Samizdat Winter 2007

This issue of Samizdat is dedicated to Trish Reeves

BLUE SKY THINKING...

Welcome to the winter 2007/2008 issue of the Out of the Blue (OOTB) newsletter. OOTB's nerve centre, The Out of the Blue Drill Hall, has firmly established itself as a buzzing arts venue as even a brief survey of this quarter's newsletter will confirm.

Indeed, the number and sheer range of different activities and events is impressive, all the more so considering the space has only been officially open to the public since April. With classes in subjects as diverse as aerial acrobatics, speed yoga, modern dance, Brazilian martial arts, drama and life drawing mixing with gig-going (snake-)hipsters and visitors to an exhibition of, say, self-portraits of the artist as Mary Poppins (see report on This is a Time for Dreaming below), alongside artists and creatives of all stripes based at The OOTB Drill Hall, it certainly makes for a dynamic environment. You don't even need a specific reason for visiting, you can simply drop by for a cup of Zapatista coffee or tasty snack at the Drill Hall Arts Café and soak up the atmosphere. For a definitive listing of the full programme at The OOTB Drill Hall, please turn to the diary on the back page.

Amidst this wild eclecticism however, common themes soon emerge when artists and visitors are asked for feedback: an open minded creativity, willingness to experiment and a genuine appetite for closer involvement. Aerial artist Jen Paterson is typical. "As an artist living in Leith it's important for me to connect to that [OOTB] community as part of the development of my work," she says. "It would be exciting to cross art forms and collaborate with other artists working within the drill hall. I have always been inspired by the atmosphere of OOTB, the sense of creativity in many ways happening around and within the building."

It was this consensus that provided the impetus for current plans to appoint OOTB Associate Artists. Outstanding artists in different fields will lead regular workshops for the community, culminating in an exhibition or performance which utilises the building. The benefits will be tangible and immediate. Many more people who would not normally have the chance to participate in the arts will have easy access to high quality projects. The artists too will benefit: an Associate post is an exciting opportunity to develop their practise in a creatively charged environment. OOTB is seeking funding for the scheme and last month tabled a proposal for the years 2009 to 2011 to the Scottish Arts Council. A decision is expected in March.

Fundraising for the third and final phase of the internal redesign of The OOTB Drill Hall is underway too. Architects CiAO are currently fine-tuning plans for a mezzanine level in the main hall based on the feedback from the previous phase. Work is set to begin in Autumn 2008 and will provide 15 additional studios and two workshop spaces. With OOTB's waiting list for studios topping the 300 mark, the need for these extra studios has never been so acute. OOTB has already secured £78,000 from the Big Lottery and is seeking funding from other public and private bodies. But with the build cost estimated at around £500,000, your personal support is vital. As you've read, there are big plans at Out of the Blue, plans important to the cultural wellbeing of our city. So please Click-A-Brick at www.outoftheblue.org.uk for Christmas.

CAFÉ SOCIETY

The Drill Hall Arts Café is to unveil a brand new and improved menu in January 2008. Taking the current signature dishes such as Three Cheese Gratin and the selection of homemade soups such as Moroccan Chickpea as a basis, the new menu will offer an even wider variety using even more organic ingredients from local suppliers. The popular cake selection too gets a boost with all manner of new sweet delicacies on the board. There are also plans for Saturday Brunch live music sessions in the New Year. Call (0131) 555-7100 for details.

Trainees at the Drill Hall Arts Café are getting regular professional cookery lessons from a top Edinburgh chef. Jonathan Newton, formerly chef at the high profile Fishers in the City restaurant, is giving monthly classes covering everything from basic food preparation to patisserie. The Café provides placements for local young people through the Port of Leith Housing Association's TOIL training for work scheme. Trainee Lucy Robertson says, "The classes are great fun and really helpful. I'd never have had the chance to do something like this without the training scheme."

MARKET IN YOUR DIARY

The success of Saturday 14th December's OOTB Arts Market at the OOTB Drill Hall underlined the growing popularity of this event. More than 750 people browsed stalls selling everything from photography and fine arts to textiles and books, making it the best attended market ever.

