BuildingProposal

From The Star And Shadow Cinema Wiki

PROPOSAL FOR BUILDING PROJECT - ACE APPLICATION DECEMBER 05

Contents 1 1, YOU AND YOUR WORK 1.1 a)What you want to do: 1.2 b) The Idea behind it and how you plan to do it 1.2.1 PARTNERS: 1.3 C) What you want to achieve/ how it fits in / sees a development of work: 2 2. MAKING IT HAPPEN: 2.1 A) Evidence of support from partners: 2.2 B) Past experience: 2.3 C) Managing stages: 3 3. BUDGET: 3.1 A) How is the budget suited to the activity? 3.2 B) What is your approach to raising money from other sources 3.3 C) What is the effect on your long term financial position? 3.4 D) Financial controls 4 4. BENEFIT: 4.1 A) To your organisation? 4.2 B) The public benefit? 4.3 C) How will you reach them - marketing? 4.4 D) Evidence of demand 4.4.1 MODELS: 5 5. MEETING ACE AMBITIONS: 6 6. EVALUATION.

1, YOU AND YOUR WORK

a)What you want to do:

This document is partly an introductory business plan to look into the long term sustainability for the Side Cinema Collective (hereafter referred to as SCC) at a new venue. It is also a proposal for a large scale community build/ installation to do the major work necessary to prepare a new building for a first cinema season at a new venue. Our proposal is to run a two week socio-cultural event that has a very practical outcome – the construction of a cinema/ cross-culture centre, but in a way that veers from convention. The SCC are moving to the Ouseburn and need to renovate the building we have found. We would like to invite people to sponsor the new cinema - a building that they feel they have a stake in - with their time and skills. We propose to house, feed and look after a group of volunteers from the UK and Europe in exchange for their skilled work and creative input. We propose to make it easy for skills and knowledge to be exchanged, to operate in a very safe, but also exciting and experimental manner, and to use a model of working that resets the relationships between 'employer/employee', 'cultural venue/ audience', professional labourer/ volunteer.

SCC's proposal is inspired by many things that have happened just like it in the past, from Buckminster Fuller’s architectural experiments in the Nevada desert in the 1960’s to the International Voluntary Service providing a gateway for volunteers to find local community projects globally. On a smaller level, events like the eco camp at Gleneagles, 2005 and such like are proof that a dedicated team of volunteers, who are well supported and who share skills, can do an awful lot in a small amount of time. SCC holds to a way of working that brings programming culture and experiencing culture much closer. Events like Expanded Cineside, Projectile film festival, Eyes Wide Open and others have been organised by a small group but helped run by those participating as audience, whether that be doing occasional bar work or front of house, or showing their own film. We want this attitude to be reflected in the way we move and renovate the new building, i.e involving participation from our audiences.

We feel our proposal fosters a spirit that gets sidelined in mainstream 'market-driven' society, which attatches a market value to everything. We feel a voluntary approach means people give their time in a different frame of mind, for the sake of a common cultural aim rather than as a means to get paid.

b) The Idea behind it and how you plan to do it

The SCC comprises artists, socially-minded volunteers, filmmakers and activists. It has been running the Side Cinema on the Quayside for 4 years, renting the cinema from Amber Films, and for the last two years, an office at Waygood Gallery. Our lease with Amber Films has now expired, and we have found a building to rennovate in the Ouseburn. The reasons for moving into a larger building go beyond the termination of our lease with Amber. Being limited only to an auditorium in the old Side Cinema has always been frustrating - there was scant room for doing the expanded events we have programmed elsewhere in the past. We had no real way of making income alternative to funding - being able to run a bar or occasional cafe will (while we also understand the risks) help us to bring in more earned income. We have never been able to have an office in the same building as the cinema which has been a constant frustration - having a larger building allows for this. It also allows for space to be dedicated to things alternative to cinema, which we found in many of the independent cultural venue-models we have been looking at. It also means we can cement relationships with other like-minded groups to provide an independently spirited resource of a professional quality that encourages participation and puts little or no cost on participation. It can be a venue that produces grassroots culture like no other in the region. In the long term, this building really allows us and our partners to grow - something that was hindered by a)having limited space and b)not controlling the space, but having to work within the confines of our landlords. Being in control of our own building will allow us to be much more adventurous in what we programme and the way we programme it, leading with experimentation.

