Argentum Arts Award

End of Arts Award till next year

2009-12-09T02:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the last day of arts award till next year after christmas, We had to interview a lady called Fiona who worked in the arts but we didn't know which job she was working in so we needed to ask her ten questions each.

It's a shame that arts award has ended till next year I was really looking forward to getting my Silver Arts Award done for this year but I can still work on it next year when it starts.

I'll still be posting odd little bits about my progress in my guitar playing and singer but this blog will slow done till arts award starts up again but still keep checking up on it because their will be short little posts some days :D

Just a little update on my progress of my arts challenge

2009-11-30T02:00:00.000-08:00

Thursday before last I went to Olive's Bar it was quite hard to find but that was because it had moved, well not moved but instead of it being downstairs and much bigger it is upstairs over a take away food place, can't remember what it is called.

Olive's Bar is really nice, lovely decoraction, it had christmas decoractions on it which made you get into the christmas spirit quickier, it's smaller then other bars I've been in but that's fine because it had the cosing atmusver which I have never felt before in a bar or pub. The stage is not to big and not to small just the right size and it isn't really a stage it's more like a sitting area turned into a stage which was really nice to see and made a defference from seeing proper stages.

The open mic night started at 8:00, Stevie Jones (The organizer) started off the mic night with a few of his songs that he has on his albums, he's a really good singer and guitarist. We stayed to watch four acts because it was getting late and me and mum were very tired we both had a very busy day that day and it sort of took it's toll which was a shame because I really wanted to see the pros perform.

I was aming to do my workshops finished before christmas but unfortunaly I found out that Arts Award is finishing for christmas this tuesday so I can't do my workshops this year or my performance at Olive's Bar which is a bit of a bummer but oh well I don't mind, I'll just have to finish my silver arts award next year.

Two Thursdays before last I went to drumming on fosse road and asked Cally (my drumming tutor) If I could borrow five drums from him for my workshops, because I can borrow the drums from my local scrap store but only that one time because I'm not a memeber and if I wanted to borrow them again then I would have to become a member which I don't really want to do and I don't think I could either because I'm only 15, and Cally said that it was fine that I could borrow them for my workshop.

Finding my pathway

2009-11-16T02:18:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago on Tuesday Diana (My arts award leader) Gave me a sheet with all the arts jobs that people done and she said that I needed to research two of the jobs, I choose to do Education Officer and Youth Worker because they are the pathways and careers that I want to venture into myself, I have a friend called Amy Wale that works as a Education Officer at The Y Theatre with older teens in Inter-ACT The group I used to go to before I started going to Monday Drama at Herrick Road, I E-mailed her and asked her a few questions.

What Qualification did you need to have to do your job?

I have a 2.1 Degree in drama.

What's your average work day?

I don’t have an average working day – every day is different. Most weeks I will at some point visit a school for a meeting or to observe a creative activity, attend a meeting for another project that I may be involved in, liaise with artists and/or teachers, deliver a drama workshop and do lots of planning and paperwork

What do you like about your job?
I like that I don’t have an average day. There is a lot of variety in my job, one moment I can be slithering along the floor with a group of 5 year olds pretending to be snakes and the next minute I can be leading a creative consultation with victims of crime. Either way I am adhering to The Y’s mission of developing communities and people through the arts which is something I am passionate about.

What inspired you to take this work?
I always knew I wanted to study drama, ever since I can remember. I never intended to become a professional actor when I was at university, however my first job after graduating was acting in a Theatre in Education tour in Wolverhampton. I quickly realized that working with children and young people was something I enjoyed and was good at. I continued to be involved in various other tours and workshop leading roles as a freelance artist until I found out about the vacancy for Education Officer at The Y. My reasoning behind going for this job was that it would give me more security than my freelance work but I would still get to do the work I loved.

I would love to become either a Eduaction Officer or Youth worker and LIFEbeat Youth leader Because they love doing what they do and love their life.

Youth workers have loads of jobs like;

Youth clubs.

Projects.

Outreach programmes.

Mobile projects.

Accreditation programmes.

Information, advice and counseling.

