Culture ConneX – Phase 1 Update – June 2022

Culture ConneX has already surpassed our expectations in terms of the volume of consumers (artists, audiences and participants) and the number of exhibition and performance days originally estimated for this first phase. All of the artists/producers involved in the activity represent protected characteristics or are active socially-engaged allies of PoC/QTIPoc, Neurodiverse, LGBTQI+, Disabled and/or economically-challenged communities. We have also secured new partnerships with; Alison Lapper MBE who presented a talk at the Brighton Fringe exhibition ‘Otherwise Engaged’, Chalk Films, Creative Future, Well Balanced Coaching etc.

Arts Council investment has enabled us to provide a supportive cross-artform, intersectional, intercultural, collaborative space to equip and empower artists to engage with both mainstream and culturally specific arts programming. We have also been able to fulfil our ambition to build an ambitious programme and encourage a broader range of communities to participate in culture.

Headline statistics so far;

• 3 x Exhibitions (114 days)
• 19 Separate Events – throughout LGBT History Month and Brighton Fringe festival
• 185 Multi-Disciplinary Artists – Visual Art, Photography, Cabaret, Music, Film, Comedy, Spoken Word, Theatre, Dance
• 198 Participants

We have succeeded in our mission to combine a professionally curated series of events with community-led creativity to enable artists to participate across both mainstream and culturally specific programming – affording them invaluable exposure and access to professional environments, new audiences, and potential new collaborators;

CURATED SERIES

• A vibrant multi-disciplinary programme of cultural events platforming diverse identities and cultural perspectives, so far incorporating;
• Photography/Visual Art Exhibitions – ‘Identity’, ‘Otherwise Engaged’ and ‘Ice Cream Artworks’
• Film Screenings/Q&A – Otherness Archive
• Literature Salons – Poetry Room (Writing Our Legacy) and DIMENSIONS
• Performing Art – Music, Comedy, Cabaret, Theatre, Dance, Multi-Media: Tramfrau, Lava Elastic, The Qwarks, BLK Diamond Dance, Cocoa Butter Club, The Bitten Peach, ASTRA, Paradigms of a Paradox, Thirty 10 Arts, Visual Poets, UNISEX, Voices of Evil,

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

The ‘Becoming a Successful Arts Practitioner’ coaching programme was developed in partnership with Well Balanced Coaching to replace the original plan for a series of disparate workshop sessions in response to the needs and aspirations of the target communities. A cohort of 13 participants are already halfway through the programme enthusiastically embracing their new learning on creative entrepreneurship.

SMALL GRANTS SCHEME

The successful applicants for this open access seed fund programme include visual artists filmmakers, performers, producers, writers and curators requesting support to help them produce new material, or to participate in events festivals in Brighton’s cultural calendar, and/or research/workshop materials.