This all relates to our planned approach to renovating the building, which will be done over a 2 month time frame, with a more intense fortnight during which we hope to involve volunteers in many areas of the rennovation.

The building is the old Tyne Tees warehouse at the top of Crawhall Road, and we shall be occupying approximately 9,000sq.ft. SCC proposes to use the spaces as follows. Of the main three halls, one would be used for a bar/café/gig area, the middle one would be a cinema and the final hall would be partitioned appropriately to make offices/ workshops. The two storeys of the flat would be sub let by SCC to interested partners. The toilet block would be on the other side of the third hall, adjoining the space rented by Artworks.

The building will be separated structurally into two areas - Artworks and the Cinema. The entrances are separate, all marketing will be separate - the relationship only stretches as far as landlord-tenant. The leasehold of the building has been taken on by Newcastle City Council, who also did a structural survey of the building. They have been granted planning permission for change of use in to a cinema. The Council are signing a lease with Artworks, a local gallery dealing paintings. Artworks are sub-letting to us. SCC is sub letting to Platform and Polytechnic. The lease is still in negotiation, but a copy of the head lease between the owners of the building and the tenants who are letting the building to the council (TTTV) is included. This lease will form the basis of a lease between the Council and Matt Forster. Please also find attached a copy of the draft tenancy agreements between Artworks and SCC and between SCC and Platform/Polytechnic.

There is major building work needed, to construct partition walls between spaces occupied by Artworks and SCC, and a shared toilet block – this work will be carried out by Newcastle City Council. Parking arrangements have been found on the opposite side of the railway. Please view the attached plan of the building for more clarity, as well as a list and schedule of works.

We plan to run a two week festival that is well supported by highly skilled people. We have a working group planning everything from buildings regulations to sources of materials. We will have people dedicated to specific roles over the fortnight - most importantly a financial convenor (Christo Wallers), a group of forepeople planning the various stages of the building work (John Smith, Oliver Marlowe, Matthew Fleming, Jona Aal, Chris Palmer), and a volunteers group looking after the health and safety, training, time planning and feeding of volunteers working on the project. (Holly Clay, Sneha Solanki, Matthew Cheney). Contractors will be installing a new electrical circuit. (We are awaiting further quotes). We will also make use of Newcastle College students in brick laying, plastering and gas heating, providing them with practical experience upon which they will be assessed by their tutors. Adam Ghillespie has confirmed his class of heating engineers will be able to fit central heating.

SCC is reconstituting itself on 22 January, at the same time as becoming a CIC – a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee. The SCC will rename itself shortly, too, as we can’t take the name ‘Side Cinema’ with us – it belongs to Amber Films. The memorandums and articles of our new business are enclosed in draft form. They are based heavily on the current aims and objectives. The main difference is that instead of representatives from each side making up the committee, the committee will now be made up of designated roles (treasurer, content convenor, audience development, marketing, technical facillitator etc.) which will increase sutainability of the organisation.

The activities that will go on in the building, under the auspices of SCC and our sub tenants Polytechnic and Platform, are film screenings, discussions, events, gigs, silent films accompanied by music, software workshops and presentations, performance art events, expanded cinema events, and (new) media exhibitions/installations. These activities will be complemented by a members' bar and occasional food. The programme will be sustained by the group of volunteers that currently makes up the SCC. We are also recruiting new volunteers through our website and have had a positive response. Over the next few months this is an area the collective will focus on heavily - introducing new volunteers to help sustain the project. We are used to doing private hires and working in partnership with other organisations to deliver a very well thought out cultural programme, that is recognised internationally. We are confident of increasing that volunteer pool in the near future, particularly during the rennovation project, and attracting promoters of music and other cultural forms to the new venue. In fact it frees us up to do a lot more interesting cross disciplinary events, as the space we will inhabit will no longer be only a screening auditorium.

