I am a youth and community worker who has been involved in several projects with Contact since 2007. My background is theatre and music with a hint of dance and writing. I gained a degree in Film, TV and Creative Writing in 2005. I have been acting on and off since 1997. I have been involved in a small handful of music projects with bands and producers as an MC.
My project is to work with 10 ex-offenders who have recently been released, and create a book of their poems and art work based on their personal experiences. I will be collaborating with three graffiti artists to help create the artwork. Depending on the confidence and literary level of the participants, it could be an audio book. The book is to be made available in prison libraries to begin with, and my aim is for this to become a regular published series.
Contact’s Future Fires programme, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, is empowering and enabling young and emerging artists from across Greater Manchester to design, plan and deliver their own community arts outreach projects.
Over the course of a year, the programme is providing these individuals, the Future Fires, with tailored training, mentoring, support and seed funding to enable them to develop a peer-led creative arts project in their chosen community.
The Future Fires will be showcasing their work in November.
FUTURE FIRES 2011 RECRUITMENT
If you’re 18-30, have experience of creative projects, are interested in working with a specific community, and think you are ready to lead a project yourself then the Future Fires programme could be your chance to do just that.
If you are interested in being one of the Future Fires in 2011 then contact Neil on 0161 274 0651 or email neilalexander@contact-theatre.org for more info. The details of the recruitment process for next year’s Future Fires will be announced in late November.
