2014 - Keele University

A celebration of creativity in later life!

Posted on 26 August 2014

A celebration of creativity in later life!

Wednesday 1 & Thursday 2 October 2014

at the

Potteries Museum & Art Gallery and the Mitchell Arts Centre, Hanley

This first Live Age Festival will showcase the work and talents of local older people and arts organisations across Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire. Keele and Staffordshire universities, together with a range of partners, cultural institutions, arts-based groups and other organisations, are supporting the Festival. It offers opportunities to:

TAKE PART in an exciting range of FREE activities

ATTEND WORKSHOPS on: visual arts; singing; crafts; creative writing; drama; photography; dance; music-making; film; using new technology

SEE ORIGINAL LIVE DANCE AND THEATRE performances – plus a satellite link-up with Canada’s ‘GeriActors & Friends’ performing their take on ‘King Lear’

LISTEN to pianist Frank Leigh; the Boat Band and a combined choir of the Clay Chorus and Loudmouth Women

BROWSE the information stands and stalls

DEBATE AND DISCUSS the role of the arts with the inspirational speakers at the LIVE AGE SYMPOSIUM

ENJOY a celebratory cream tea afterwards and help us evaluate the Festival

COME TO TALKS, FILM SCREENINGS and other FESTIVAL-LINKED EVENTS between late September and early November

OUTLINE PROGRAMME:

WEDNESDAY 1 OCTOBER

11.00 Festival Opens (sign up for workshops PMAG/MAC)

11.30-12.15 Festival Launch (PMAG)

• Welcomes – Festival Organisers & Festival Patron

• Talk – Jo Blagg, founder of Art Link

• In Flanders Fields – dance commemorating WW1, performed by Art Link

• Clay Chorus and Loudmouth Women

12.15-13.15 Opening Events (PMAG)

• Stalls and information stands

• Using New Technology – have a go and/or digitally record memories with B-Arts

• The Staffordshire Hoard – tour

• Everything and the Kitchen Sink – photography talk

• Film Screenings – showcase of creative work/projects

13.15-14.00 Lunch Break

Pianist Frank Leigh will be playing in the PMAG Café.

14.00-16.00 Workshops

• Communication through Art in Residential Care (PMAG)

• Character, Place and Time (creative writing) (PMAG)

• Singing for Joy (PMAG)

• Penkhull Mystery Plays – a chance to interact (PMAG)

• Age on the Silver Screen (PMAG)

• Art Link Open Dance Workshop (MAC)

• Exploring with Photography (MAC)

• Drama Workshop (MAC)

16.00-17.00 Tea Break

17.00-19.00 Live Age, Live Theatre, Live Link-Up

Join us in the Main Auditorium at the MAC for this exciting satellite link-up.

• Welcome to Silence – the ‘Ages & Stages Company’ with ‘New Vic Youth Theatre’

• King Lear – GeriActors & Friends, Edmonton, Canada

19.45-21.30 Staffordshire Film Archive, Screen Wednesday (Staffs Film Theatre)

• Crossing Lines, Linking Memories – senior citizens and school students talk about street games, school life and holidays

• Ages and Stages – supporting programme

THURSDAY 2 OCTOBER

10.00-10.30 Workshop sign-up (PMAG/MAC)

10.30-12.30 Workshops

• ArtLink Singing Workshop (PMAG)

• Me Us Community – craft activity (PMAG)

• Shaping Sounds with Our Hands – music (PMAG)

• Sewing Workshop –patchwork (PMAG)

• Talking to Strangers – creative writing (PMAG)

• Ages and Stages Drama Workshop (MAC)

• Moving Together and Dance for Parkinson’s (MAC)

• Picturing What’s Around You – photography (MAC)

12.30-13.30 Lunch Break

Pianist Frank Leigh will be playing in the PMAG Café.

The Boat Band will be playing in the MAC Spitfire Café.

13.30-15.30 Live Age Symposium (MAC)

Join us to hear three inspirational speakers and debate and discuss their presentations with them.

