Lloyds TSB Foundation Grants 2006
Call for Devon Visual Artists and Makers
ArtsMatrix to Deliver New Business Skills Programme for Creative Industries
Building creative success in Devon and Torbay
Artists wanted in Devon
Illuminate Online Gallery - Selling opportunity

Lloyds TSB Foundation Grants 2006
A grant-making plan for the English regions and Wales listing funding priorities is now available on the website under Latest Updates: www.lloydstsbfoundations.org.uk

Priorities for 2006 include BME communities, charities working with older people, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, and charities working with those with learning disabilities.  The Foundation will support charities that use their work to positively influence policy change and practice.  They encourage all applicants to speak to them before submitting an application.

For more information: Guidelines@lloydstsbfoundations.org.uk

Call for Devon Visual Artists and Makers
The second phase of the Devon Artist Network has now gone live and it is possible for artists and makers, groups, organisations and supporters in Devon to join by going to the website www.devonartistnetwork.co.uk.

The network is a membership organisation open to all visual artists and craftspeople living and practicing in Devon.  The organisers have been working hard all year to create an organisation that will offer a resource to support the artistic development of artists in Devon’s towns and rural areas.  The Devon Artist Network is fast becoming an important part of the visual arts and crafts scene in the South West.  

More information about Devon Artist Network is available by visiting our website www.devonartistnetwork.co.uk

DEVON ARTIST NETWORK
2 Fulford Way
Woodbury
Exeter
EX5 1NZ

ArtsMatrix to Deliver New Business Skills Programme for Creative Industries
ArtsMatrix Ltd has been selected to deliver the £800,000 Skills Development Programme under which hundreds of creative industries businessmen and women in South West England will be given greater access to new skills that will help them grow their businesses. Architects, artists, performers, musicians, designers and craft-makers will be given an opportunity to sharpen up their business savvy and hone their commercial instinct in an initiative that aims to make a huge impact on region’s economy.

The initiative is part of an important partnership between the South West RDA and Arts Council England, South West, and Culture South West, to support the region's creative industries. It comes at a time when central government is increasingly focusing on Creative Industries, midway through the Ministerially-led Creative Economy Programme.

Tracey Guiry, Director of ArtsMatrix, says, “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to continue, and extend, the support we provide to creative people running businesses in the South West. As a regional skills development agency we know the region is brimming with creative talent, now we can provide creative businesses with skills that really help them to make the most of their careers, ideas and hard work. It will have a real and positive impact on the sector as a whole”.

The small size of most creative businesses in this region makes it very difficult for them to take-up training and professional development opportunities. Organisations and staff are often quite isolated, working alone in areas where access to transport is difficult, and they often don’t have the time or money to attend seminars or other relevant learning events. This programme will offer opportunities around the whole region, relevant to all sectors. It kicks off this month and will focus on providing skills to:

• find and attract new and higher value markets, particularly overseas and outside the region
• share expertise and to collaborate, with a view to forming long-term sustainable networks
• understand investment, and how to unlock financial support from a wide range of sources

ArtsMatrix will be providing specialist one-to-one skills analysis sessions, a programme of seminars delivered in partnership with specialist organisations and a "training the trainer" course to allow the knowledge to spread quickly through the sector.  Look out on our website in coming weeks for details of courses, seminars and skills sessions near you.

For full details on the Skills Development Programme see www.artsmatrix.org.uk/SDP.htm

Partner organisations can download tender documents for the seminar programme from the same page: www.artsmatrix.org.uk/SDP.htm

ArtsMatrix will also be recruiting new staff.  Check out our job pages at www.artsmatrix.org.uk/jobs later this week.

For further information, contact Tracey Guiry, Director, on 0117 915 0183, traceyguiry@artsmatrix.org.uk or Annie Warburton, Project Director, on 0117 915 0182, annie.warburton@artsmatrix.org.uk

People, Places Arts and Enterprise
Building creative success in Devon and Torbay

For those of you who attended Arts Council England South West’s recent event at South Devon College and heard John Lancaster from Perfect Moment talk about the results of the research into the state of the creative industries in Devon and Torbay,  the final report and background papers are available on the Devon County Council website at  http://www.devon.gov.uk/regeneration  

The results show that the creative industries in Devon are performing as well as, and often better than the comparative figures for the South West with 22,000 people in the workforce and total turnover estimated at over £850 million.  Do take the time to have a look at the report, it makes very interesting reading.

Artists wanted in Devon
Cutting edge artists, music and independent film makers are wanted for an exciting, new, unorthodox art venue in Kingsbridge, South Devon.

Red Propeller Gallery, the brainchild of artists David & Sarah Anslow, is a radical new exhibition space to be launched in October 2006 housed in The Shambles, Fore Street, Kingsbridge, Devon. This experimental space will be showcasing art, film & music from exciting and challenging new artists. Red Propeller will not only be showing some of the most exciting, innovative fine art but will also be home to a wide selection of unpublished music cds and short film compilation dvds. They are currently searching for the hottest new and emerging talent, inviting submissions for future shows beginning with their Small Works show in November 2006 which will culminate in an end of show auction.

For further information and an information pack please contact Sarah or David Anslow at redpropeller@hotmail.co.uk

Illuminate Online Gallery - Selling opportunity
Drawer is launching an online shop and gallery later this year. We are currently looking for designer-makers based in the South West region who create wares that are illustrative in nature and able to be sent via post to customers. The work will be taken on a sale or return basis.

If you are interested in submitting samples and you think your work would fit with the style of work shown on the website www.drawer.me.uk please email some samples of your work to enquiries@drawer.me.uk.