Tracy Simpson, Oriel Wrexham

The Final lecture of the day was by Tracy simpson the director of ADDO, who was telling us about the work of Oriel Wrecsam. Oriel is a small arts centre that finance public art commissions, they provide artist residencies and finance strategies and proposals. She does work with the public art association for wales ,which used to be the visual arts centre. She trained in fine art BA and went from degree to a studio space and print workshop in lecester. There Tracy informally taught people but also liked public space work so later went into that.

Funding

She went on to mention that funding isnt interesting, but is a necessesity for this kind of work. You will have to define what the funding is for with aims, objectives and a clear indication of what you want from the grants. This should be part of your buinsess plan. She advised to search for money every three years instead of yearly, and to always check deadlines, also to be careful were you source your grants, particularly on the internet where they can be unreliable. I didnt know previously that there is a priliminary round before you even send any form for appyling and that you will rarely get all your funding from one funder so you should be careful as some funders wont fund a project thats already recieving money. Also be careful with multiple applications which are confusing. it is worth noting that some funders dont give money to students until two years after studies and will need to provide proof . Finally the most often forgetten always invite investors that will help possible future investment.

Review

Although I have never considered the use of funding, particularly in my intended areas of work, this is another lecture were I appreciated the information given, and will keep hold of it if ever I consider otherwise. The information on loans, funding and ways to get and deal with funders, I have never even considered and the information given about it was straighforward and made sense.


How it has changed my views

Applying or considering funding if it ever became a possibility now feels much more viable. With many of the lectures I have been afraid of getting into anything I dont understand, so to have such a straightforward lecture has made me much more comfortable with the idea. I also now know who to go to for funding and what you should use it for, all factors that you never think too much about til the day you actually require funding. So although I dont see myself getting funding for work I found it very useful.



My own research

As research I thought I would check into the list of useful websites that were given at the end.


 http://www.grantsonline.org.uk/

The website looks concise and informative but it does require a subscription to properly acess it ,although it allows for a free trial.


  http://www.fulbright.co.uk/

Provides some information and is balanced by the fact there is no subscription fee, but it look like its main purpose is to 'promotes peace and cultural understanding through educational exchange' which means they organise education to or from the us to the uk.

I also thought I would check their main website as it is a wrexham based arts centre, it will be worth maybe checking them out more frequently in future.

http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/community/arts_centre/arts_centre_home.htm

After seeing the website I now know were they are located and it is a close distance to the university. It offers exibihitions, with 2 exibihitions going on now, oriel indigo and oriel majenta.

This is a full exibhition all about the olympics, it is to coincide with the torches arrival. the exhibiton itself is  close and has free entry so is definetly worth a visit for possible inspiration. There is also Majenta a smaller light display also based on the olympic theme.