve a better quality of life and life choices.

Philippa McDonald: Urban Training Solutions

"I have just started a training company from scratch. I have been engaged in exploring informal learning as part of an MA in Curating and coming to the end of a PGCE with a view to doctoral research in the future. My action research has been preoccupied with collaborative critique focused on exploring metacognition and peer review in learning contexts within Art & Design. I am also keen to develop a digital strand to my new venture and I intend the impact I make through my business to be both resilient and reflective".