The Sneinton Festival has been running for over 15 years , with the emphasis on providing a community atmosphere with a variety of musical performances and artistic talent. This year  we at the send project were very grateful and honoured to be more involved in the festival organisation of activities. During the week prior to the festival day, we set up and delivered an evening of food and fun and music for the young people in the area, comically titled the ‘Youth Rave’.

On the day of the festival we also provided a ‘chillout’ music tent hosting a range of solo musicians, dj’s, mc’s and bands.

The whole festival day was a great success and good fun and we are looking forward to seeing some more great bands and local artists at the next one.

Sneinton Festival facebook group

SEND Project facebook group

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ALAN LODGE Indymedia Website

Photographer – Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham.  UK

Email:                 tash@indymedia.org

Web:                   http://digitaljournalist.eu

Member of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ]

The whole event was filmed by local film maker Aarman and his footage will be uploaded to our site soon, but you can visit his website until then : Ahleqalam

The enduring and successful marriage of urban art and action sports is fostered in and around skate parks worldwide, with each enterprise representing a variety of disciplines and attributes. While action sports promote respect, perseverance and exercise, urban art aims to uplift, inspire and educate the public for free, whilst endeavouring to regenerate the urban landscape. These positive and constructive forms of self expression contribute on individual, community and cultural levels, and appeal to people from all walks of life, young and old alike.

With this in mind, SEND Project were delighted to be involved in the re-generation of Lady Bay Skate Park, in partnership with Rushcliffe Borough Council.
The SEND artists worked with a number of young people over a two day period, designing and spray painting the surfaces of the skate park with a combination of positive message and abstract art, centred around the chosen theme of community safety. This initiative was prompted by the resurgence of vandalism in the area due to the recent criminalisation of legal graffiti painting, and was supported by both the council and the local residents as well as the young people-led Lady Bay Skate Park Group.

In spite of occasionally being rained off, almost every surface was re-decorated in time for the annual ‘Battle at the Bay’ skateboard competition (once again organised by the Lady Bay Skate Park Group) with vibrant new art work that represents the positive values of the park community. We hope that you enjoy pushing and pedalling in your new environment and that the competition was wicked and bad, despite the afternoon deluge; keep catching that air you lovely lot!

SEND Project want to express their gratitude to all the young people that came down to help, with extra special props to Milo and Joey; it was a pleasure to meet so many inspiring and creative individuals and spend time in such a welcoming atmosphere. A special thank you also to Dave Warren, the local youth worker who helped bring the whole project together.

Photos by Tom Quigley
Squiggly photography

You can visit the facebook group page here:Facebook

Jean and many other local youth workers and young people have recently had their hands full with the organisation of a multitude of activities and events run in relation to condom fashion week; an annual advocacy campaign the promotes contraception and sexual health services.

One such event was the condom fashion show held at Nottingham City Council town hall on the evening of the 17th May, where a group of talented young people strutted down the catwalk show casing the garments they had been working on tirelessly in an effort to explore the theme of the 7 deadly sins. Each and every item had been embellished or altered using 100′s and in some cases 1000′s of condoms that had been kindly donated by Durex in support of the event. The end result was the creation of a very unique and impressive brand of condom couture. The girls worked exceptionally hard for several weeks to make their outfits and this was clear to see in both the run up to the event and their performance. As well as the fashion show, their was a wide range of contraceptive themed games, including guess how many condoms in the jar, run by other local young people who wanted to pitch in.

Two of the SEND artists, Alex Rainsford and Beth Hemus, contributed by voluntarily painting a trio of canvasses  that acted as the back drop for the fashion show (see photo above). The paintings also explored the 7 deadly sins and were created using a combination of graffiti and mixed media techniques. Both Alex and Beth found it a pleasure to contribute to such a cracking event and it was pleasing to see the piece in situ when they both went to watch the fashion show with company director Lea Sutton.

The event had an excellent turn out and was a huge success, with all proceeds going towards funding the summer projects at the Oliver Hind Center. We hope that the girls enjoyed it as much as everyone else did and that the Oliver Hind Center raised enough money to continue to make the fantastic work that they do sustainable.

We at SEND consistently develop and facilitate a variety of engaging projects to best meet the diverse needs of the adults and young people that we work with. Both the existing and developing services, inspired and led by our talented team of staff and volunteers, are constantly shifting and expanding to match the needs of our service users as relevantly as possible. This has been demonstrated by the inclusion of a new element within SEND’s program of available activities; an after schools club that focuses on Environmentalism within the arts.

At the start of January we began on an exciting new adventure at a local primary school, delivering an environmentally themed arts programme designed to support the achievement of the Green Flag Certification, a nationwide accreditation that recognises and rewards sustainable behaviour within schools. Inspired and delivered by new members of staff Beth Hemus, trained in the arts and environmental sciences, and Lance Hume, classically trained session musician Unique World Live, along with the help our fantastic volunteers Paul and Morag, the environmental arts and music program started the year with a stimulating breath of fresh ideas and direction.

The activities available ranged from craft activities themed on wildlife and the environment, to making and playing percussion instruments, with a key focus on recycling and what we can make from recycled objects. The group made an array of useful and beautiful items out of everyday household waste, such as drums, rain-sticks, masks and bird-feeders. We successfully completed stage 1 of the spring term course, which culminated in a sensational school assembly, including a musical performance using the instruments and animal masks that were made. This gave the young people involved the opportunity to show their peers what they had been doing, to promote environmentally sound behaviour and to share the wisdom that “music is everywhere”. We are very excited to start the Summer term with a new set of young people and activities!

The SEND staff would like to give a special thanks to Beth, Lance, Paul and Morag for all their continued support and hard work; we are very grateful for your skill and enthusiasm!

The photo was taken from the Nottingham Evening Post an the article can be found at Nottingham Evening Post

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A new timetable of workshops is available online, please log into the volunteer forum to access it.

In conjunction with Bruce Davies’ exhibition ‘Lets Play Records’ in which we were involved directly with in providing a graffiti mural painting and Djing workshops, Mykee and Boysie traveled back to Sleaford for a closing night at The HUB to showcase a history of Dance music from 1980′s to the present day.

The event was organized by David Groom, the music development officer, with sound and PA hire from Sound-7.

This is Lincolnshire review