Creating partnerships when you’re skint.

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Photo by Savvas Stavrinos at Pexels. 

To survive the recession you need to live by your wits, particularly if you’re working in the arts. This means wheeler dealing at every opportunity, which, for those who don’t work in the arts, means ‘sourcing stuff for free’. Of course you can only get things for free if you know what’s going on in your community and you will only find out what’s going on in your community if you’ve subscribed to every newsletter going or have made the effort to get out and talk to people. One or the other is not sufficient. Do both.

I left the garret recently and went to see Richard Johnson at New College Nottingham who runs a foundation course in art and design. He’s always looking for exciting ways in which to engage the students while giving them practical experience of working with industry professionals. A couple of years ago he ran a project called Candlesticks and Comics whereby he had students illustrate the poetry of Yeats in collaboration with Candlestick Press Publisher Jenny Swann and the Nottingham Writers’ Studio. I’ve never forgotten that event and I knew one day it would come in handy.

I’ve just put a bid in with the Arts Council/BBC for a project called the Space in which I’m hoping to create a multimedia literary trail of Sillitoe’s Nottingham. Part of the project involves creating a Mobile Phone App detailing key locations from the book. Each location comes with a quote from Saturday Night and Sunday Morning as well as a particular theme raised by the quote/location. Getting hold of the stills from the film is potentially very expensive as is film clips (MGM charge by the second although there is the possibility of getting some content through ‘fair use’) so one way around this was getting the students to illustrate the App.

This is mutually beneficial for all involved. If the bid is accepted (I find out on the 21 Feb) the students work gets global coverage which could help forge professional contacts that you just wouldn’t get out of standard coursework. If the bid is unsuccessful then they still get to work with a professional organisation with a clear brief and deadlines. All I’ve had to do is give an hour’s talk to students – which I did last Friday, help write up a project brief, and be on hand for any questions/guidance as and when needed.

The project could form part of NCN’s regular coursework, enabling future students similar exposure while providing fresh content on a regular basis for the App. This means that literature continues to reach a younger audience as well as offering up endless interpretations of Sillitoe’s work. We could even launch an exhibition of all of the drawings a few years down the line which would help draw attention to the campaign. The possibilities are endless. Now, how to get hold of a free media lawyer…

Forthcoming events in the Sillitoe Season