The project increases our ability to generate income, most importantly, so that while we are expanding, we could look towards being more self sufficient within 5 years.

PARTNERS:

Side Cinema has been in discussion with various organisations and groups affiliated with it. Polytechnic, a newly formed group of technology-based artists, has committed a keen interest to taking a space. Platform North East, the live art organisation, has also . Filmbee would be interested in having a darkroom and edit suite at the Crawhall Road building, with the possibility of expanding it to digital through working with Polytechnic.

C) What you want to achieve/ how it fits in / sees a development of work:

This move fits in with the the general curve of our work over the last four years, which has included performance, publishing, film screenings, film making, new media workshops, hybrid social/ cultural events, and it brings them all under one roof. In our experiences of European culture, very many cities have a cultural community that works outside of the professional Arts and Culture market, but exist in spaces people have built for themselves, where people have the freedom to do what they want to do without needing lots of money. Side Cinema has always been committed to providing the best culture at the smallest cost, sharing resources for free or a very small fee, sharing skills and encouraging participation. This move increases our opportunity to do that even better. We currently have approximately 50 people who have expressed a keen interest in volunteering at the new cinema, either during the building fortnight or once the space opens, as ushers, bar staff, film programmers etc. We want to continue increasing this network of volunteers, to inspire people to stay in the area and help create something we consider culturally essential, and also where people can learn extremely valuable skills within the cultural sector through participating in our organisation. The move to Crawhall Road and the rennovation are perfect tools for fulfilling these aims.

This project is by nature particpatory. This list includes names and a brief word about their experience for people who have committed an interest to participating in this project:

Local

• Side Cinema volunteers - Julie, Jo B, Ray, Christo, Alan, Mat F, James J P, Adrin, Ele C, Noah, Debbie,
• Platform volunteers - Ilana Mitchell
• Polytechnic Volunteers - Dominic - samuraiskillz@blueyonder.co.uk , Sneha, Clive - clive@sad-mac.co.uk .
• Filmbee Volunteers - Sarah B, Chris B, Laura H.
• Lucy Sacker - Architect - lucy@helenlucas.co.uk
• Johnny Clements - 5th Year Architect at Newcastle Uni
• Sarah Walton and Craig Dugan - very good at art installation/ any building work really., rhizomes@hotmail.com, mog116@hotmail.com
• Tom Cullen – professional av/ multimedia installer
• John Smith – Joiner/ exhibition installer.
• Chris Osborne - Technical Director at Baltic, chriso@baltic.com
• Gillian Holt – qualified electrician, filmmaker
• Lucy - qualified electrician
• Ant Macari - Normalife, Joiner.
• Jona Aal– Green Festival, Sunseed Environmental Community, Alt-tech/sound engineer.
• Lara Marsh - Alt-tech expert., lara@positivepower.co.uk
• Pete Evans – Exhibition installer, artist
• Susie Green– artist, designer
• Ian Benson – physicist, mechanic, electronics, sound.
• Holly Clay – Green Festival Manager, ladyonorth@gmail.com
• Clare Tavernor & Mark Simms – good at sound systems/analogue electronics.cjtavernor@hotmail.com, electricpress@ntlworld.com
• Adam Ghillespie - British Gas engineer + Plumber/ Musician, adam@n-e-twork.net
• James Froment - Sound Man and general good guy at Northumbria Uni., joiner, james@jfroment.co.uk
• Chris Rollen - hosingrecords@fsmail.net - musician
• Flora Whiteley - Florawhiteley@hotmail.com - artist
• Antonia - helping in kitchen.
• Sofia Mavridou - proper placement through Northumbria Uni - doing event management MA. placement in march/April. sofi_ss2@hotmail.com
• Melanie (recent graduate in film course @ Sunderland Uni, 21yrs old wants work experience.) Melanie_iredale@yahoo.co.uk
• Green Festival volunteers
• Social Centre Volunteers
• Robert and Martin - potential tenants - are looking into running a open access IT lab with a focus on IT for minorities/ asylum seekers. Would prob. take the larger space in the foyer if we rennovated it.
• itlc@itlc.org.uk

