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East Midlands Arts in Rural Areas Network

Welcome to the EMARAN online home

East Midlands Arts in Rural Areas Network (EMARAN) is a regional voluntary network established in autumn 2006 with the aim of supporting arts in rural areas and rural regeneration through the arts.

Our mission is to create opportunities for artists, creative practitioners, creative industries and cultural organisations in the rural East Midlands to meet, build relationships, and share experience and knowledge. We also act as an advocate for rural culture. This work embraces the voluntary, community and statutory sectors. We also aim to make connections and create partnership working with other sectors of relevance to rural culture such as rural regeneration, tourism and economic development.

The way we achieve this is by holding two regional events each year, in rural (including market towns) cultural venues across the East Midlands region. Events so far have taken place in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire; Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire are forthcoming. Our spring event tends to focus on individual artists as well as those who work with, commission or employ them; and our more formal autumn conference is aimed at the broader arts and cultural sector.

EMARAN also recently launched its first artist’s commission, at the EMARAN spring event which took place at Harborough Theatre on 14 May 2008. Artist and NESTA Fellow Jo Fairfax will be producing a piece of artwork reflecting the ethos of EMARAN and some of the themes of the Spring Event. The final artwork will be featured on this website, so watch this space!

EMARAN has, for the last year, been a sub-group of the East Midlands Rural Affairs Forum (EMRAF), charged with developing the Active Communities aims of the Rural Action Plan 2007–2013. One of its purposes as a sub-group of EMRAF is to feed back to EMRAF on news from the constituency – issues affecting arts, artists and arts organisations in rural areas – and input into rural policy making.

The EMARAN website is also a useful source of information on issues affecting arts in rural areas, so do please explore the site.

If you would like to join EMARAN as a member, and receive updates on our forthcoming events, please do so by following the instructions below. We are broadening our membership all the time, and very much welcome new members from all sectors with an interest in arts and culture in rural areas. The larger our membership list, the stronger we are as an organisation, and the better we can fulfil our mission.

I hope that you find our page informative and useful.

Sue Stewart, Chair of EMARAN, May 2008

EMARAN Steering group 2007 – 2008

To avoid junk or spam emails reaching these addresses, we have disguised them. Please re-type the email addresses and replace the [AT] with @. Thank you

Become a member of EMARAN

You can sign up to become part of the EMARAN network by using the contacts page on this website and stating in your message that you would like to join. We will then contact you and find out your details.

Members of the network will receive emails from artsNK with news on the development of the network as well as other interesting and useful information on EMARAN events and initiatives.

Members will also be listed below (with their approval). This will help to provide a useful list of individuals and organisations active within rural culture in the East Midlands.

You can leave messages and make contact with other members of the network on our new message board.

Thank you

Recent news

Cultivate Seminars and Teatime Talks

The first season of training from Cultivate in autumn 2008. 13 different courses on a range of topics that will help in organisational development and planning for cultural organisations. read more

Make Your Heritage Work for You

A new system of protection. A new economic framework. An essential event which no policy maker can afford to miss. 13 October 2008. read more

Creative Leicestershire’s Autumn Events.

Creative Leicestershire’s Autumn Events - Advice, Funding, Chat, Networking. Our events are open to all creative businesses in Leicestershire/Rutland. These free events focus on small arts, design and media businesses – both for starting up and for developing your business. As well as Creative Leicestershire, local authority Arts and Economic Development contacts and Business Link will be at each event. read more

Newark market image

EMARAN Autumn conference report and further information

The third EMARAN conference, Market Towns and Cultural Currency, took place in Newark on November 7 2007. There were presentations from Newark town council about their local projects and an update on their research into measuring the economic impact of cultural activities. Other regional music and literature festivals presented on their experiences. Find out more here. read more

Wirksworth Festival Image

EMARAN Spring 2007 Conference Notes and Information

EMARAN held its second event in Wirksworth 18 April 2007. There were workshops on Partnerships, Community Engagement and Arts Practice and delegates were shown around the Wirksworth Festival Trail. Read on to download notes from the conference and use the links to the organisations involved. read more

archived news items

EMARAN members

Arts NK
Lynn Parker, Words Worker/Writer Support Worker, Lincolnshire Tel 01529 411198 Email writersupport@peri.netlinc.org.uk
Nick Jones/Elaine Knight Tel N. Jones: 01529 411190, E Knight: 01529 411195 Email nick.jones@leisureconnection.co.uk / elaine.knight@leisureconnection.co.uk
Artsderbyshire
Gillian Bates, Editor Email editor@artsderbyshire.org.uk
Barbara Taylor-Harris
Artist Tel 01572 822210 Email barbara@theoldparsonage.net
Choir Invisible
sally Brown Email info@choirinvisible.co.uk
Convivium Music of Lincoln
Viv McVeagh Tel 01522 537 261 Email convivium.music@ntlworld.com
Design Factory
Tracie Eagles, Project Officer Tel 01529 414532 Email tracie@designfactory.org.uk
East Lindsey District Council
John Medler, Senior Community Sports Officer or Amanda Coupe, Sports Development Officer Tel 01507 601111
Nicki Gardner, Senior Arts Development Officer Tel 01507 329437 Email nicki.gardner@e-lindsey.gov.uk
Eve Jarvis
Email evelynjarvis@btinternet.com
Fermynwoods Contemporary Art
Rosalind Stoddart Director, Paul Denton Gallery Manager Tel 01536 373469 Email gallery@fermynwoods.co.uk
Firebird Trust
Anne Williams, Administrator Tel 01522 811229 Email admin@firebirdtrust.com
FreeRange Photographic
Alex Gilham Tel 07949 943429 Email alexgilham@gmail.com
Harborough District Council
Ineke Ward, Sports Development Officer Tel 01858 821284 Email i.ward@harborough.gov.uk
Sophy Sylvester, Arts Development Officer Tel 01858 821291 Email s.sylvester@harborough.gov.uk
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