August 2011

Firstly I am very pleased with the momentum I have kept over the summer.  As I am not breaking for 2 weeks until the end of September, I have been able to power through my work during August.

I have started to prepare my final synopsis, it's a working document, that has started life in a what, why, how, if template, and I have been tinkering and adding to it throughout the month, adding in interesting quotes and relevant citations. I was initially very worried about how I could write up so much of my hard work in so few words, but it's worked out a lot easier than I has initially thought.

This month has seen a further 2 or 3 iterations of my craft-based workshop with feedback from young people, youth group leaders and teachers.  The process is a very fluid one, and in fact each workshop differs great because of the young people involved.  Sometimes I find an activity isn't really working and so I just move onto to the next, each group has an extremely different dynamic. 

A very big event during this month has been the London Riots.  This has really helped bring attention to what my project is about, engaging with young people to help them understand the decision they can make in their own lives, what they really want, and how they can achieve it.  There has been some interesting research over the month on why this happened, who was involved, and how they feel.  I have been observing everything unfold and taking from the events what learnings I can. The main difference this event has caused for my project has been that doors have been opening over the summer, that had previously been quite difficult to get past.  I really feel this is to do with the increased awareness across the country of young people, their needs and how they feel about their communities. 

Exhibition planning is going well, the marketing viral is well underway now, as is the website, facebook group and twitter account.  It has been hard work, pulling everyone together, but I think we have come up with some great ideas, just need to get some sponsors now!  I managed to secure us over £3000 worth of advertising in Creative Review, by contacting a number of people.  Eventually Ben at the Central Illustration Agency agreed to give us 6 weeks of their advertising space, and to lend up their graphic designers Staziker Jones also, which is so amazingly generous.  I have continued to mine all my contacts to see if I can get any other funding or perhaps some refreshments for the private view.

Overall I feel things are going extremely well in my project and that things will get there with the exhibition, it's just a shame it's the same people doing all the leg work.

My music theatre workshops, have not progressed as I had hoped, this has been a combination of my personal lack of experience and contacts in this field,  as well as hard to approach gatekeeper, but probably mostly the amount of time I have been spending on the exhibition and my craft-based workshops.