Bringing The Lyric Lounge into Museums and Libraries
Posted on 30th September 2009
LCB Depot,
31 Rutland St,
Leicester,
LE1 1RE
Tuesday 27th October 09, 1-5pm
This afternoon of informal training, aimed at Museum and Library staff, will offer an insight into the management and ethos of the successful live literature festival. It will aim to stimulate discussion and ideas for setting up similar activities in museums and libraries, as well as being an opportunity to meet some of the artists and organisers. The afternoon will include contributions from Lydia Towsey (Creative Arts Coordinator for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust), Henderson Mullin (Chief Executive of Writing East Midlands), Alison Dunne (Literature Development Officer, Leicester City Council) and Simon Ighofose (Regional Strategic Projects Manager, Renaissance East Midlands).
It will also look at ‘Write Way Up’ – a project that used museum artifacts to inspire new poetry commissions – and other Lyric Lounge workshops that used similar principles (in partnership with The Open Museum, Leicestershire.)
We hope you can join us! To secure your FREE place, please contact Rebecca Wooster on Rebecca@2funkyarts.co.uk by Wednesday 21st October (detailing any specific access requirements).
Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Tea and coffee will be provided.
For seven days and seven nights, from 25th –31st July, The Y Theatre was transformed into a unique performance space celebrating the power of live literature – as part of the cultural programme for the Special Olympics. Around 1500 people attended the Lyric Lounge festival, which featured workshops, performances,
debate, open mic opportunities and exhibitions. The focus was on poetry, spoken word, rap and monologue, with strong elements of visual art and music. The Lyric Lounge included a wide-reaching youth programme, encouraging young people to read, write and perform. The project also reached out to users of mental health
and learning disability services with a range of projects and performances. Another prominent feature of the festival was the use of museum artifacts to inspire new poetry and spoken word material. For more information and online poetry, visit www.lyriclounge.co.uk.
The Lyric Lounge (phase 1) is managed by 2Funky Arts, with creative programming from WORD and guidance from a steering committee (led by Writing East Midlands).
It is part of MLA and Renaissance East Midlands’ contribution to the region-wide ‘Igniting Ambition’ programme and is being undertaken in partnership with Arts Council East Midlands. Additional funding was sourced from Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Leicester Libraries, Leicester City Council and Connexions Leicestershire.
