Shropshire Council Community Arts and Festivals Team

Arts and Festivals Development Team Elephan Rung Runga

The Shropshire Council Community Arts and Festivals Team provides a range of services, to support the development of the arts and cultural activities across Shropshire.

We welcome new ideas and develop projects with a range of partners including; artists, festival and event organisers, community venues, voluntary organisations and other departments across the council.

The Service provides economic and community benefits by creating employment and training opportunities for artists and by developing and supporting inspiring and high quality artistic projects for local communities.

Advice and information service

The Service provides:

One to one advice sessions to individuals and community groups as and when required, these include professional advice on funding, project development and business development.
At least two arts cafe networking events a year in each of the areas.
Regular electronic newsletters highlighting employment, training and funding opportunities.
Brokering partnerships between artists, voluntary groups and organisations.
An up to date information service on the council website and other sites used by the service such as:

www.shropshire.gov.uk/arts.nsf

Grants and Commissioning

The service commissions arts organisations, venues and individual artists to provide access to the arts for residents and visitors to Shropshire through providing arts activities, events, artist-led workshops and exhibitions

The team support grass roots arts groups and projects in making funding applications to the Local Joint Committees in their area. http://www.shropshireljcs.com/

Arts Activities

All arts activities, workshops, festivals and events are planned and organised to ensure they are accessible to all and that they comply with health and safety guidelines.

The service works with other council services and partners to ensure that activities are relevant, needed and have the maximum impact for local communities.

Maintaining a well informed professional service

The Community Arts Officers actively maintain up to date information about current developments and best practice in the arts in relation to:

Development of different art forms, eg. Dance, music, literature, theatre, Community based arts projects
Fund raising skills, sources of funding and sponsorship
Current requirements of the national curriculum for schools, the youth service and specialist areas of work such as arts and health, the creative industries and the festival sector
Current requirements of disabled and vulnerable adults and children in gaining access to the service
Maintaining good working relationships with bordering local authorities to identify joint projects for the benefit of Shropshire residents and tourists

Contacting The Arts and Festival Development Team

Email: arts.service@shropshire.gov.uk

Tel: 01743 252305

Community Arts and Festivals Team, Shropshire Council, Shirehall,

Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY2 6ND

Alexa Pugh

Community Arts Officer

Tel: 01743 255938

Mob: 07582 003513

Email: alexa.pugh@shropshire.gov.uk

Jenny Smith

Community Arts Officer