Author Archive

North East Fund for the Arts – Application call

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

The North East Fund for the Arts was established at the Community Foundation in May 2012 and will be built over the next three years with match funding from the Arts Council England’s Catalyst scheme. The aim of the fund is to support arts activity in communities across the North East (Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham, Tees Valley) through building greater arts philanthropy to support those activities.

The Community Foundation is making a founding contribution to the Fund from its unrestricted resources to enable 3-4 grants between £1,000 and £5,000 to be awarded in November 2012. These founding grants will be made across the region to projects that demonstrate the benefits the arts can bring to communities and the value for private, corporate and charitable donors in giving though the Fund.

The exemplar projects funded through these founding grants will not only make a difference to the communities in which they take place, but also provide the opportunity for current and potential donors to witness the difference the arts can make. To that end, the funded projects will need to be amenable to broader sharing and engagement as they will help guide the future grant-making and development of the Fund.

Projects could address a range of social issues but ultimately the aim is to strengthen community engagement in the arts. Projects could therefore engage a community in arts activity for the first time, develop their engagement, or inspire participants to seek further opportunities in the arts. The project may lead to the creation of a piece of art but an ‘end product’ is not a requirement. It is likely that for these founding grants we will support projects which are planned but not yet funded, or which have previously been tested and require support for continuation, expansion or application in a new area.

The fund is open to artists and arts organisations but we would especially welcome applications from non-arts community and voluntary groups who wish to work with professional artists/arts organisations. Applications from artists/arts organisations must show a real understanding of the community needs/interests and address them.

A community for the purpose of grant-making is a group of people who will benefit as a result of the grant. They could be a geographical community or have a shared background, identity or interest.

Applications open on Wednesday 3rd October and close at 9.00am on Wednesday 7th November (5 weeks)

Application forms are available on the Community Foundation website www.communityfoundation.org.uk or by contacting the Community Foundation on 0191 222 0945. Please ensure you note on the application form that it is for the North East Fund for the Arts.

Applicants are strongly advised to have an informal discussion about the Fund and this call for applications before applying. To do so, please contact Adam Lopardo on the above number or al@communityfoundation.org.uk.

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21 Ways of Looking at The Sponsors Club

Monday, May 21st, 2012

As part of our 21st Birthday celebrations we commissioned Mark Robinson to reflect on our 21 years and our successes. We wanted to deliver our message not in a dry, statistic driven retrospective but in a way that reflects the style and nature of The Sponsors Club. Importantly we also wanted to look forward. Mark has managed to achieve that and still include some statistics. We think he’s done a great job and based on the feedback we’ve already had, we’re not alone.

Thank you to Mark but also thank you to our business members Sumo and Potts Print UK who supported the design and publication of the work.

Have a read…..

 

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21 is the magic number

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

The Sponsors Club celebrated its 21st Birthday last week at the Great North Museum: Hancock by honouring 21 business people and businesses that are considered to have contributed the most to North East culture over the last 21 years.

The  awardees were announced in an unusual way, via a specially written Shakespearean style speech delivered by David Faulkner – founder and former Director of The Sponsors Club, who unbeknownst to him was also to be honoured with one of the 21 awards. Can you spot the references the recipients in this text….

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some
achieve greatness, and some….
some mark their presence in the world with banks,
shored to shape in northumberlandian clay
Some stage some play with children year on year
a dickens of delight delirium.
Some structure patterns made of stone and glass,
to find a voice, or give a voice, and then,
if Millican cannot, then Python will;
Creative space in every space on view.
A silver thread that links the arts with land.
Estates of art, the Pender Parson plan.
A lady tips towards tales seven stories high.
Sage men make music conjure cross the Tyne.
A challenge draws a Moth to light a flame.
A Squire escorts a project there on time.
Mowbray makes things work, reflective art,
and Muckles give their Gill to play her part.
Finn gives arts a true foundation stone,
whilst Buchan crosses oceans to find song.
Bailey excites the arts by sitting in a chair:
If it’s not Tim, Sir Ian’s sitting there.
John leads the march towards the day of light,
with Rami using biscuit tin as drum,
and Potts imprinting  messages in mind,
and Lindsay gamboling that the cause is true.
This much is true;
These few, these happy few,
this band, true friends, but missing one ,
and David, truth be told, the missing one,
It’s you.

If you couldn’t spot them then they are:

Mark Dowdall and The Banks Group
Dickinson Dees
Peter Milican
Python Properties
John Mowbray and Northumbrian Water
Gillian Tiplady
Silverlink
Gill Gilthorpe
Tim Bailey
John Squires
Sir Ian Wrigglesworth
Peter Moth and Tyne Tees Television
Lindsay Williams and P&G
Peter Buchan
Potts Print UK
The Sage Group
John Orchard
Rami Zack
Leo Finn and Northern Rock
Tony Pender/Ron Parsons and English Estates
David Faulkner

Not everyone could make it but here are 18 of them (or their stand ins!)

Image : Chris Owens

Posted in Business Events, Sponsors Club, Sponsors Club Award, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Sponsors Club 21st Birthday Dinner and Awards

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

10th May 7pm to Midnight

Great North Museum: Hancock

Founded by the business community and launched in 1991 we are celebrating 21 years helping our arts and business communities work together.

Join us to celebrate our achievements, enjoy an evening of good food and entertainment and raise money to support our role in developing a new fund for culture in the North East.

Tables of 10 cost £1000. Each table will be co-hosted by a personality from the cultural, media or arts world.

We hope to raise as much money as we can on the night by holding various fundraising activities, including a raffle & auction.

We also invite you to nominate your cultural champions from business who have shaped business engagement with the arts in the North East. We want your nominations for individuals, board members, companies, teams and outstanding partnerships.

Email nominations to: sponsors@communityfoundation.org.uk

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Adam’s Great North Run

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Go on.

Give me money to support two great cultural organisations in the North East, Northern Print and New Writing North

Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on.

You should support me because…..

1. Have you seen me? Do I look like a runner? Do I look like someone who will enjoy slogging 13 miles across Tyneside? If nothing else the mere thought of the hell I’m going to go through might be worth a couple of quid.

2. I’m running for organisations that I’m willing to bet will have no one else running for them. Not because they are not worthy of support and don’t do great work but because in these kind of sponsorship endeavours people just don’t think of supporting cultural organisations and they should. Hopefully where I lead other will follow. 

3. When you saw ‘go on’ repeated above you may well have pictured Mrs Doyle from Father Ted and a small smile may have formed. That’s culture that is, writing, performing, engaging and entertaining. Without it we are dull, grey people. Are you a dull grey person? If you are then go and see a play, read a book, visit an art gallery or……. chuck me a couple of quid so others can.

So who am I supporting?  I will be wheezing, puffing and generally crawling on my knees around to South Shields for  : 

Northern Print, a gallery and printmaking studio located in the heart of Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley. When they heard I was running they suggested I go there to make a t-shirt to run the race in which is exactly what I’ll be doing and to say thank you they’ll be getting half of the money raised.

New Writing North is the writing development agency for the North East. I’m on the board and not running for them would have made me a useless board member*. The money will go towards supporting writers via the Northern Writers Awards 2011. 

*Note to others on the boards of cultural organisations, I expect to see you glide across my TV screen as part of next years Great North Run which I will be watching from the luxury of my front room)

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