The ArtScience Prize supports young people to develop innovative art and design ideas that are both personally and socially relevant. Ignite! has been working with ArtScience Labs network, based in Boston, to explore with partners in the UK the idea of introducing the Prize to this country.
A breakfast briefing meeting earlier this month hosted by NESTA brought together representatives from museums, academic institutions, creative practitioners and possible funding partners to debate the benefits to young people of the ArtScience Prize and how a UK version would be distinctive.
Winners of the Prize are offered the opportunity to continue the development of their ideas at workshops at Le Laboratoire in Paris each summer.
We think this is a tremendously exciting opportunity for Ignite! to be involved in - and would like to invite other potential partners and interested parties to the debate. Please contact Emilie Glazer (emilie@ignitefutures.org.uk) for further information - or as ever, watch this space!
Room 13 is the parent of our fantastic Lab_13s, and we have Room 13 to thank for the inspiration, support and network that our Labs have benefited from. Ignite! has recently been discussing opportunities that the Room and Lab_13 network can offer, and we are really excited to see where this development may take us all. Room 13 is an international charity with Room 13 studios all over the world, and as the Lab_13s are part of this network, developing the communications and opportunities between the Room 13s and Lab_13s is very exciting.
And check out our Lab_13 blog! Some of our great Lab_13 Management Teams have been busily blogging away to keep us all up-to-date with what is happening in their Lab_13, so please do take a few minutes to read some very creative and inspiring blog posts!
Derby Silk Mill, officially the world’s first factory, which has been in mothballs for the past two years, is in talks with Ignite! to develop some creative programming, and new opportunities through creativity and innovation in this inspiring space. With four floors of exhibition space, a fascinating range of artefacts and a working workshop, the Silk Mill has huge potential, and Ignite! are very excited and honoured to be involved as a partner organisation of the Museum.
Derby Silk Mill
Ignite! has been in some very exciting talks with a new and innovative primary school in Milton Keynes, Brooklands Farm Primary School, and we are looking forward to developing further activities with the school including a Lab 13, and some creative workshops to help build on creativity both with teachers and pupils. With some fantastic spaces available for development, community links and a large housing development, which will offer lots of opportunity to work with families and others linked to the primary school, we are really pleased to be building relationships with this pioneering school and its staff.
An outdoor classroom in use.
James Winfield has been accepted onto the Spark and Mettle programme called ‘Star Track’ which is designed to help 13 young people aged between 16-24 to map and launch their dream career.
Courtney Williams has been accepted to take part in a series of Innovation Labs for young people – exploring the links between digital technologies and supporting mental health. The Labs will provide an opportunity for invention and collaboration between young people, technical experts and mental health professionals to develop new ideas for digital technology in this field.
Andrew Smith has been busy developing his ‘One Word Science’ channel on YouTube – take a look at some of his great films so far: OneWordScience
One Word Science
We are delighted that Redmoor High School in Hinckley, Leicestershire has been shortlisted to take part in the final of the STEM club projects as part of the National Science and Engineering Competition at the Big Bang in Birmingham in March 2012. The school have been shortlisted for their Come Alive with Science 2011 project – ‘Can you see what I hear: My body’s social network’.
We are very pleased to announce and welcome our new Board members to the Ignite! board. Dr Barry Gibb joins the Board, coming from the Wellcome Trust media team as a film maker, and author of Rough Guide to the Brain. We have known Barry for many years, and are very excited to welcome him to the Board. Kate Andrews has joined the Board, and will be bringing her fantastic online social media skills to the pool of expertise. We are also welcoming Becky Swain, who is the Learning Director for the Arvon Foundation. As we welcome our new Board members, we are also bidding a fond farewell to Tom Hadfield and Mark Miodownik, who are taking on the new title of 'Ignite! Champions'!
As many of you saw, we had a fantastic final send off to the Ignition* programme in September, and a big thanks to all who contributed, and who attended. For those of you who were unable to make it, or would like to see what Ignition* was all about, have a look at our Ignition* video, a great snapshot of the impact the Ignition* programme made to the young people across the East Midlands.
Ignition*
The Ignite! arts programme develops the cultural and community element of Breath of Fresh Air; enhancing the living landscape through the development of artworks with strong community involvement and ownership. Eight artists and practitioners enthused by the objectives of Breath of Fresh Air will devise artworks and workshops specific to the locations and communities at host sites across the region. Visitors and local groups will be invited to appreciate these sites as sources of inspiration.
Breath of Fresh Air has created some extra-ordinary projects for local communities. The latest spectacular installation by Charles Monkhouse is Sywell Echo, a beautiful array of lights over the reservoir in Northamptonshire. Soon Theatre Writing Partnership will produce a new app for Belton House for visitors to create stories of the lost village in the park grounds.
and next year we will produce a new Cultural Olympiad programme called Cargoes. CargoesCargoes is part of Breath of Fresh Air, a four year celebration through art and community activities of our love of the landscape and our local environment. For Cargoes, artists working with schools and local groups in Cromford, Northampton and Loughborough will create works of art, celebrating what is distinctive about their location, and then ship them by narrow boat along the waterways of the region to the next location. The works will then be celebrated and reworked again with schools and local groups and shipped on in an ever growing interpretation of community life in the East Midlands. All the works created will come together in celebration as the Olympic torch relay travels across the region in June and July and passes through Loughborough on 3 July.
BOFA light installation by Charles Monkhouse
The Ignite! team would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and look forward to developing conversations and creativity in 2012!
Merry Christmas!
Contact ignition:
ignition@ignitefutures.org.uk
0844 879 2110
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