Our Highlights of 2019
A compilation of a few of our fav moments of the year.
2019 has been an absolutely cracking year for the Rising team and community. So much has happened over the past 12 months, it's sometimes hard to keep track. In this blog post, we break down some of the key moments of 2019 for us.
This year has been monumental for Rising's development as an agency and social enterprise. Our team got bigger, our demand increased and we've found ourselves being part of national conversations around arts, activism and leadership. We've been working really hard this year to establish our offer for the wider sector and explore how we better share our learning to empower other young people to fulfil their creative ambitions and leadership potential. We've watched members of our community go from strength to strength in their artistic practice and we've worked internally on how to ensure the team are supported in their roles. It's been BUSY but incredibly rewarding. Although there is still much to do in terms of advocating for social change *especially in the current political climate*, it's also important that we learn to sit back and reflect on what we've achieved this year. So in no particular order, here are our highlights of 2019.
1. WHOSE CULTURE
A group of young people of colour posing for the camera, on a bright winters day
Whose Culture’ is a data-mapping project co-created by Rising and young people of colour based in St. Pauls, Lawrence Hill, Whitchurch Park and Southmead. ‘Whose Culture’ seeks to map the cultural engagement of young people of colour in Bristol, start a conversation and interrogate what we mean when we say, ‘culture’. Out of the project came a bustling instagram page and online community of young people of colour - from across the country - who found solidarity with the project's aims.
At the start of February, we invited some of the participants to come to Spike Island for a lab to explore what the next steps for ‘Whose Culture’ might be for 2019 and what followed was an incredibly moving and provocative day of sharing and data exploration. The Whose Culture team worked with Roseanna Dias (Project Lead) and Fatima Safana (Whose Culture Marketing Manager) to dream up the legacy of the project.
2. BE IT - RISING'S TRANSFORMING LEADERSHIP FUNDED LEADERSHIP PILOT
Earlier this year, Rising put in an application to Arts Council England for Transforming Leadership funding to pilot a brand-new leadership programme, BE IT. Written by our team of young people, we proposed a radical creative leadership programme in partnership with the Bristol City Council's Culture Team and Doing Things Different to change the face of leadership in the city. After an excruciating wait, we found out this summer that Rising had been successful in our bid for BE IT - to the tune of £215K. The new programme will begin in January 2020 and will directly support 20 young leaders (aged 18-30) in their leadership journeys over the next two years. The programme will be led by Roseanna Dias and Will Taylor. Getting this funding was a major step for Rising and our community and we're excited to see the change these brilliant young leaders will make!
3. RE/IMAGINE LIBRARIES - YOUTH CONSULTATION & RESEARCH PROJECT
An audience of young people sit in a library watching a young poet perform.
Re/Imagine Libraries Event
From February - July, Rising were commissioned by the Bristol Library Service and the Bristol City Council Culture team to do some youth consultation with 16-25 year olds around the future of libraries and what young people think of libraries, which we aptly named, RE/IMAGINE LIBRARIES. The project, which was led by Rising's Creative Team Coordinator Eli Lower, sought to get to the heart of what young people really want from libraries and empower young people in Bristol to reimagine public spaces.
We took a multi-directional approach to conducting that research - we held creative meet-ups in Junction 3 and Southmead Libraries, got out into the streets and spoke to young people, commissioned photographers and film-makers to make creative responses to the provocations and did an online survey/campaign. What came from it, was phenomenal. Not only did it encourage young people to engage with the library service, it strengthened our community of young creatives to engage with public and political conversations happening in the city. Thank you to everyone involved! It will forever go down as an unforgettable project.
4. 'WHAT WE ARE MADE OF': RISING SHOP EXHIBITION x NETWORK FOR CREATIVE ENTERPRISE
44AD Showcase
The Network for Creative Enterprise (NfCE) is a cultural network supporting creatives across the West of England to make a sustainable living from their ideas. A partnership between UWE Bristol and four cultural hubs – Watershed, The Guild (Coworking Bath), Knowle West Media Centre and Spike Island – the NfCE enables this group of partners to offer tailored events, workshops and mentoring to over 130 creative enterprises (of which Rising is one) to support business development.
