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Barbican openfest

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On 17 & 18 March, we invited visitors to a packed weekend of everything we do best, from art exhibitions, music and dance, to open rehearsals, showcases and workshops in and around the Centre.

From performances and events to pop-up workshops and activities for all ages, we share photos of some of the highlights.

Barbican OpenFest was a Culture Mile event in collaboration with The City of London Corporation, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London Symphony Orchestra and the Museum of London. Culture Mile is a destination for culture and creativity in the heart of London's financial district, bringing the area to life with imaginative collaborations and exciting events.

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In Photos: Barbican OpenFest 2018 - Barbican Blog

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On 17 & 18 March, we invited visitors to a packed weekend of everything we do best, from art exhibitions, music and dance, to open rehearsals, showcases and workshops in and around the Centre. From performances and events to pop-up workshops and activities for all ages, we share photos of some of the highlights.

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Barking's Eastbury Manor House to offer free entry on Open House London weekend

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BARKING'S historic Eastbury Manor House opens to the public later this month.

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http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/ig11-art-trail-returns-to-barking-and-dagenham-1-5661970

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https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jul/20/east-wall-review-hofesh-shechter-dance-tower-of-london

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It sounds like a sterling idea for a community artwork: a collaboration between East London Dance, Hofesh Shechter Company, Historic Royal Palaces and Lift, who paired four choreographers with youth groups to create an open-air performance at the Tower of London celebrating the history and diversity of the East End and its people.

Four years in the making and directed by Shechter, East Wall turned out to be much more than that, something far more convincing: an expression of human complexity that combined community with conflict, vitality with violence, civilisation with its discontents. At the start, the Gold Vocal Collective sang a surreal, harmonised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity. Then an entire brass band of guardsmen in full livery rounded the corner and marched across the stage. Was this already a dance performance? It was costumed entertainment, it was a blend of sound and motion, and it was - as the band marched off, leaving a solitary civilian on the floor, as if trampled - a ceremonial display and an embodiment of militarism. Early on, our sense of place and perspective was becoming complicated.

Such ambivalences permeated the hour-long event. Performed with Big Deal Dance and Just Us Collective, Joseph Toonga 's opening section - untitled, like all the numbers in the evening - used a torqued, warped hip-hop style to fracture a group into factions who seemed to occupy different space-time fields. Duwane Taylor, with One Youth Dance and University of East London Dance Collective, staged a kind of classroom revolution spearheaded by formidably fierce krumper Jonadette Carpio. Though exhilarated by the uprising and the energy, you couldn't help but notice an echo of the marching band in those follow-my-leader lines: different beat, same hierarchy. Or that the dynamics of krump, oscillating between outburst and suppression, seemed to pervade the youth dance groups throughout. A sign of their age or a sign of the times? Probably both.

There were subtler but no less deep ambiguities in James Finnemore's section with Incognito and Shift dance companies, featuring a kind of queen bee in a hive of courtly activity. Finnemore's finely crafted group-work showed the surrounding dancers guiding her steps, parting before her, stabilising her leans. Arrayed in front of her, hands held open, they could be passive drones awaiting her bidding - or was she the reluctant figurehead for an expectant crowd?

Becky Namgauds directed another subtle scene with Cando2, Elevate and One Youth dance companies. In it, there was a slow tide of rolling bodies topping and then immersing a line of upright figures, with one central couple struggling turbulently together before being carried apart by the human wave. It was a marked contrast to the subsequent section, by the superlative Shechter II youth company, which layered courtly mannerisms, clownish capers and shocking enactments of violence - throats slit, guts skewered, brains blasted, bodies electrocuted - while nailing them to rattling rhythms and a driving pulse. The sarcasm was as biting as the brutality was relentless.

All the dancers and musicians - brass band included - came together for the finale, not as some harmonious whole but as a bracing cacophony of sound and action. Postcard-perfect in the evening sunshine, the Tower of London became the perfect backdrop: proud monument, enduring attraction, site of time-honoured tradition, brutal violence and political machination, and the gateway to London's multiplicitous, storied East End. Embrace those contradictions.
Topics

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East Wall review - Hofesh Shechter's dance army lays siege to Tower

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It sounds like a sterling idea for a community artwork: a collaboration between East London Dance, Hofesh Shechter Company, Historic Royal Palaces and Lift, who paired four choreographers with youth groups to create an open-air performance at the Tower of London celebrating the history and diversity of the East End and its people.

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Archant

Letters, contributions and comments sent in from Post readers this week.
Finding interests nearer home
John, full name and address supplied, writes:

Since I retired in 1999 my focus has been on trying to analyse the connection between money and ownership of art as I never became a particularly well-off artist though doing an apprenticeship of seven years as an engraver did teach me more than just the craft.