In response to this demand and in recognition of the important service it provides to artists and makers, OOTB is now - subject to funding - pledging to organise the Arts Markets on a formal, quarterly basis. The Markets aren't simply a chance to buy an unusual gift in an attractive setting. They provide a valuable showcase for emerging artists and an opportunity to sell work in a gallery system otherwise geared towards established names. Creating opportunities for everyone to participate in the arts is OOTB's fundamental objective and the social enterprise has made a firm commitment to deliver arts markets until 2011 and beyond. As stall holder, Recycled Textiles' Julie Dawson opines, "The arts market in September [2007] was by far the best selling event I have attended. I found it invaluable for promoting my work, both as a maker and as a teacher."

ACOUSTIC CAFE

OOTB, in association with promoters The Police Box, is launching a regular acoustic music and multi-arts revue called, appropriately enough, Acoustic Café. Initially planned as a quarterly event, the first is on Friday 14th December with the next slated for March 2008. To get the ball rolling in fine style, the promotions team has really pulled out all the stops to bring you a fantastic line-up including music from local folk/r'n'b heroes William Douglas and the Wheel, Benbecula Records recording star Frog Pocket, Forest Records' Lost Squirrel Tales, singer/songwriter Rob St John, ambient electronica from Seven Things and the Collective Gallery and Forest Café's World Music Choir. The evening more than lives up to its multi-arts billing with films and projections by Jean-David Caillouet, visual art and interior design and visual art by Vladimir Guerriro, Mina Braun, Johanna Renman and The Fairytale Forest, poetry from Big Word's Anita Govan and gramophone sounds from DJ Fossil Record.

"My aim is to achieve as wide a variety as possible in every sense from performance through to audience and it is this balancing act that is the focus of my work for the event," enthuses basketball danger man and Police Box supremo Ed Stack. "For example, we have record-label signed musicians alongside unsigned professional musicians, alongside a totally informal world music choir. There will be a variety of artforms: moving and still art is on show, performance poetry and an enchanting decorative theme. The idea is to break barriers so that art plays a binding and positive role in the community."

To help create a sophisticated, cabaret-style atmosphere, the evening is all-seated with candle-lit, table service. Guests are encouraged to book tables for six at £25 but a limited number of individual tickets priced at £5 each are also on sale. A special wine and cheese menu will be available on the night from The Drill Hall Arts Café. Doors open at 7pm and close again at 8pm with the last act finishing around 10.30pm. Early booking on 07812 346 310 is recommended but tickets will also be available on the night at the door.

PARK LIFE

OOTB's exemplary community arts project Park Life to revitalise the local Dalmeny Street Park continues to build momentum. Alongside attracting significant backing from funders and gaining widespread peer recognition for its hardworking, innovative approach to using the arts as a driver for social and urban regeneration, the project is featured prominently as a case study in Firing the Imagination - Arts and Community Learning and Development, a major new policy document from the Scottish Arts Council. Central to Parklife's ongoing success was OOTB's creation of a Friends of Dalmeny Street Park (FDSP) group which now boasts some 50 members. FDSP Treasurer Lise Bratton explains, "Friends of Dalmeny Street Park has managed to build strong relationships with local people and other groups to raise funds for improvements to the park at the same time as instilling a real sense of community."

FDSP has enlisted children from the Lorne Primary School to help design a new play area and develop a programme of environmental activities in the park. Drawings for the new area and improved sports facilities have been submitted to the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) and the OOTB-associated community group is now hammering out a final masterplan with city-planners which is expected to be ready by early in the New Year. CEC has already earmarked some £70,000 to help pay for the work.

And in a further move aimed at transforming attitudes to the park, Scottish Natural Heritage is backing an FDSP scheme to create an environmental education project for local people. The Community Greenspace Project will design and build planters for the park during a series of workshops in Spring 2008. The deal, inked on the 1st December and worth some £9,000, will enable an FDSP group travel to the Borders Forest Trust's Wood School in the Borders to learn about conservation as well as source local, sustainable materials for the planters.

