People’s Palace Update: Opportunities and Events in 2017

Rosie Hunter from People’s Palace Project has been in touch with some key projects from People’s Palace Projects an independent arts charity based at Queen Mary University of London

 

Upcoming events in London and Brazil

 

Xingu Artistic Exchange: 10th-24th May 2017

including two seminars in Rio:

  1. 22nd May, Federal University of Rio – Jerry Brotton and Mércio Pereira Gomes – Anthropology and the History of Discovery
  2. 23rd May, Museum of Tomorrow – Indigenous Utopias

Paul Heritage and Jerry Brotton are bringing together an exciting artistic research collaboration between one of the world’s leading companies in digital mediation, artistic preservation and conservation and the Indigenous Kuikuro Association of the Upper Xingu.  Adam Lowe (Factum Arte http://www.factum-arte.com/ind/142/Factum-Arte-Projects ) and a team of specialist artists and technicians will travel with Jerry and Paul to the remote region of Brazil’s Upper Xingu Indigenous Reserve, where PPP’s Associate Artist and internationally-established filmmaker Takumã Kuikuro is based in a small village, 15 hours’ travel from the nearest town.  The team will travel by air, road and river to reach the Ipatse village and will be carrying scanners, sound recording equipment and a drone as well as sensible shoes, insect repellent and substantial paperwork!

In 2015, Takumã undertook a residency in London with PPP that resulted in a short film about London from the perspective of an indigenous visitor http://www.peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/projects/london-as-a-village/.  Now this new collaboration will explore ideas of Utopia and the ways in which we make our worlds, and how new technologies can be exploited in the preservation and passing on of material and immaterial culture.  The project is funded by AHRC under the Newton Fund as part of “Social Change through Creativity”’s follow-on extension for further impact.

The aim of the project

The aim is to build transformative dialogues through digital technologies that enable the Kuikuro people to create 3D maps of their territories and cultures that explore new ways for indigenous peoples to bring the evolving experiences of first millennial ways of life to contemporary debates about Brazilian economic and social development in the third millennium. Lowe will advise representatives of the Xingu peoples on how digital technologies may be used to maximize potential future commercial initiatives without putting their culture at risk.

 

With 1 Voice First Anniversary Event, 5th May 2017

With One Voice

The With One Voice/Uma Só Voz choirs in Rio that PPP set up last year working with Streetwise Opera (and with the support of Gulbenkian Foundation, British Council Brazil and Macquarie Group Foundation) as part of the With One Voice Brazil project will be celebrating their 1st anniversary on 5th May.

Rather excitingly the celebration will take the form of a concert they will give at the iconic Theatro Municipal, the first time in history that homeless people will have been given a platform in this important building. As you can imagine, the choir members are over the moon.

And that’s not all – at the event, Rio City Council Department of Social Development will be publicly pledging their support for the choirs practically and logistically and will also pledge that arts and creativity are important in the support of homeless people.

It is highly significant to have a City Council attaching this kind of value for arts/creativity as part of homelessness support – we’re seeing it emerge in Manchester and elsewhere, and it’s one of With One Voice’s goals to encourage this kind of integrated approach to arts and homelessness support at a local government level.

9th May-9th June: “Designing Respect” exhibition @LSE

Opening: 9th May 7pm, LSE Atrium Gallery, Old Building

http://theatrum-mundi.org/activities/designing-politics-exhibition/

 

PPP worked with Theatrum Mundi to facilitate the project’s 3rd annual competition, in Rio de Janeiro.  The 3rd image in their Gallery is of the Rio project, at the Museum of Tomorrow.

 

2.       Reports on recent events

Scene Change exhibition 26th-28th April, Brazilian Embassy in London, Cockspur Street

Photos here:

Opera inspiring young minds at the Embassy of Brazil in London

This exhibition provided a flavour of some of the world’s favourite operas – Madame Butterfly, La Traviata and Lo Schiavo – through the artistic output of students involved in the cultural exchange programme ‘Scene Change’, run by the British Council and People’s Palace Projects in association with Creative and Cultural Skills.