To become a Youth Worker you need to have a Nation Youth Agency (NYC) or Higher Education awards in youth and community work, from 2010 all of the new qualifications in youth work will have to be at degree level or higher.

The qualifications that you can get with NYC are; NVQ (Nation Vocational Qualification) level 2 and 3, NVQs are accessible at HE (Higher Education) colleges often through employers.

Level 2 is equivalent to a GCSE

Level 3 is equivalent to a “A” Level

“Level 2 is for individuals working face-to-face with young people in supervised roles. Level 3 is aimed at those who are involved in direct face-to-face work with young people, but who work under their own initiative, and have additional responsibility for supervising other people, leading projects and developing their organization. Local Authority and voluntary youth services will normally expect you to gain level 3 NVQ, enabling you to create and implement your own work with young people with only minimal supervision.”I'm already working my way to becoming a youth worker and becoming a LIFEbeat Youth leader, (a youth camp that I go to)

Back in action and posting again :)

2009-11-15T12:04:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted any reviews on here for a while but I wanted to leave the reviews for a bit and do Unit 1.2 Arts practice and pathways which I would like to get finished first and then get back to making my followers, you guys :) happy and still following with posting all my reviews.

For Arts practice and pathways I need to do;
Collect Brochures, leaflets and other inforation about local arts organisations and opportunities and scrap book them.
Wrote about what I found about the artists/Arts professionals
Make a summarty of what I found out about future career/training opportunities.
Gather Tickets, programmes and other information about event that I attended.
And Write my review and evidence of my sharing it.

I've been away for four days in Peterborough with my mum helping her out with the East of England Christmas Show so I haven't really been able to do any of my arts award work but I'm going to get stuck right into it tomorrow.

Good feedback

2009-11-11T05:24:00.000-08:00

Great news I went to the Arts Award Group yesterday and Diana looked at my portfolio and said "Is it okay if I keep your portfolio and give it back to you while you're doing your dancing" I was really happy to hear this, I went to dancing whit I'm really, really enjoying now you can really express your feelings in the dance movements and really make them yourself, When I was practising one of the dances that I we were doing in the open class so that eveyone can see what we've been doing and how good we are.

I saw Diana come in and waved to her, she then put my portfolio on the floor and then watched us for a few minutes then went.

After dance had finished I picked up my stuff and walked outside and had a little laugh with dad because something funny happened to me and then when I got into the house I dropped everything on my sofa and looked through my portfolio trying to find the comment sheets and I was really surprised to see that everyone enjoyed my reviews I was so happy

Thank you Diana for doing that for me it's made me really happy :)

Marvelous Piano Duo

2009-11-09T03:24:00.000-08:00

I knew there was loads of concerts playing at the R.A.C centre because I had been to a few last year and I really enjoyed them so I looked up on their website and found some lunchtime soundbite concerts that I am intrested in.

Me and mum went down on Tuesday to see Gillian Butcher and Barry Collett two marvelous pianoists do a concert called Two Piano Recital, it was so great hearing two lovely pianos playing together, you could hear the rare talent that the pianoists had, they really enjoyed playing all the pieces.

First Session with Sophie :D

2009-11-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went into Herrick Road a bit before 5:00pm with my guitar because I didn't know if I could sing my song without my guitar, I waited in the main waiting room till it was five to five then I went to Sophies office which was shared with a other guy who works there, she knew that I was coming in the morning but when the morning dragged on and became day she forgot that I was coming.

I helped out a little bit with the choir songs because every week they always come back mumbled and jumbled up, and every week just before choir practise starts Sophie has to put all the songs into their groups which must take a long time to do because there is about 25 to 30 girls in the choir, so she was very happy that I helped out sorting the songs.

After I helped her finish putting the songs into their groups we walked around Herrick Road trying to find a room that wasn't being used, that was quite hard because it is a very busy music school but we finally found a room which wasn't being used and it was a balla room with a fireplace which I wasn't expecting a tall.

Sophie is a great singing teacher, she's so joyful and happy all the time, she has her odd ways of helping you out with your singing but they work in their odd own ways :D the session I had with Sophie was a lot of fun I really enjoyed it and I hope there will be more sessions with her in the future.