In March, The NfCE partnered with 44AD artspace in Bath to put on an exhibition/ sharing opportunity for 12 residents, creatives, designers and makers who have been supported by NfCE. This was an exciting opportunity to share, exhibit and play with the art works ranging from fine art to fabrication, publishing to creative tech. Rising took the opportunity to share/sell the products we have as part of our online shop. This was our first time selling our stuff publicly and was a fantastic experience for our artists. All our stock is designed by our young artists and all the profit goes either to the young artist or goes back into supporting other creatives.
5. WHY ARE WE NOT HERE? RISING x TEST SPACE EXHIBITION AT SPIKE OPEN STUDIOS
Why Are We Not Here? Exhibition
From 3-12 May, Test Space X Rising Arts Agency’s exhibition, ‘Why Are We Not Here?’ (WAWNH), took over Spike Island’s Test Space – amongst the height of Spike Open Studios 2019. The exhibition, curated by Rising Artists Anika Deb and Stacey Olika, and featured the work of eight talented, young artists, was addressing the question which was put forward from Test Space, Why Are We Not Here? Stacey and Anika took this prompt and ran with it. Out of the exhibition came three events, a workshop for young creatives of colour (through Whose Culture), a panel discussion exploring the role arts institutions play in excluding people of colour, and a ‘Meet The Artists Event’.
The exhibition opened with a bang on Friday 3rd May with an explosive launch party – where the artists, members of the public and Rising’s associates visited Test Space in and amongst the excitement of Spike Open Studios. The celebration continued well into the night and was a perfect opportunity for Rising’s family to get together to celebrate this brilliant and provocative body of work produced by our talented young artists. Completely unforgettable.
6. WE ARE HERE - WHOSE CULTURE CAMPAIGN
In the come down from the epic 'Why Are We Not Here?' exhibition. The young people part of the Whose Culture community - started a campaign that sought to address the lack of representation in the creative and cultural industries in the city, We Are Here. We Are Here is an active response to themes brought up in the spike open exhibition. Less of campaign and more a celebration, We Are Here galvanised young people of colour who are here, making waves and changing the arts narrative in the city. As part of the campaign we made a film and a survey shining a light on the diverse talent coming from Bristol. The aim was to empower other young creatives of colour who may have felt alone - and it really feels like we're making progress.
7. SHUT IT DOWN - RISING'S 3RD BIRTHDAY PUBLIC INTERVENTION
Photo Cred: Rising Associate Artist Alexie Segal
For our 3rd Birthday, we wanted to do something a little different. On 30th June, we did something we’ve never done before and gathered a large group of young artists on College Green in front of City Hall. Armed with materials, food and good vibes, we made banners about causes we care about. This followed a lab that we ran earlier that week, exploring issues that were important to our community of young people. Out of those conversations, themes started to emerge (the climate emergency, representation and housing to name a few). SHUT IT DOWN came out of this. A public art intervention to show Bristol that we are here and that the city’s young creative community have a voice. This was our first public art intervention and it will not be our last.
8. Q-STEP DATA INTERN - ASIYA SUTTON
Through the University of Bristol's Q-Step Programme, we were able to take on a paid data intern, Asiya Sutton, for five months between June and October. Asiya very quickly became integrated into the Rising family and worked alongside our Whose Culture teams and Development Manager to map out Rising's Impact in the city. Asiya was instrumental to creating our 2018-19 Impact Report and remains a strong part of the Rising community. We're hoping to bring on more young interns from this programme, in the future.
9. RISING SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL DIVERSITY AWARDS
We are pleased to announce that Rising Arts Agency has made the shortlist for the Community Organisation Award for Age at the National Diversity Awards 2019, in association with ITV News. We were shortlisted from over 28,000 nominations and are in a category with seven other deserving organisations. The Rising team got dressed up and travelled up to Liverpool on the 20th September for the glamorous ceremony. Unfortunately Rising didn't win this year, but it feels great to be nationally recognised for the work we’re doing in the city and region.