As part of the project, students from technical colleges in the UK and Brazil embarked on a three year imaginative journey into film-making, costume-design, set-design and marketing, inspired by these three famous operas and have produced a rich collection of work, now on display at the Embassy of Brazil in London, celebrating a successful end of the project.

The exhibition, supported by the British Council and People’s Palace Projects is designed and mounted by a group of Brazilian and British students, supervised by internationally acclaimed designer and art director Gringo Cardia and photographer Ellie Kurttz. Special thanks to Miriã, Valdemar and Ismael, students at Spectaculu – Escola Fábrica de Espetáculos for coming all the way from Rio to help us mount the work, as well as to the Embassy of Brazil in London for hosting the exhibition.

 

Innovation and Co-creation: London – Sao Paulo Conference, 3rd May 2017

3rd May, all day event, Biblioteca Parque Villa Lobos, Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil

a collaboration between Creativeworks London, Escola Politécnica-USP and People’s Palace Projects (Queen Mary University of London – QMUL).

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (QMUL)

Innovation and Co-creation: London – Sao Paulo Conference

Creativeworks London São Paulo is a collaboration between Creativeworks London, Escola Politécnica-USP and People’s Palace Projects (Queen Mary University of London – QMUL). Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (QMUL)

The aim of this pilot project has been to examine the ecosystem of creative and cultural hubs in São Paulo; and foster collaborations between university researchers and creative and cultural small businesses, organisations, collectives and charities. We wanted to create outcomes of significant value to the innovation ecosystem in Sao Paulo.

 

3.       Project news

QMUL AfroReggae Santander bursaries 2017

 

We will be holding the selection interviews this week for the 2017 QMUL Santander AfroReggae trip bursaries, 6 lucky recipients (QMUL students) will go to Rio de Janeiro to spend a week with AfroReggae in July 2017.

Santander/Afroreggae Grant: Applications now closed!

 

The Verbatim Formula

Maggie Inchley has just had confirmation of a research funding award from AHRC to support 3 years of work on the project.  (total fEC: £249,993)

The upcoming July residency “No Dream Is Too Big” (1-3 July at QMUL) in collaboration with QMUL Widening Participation will support a group of around 8 young people aged 14-18 and with experience of social care to explore drama and life at University.  Social workers or young people who would like details of the opportunity should contact renata.peppl@peoplespalace.org.uk (applications close 20th May).

About the project

The Verbatim Formula is an applied performance research project which is currently working with looked after children and young people. It records the words of participants and shares them through performance. The process is being developed by Dr Sylvan Baker, Dr Maggie Inchley and Dr Sadhvi Dar at Queen Mary University of London’s Drama Department and produced by People’s Palace Projects, in partnership with the Greater London Authority Peer Outreach Team.

We believe that there is a strong case for using applied practice not only in supporting looked after young people in articulating their experiences and in shaping a sense of their own identities, but in order to open meaningful dialogue and listening with adults responsible for their care.

The ultimate aims of the project are:

  • To create spaces where adults working at all levels in the UK social care system engage with children, listen to children’s voices and talk to children about their concerns.
  • Looked after children have happier lives, with better educational and social outcomes.
  • To develop an understanding of the potential of verbatim practice as a research, evaluation and dissemination tool in a children’s social care context.
  • To develop a performative inquiry practice that takes aesthetics as seriously as it does rigour.

Relative Values

Paul Heritage has been successful in a grant application to the AHRC’s Cultural Value Follow-On highlight for a project called “Relative Values” which will work with Battersea Arts Centre, Contact Theatre (Manchester), 2 Brazilian cultural NGOs specialising in socially-engaged arts work, and a Brazilian Economics research centre to produce a toolkit for cultural organisations to map the value they generate in their local communities.  The award is worth a total of £96,729 (fEC).

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