National

• Pip (Birmingham) - 7" Cinema - pip from Birmingham based 7 inch cinema is handy with plastering.
• pip@7inch.org
• Wendy Woolfson (Glasgow) - Retrosexuals keyboard player., lostboys@hotmail.com
• Adele Brereton (Reading) – Jeweller, friend and very interested in helping.
• adelebrereton@gmail.com
• Ben (Nowhere Lab technician, London) - Interested in helping.
• Ben Wallers & Sophie Pollitowicz (London) – Musicians, artists, awolspol@gmail.com, prawns@gmail.com
• Andy Slater (Edinburgh) - Exhibition Builder/ Joiner

Forest Cafe (Edinburgh):

• James Gloyne (London)– , Musician, Joiner/ Self Build.
• Chris Palmer (Edinburgh)– Forest, Joiner/ Self Build.
• Oli Marlowe (London) – Joiner, Filmmaker, Forest - Joiner/ Self Build.
• Mathew Cheney (Bristol)– Forest/ Cube Cinema, Musician. Would be interested in doing Health and Safety management for the festival., arkticcircle@hotmail.com
• Magda Forest Cafe - blubbfisk@hotbrev.com - projectionist

Embassy (Edinburgh),

• Cube Cinema (Bristol)
• 7" Cinema (Birmingham)
• Lux - info@lux.org.uk
• GFM - bless@gfmproductions.com (Glasgow)
• Dissent Network

International

• Annette Knol (Amsterdam)- Designer, printerette@gmail.com
• Florida folk (Berlin)– Robert Berghardt, Jan Novak- Jan_Novak@gmx.net, Benni, etc., Emma Williams - ej.emma@gmail.com
• Nova Labos (Belgium)

The level of skills in this list is very high. With approproate planning and management, we are confident that we can both utuilise these skils to the best of people's ability, but also encourage an environment for sharing these skills too. Many of the participants, particularly the local ones, have years of experience doing temporary build projects, electrical work and av work installing exhibitions at Baltic. We consider this project similar in scale to a large Baltic exhibition install, and will value those participants who have worked on BALTIC installations experience.

Please find enclosed CVs for members of Polytechnic, Side Cinema, Filmbee and Platform North East.

2. MAKING IT HAPPEN:

A) Evidence of support from partners:

We have a good relationship with NFM and Newcastle City Council - we are in planning meetings with NFM presently to help us with the application process over the next year or two. Newastle City Council have committed the same figure to our project for the forseeable future. Our partners as sub-tenants (Platform North East, Filmbee and Polytechnic are all committed to the project. Please see Platform and Polytechnic's accompanying expressions of interest.

B) Past experience:

The Side Cinema collective has been managing the Side Cinema for four years. We have handled over 10,000 admissions in that period, shown films from 45 countries, had countless local, national and international filmmakers present their work, organised book launches, film festivals and education projects, and built up the reputation of a great resource from a forgotten screening room to an internationally known cultural cinema. Our biggest resource is the experience of the people that volunteer, who have worked in many fields from community work to filmmaking to curating galleries to overseeing large budgets for charities.

The process of the building project encourages a collective approach to work, trying to avoid hierarchical systems. There will be people dedicating themselves to specific roles, particularly financial management, hospitality, health and safety and convening the schedule of works. Christo Wallers will be financially managing the project, Matthew Fleming will be conveniing the schedule of works, Matthew Cheney will convene health and safety issues and Christo Wallers and Holly Clay will be convening hospitality.

Christo Wallers has a track record of financially managing projects over the last four years from Film Festivals to large scale art events and workshops. Mat Fleming has worked as a freelancer at Baltic for two years installing and taking down exhibitions. Matthew Cheney helped build (and move venues twice) the Forest Cafe, is first aid trained and understands Health and Safety policies, and is familiar with working with large groups of volunteers. Holly Clay has managed the Green Festival, particularly concerning the catering, for the last 5 years.