Among other key Park Life initiatives is Streetlife. Backed by social inclusion advocates Capital City Partnership (CCP) and the Port of Leith Housing Association, OOTB is working with the Streetwork Project and young people who use the park to design a shelter in a bid to create a sense of ownership of the previously neglected park. As part of the scheme, the youngsters are also learning about graphic design with OOTB Drill Hall tenant and talented designer Emma Westwater of Source Design. OOTB is to publish a magazine in the Spring that reflects their views about the use and future development of the park.

BIG PICTURE

OOTB has been tapped to lead an acclaimed arts project in Leith alongside the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) in February 2008. Parallel Lives 2 aims to investigate the role of art as a catalyst for social change. The project will encourage participants to study how key works from the National Collection relate to society and then communicate their ideas through presentations at an NGS venue, online and at locations within their own communities. The original project was launched back in 2002. Capital City Partnership Arts & Inclusion Officer Kate Wimpress says, "Parallel Lives is a great project. It brings the national collection alive and strengthens the links between organisations such as Out of the Blue and the National Gallery."

DRILL HALL DESIGNERS, DIVAS AND DIRECTORS

Designers on the Run - whose studio is in the OOTB Drill Hall - recently won through to the last 20 of a national competition to design the façade of a major new arts centre in Manchester. Their design for The Hive, which used photovoltaic cells to power LEDs that mimicked the flight of a swarm of bees made from sustainable materials such as recycled honeycombed plastics, impressed judges including the former Factory Records art director and now Manchester's Creative Director Peter Saville. OOTB Drill Hall resident Zoë Irvine's global Dial-A-Diva project was a highlight of September's European Cultural Capital celebrations in Stavanger. As reported in Samizdat Summer 2007, the project connects singers and listeners around the world with telephones in a 24 hour 'phonecast'. Karaoke singers in Seoul, the Anger Boys group in Ramallah, a Polish carnival band, folk musicians from Burkina Faso and opera divas from Colombia were among the performers who took part. And a touch of silver screen magic came to the OOTB Drill Hall in November after OOTB studio resident Alice Nelson scooped a Scottish BAFTA for her short film Losing Myself: Annie. The film, which documents the experiences of people with dementia, was part of a four-part series broadcast on Channel 4's Three Minute Wonder strand in February. Samizdat hopes that ordering her morning coffee at the Drill Hall Arts Café isn't too much of an anti-climax for Alice after rubbing shoulders with glitterati such as glamorous award ceremony host Lorraine Kelly.

NEW YEAR REVOLUTION

OOTB's trading arm The Bongo Club is programmed to party over the festive season with a packed line-up of top club nights and live bands. Pick of the bunch has to be cult beats and bleeps night Headspin on 31st December. Their Hogmanay shindigs are legendary and this New Year is shaping up to be even better. Playing all the tunes that rocked the dancefloor in 2007, DJs Resonance, Dava, Allan Dunbar and company will see 2008 in with all the four deck flair and musical invention their fiercely loyal crowd expect. Tickets are selling out fast so advance booking on (0131) 558 7604 or www.thebongoclub.co.uk is recommended.

EXHBITIONS AT OOTB

Housing support and care provider Link Living is organising an exhibition by one its clients at The OOTB Drill Hall in February 2008. Anna Virginia Redpath will show her paintings and works in other mediums including embroidery after a member of staff dropped in for a coffee at The Drill Hall Arts Café. Link Living is also based on Dalmeny Street. More than 1,000 people visited October's This Is A Time For Dreaming exhibition at The OOTB Drill Hall. The work by mainly Polish artists living in Edinburgh which ranged from holograms and photography through textiles and paintings to film and installation was the latest in a string of successful shows there. The OOTB Drill Hall's cavernous central space under the huge cantilevered steel and glass roof makes a spectacular backdrop for all types of exhibitions and performances. OOTB also has an exhibition space at busy shopping centre Ocean Terminal. If you are interested in mounting an exhibition at either venue, please contact Nichola Waygood on nichola@outoftheblue.org.uk