Biked Up, Pedal Powered by
Creative Transition -Part of SLACCTT - May 2012
The project
Biked Up Pedal Powered is a ground-breaking project for
young people in the South Lakes to get involved with shaping our future.
There are three
key areas of work:
- recruiting, mentoring and training a group of young producers who we will train and mentor in event management - through existing and new contacts in schools (QKS, the Lakes School, Kirkby Kendal), youth clubs, the performing arts college and local housing estates.
- joint delivery of an event at Mintfest, including recruiting dancers, choreography and music composition, recruitment through social networks, initial taster sessions and a week of development and performance.
- joint build and maintenance of a ‘big-bike-battery’ – up to 30 bike generators to power this and further events and festivals, such as Staveley Carnival and the Windermere green gathering.
The first outing for Biked Up Pedal Powered is a bike-dance
performance by local young street/stunt-bikers choreographed professionally
with the Brewery. The music for the show
will be powered by the audience itself, pedalling adapted cycles which act as
bike-generators. The show will be part
of Mintfest, September 2012. It’s fun, quirky, and very skilled.
We will then work with our other networks across the Lakes,
including TACT (Windermere) and PACT (Penrith) to find more opportunities for
the young producers to participate in events using the bike-bike-battery and
bike or other performance.
The project is important in combating poor efforts to
address climate change despite dramatic events like the Cumbrian floods of
2010.
Our Transition groups have a history of successful campaigns
but tend to focus on energy, transport and building.
The Creative Transition group says that a sustainable future depends as much on a healthy local
community as care for our resources. We
will take a new, optimistic approach to the challenge of climate change involving
people in a real and optimistic approach to a low carbon future.
By working with young people, we hope to tap into their
young energy and really effective social networks.
The impact
We will use this project to make a step change to Transition
in the South Lakes by cementing partnerships with: the Brewery – the cultural
heart of Kendal; Lakes Alive, the flagship national and international festival
organinsation; the transition network; the district council through our
practical project management and a new group of activists , mostly young people,
their families, clubs and schools.
The project is a springboard for a group of young producers
to be trained in event management and social entrepreneurship to continue to be
active in the South Lakes. It will
introduce a group of young engineers to simple and sustainable engineering
solutions to our energy challenges. The
‘big-bike-battery’ will be used at festivals and events for the next five
years, as a fun ‘green’ alternative power source.
The project will reach: 10 young producers, 6 young
engineers, taster sessions in four venues for up to 60, a performance by up to 30 young people, a group of
10 adults to mentor the young people and help build the bike generators.
The message will be shared initially with target audiences of: local young people and their
families, around 150; their schools, in the region of 3,000 young people; the
Mintfest festival audience expected to be 2,000 on the night of our performance;
the Mintfest tourist and community audience through
publicity materials, around 25,000.
Finally we will
share our experiences nationally through the transition research network
organised by CRESC, the new
companion to the Transition Handbook on culture; and specialist arts and events
media, including through ISAN.
The partners
We have a track record of facilitating grass-roots action since
2007; five active groups; 500 people on our mailing list and an ongoing
programme of film screenings, talks, workshops and discussion groups. See www.slacc.org.uk
for our many projects, for example running the annual CycleFest event and cycling
promotions and running Home Energy Action Together (HEAT). This project takes us into arts and culture, an
underdeveloped area for us and the Transition movement more generally, through
two significant new partnerships with award-winning arts organisations.
Mandy Barnett will be leading the voluntary SLACCTT team. She is a climate activist; a consultant in participatory
arts and formerly a designer and project manager. She is part of the national Happy Museum
project promoting sustainable well-being.
The Brewery Arts
Centre is a vibrant centre for the community and tourists sitting at the
gateway to the lakes. Brewery Youth Arts
provides fun, high quality creative experiences for young people from 18 months
to 20 years www.breweryarts.org.uk.
Paul Singleton, the development director, will be leading. Choreography will be led by Helen Moffitt,
who has 10 years’ experience developing community dance programmes.
Mintfest is the
main annual Lakes Alive project for Kendal Arts International (KAI) which creates international quality
outdoor arts events since 2006. KAI is a
member of ISAN, the Independent Street Arts
Network and a Without Walls, a consortium of 8 of the UK's
most strategically significant outdoor arts festivals www.lakesalive.org.uk. Jan Shorrock, marketing manager, will lead
.