When my wife Patricia experienced a disabling stroke in 1974 I took night jobs ending up working as a warden in homeless hostels for Havering and Barking and Dagenham Councils so I could be her carer during the day. Just prior to this I was employed as arts assistant at Barking College and Newham schools.

My wife Patricia and I have since visited Spain, Catalonia, Malta, Holland, Menorca and Majorca but mobility has become a little more of a problem with age. So it's finding interests nearer to home now that we don't get out so much....sob,sob...

Great things appear to be on the horizon with the planned Eastbrook Studios and attempted gentrification with Barking Riverside accomodations being promised. Studio3arts have contacted at least 85 artists for their Summer Visual Arts shows which will probably be at Boundary Road, Barking.

Your opinions page offers readers an opportunity to give vent to an awareness of how diverse the community is in our borough. This makes life more interesting.
Pupil segregation a matter of choice Dr Leonard Restall, formerly from Barking, writes:
The views expressed by Paul Kaufman in the Humanists editorial on religious segregation within schools as expressed by the prime minister, Theresa May, are unlikely to be new ones but may receive increased attention because they sound somewhat undemocratic.

Theresa May's intention is to increase religious segregation within school to enable them to refuse to teach children who's parents do not subscribe to the same religion as held by the schools that are maintained by taxpayers money. This is to apply to all state schools but may be more applicable and acceptable to private schools or schools which are formed because of their special character such as church schools. Religion is taught within state schools so the problem remains. It is because the child's background considerably determines their learning potential.

Although this proposal to increase religious segregation appears to be intolerant and contrary to a Bill of Rights it is one that needs some modification. Parents have rights as well as the schools and, therefore, some tolerance is required.

There is the provision within education to allow children to opt out of certain religious teaching because it may be objected to by the parents, but not for schools to refuse to teach because of the parents views or beliefs.

Therefore, segregation needs to be the result of parents and children's choice.
Green policies not black and white P Harding, Eastbrook Community representative, writes:
Please allow me to respond to council leader Cllr Darren Rodwell after he hit back at political parties and my comment's in Jon King's report on the subject of protecting the borough's parks and green spaces (April 11).

In July 2015 the CPRE and residents objected to two large Eastbrook School blocks being built on metropolitan green belt land that was enjoyed by residents, pupils and wildlife for more than 50 years, sadly we were ignored and the buildings went ahead.

In November 2016, a cabinet member of this Labour council supported a proposal to build up to 125 houses and flats on green belt land in Eastbrook ward.

In July 2017 planning permission was granted to allow a coach/car park to be put on part of the Eastbrookend Country Park and a permanent marquee to be erected in the green belt grounds of the Farmhouse by members of the development control board, all of which are Labour councillors.

So, am I now to believe there's been a change of heart by all of the Labour councillors that supported the above proposals?
Are you diabetic? Know your rights Roz Rosenblatt, head of London, Diabetes UK, writes:
Research from Diabetes UK has found that one in six (16 per cent) people with diabetes who work feel that they've been discriminated against by their employer because of their condition.

A lack of understanding from employers can make working with diabetes not just exhausting and stressful, but also potentially life-threatening.

To find out about your rights at work or for information about supporting people with diabetes in the workplace visit diabetes.org.uk/work.

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Post letters: Local interests, pupil segregation, Green policies and diabetic rights

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Archant Letters, contributions and comments sent in from Post readers this week. Finding interests nearer home John, full name and address supplied, writes: Since I retired in 1999 my focus has been on trying to analyse the connection between money and ownership of art as I never became a particularly well-off artist though doing an apprenticeship of seven years as an engraver did teach me more than just the craft.

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Archant

A theatre is opening in the Gascoigne Estate in Barking.

The black box theatre has 110 seats and a sprung floor. Picture: Studio 3 Arts

Studio 3 Arts, a community arts charity which works across Barking and Dagenham, will be showcasing the new venue at a grand opening on Thursday.

The theatre was paid for by a grant from the Big Lottery Youth Investment Fund, along with extra funding from the Arts Council and support from Barking and Dagenham Council and AE Elkins. In July and August, it will hold two arts festivals with many of the performers coming from the borough.

Liza Vallance, CEO and artistic director at Studio 3 Arts, said: "I'm so excited at the opportunities it will bring for local people to see and create performance on their doorsteps.

"Barking and Dagenham deserves the very best and we believe our theatre is part of a growing network of creative and cultural opportunities for local people."

Dancers from Studio 3 Arts perform for a Borough of Culture event in November. Picture: Tom Horton

Thursday's opening at Studio 3 Arts in Boundary Road will start at 6pm and performances from Studio 3 alumni and patrons begin at 6.45pm.