C) Managing stages:

We are currently working on an informal basis with 5th year Newcastle University architecture student Johnny Clements, and Lucy Sacker of Helen Lucas Architects in Edinburgh, (formerly of Malcolm Fraser Architects who designed DanceCity?). With their help we are drawing up our own architect's plans and taking into consideration the issues they know we have to confront including health and safety and accessibility.

We have set specific goals for the different stages -

Stage 1 - Oct05?-Jan06?: Becoming a business, planning the building move, deciding on rebranding, designing a rebranding initiative. Architects drawings of building, listing and costing necessary works, planning for DDA compliance and Health and Safety specifics. Fund-raising for build and first year's outputs, Forum and introduction for new volunteers

Stage 2 - Jan06?-Feb06?: Signing lease and moving in. Detailed planning of renovation, opening design process to more people, sourcing materials, planning move out of current premises. Creating sub-leases for tenants. Polytechnic and Platform move in.

Stage 3 - Feb06?-April06?: General cleaning and preparing for building fortnight. Building fortnight. Get building to operational standard.

Stage 4 - May06?-July06?: Opening night and first season of programming.

For sourcing materials, we have consulted various specialists from our list of helpers, particularly Chris Osborne, technical director from Baltic, Tom Cullen from Baltic, Adam Ghilespie, a gas heating tutor from Newcatle College. Quotes have come from our network of volunteers plus various local companies for things like fire doors, skip hire, tool hire, van hire etc, and the online mailorder firm Screwfix Direct.

long term effect on managing your work. The long term effect will be an increase in our work load, but a parallel increase in volunteers.

3. BUDGET:

A) How is the budget suited to the activity?

The budget may look cheaper than one might expect for a project like this. However in conventional builds, the largest cost is labour, a cost which we have circumvented because our skilled labour is being volunteered. We are also re-using materials from the British Art Show at Baltic (predominantly plaster board walling and insulation.) Wherever possible we will recycle or re-use materials (ensuring compliance with health and safety legislation, but also complying with our attitude to recycling and environmental sustainability).

The project therefore is exceptional value for money. A new build or a renovation for a cultural venue would normally cost in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. We propose to do it our own way, cutting out the costs of consulants, architects, contractors etc. but not cutting back on any of those skills - we are working with architects, consultants and skilled labourers, but not in exchange for money. Having an entirely new, artist/volunteer run cultural organisation for the community for the budget we are presenting is exceptional value for money.

B) What is your approach to raising money from other sources

Or main fund raiser is the in-kind sponsorship of those participating in the building, which will ammount to at least 15k (based on 10 people per day at least, if paid £100 each p.d, for 15 days.) We are fundraising to the Film Council for money to purchase equipment once the building is at an operational standard (equipment to include digi-beta player, DLP video projector etc.) We are putting some of the funding from NFM and NCC for this period towards the build. Dale Bolland of the Ouseburn Trust has secured funding to install walls and toilets and the electricity circuits.

C) What is the effect on your long term financial position?

The project will increase our costs in the long term by about 50%. It does however offer us the chance to increase our earned income dramatically, with subletting and running a bar. Looking forward over the next two years, if our current funding arrangements were to stay the same (while our funding from NFm depreciates), we would need to find a new funder. we are in early stages of writing a three year funding proposal to Northern Rock. We also wait to see how lucrative the bar might be. We have also been in discussion with NFM about fundraising for a consultant to look into the revenue possibilities of hiring the cinema to film production companies.

D) Financial controls

We have a treasurer and a book keeper. A single person will be in charge of the financial side of this project, working closely with a group of project convenors responsible for purchasing materials and planning the building work. All cheques are signed by two people.

4. BENEFIT:

A) To your organisation?

The benefit to our organisation is enormous. Moving away from the limitations of our old building, this new venture gives us ample space to really stretch our imaginations. This is the opportunity we have all been dreaming of for four years. It will be a great test for us, which is crucial to keep vitality in things, and a great reward - giving us a chance to represent the things we feel strongly about in cinema, culture and society in a much freer way. It also . Involving volunteers during the rennovation fortnight will be of emormous benefit because not only does it give us the chance to increase our pool of volunteers, and to get a whole new group of people involved, it also helps to keep the costs of the renovation low.