Needed help with singing, Found it :)

2009-11-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I went to choir and asked my choir tutor (Sophie) if she would be able to help me with my singing for my songs that I'm performing at Olives Bar and she gladly said "Sure I'll help you" which is great, we arranged that I would go to Herrick Road at 5:00pm before choir practise, so I'm really excited about it and I will blog about it when I come home.

City Gallery, Woven Air Exhibition

2009-11-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

Me and Mum went into town today to see the Pattern Recorgination and Woven Air but unfurtunately the Pattern Recorgination exhibit was being taken down and had finished the day we decided to go to the city gallery which was a shame because I was looking forward about looking around and blogging about it but oh well, I got to see Woven Air :)

The woven air exhibition was a bit confusing at first but when I started reading about it, it suddenly made sense to me,

Rezia Wahid makes her beautiful elegant scarfs out of by weaving with Egyptian cotton, Chinese silk, English merino wool and Japanese yarns she dyes them using natural and chemical dyes.

I love the colours see uses in her work, in the exhibition she had her notebook on display so you could see her ideas on paper then the finished real think next to it.

Train to Birmingham

2009-10-27T02:54:00.000-07:00

On October the 13th I went to Birmingham with my mum to go to Birminghams Museum and Art Gallery in Chamberlain Square.

I must admit I think the last time I was on a train was when I was 9, six years and I want to travel the world when I'm older so me and mum went into the train station a little bit earlier before our train came so that she could show me what to do and how things worked which was very useful to me because I didn't know anything about train stations to be honest.

We walked through The Bullring and Pallasades Shopping centre on the way to meet a friend of ours then we walked to the museum.

Me, Mum and our friend had a great day out looking around the muesum, for me to take photoes in the museum I had to get a photgraphy permit, which was very easy to sort out. These are some of the photoes I took

Everything slowly takes place

2009-10-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely my plan is taking place, I've found a venue to perform at called Olives Bar
On Queens road in leicester, On the 10th of December

And I've found the songs I want to sing which are: The Show by Lenka, Ironic by Alanis morissette and Our Song by Taylor Siwft, I think these are good songs that I've chosen and I hope that when I perform that everyone will enjoy them too.

Job List

2009-10-21T03:11:00.000-07:00

Thought that you might want to know which jobs I needed to do to organize my arts challenge event so here's a Job List.

Find venue                                                                   20/10/09
Arrange performance date                                   20/10/09
Get contact details for organizer of Olives Bar   19/10/09
Talk to organizer of Olives Bar (Stevie Jones)    20/10/09
Contact Good Friend/Good Singer Zoey
Talk to Choir Teacher (Sophie)                              15/10/09
Decide songs                                                                19/10/09
Arrange sessions with Brett
Practise guitar/singing everyday
Print out two copies of songs
Make leaflets for Argentum Arts Award blog
Print leaflets out
Give leaflets to arts award people
Keep blog up to date
Keep practise diary up to date

Plan 1; Take action

2009-10-19T05:03:00.000-07:00

Diana (The arts award leader) gave us our Silver arts award book, Now I really feel like I'm getting started becase it's helped me understand silver arts award just that little bit more and has helped me start my portfolio.

I've already done three pages for my portfolio; Strengths, Weaknesses, Action plan, Job list and Why I choose my Arts Challenge.

It was good me doing my strengths and weaknesses because I realised how many strengths I have and few weaknesses I have, I've started to improve on my weaknesses already by asking my choir teacher (Sueson) Who is really nice and friendly if she could give me some advice and help me with my singing. She said that she would love to help me with my singing for my arts challenge, I need to decide what songs I need to choose, then she can help me improve.

So now I've got my Action Plan all I have to do is get a move on :D

Busy time ahead in Leicester

2009-10-10T03:12:00.000-07:00

I've been researching recently about what's going on in Leicester and there is actually a lot of stuff going on which I found on the One Passion, One Leicester - What's On website, there was lots of stuff that I am interested in:
Woven Air at The City Gallery,

Pattern Recognition at The City Gallery,

I've also looked at The New Walk Museum website which has loads of interesting stuff that I love looking at and drawing.

