Graffiti Art Studio and fortnightly teenage disco’s

Just a quick update on things:

We are about to state building the Graffiti Art Studio at Epic – we’re just waiting for Keith at Epic to order the wood and we’ll get start building the thing. It’ll take 3-4weeks to build. Councillor Emily Cox, Ernie Hendricks and myself are giving £500 to Epic as a contribution towards the cost of building the studio.

The £1800 to cover the cost of materials in the studio and training courses has been approved. Panda from The Bench will be doing the training courses, which will range from artistic skills to how to stretch a canvas. If Markus Galleries start selling the canvas’s we will also be happy tp put on basic accountancy courses.

I’ve also spoken to West Midland Arts who have recommended putting in a bid for £5000 for more courses – some of the courses could potentially involve the graffiti artist known as Temper – see http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/westmidlands/series5/graffiti_art.shtml

We’ve set aside £3,700 for teenage disco’s in the area. The structure of these disco’s is in the early stages. Keith Marsden has indicated an interest in running these at Epic and they could be along the same lines at the teenage party at Epic on Friday 30th March – DJ’s and bouncy castle.

What we would be keen to do is involve the local teenagers is designing the structure of these events – who do they want as the DJ’s, do they want to be the DJ’s themselves. Would they rather have local bands on. Maybe a DJ in the downstairs bar, a film show in the upstairs bar and a bouncy castle.

Indeed, we could form an Events committee run by the teenagers themselves and controlling how the £3700 is spent – obviously the local Councillors and police would have to be on the Committee to ensure the entire money isn’t spent on a trip to Reading Festival.

The events would be free and open to members – membership would help control who attends these events and ensure it mainly local teenagers and their friends.

I would welcome any thoughts.