B) The public benefit?

Our film programming has benefitted people from across various different communities in the north east, from screenings dedicate to people with mental health problems to community film projects to artists, and film enthusiasts, to people from ethnic minorities, students, the LGB community, and beyond. We propose to put participation at the foreground of our organisation, and hope that many people who come as audience members might consider particpating in helping with the renovation and to keep the building improving culturally.

We will also be seated within a much more residential area than we were before, and look forward to getting involved in the community in our vicinity, particularly setting up film groups for residents and young people in the area, and encouraging young people to get involved in the organisation. This will be a slow process after we have opened, but we have already started planning a basic audience development strategy, especially during the summer.

There is no artist/volunteer run building in Newcastle that involves both a presentation space and open resources for people to use to make work. Through collaborating with Polytechnic and Filmbee, the resources available in the new building will be second to none - filmbee's filmmaking resources include a black and white 16mm film processor, various 16mm and 8mm cameras and a steenbeck editing table, plus a fully equipped darkk room for black and white film development. AS a collective, they share skills that are in danger of being lost through the advent of digital technology, and are the only group outside of London to be actively keeping the medium of 16mm and home processing alive to the public. Polytechnic have a large computer network and will be developing a web server for artist run projects. They frequently run projects aimed at proffessional development of media-based artists and will continue to do that in the new building, possibly adding a presentation element to their work too. Their approach to accessibility is similar to Filmbee in that they try to offer the highest quality in knowledge and resources available to them for the least ammount of money, working often with open source systems. Open source systems prefer sharing information to empower people rather than copyright and sell information.

C) How will you reach them - marketing?

SCC aims to reopen in late May 2006 with a special event which is under planning at the moment. To rebrand, our marketing team of Debbie Bower, Annette Knol, Julie ballands and Ray White are desiging a 'film-less brochure' which takes the format of our normal brochure but instead of advertising film screenings, the brochure will advertise the new cinema, its location, its modes of working, ways of getting involved and other interesting information. We will also look to market the move and rebrand in appropriate magazines and newspapers. We feel that the project is news worthy and we have already had interest from the Chronicle and Journal in the move so we would hope to get good editorial presence in both papers and other local media.

Our audience development will benefit from the piece of marketing we would like to do concurrent with the project we are applying for, and we look forward to developing a whole new local audience based in the housing estates around the Ouseburn. We have already developed a wiki on our administration website which makes participating more accessible, and we are developing a strategy for emailing potential volunteers in the run up to the renovation fortnight.

D) Evidence of demand

There is a growing group of people, with whom we count ourselves, who are not satisfied with the type of culture that is provided when profit is the main motive. We understand a necessity for surplus, but we would be more happy to see it going back into enabling the organisation to do more different things better, than satisfying an economic motive, which we do not have. We feel that we can do something different, that provides both a very stimulating and relaxed environment, where people can think and be open minded and experimental, where people’s minds are stretched and entertained, where people who are unrepresented in the mainstream profit-motivated media can see their cultures represented sensitively, where there are no –isms, and yet not burdened by the weight of political correctness, or afraid of expressing oppositional ideas, and where everything is presented on a human level, i.e the process by which the organisation runs will be visible, with warts as well as beauty spots. Side Cinema, and Platform both have developed audiences for the work they have been exhibiting. Side Cinema has approximately 1000 members a year, with admissions around 3,500 per year. It does yearly audience evaluations, and has been consulting audiences throughout the potential move.

MODELS:

Side Cinema has looked at models for collective, volunteer run organisations that thrive in today’s culture. In Bristol, the Cube Cinema is an extremely successful micro cinema and music venue that runs its core activites without public funding. Cube does access grants for specific projects, such as the Independent Heroines Film Festival, but by and large it exists through income generated by its bar and gig ticket sales. The staff are all volunteers, and the organisation is run by a central group of dedicated organisers, who are assisted by a large network of volunteers. They rent a property in a part of Bristol that does not see the large numbers of tourists of its centre, and has not historically been seen as a cultural quarter. Over the 6 years of Cube’s operation, a cultural quarter of small independent shops has begun to develop. Cube programmes fairly mainstream independent film on second run, with the occasional specialist festival. Its music programme is geared towards giving a platform to touring independent bands and musicians.

