Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Take Time to Make Films and Read Poetry

An exciting new project aimed at young people to create their own animated films from poetry is being run in partnership with Calderdale Libraries and Hebden Bridge Picture House. The films will be showcased at the Picture House in the new year.

The Arts Council awarded funding to Sources, an arts company run by poet Anne Caldwell and artist Jack Lockhart based in Hebden Bridge, to facilitate the project. Anne and Jack have also been commissioned to make their own piece of work as part of the project.

Jack Lockhart has told the Hebden Bridge Web, "We are looking for young adults (aged 16 -30yrs) in Halifax, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge to get involved. Workshops will take place in libraries and at The Picture House in Hebden Bridge. The workshops will develop skills in animation, short film making, poetry reading, editing and sound production. People don't need experience to get involved, but we are looking for enthusiasm and commitment.' said Anne Caldwell, from Sources.

There will be five free workshops in each town, taking place this autumn. The finished results will be shown at the cinema in Hebden Bridge in January 06, so it will be a great opportunity for anyone wanting to get involved in the arts as a career, using new technologies, or just come along and have some fun and see their work on a big screen.

The project has backing from Calderdale Libraries and The Picture House in Hebden Bridge. It also has support from The Writing Squad, a writers workshop for writers aged between 16- 20 of exceptional talent and promise, based in Yorkshire.

"We particularly would like to encourage young people from the Asian communities of Calderdale to get in touch and get involved in the project to give their artistic work a wider platform," said artist Jack Lockhart.

"It's great for the libraries to be working with the Picture House, as we've being looking at ways to collaborate for some time now," said Sarah Hymas, poet in residence at the Libraries. "We've a big week with the reading festival at the start of November and I am hoping this project will continue the carnival atmosphere in the libraries through the winter."

"We are also aiming to get a younger audience interested in using the library service, reading poetry and going to the cinema here in Calderdale. We have wonderful resources waiting to be used in a creative way" added Anne Caldwell.

If you would like to get more information on the project, or get involved, please contact Anne Caldwell or telephone Sarah Hymas on 01422 392629

Places are limited, so please get in touch as soon as possible. If there is a huge amount of interest, the company will investigate running a similar project in the new year.

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