On the 30th April I got a wonderful early birthday present, the news that my application for a Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) Grant from Arts Council England had been accepted. Not only was this a wonderful gift to receive, but it has finally provided the light at the end of a long dark tunnel.
This opportunity will give me the financial support to take my practice to the next level and to have the space and time to explore new ways of working and hopefully bringing new audiences and opportunities for oral storytelling in the future.
So what will I be doing over the next year?
Over the course of the next twelve months, I want to explore how new technologies and alternative approaches to expressing stories can be blended with traditional oral storytelling to increase new audience engagement whilst retaining authenticity.
I plan to achieve this through a combination of training, mentoring and residencies to explore new practices and collaborate with a range of different artists and peers. I’m keen to look at AR, VR and motion capture advancements and their possible application into performance storytelling and I have already begun conversations with specialists in these fields. I will also explore the development of the physical narrative and use of music in my practice and bring these threads together in a new piece of performance .
For the past eight years I have established my practice within education and the community and produced a platform for storytelling engagement at a local level, however this has reduced both the time and the opportunity to develop my performance practice.
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The pandemic has given me the pause to reassess the work I do and consider the areas I want to grow in as an artist. I have had to embrace technology in order to continue producing events and it has given me a different perspective on where I want to take my work. I now have the opportunity to fully understand the creative technologies and available digital platforms and what they offer in terms of audience reach.
I hope as a result I can establish my identity as a performance storyteller and produce sustainable work that connects with a wider and more diverse audience.
I shall be documenting my journey and discoveries through this blog and a podcast that I'm currently developing.
I hope you'll share this journey with me, a journey made possible with the support of both my peers and of course Arts Council England.
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