First Judge Appointed

I’m very pleased and proud to announce that the first member of our judging panel (I’m aiming for three, altogether) for Loughton’s forthcoming Scarecrow Trail will be Sara Young, a Trustee Director at the Arts Gateway Milton Keynes and a Director at Cerulean Sky Ltd.

The Arts Gateway MK is a registered charity that used to be called MK Arts Association. Its declared mission is to support the arts and creative development in Milton Keynes, by attracting funding and building support for MK artists and creative organisations. The Arts Gateway promotes the arts in MK through its website, by publishing a weekly newsletter and by holding social networking events.

Artsists of all kinds living and working in Milton Keynes can publicise their work by submitting news articles to the Gateway. It provides a wealth of useful information to local residents about what is happening on MK’s arts scene in respect of music, drama the visual arts, dance and literature. Its calendar of forthcoming events is updated weekly.

Unfortunately, grant applications for seed corn funding for the arts has had to be suspended for the time being, due to recent funding cuts. On the positive side, though, the Arts Gateway has recently opened a Community Arts Resource Centre – CARCMK- at Stacey Bushes. This initiative aims to make it easier for creative people to run activities, by creating a one-stop shop that hires out everything needed to run an arts event, from costumes and props to sound equipment and marquees. Knowledgeable and experienced event organisers are available to be consulted about how to make a budding arts project into a success.

The Arts Gateway is now planning to develop an Arts Database where people interested in the arts can search for anything arts-related, be it a dance class, exhibition space, piano teacher, or arts and crafts supplier. Artists will be able to promote their skills there and showcase examples of their work to prospective clients.

The Gateway’s ‘links’ page takes readers directly to the websites of other arts organisations based in MK, the region and to useful national organisations such as the Arts Council England and the Voluntary Arts Network.  If you are interested in what’s going on in MK’s arts world, it is well worth visiting the Arts Gateway’s website at http://www.artsgatewaymk.org.uk/index