• ‘The Third Age Matters: learning, creativity and the baby boomers’ – Francis Beckett: author, journalist, playwright, contemporary historian and editor of ‘Third Age Matters’

• ‘Made For It! - Manchester’s approach to connecting older people with culture’– Sherry de Wynter: Age Friendly Manchester Cultural Programme Manager

• ‘Isn’t it Time to Celebrate Growing Older?’ – Dominic Campbell: former Artistic Director of the annual month-long Bealtaine Festival in Ireland

15.30-16.30 Celebratory Cream Tea and Festival Evaluation (MAC)

If you’ve been at the workshops, events or Symposium, come and have tea and help us consider what our next steps might be!

18.30 Live Age Linked Event (Keele University)

Mysticism and Politics: two worlds or one?: a public lecture by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury.

LIVE AGE LINKED EVENTS:

Baskeyfield VC - 70th anniversary of Arnhem: Thrillingly filmed in locations in North Staffordshire, Bill Townley’s film is an accurate account of Jack Baskeyfield’s heroic feat of single-handedly holding the German advance at bay. Wednesday 24 September, 7.45pm, Staffs Film Theatre. Seats are free and on a first-come first-served basis.

Mysticism and Politics: two worlds or one?: a public lecture by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, looking at spiritual identity, controversies and cultural movements through the lives and times of Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton. Thursday 2 October, 6.30pm, Lecture Theatre, David Weatherall Building, Keele University. Free of charge but admission by ticket only.

All The Days She Can Spare: an exhibition of prints and drawings by Russell Morris, made throughout the four years his mother was hospitalised with Alzheimer’s.

Preview: 6.00pm, Tuesday 7 October; Exhibition: Wednesday 8 October- Wednesday 29 October, Keele University Art Gallery.

Black History Month - The Colony: a special screening of Philip Donnellan’s 1964 documentary, plus extracts from Caribbean Voices, produced by SFA for Midlands Jamaica Aid - and some short ATV/Central TV items. Wednesday 8 October, 7.45pm, Staffs Film Theatre. Seats are free and on a first-come first-served basis.

Melvyn Bragg – in conversation with John Shapcott: Melvyn Bragg talks about a full creative life from the 1960s to the publication of his most recent semi-autobiographical book, ‘Grace and Mary’. Friday 24 October, 7.30pm, Westminster Theatre, Keele University (Tickets: £5.00 – all proceeds to Douglas Macmillan Hospice)

For The King’s Shilling: a moving, funny, yet thought provoking evocation of the tragedy and pathos of the First World War. Presented by the Potteries Museum and The Regent Theatre Creative Learning Department. Thursday 30 October, 7.30pm and Friday 31 October, 1.00pm/7.30pm, Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (Tickets £5.00-£7.00)

Angel: the story of Bill who returns an old woman’s shopping bag on an afternoon when she had nothing better to do and finds her life is never the same again. Theatre Hullabaloo’s brilliantly funny and heart-warming new play about childhood and ageing.

Monday 3 November, 1.30pm/7.00pm, Mitchell Arts Centre (Tickets £3.50-£7.00)

Johnny Got His Gun: When the call came, idealistic Joe Bonham eagerly volunteered for the trenches of World War One. Now he has paid a price he never expected. Metal Rabbit brings the UK premiere of Oscar-winner Dalton Trumbo’s classic anti-war novel.

Tuesday 4 November, 7.30pm, Mitchell Arts Centre (Tickets £11.00-£14.00)

PROGRAMME INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION DETAILS:

www.keele.ac.uk/artskeele

or call: 01782 734340

or email: boxoffice@keele.ac.uk

or people can write to:

Box Office, University Reception, Chancellor’s Building, Keele University, Keele ST5 5BG

MEDIA CONTACTS:

The following people/partners have agreed to be contacted to speak about the Festival to the media:

Miriam Bernard, Professor of Social Gerontology, Keele University

m.bernard@keele.ac.uk

01782 734067 or 07708 932413