I looked up Richard Attenborough Centre and there's free lunchtime soundbite mini concerts from 12:45pm to 1:45pm, I've been to these before and they're really nice because they're free and you can have a cup of tea or coffee and listen to the music. I'm looking forward to seeing more this Autmun.

Don't Panic, Don't Panic, Don't Panic!!!

2009-10-07T03:27:00.000-07:00

Day before yesterday I finished off my Bronze Arts Award folder because it needed a few changes to it which was fine, yesterday at two mintues to six I forgot that I needed to print it out again, so I was rushing up and down the stairs so many times getting the pages then putting them in the folder and I had to be at the arts award meeting at six.

It was manic in my house for that few minutes but I got it done, it's in it's folder and ready for next week for Diana to look at, she wasn't at the meeting yesterday because she's really, really ill so a other lady volunteered to do it.

The girl who is doing the gold arts award did another dance class yesterday, she took the dancing up a notch so it was very interesting learning the Fame dance, totally new dance, but it went really well, absolutely enjoyed it.

2nd Arts Award Group Meeting

2009-09-30T04:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 2nd arts award meeting, I left my Bronze arts award folder for Diana, the leader to have a look at it and I need to make some changes to it, so yeah I'm bit annoyed that it wasn't perfect but oh well.

We played a game which was quite interesting, we all held hands in a circle then broke into one long line of people, one person then dropped out of the line and turn round, when they weren't look we swiveled in, out and around each other, Under and over each others arms still holding each others hands then the person who dropped out needed to untangle the big line of jumbled bodies without moving them phiscally so they had to be clear instructions for us to follow.

No Go!!!

2009-09-25T03:33:00.001-07:00

Been waiting all morning till 10:30 for my friend to come over but she's forgot to come so yeah that was a no go'er lol but it doesn't matter I've just got to but my brain cap on and do some thinking :D

Thinks....
Thinks some more....
And some more....

Ahh I've got it lol The choir I go to maybe the choir leader could help me with improving my voice :) ok the little plan lol is: Go to Choir some more times then ask her if she would be happy to help me :D

2009-09-25T02:51:00.000-07:00

I've taken my first step towards my Big arts challange I've started going to a Choir in Arts in Education School on Herrick road in leicester, I went for the first time yesterday everyone was really friendly to me, when we started singing it felt like I was in the choir for years which is a good thing, the song they've chosen are amazing I love the songs, all of them, their so upbeat and jazzy they just make everybody in the choir smile.

My plan :)

2009-09-24T00:33:00.000-07:00

I thought of my big challange that I've set myself which is performing in front of a group of strangers and I've made my action plan which is my progress of my arts challange,

Play and Sing alone in my room (Tick done that)
Play and Sing in front of my Parents (Tick done that)
Play and Sing in front of my Family (Tick done that)
Play and Sing to my Boyfriend (Haven't done that yet but I'm going to do that when he's here on the 28th)
Play and Sing to a group of Friends (Going to do that when I go down to Chicester with my Boyfriend)
Play and Sing to a Big group of Friends (Hopefully fingers crossed I'll be able to organise that a good friend of mines house)
Play at open mic night? (Not sure how old people have to be, to be able to perform in a open mic night.... Research time :D lol)

Getting Started

2009-09-24T00:28:00.001-07:00

Today is the day that I get my head on right and get stuck into my arts award lol I've been thinking about my aspirations for a while now and thought of loads but the one I really want is to Play guitar and sing in front of a group of strangers at a Open mic night.

I've already taken action by contacting one of my good friends who is a great singer and she's going to come here tomorrow to help with my singing, So I'm looking forward to that :D

Big Decision!!!!

2009-09-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

I've just started my Silver Arts Award, I knew straight away what my chosen art form was going to be because I love performing on stage, most evenings I'm busy at groups doing Drama, Dance, Choir practice or African drumming. If I'm not at my groups I'm mostly in my room playing my guitar and singing. Sooooooooooooo....... Big drum roll please!!!

My chosen art form is......

Painting and Decorating......

No seriously it's Performing arts Guitar and singing.

I've already performed on stage in a youth caberate at a Home Educators Festival in June 2009

and I really enjoyed it but it was very nerve wracking.