Henley Festival's SHOUT! project takes on the World
During the week of 29th September-3rd October, the Henley Festival Trust's schools' outreach project (SHOUT!) will once again offer young people a glorious way to become involved in the arts. Over this academic year (Sept '08 to July '09), the Trust will organise and pay for a spectacular mural-making project, 'Supersize Art', involving local schools. Ten murals will be created on canvases 20' x 6', one in each of the 10 participating schools.
In addition to the painting, there will also be a performance element to the project and, with the 2012 Olympic Games high on everyone's agenda, the theme of the murals will be based on the 5 continents symbolised by the Olympic 'linked rings' logo: Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. Thinking about the Olympics and the Para-Olympics, schools are already gathering material from across the curriculum (sport, history, geography, language, cooking) to bring ideas that can be used in their piece of art.
Schools - which include 8 primaries and 2 secondary schools - will pair up to 'share' a continent for their mural making. Countries so far chosen to represent the continents include China and India , Ghana and South Africa , North American Indians and modern day USA , Poland and the Western European Mediterranean. Leading the project will be mural specialists Hugh Jart, who have become famous for producing their fabulous artworks at festivals such as Glastonbury . Huge Jart will be visiting Henley during the week of 29th September and will be running workshops at each of the schools in turn to introduce the project.
A second exciting element to the project will be introduced in the spring term, when music and dance specialists will work with young people to create performances that will use the murals as backdrops.
Says Mandy Beard, Community Projects Manager for Henley Festival Trust, "The SHOUT! project has given so much to the community and to schools since it began eight years ago and this is going to be a very exciting year. The murals, which we hope to exhibit next summer, will be a real spectacle and I'm delighted that each will then be returned to its school of origin, as a permanent feature."
For more press information, or to visit one of Hugh Jart' s introductory sessions (w/c 29th Sept), please contact Miranda Johnson on 01962 890208 or Rachel Shimell on 02380 732981
Henley Festival Trust
As in previous years, all net proceeds from Henley Festival 2009 will go direct to the Henley Festival Trust to finance charitable activity. Examples of this valuable, and much appreciated, work include providing: music and arts activity in local schools, instruments for promising young musicians and music therapy for brain-injured attendees at Headway day centre in Henley-on-Thames .
Additional Henley Festival Trust activity for 2009 - The Henley Festival Orchestra
Henley Festival Trust last year launched the greatest of its 25th Anniversary initiatives-taking a huge leap to encourage young people to take up a musical instrument for the very first time.
The Festival made the dramatic decision to 'buy an orchestra' in order to kick start musical instrument tuition for starter musicians in the area. This extraordinary new departure continues to run alongside The Trust's annual outreach project. In 2008 new instruments and bursaries were provided for 50 young members of an orchestra who first played together in public as part of the Henley Festival, performing a specially commissioned piece from composer Colin Riley. The Orchestra - still being funded by the Trust - is now in its second year.