10. RISING'S TRIP TO NEW YORK
From 9th – 13th September, our Engagement Producer Euella Jackson, spent five days in New York city on a Rising research trip interrogating the relationship between art, activism and tech – funded and developed by The British Council and supported by BCDP’s Festival of Ideas and Bristol City Council. There, Euella met with some phenomenal artists, creative practitioners, organisations and activists who shared some valuable insights about we can embed tech into the work we do. This was first time that Rising have traveled internationally and it was brilliant to be making international links and relationships - we hope this is first of many!
11. ONBOARD COHORT 2!
Round 2 of the programme officially began on Monday 30th September 2019 with our Buddy training session – sharing insights and providing training on best practice when working with young people. The young cohort were joined by James Touzel (Chair) and Paul Appleby (Buddy) from Watershed, and Sue Isherwood (Chair and Buddy) and Paul Dieppe (Buddy) from Arts and Health South West. Also part of the group are Rising’s new Advisory Board (formally our Youth Board) and our Critical Friends/Supporters who will be acting as their Buddies. OnBoard Cohort 2 are now in full swing and we look forward to seeing all the great work these young people will do within these organisations.
12. RISING'S EPIC REBRAND
Our new logo
Rising's team and board worked alongside the brilliant Derek Edwards from Patwa Creative Agency to give us a slick new look. This was by far one of the biggest transformations we've undergone since Rising's conception and it took a long time to get right. We wanted a logo that was bold, edgy and solid - just like us and Derek helped us achieve just that. Having a rebrand was central to us better understanding our offer and what we could contribute to the community and to the sector as a whole. The responses we've received has been overwhelmingly positive - thank you to everyone who offered their feedback.
13. UNDER MY SKIN - RISING X INTEGRATE UK RESPONSE TO IMRAN PERETTA SPIKE ISLAND EXHIBITION
Under My Skin is a collaboration between Spike Island, Rising Arts Agency and Integrate UK in response to Imran Perretta’s exhibition the destructors. Eleven young people from Rising and Integrate's community were invited to take part in a series of conversations and film-focused workshops, exploring the themes of identity and marginalisation present in Imran's exhibition. Led by Roseanna Dias (from Rising) and Shamil Ahmed (from Integrate), the young people were provided with the opportunity to explore their own personal testimonies, develop filmic, photographic and audio skills and create a series of short films from this exploratory process to be presented at Spike Island. The showcase of ‘Under My Skin’ happened on the 28th November and had a brilliant turn out, bringing diverse groups of young people into Spike Island.
14. VAN NESTE FUNDING TO RUN 'BECOME IT'
A young woman sat down with a cup of tea in her hand and speaking to people who are not in the shot
Rising were successful in securing funding from The Van Neste Foundation for a 6 month skills and development programme that we're calling BECOME IT. BECOME IT came directly from a need within our community to connect with each other, receive mentoring and skills training. We're really excited to be able to link this to our engagement offer in the city. This will be headed by our Engagement Producer, Euella and Creative Team Coordinator, Eli and will be starting in January 2020! Thank you to The Van Neste Foundation for your support and generosity.
15. TEAM GROWTH: RISING WENT FROM 2 - 7
2019 has most definitely been a year of growth. Rising has gone from a team of 2 to 7 people - five new hires, all of which are under 30 years old. In February, Euella joined from a freelancer to Rising Engagement Producer - overseeing the outreach and talent development of Rising's community. In March, thanks to RIO's Challenge Fund, we welcomed Jess as Rising's Development Manager - supporting Rising's organisational development. In November, Rosa joined the Rising team as our awesome Marketing and Social Media Manager - and last but not least, Roseanna and Will began in December as the Co-producers of our Transforming Leadership pilot, BE IT. It's so nice having so many people in the office - creating a real buzz around the work we do.
16. RISING CHRISTMAS PARTY
In true Rising fashion, we had to end the year with a bang. We had a lovely Christmas party, gathering the young people we work with, our partners, mentors and friends to celebrate this epic year with us. There were curries, samosas, music and good vibes. We want to thank everyone for coming and all the support we've been given over the past 12 months, we are looking forward to moving forward in 2020 and being bigger and better.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of our 2019 journey. Thank you to all our partners! Thank you to our team and thank you to the young people in our community!