Kings Place Music Foundation, the charity set up to run the music events, aims to be a real asset to the communities surrounding Kings Place promoting access to the venue and offering opportunities for learning and employment.
The Big Draw
On Saturday, October 10th, Kings Place Music Foundation hosted the Guardian Education Centre's annual cartoon and art family day in association with Kings Place Gallery and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Top Guardian and Observer cartoonists, artists, illustrators and designers ran a day of events as part of the Big Draw national campaign to get people drawing.
Sessions were designed for families to:
• participate in drawing, art and creative activities
• learn new techniques and tips for drawing
• design cartoons and caricatures
• listen to talks by professionals
Find out more about the work done at the Guardian Education Centre.
YO! Fair
In July, Kings Place Music Foundation hosted YO! Fair, a free event aimed at providing young people with the information they need to make informed choices when choosing a career path in the Creative Industries. Young people joined workshops in break-dance, street dance, CV skills, interview skills, film making, music production and DJing. The fair also included a market place where contributors from Connexions, City and Islington College, the London Sinfonietta among others were on hand to offer advice, opportunities for participation and support. YO! Fair ended with a Q&A discussion session where a guest panel offered advice and information on the Creative Industries.
The event was organized by YO! Fair with the help of the Community Investment sub group of the Islington Housing Group (IHG), in partnership with the Kings Place, Islington's Young People Division and Cambridge Education. The partnership has been led by YO! Fair in association with Circle 33 Housing Trust and Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association, and supported by Barnsbury Housing, Family Mosaic, Homes for Islington, Newlon Fusion, and Southern Housing.
Read more about YO! Fair here.
Kings Place as Muse
From 2006 - 2008, the Visual Learning Foundation worked with three primary schools in Islington on eleven art projects documenting the construction of Kings Place. Each project included a site visit and students documented the construction of the building through drawing and sculpture. The resulting artwork was exhibited at Kings Place during the opening festival in October 2008.
Following on from this successful project, the Visual Learning Foundation is working with four further primary schools in 2009 and 2010 on an enrichment project that includes both art and music. The next stage takes Kings Place as inspiration again, this time students will visit the working building and see an exhibition at the galleries. The project aims to nurture children's interest in the arts through visiting Kings Place and creating their own art in response to these experiences.
Creative Apprentices
Two young people from Islington will start work in September as Kings Place Music Foundation's first Creative Apprentices. The two roles, in Technical Theatre and Cultural and Heritage Venue Operations will provide young people with the skills needed to work backstage in lighting and sound, and in front of house in customer service and venue operations. The Creative Apprentice scheme is run in partnership with City and Islington College. Apprentices will work at Kings Place Music Foundation four days a week and attend college one day a week to develop the skills to work in the Creative Industries all while earning a wage.
Banners Away
Kings Place Music Foundation has teamed up with artists on the Professional Practice for Artists Course at the Mary Ward Centre in Bloomsbury to work on an innovative recycling project. The artists are using the banners which hang outside Kings Place as the raw material to create some imaginative artists products. Limited edition bags and cards are currently available from the Kings Place Box Office.
The Mary Ward Centre is London's Adult Education College with a difference. Large enough to sustain a dynamic, relevant range of courses yet small enough to be able to give a first rate personal service to its users, it deserves its reputation as being the friendly place to learn. We have a wide range of courses in the following sections: Arts & Crafts, Music, Digital Media, Computing & IT, Business, Management & Marketing, English & Other Languages, Humanities & Social Science, Health & Social Care, Personal Development, Writing & Publishing. We also have an over 60's programme and work in partnership with a number of local community groups.
Professional Practice for Artists: this course enables students to develop their practical art skills to a professional level alongside learning practical business skills in order to set up as a self-employed artist or designer-maker. Whilst on the course students experience a small work placement to gain experience and understanding of a working arts practitioner. Kings Place has provided an opportunity for some students to take their first steps as professionals by selling their works.
Find out more about the Mary Ward Centre
Kings Place Family Weekend
The last weekend in July saw Kings Place open its doors and invite families to come in, join in and do something creative to start the summer holidays as part of the London 2012 Open Weekend events. Run by Kings Place Music Foundation, the Kings Place Family Weekend was an open arts weekend of workshops, arts activities, an unplugged music stage and canal boat trips. Workshops ranged from African hand drumming and A Creative Art Show with a Difference to how to draw a comic strip. There were also free arts activities in the Battlebridge room enabling children and their parents to do something creative together. Young music talent showcased throughout the weekend on the concert level foyer: from Jazz to folk, rock to rap on the under 26 ‘Unplugged Stage'. Historic narrow boat Tarporley, which is moored at Kings Place, ran short trips throughout the weekend. Abigail Fallis, Pangolin's first artist in residence, has been working with local children on a project about British endangered species. The project, which started in January, culminated in a series of sculptures by the children which was exhibited in the street level exhibition windows.
Images of the Big Draw 2009 by Christopher Tribble