The Forest, Edinburgh, has been running since the Edinburgh Festival 2000. It was started as an experiment in a shop to see if a voluntary run café and culture centre could be built and sustained for the month of the festival. Not only did they survive that, they won accolades from the mainstream economic sector for their entrepreneurial skill. Five years later they are in a large building, hosting a venue for the festival, and running a daily café, licensed in the evening, a gallery, music and film nights, a darkroom and a recording studio. They have a placement system for international travellers, so that there is a constant stream of dedicated people involved organising and running the building day to day and more importantly bringing a constant stream of new ideas. They are currently expanding to take on a further floor in their building, proof of their financial stability. Cinema Nova in Brussels runs along the same lines as the Cube - completely volunteer led. They recently ran a successful experimental film festival which some of us attended. They have a large cinema with gallery seating, and in the basement a bar with occasional food. They have been running for 9 years. They have a large pool of volunteers (approx 50), and their programme reflects an interest mainly in experimental cinema. There are countless social centres and volunteer run cafes in many cities across the UK. At present there is no such organisation in Newcastle, even though there have been very successful ones in the past, such as the Riverside Cooperative, which hosted bands for many years, and the Red Herring Café in Fenham. There is a large group of people interested in this type of organisation, willing to both offer their time and skills, but also in frequenting such a venue, as can be proved by the Green Festival, which attracts over 10,000 people, and the independent music scene, which thrives in the North East.

5. MEETING ACE AMBITIONS:

1. This project supports the artist - during the renovation festival through networking with other like minded people and developing new skills or sharing old ones, and once the building has opened from all the opportunities that are suddenly open to them from programming film, performance art events, new media workshops and presentations, celluloid filmmaking, plus the backdrop of an internationally acclaimed film programme.

2. Enabling organisations to thrive not just survive - this project hits the nail on the head. SCC was merely surviving at the old venue. With this move and the renovation fortnight, SCC will be enabled to thrive like it has never before, both in terms of more potential for programming, but also financially increase the potential to earn income, crucial for long term sustainability.

5. The project can be viewed as encouraging growth: the growth of independent culture in the region through the teaming up of four organisations to manage a completely new building; the growth of cultural awareness through engaging a new audience through the move to a new area; the growth of skills and knowledge of artists and volunteers in the region through the renovation festival.

6. EVALUATION.

SCC will undertake thorough evaluation including questionnaires with participants, consultation with local residents and a post event forum to discuss the pros and cons of the building project and the approach we have taken. We are considering documenting the project on DV and editing together some sort of filmic evaluation.

The activity report sheet will form the basis of our evaluation.

Star and Shadow Cinema is a community interest company that forms part of the economic and social regeneration of the Ouseburn Valley. We are a social enterprise aiming to deliver a broad range of services for the community with a focus on film. We are volunteer run – currently we have 230 volunteers on our email database, all who have expressed an interest in helping sustain the organization. We are 75% of the way through a fantastic self-build project transforming a long disused warehouse on Crawhall Road into a community cinema, social and workshop space.

Once we are up and running, we will not only be providing a fantastic volunteering opportunity for people to develop work experience in all areas (from customer services to film projection work), we will also be running training sessions in a variety of creative media helping boost confidence, and often working with communities at a disadvantage. One of our volunteers, Holly Clay, who worked for Your Homes Newcastle as first point of contact for arriving asylum seekers in Wallsend and the west end, is starting to develop a project encouraging groups of asylum seekers to get actively involved in Newcastle’s social and cultural life. A group called Filmbee will be running film making workshops developing skills within the community and also allowing people to have a voice through film. The fact that the results of these workshops have the chance to move directly onto the screen on location.

Part of our social aims are to develop volunteer skills, equipping them with qualifications in useful areas such as first aid, food hygiene, health and safety which increase their portfolio of skills on their cv’s.