Young Producer - Laura Haddick
I’m 25 years old and from Lancaster. I’m studying Fine Art at UCLan and due to graduate this summer. My passion is sound art!
I’ve been volunteering for Blaze since spring 2011. Blaze has recently supported me to train to be an Arts Award Advisor, and this year I will be working for Blaze during the summer and helping some young people to complete their Bronze and Silver awards. I will also carry on volunteering behind the scenes in the office and at Blaze events.
Through working with Blaze I hope to gain confidence in working in the arts and with young people. I’d like to use this experience to help me find a role on an arts project or in an organisation in the North West once the Cultural Olympiad is over.
Last week I worked with some folks at UCLan to screen print some t shirts for the Blaze producers to wear at the PR Launch on 11th July. The design was prepared by Hannah Whitlow and the rest of the festival’s branding team and it is based on the ‘shards’ that make up the Blaze logo. As each of the producers are a unique part of Blaze that come together to form the whole project, each t shirt carries one shard in a Blaze colour. I’ve just finished ironing a large pile of about 30 of these to fix the colours so there’s about another 30 to go! When all the t shirts are worn together I think the impact will be really strong and very Blaze-y. I’ll make sure I take a photo or two at the event on Wednesday to show you.
The event itself is going to be a great opportunity to show people what Blaze is about in the beautiful setting of Avenham Pavilion. The Boom Bike Band will be playing in the park itself to guide guests to the venue and the Urban Culture Jam’s free runners will be showing off their skills in front of the Pavilion alongside live illustrators. At the Blaze Forum yesterday I saw a little preview of the presentation some of the producers are giving at the event and every element of the Blaze 2012 Summer Programme will be represented:
- The Blaze Festival
- Urban Culture Jam: The Chase
- Street Quest
- The Boom Bike Band
- Ignite
- Under the Town
- Blaze Bloggers
I’m hoping to make it to the start of the event but it’ll be a close call because I’m graduating from UCLan that very day with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art :D It’s a big day - the end of university and the official start of the Blaze Summer Programme all at once!
8th July 2012
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As of this week, I’ll be officially working for Brighter Sound (Blaze’s festival partner) and coming to more and more production meetings to support Sheni, who is overseeing the entire Blaze Festival. I’ll still be volunteering for Blaze over summer but this new post means I’ll be working as part of the Festival team too.
As an introduction to my responsibilities, I’ve been to visit the Brighter Sound office in Manchester and taken part in a programming meeting before pottering along to my second Blaze Festival meeting at Avenham Park yesterday. I’ll be in charge of sorting the young producers’ travel expenses at these meetings from now on so have been trying to remember my A-Level Maths know-how! I’ll also be delivering the Arts Award to some of the young producers as an Advisor which will be a good opportunity to put my training into practice.
I’m looking forward to getting more and more involved with the festival’s goings on and eventually being based in the production office on site in September.
8th July 2012
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