The Blackshaw Arts Hour – Episode 62

Ellie, Matt, Alex, Strat and Helen are in the studio!

– Strat & Alex do an art; a ‘drabble’ (100 word short story)

– Matt reviews ‘Nerve’ off of UK Netflix

– We chat about the latest core funding awarded by the Arts Council England

– Another game of EdFringe Roulette!

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Links mentioned in the show:

Arts Council Funding

Lyn Gardner’s Guardian Article RE: ACE funding.

‘The Big Four’ Telegraph Article.

BBC R2 Stories Competition.

Gary by Alexander Pankhurst

“Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary!”
“I’m sorry what?”
“Birthday?!”
“Oh yeah!”
Opening the blinds Gary brought his large mechanical arms up in mock surprise.
“Close the blinds you idiot you’ll spoil it!”
“Sorry! I wasn’t aware that our guest of honour was going to be here so soon.”
“You know full well that he’s upstairs!”
“Fine,” Gary drawled, “If it’s so important to your little plan I’ll close them.” Snapping them shut he flounced off, only pausing to smirk and waggle his servo operated fingers precisely in Bens direction.
“Dick!” Ben spat. It was a lame retort and he knew it.

100 word story by Richard Stratton

“It’s behind your hand”, Gary drawled, “the handkerchiefs were up your sleeve, the rabbit is under the table.”

Dandini, Woking’s greatest birthday party magician, didn’t like Gary. Gary was an arrogant, know-it-all bully who had spent the last year terrorising his year 7 classmates. Dandini had chosen well.

“Now I need require a volunteer. How about the birthday boy?”. Gary swaggered over, sneering.

“In to my trunk of disappearance. Excellent, mind your head while I close the lid. Abrakadabra!”

10 minutes later Dandini was leaving the party.

Gary’s dad was talking to another child’s parent.

“Gary? I’m sorry? What birthday?”

Working for Blackshaw – Funding & Partnerships Manager, Nick

As Funding & Partnership Manager it is my job to search, apply and cross my fingers in hope for funding. As you can imagine, it’s not easy getting funding for arts based projects. The pots of money are getting smaller and the number of people applying to them is increasing! I also keep on the lookout for potential partnerships for our projects. Not only can this ease the burden in terms of financing a project but also it is good for us to work with new people. This role also means advising on some of our more dreary legal documents but nevertheless important to get right.

My day job is very similar. I work at the University of East London as a Research Funding Officer helping academics search and apply for funding for their research projects. This comes with a healthy dollop of project management once the grants are awarded. These skills are handy when it comes to working for Blackshaw.

Searching for funds mostly comes down to endless Googling until you find the right one, and requires a lot of reading eligibility requirements (not worth reading much else before that).

I work closely with our Strategy and Planning Manager, Vikki, AKA taskmaster general, when we collaborate on a funding application. Each application and project is ultimately overseen by Ellie, our Managing & Artistic Director (AKA arty boss). They are great to work with and even though it can get tough at times, it is ultimately satisfying getting the applications submitted and even more so when they are successful.