Blog

The first full week back in the office has allowed opportunity to reform and re-plan – could also be known as procrastination but I like to think of it as limbering up.

Whilst a million pages of the Trim Tots Training Manual sit moments away from completion abandoned on my desk I have found a moment to squeeze in passing reflections, a fair few thank you’s and plans moving forward.

In 2018 we have been delighted to make many new connections as well enjoying working with old partners in new ways.

Electric Umbrella

I loved making Disco Bunting with Electric Umbrella and enjoyed helping to dress their Very Electric Christmas. I have enjoyed watching their organisation go from strength to strength with the newly established yellow choir https://www.electricumbrella.co.uk/choir and pre-Christmas single release, https://youtu.be/kX280Jaf66o I am looking forward to hearing more from them this year.

Hemel Old Town Hall

We have been working to develop creative opportunities with the team at the https://www.oldtownhall.co.uk not only will the venue be hosting a production of our musical puppet show, Savour the Flavour but plan to establish the Animation Station offering opportunity to work with Artists at a series of workshops in model making, stop-frame animation and puppetry for the young and young at heart.

Trim Tots

The website has received a content overhaul and with only a few tweaks to go http://www.trimtots.com we are well on our way to completion. The Trim Tots Programme reports with Camden Council and West London Zone show increased activity and fruit & veg consumption for participating families http://www.trimtots.com/news-and-referrals/.  The programme has received a rating from the Early Intervention Foundation and is to be included in their Guidebook https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/eif-evidence-standards. We have shared our programme findings at the Food Active, BDA and Food Matters events where it was great to hear about other work across health.

Arts Council

After spending months working to programme a tour of our musical puppet show, Savour the Flavour, our application to Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants was unsuccessful.  I would like to extend my thanks to the following organisations for support and advice throughout the application process:

Herts Library Service, Letchworth Broadway, 3 Rivers Arts and Activity Development Officers, Watford Arts/Education Outreach Team, Pump House Theatre Watford, Creative Herts, HEAT at Beds Uni, Herts Arts Dev, Hemel Old Town Hall, Musical Theatre Network, ROH Bridge and great advice from our ACE relationship manager.  After follow-up conversations and some very helpful advice, I am preparing for resubmission.

Arts Mark – Bringing learning to life through arts and culture https://www.artsmark.org.uk

Nysa attained Arts mark status last year and we plan to rework the content of our application to include arts mark as part of our wider creative engagement offer informing the content of our next submission. You can find more show details here https://www.kerrylanigan.co.uk/puppet-show

Herts Library Service – we are in the process of devising a programme of creative events in partnership with Herts Libraries under the working title of My Story, looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

Creative Herts

Looks like it’s shaping up to be a Creative Year in Herts as Creative Herts pull us all together to work towards the Hertfordshire Year of Culture 2020.

https://www.creativehertfordshire.com/resources/year-of-culture-2020/