Carnival Development

Carnival Development

Following the success of Back to the Streets, NORCA is planning to continue our carnival development work. The exact details of this will be worked into a new bid for funding and taken for discussion to the Arts Council and other funders, but key elements will be:

• The development of a new carnival group, the NORCA Carnival Block, built around a core group of active volunteers and including the development of the elements that were part of Back to the Streets - a music bloco, stilts group, dancers, makers and performers.
• A programme of development workshops for the core group and key local artists, with nationally or internationally significant artists.
• The development of a focussed product that is smaller in scale regarding numbers, but larger in scale artistically for each of two carnival seasons (2011 and 2012).
• The development of wider community involvement in the group, through open workshops, recruitment, etc., particularly drawing from the participants in Back to the Streets.
• Involvement of the local artist group in working on specific elements of the Block, and with room to involve other artists, as appropriate.
• Targeted support from National/International artists to meet specific gaps in skills or knowledge.
• A two-year project, showcasing each year's product as part of carnivals and events in Summer 2011 and Summer 2012. 2010 would be a development year, when we would not carry out major carnival work, but would start to build the group and run the development workshops.
• Attending a major carnival event as a key showcase in each of the above years, e.g. Luton Carnival, Notting Hill Carnival, etc., or an event linked to the Olympics celebrations.
• Working to make this group a standalone entity, with the sustainability to continue its existence through carnival bookings, its own funding, sponsorship, etc.

Contact Norca Central