Creative Commissions 20-21

Following a successful recruitment period where the Co-op saw over 15 high quality proposals submitted by artists and small organisations from across Lancashire, the selection panel met and chose four projects to receive a grant over £2,000.

Creative commission recipients include; GRAFT (Lancaster), Theatre in the Rough (Lancashire), SHAR (Manchester) and leo&hyde (Lancashire).You can download the year one commission report here.

GRAFT

A visual arts organisation and CIC based in Lancaster championing exciting and diverse visual art from early career artists.

Project: GRAFT’s Changemakers

Creating connections between art and social activism, the Changemakers will be a group of energised young people passionate about arts and equality, tasked with curating a distanced exhibition of work by three emerging black artists from the UK.

Changemakers will research, connect and commission the artists and decide how works should be shown to reach disparate audiences. The project will provide a platform for young people to explore how art can be a powerful tool towards long term societal change.

SHAR

A professional singer, songwriter, producer and young people’s facilitator with over 10 years of experience.

Project: Your Place in the World, NOW!

A creative project in collaboration with Jo Lane that combines visual and audio storytelling, song writing, music production and film making to develop a digital film and live event created and produced by young people.

The project will elevate the young people’s voice and allow them to speak about what it is like to live in the world right now. So much of the news is geared towards statistics and numbers, the project will shine a light on the individual experiences of living during a global pandemic.

leo&hyde

A multi-award-winning musical theatre collective and production company set up in 2017 and based in Lancashire.

Project: Double Life

Working with young LGBTQIA+ people and West End Stars from Lancaster and beyond, leo&hyde will take inspiration from their new show GUY and the song Double Life to create a music video exploring what it is like to lead a double life. Digital workshops in dance, devising and BSL alongside additional instructional videos will build creative skills and integrate their own experiences into a brand-new music video. The video will form the basis of a campaign about finding your own community online, being proud and being your authentic self.

Theatre in the Rough

A Lancashire-based producer of new creative work by emerging artists across the North West.

Project: Change in a Box

A creative resource led by Joseph Rynhart to help young people overcome some of the barriers to active citizenship. It is a technology-free exploration of history and activism through case studies, arts and crafts. The kit contains printed materials, trinkets and creative supplies. Using the resources, young people can learn more about active citizenship through history, experiment with new artistic techniques and materials, and discover ways they can become more involved in their community.