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Studio 3 Arts to open a theatre in the Gascoigne Estate in Barking

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Archant A theatre is opening in the Gascoigne Estate in Barking. The black box theatre has 110 seats and a sprung floor. Picture: Studio 3 Arts Studio 3 Arts, a community arts charity which works across Barking and Dagenham, will be showcasing the new venue at a grand opening on Thursday.

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Studio 3 Arts

Barking theatre company Studio 3 Arts is launching a fringe arts festival.

CLOUT! will take place at the Boundary Road studio across three weekends, starting on July 12.

There'll be 21 artists and companies performing puppetry shows, dance, drama, poetry and comedy.

Studio 3's artistic director Liza Vallance said: "Curating the festival felt like choosing the best sweets from a fantastic pick'n'mix.

"The quality and breadth of work on offer is superb, there's something for everyone in this festival. Risky, provocative, funny, joyful - it's all in there."

There will be performances from Barking's John Akinde, who will provide a commentary on regeneration and gentrification, and Michael Bertenshaw, who, after playing Antonio in Studio 3's Merchant of Venice, will be showcasing his two-man comedy show. Katie Greenall will also be performing her show Fatty Fat Fat, an autobiographical piece on fatness and society judgement.

Tickets start from £5. For the full programme and to buy tickets, visit studio3arts.org.uk.

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Barking theatre company launches fringe arts festival for July

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Studio 3 Arts Barking theatre company Studio 3 Arts is launching a fringe arts festival. CLOUT! will take place at the Boundary Road studio across three weekends, starting on July 12. There'll be 21 artists and companies performing puppetry shows, dance, drama, poetry and comedy.

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Archant

A theatre on the Gascoigne Estate opened on Thursday.
The theatre space will play host to two festivals in July and August, which will showcase artists and performers from Barking and Dagenham. Picture: Studio 3 Arts
Studio 3 Arts, a community arts charity which works with young people across Barking and Dagenham, unveiled their new venue in a grand opening on Thursday night.

The black box theatre in Boundary Road will have a sprung floor and 110 seats, and will play host to two festivals in July and August.

Speaking before the unveiling, artistic director Liza Vallance said: "It's quite surreal. I'm so excited to show this room full of people what's behind those doors. I want to keep it a surprise for as long as I can.

"This is what communities in Barking and Dagenham deserve. We deserve the highest quality artistic provision in terms of venues, materials and resources right on our doorstep, and I really think this new theatre space is going to offer that."
Studio 3 Arts space in Barking. Picture: Rhiannon Long
Liza hopes the new venue will continue the Studio's open-door policy, opening up opportunities for local people to get involved in the arts.

She said: "Our policy here is, doors are open everyday, with free tea, coffee and wifi for you to come in and have a chat.

"Whether you're interested in art, it doesn't matter to us. What we're interested in is building relationships and meeting new people."

Studio 3 has provided such opportunities to young people across the borough, including 17-year-old Sid Poust, who was born and raised in Dagenham and goes to Dagenham Park School.

He met Liza when she made contact through the school. He was given the chance to try directing, and ended up directing his own play. He's been working with Studio 3 since the start of the year.

He said: "I'm very grateful, I've got a lot to thank Liza for, and everyone who works at Studio 3 Arts. They've given me an opportunity, not only to just be myself, but also to get into a career that I want to get into.

"What I love about this theatre is, it's an opportunity for young people. I think having theatres like this gets rid of the excuse from young people who say, there's no youth clubs, there's no this, there's no that."

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Theatre opens in Gascoigne Estate - and with it brings more opportunities for young people

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Archant A theatre on the Gascoigne Estate opened on Thursday. The theatre space will play host to two festivals in July and August, which will showcase artists and performers from Barking and Dagenham. Picture: Studio 3 Arts Studio 3 Arts, a community arts charity which works with young people across Barking and Dagenham, unveiled their new venue in a grand opening on Thursday night.

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http://www.theenquirer.co.uk/the-anthem-for-women-at-the-upcoming-barking-folk-festival/

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http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/studio-3-arts-to-open-a-theatre-in-the-gascoigne-estate-in-barking-1-5527284

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https://www.essex-tv.co.uk/studio-3-arts-launches-summer-volunteer-scheme/

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Blank BD Post / digital and print

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Studio 3 Arts Press December to March.docx

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http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/entertainment/theatre/barking-arts-group-unpacks-new-winter-show-for-children-1-5304249

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http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/barking-dancers-win-international-dance-competition-1-5300022

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http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/entertainment/theatre/barking-arts-group-unpacks-new-winter-show-for-children-1-5304249

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March 2018

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http://oneboroughlive.co.uk/channels/arts/

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write up post March 7th

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International womens day / womens anthem

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International womens day / womens anthem

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March 7th