On this page you can read about our staff, board and artists. You can also view a list of our training and skills, and find out more about the history of Art in the Park!
Want to find out about the benefit of our work on local people and communities? Read our Good News newsletter here! spring_11.pdf
I am Chief Executive at Art in the Park (Sheffield). My role involves creating and planning projects, creating partnerships, managing project staff and fundraising. I have been in the role since July 2008.
I also manage my own arts organisation Creative Action Network, work as a freelance artist for Open Minds Theatre Company and a drama practioner for Proper Job Theatre Company.
I have previously worked for Barnardo's as a participation worker and a fundraiser for a missing person's charity Safe@LAST.
Bringing creativity to communities in an accessible and meaningful way is really important to me and I promote this through all of my work. When I’m not working, painting, print making, climbing and adventuring are my passions!!
As the Events and Volunteering Coordinator for Art in the Park, I recruit and support volunteers, manage artists and liaise with partner organisations to ensure events run smoothly. I’ve worked at Art in the Park since June 2007, after graduating with a degree in Cultural Studies in 2005 and taking an internship in community arts with Pont Blank Theatre in 2007.
Outside of Art in the Park, I work as a freelance workshop facilitator, mainly providing visual arts workshops for children. I am currently studying part time at Leeds Metropolitan University for an MA in Creative Enterprise. So far, this has involved diverse learning experiences, including writing a case study on Leeds-based artists’ collective Black Dogs, travelling to Edinburgh to create a typographic mural in a volunteer arts centre and writing a murder mystery about circus freaks, in collaboration with the photography company Lord Whitney. See more about my creative pursuits at www.cassiekill.blogspot.com !
Qualifications and training we have at Art in the Park:
Forest School Level 1 2010
Arts Awards Bronze and Silver – accredited trainer 2010
Behaviour management (ROAR) 2010
Project Management (VAS) Feb 2011
Social Media Training (DMC) Nov 2010
Finance Practice & Procedures (VAS) May 2010
Safeguard training May 2011
Postgrad Certificate in Creative Enterprise 2010
Emergency Basic First Aid (St John’s Ambulance) Feb 2008
Arts Award Bronze and Silver trainer 2010
Mental Health First Aid (Dept of health/NHS) March 2009
Visual Communication Aids Oct 2010
NOCN Level 3 – Managing Volunteers (VAS) Jan – Apr 2009
Supervision Skills (VAS) Jan 2011
Budget and Cash Flow Management (VAS) Nov 2010
Child Protection (ROAR) March 2010
Preparation for Management (VAS) Feb 2009
Art in the Park is a Company Limited by Guarantee and Registered Charity. We are managed by a board of Trustees, who meet every quarter. They are all volunteers and come from a diverse range of backgrounds.
Chair: Becky Morris-Knight
Vice Chair: Helen Featherstone
Treasurer: Carolyn Usher
HR: Open position
Board Member: Amy Beard
Our Artist's pool is composed of expert artists, poets, flim, drama and environmental practioners from in and around Sheffield.
Click here to find out more about our current artists
In the beginning…
In February 2003 a group of artists and residents of North West Sheffield took part in the Wond’rous Watery walk – an event on the Ponderosa. This was funded and planned through the Garden Rooms, an arts organisation which existed at the time, as part of Bloom - a local festival in Netherthorpe, Upperthorpe and Langsett.
In summer 2003, two more ‘Art in the Park’ events took place. These were held in Upperthorpe Healthy Living Centre Peace Gardens (behind what is now Zest) and on Philadelphia Greenspace. These events took the format of: bring food, bring volunteers and see what happens! They were very low key, but showed there was a community need and interest in free, environmental art.
The Art in the Park project becomes bigger and more diverse than the Garden Rooms could support in terms of arts activity. The project received its own Arts Council funding to continue the project. There is a turnover of about £3000 for the year, to 2004.
By winter 2003 and into 2004, Art in the Park were running an event practically each month, with support from the ranger ‘Greenwatch’ project. We continued with the same format of setting up a gazebo, bringing food, getting cold, and having fun with materials we bring and found on-site. It was around this time that events started to become focussed around one particular art form or project at each event, such as the big anamorphic projection hedgehog project!
A project in our own right…
In the summer of 2004, Art in the Park split very amicably from the Garden Rooms and became its own independent project. The group created their own constitution, Committee and Bank Account. About £1200 was spent doing 12 events in 2004-2005 year.
Over 2004 and 2005, the events started to have a much stronger focus on a theme, for example, musical instruments, crop circles and lanterns.
It was in June 2005 that the project could afford to pay self employed project workers again, for the first time since splitting from the Garden Rooms. The organisation then moved out of Roanna and Dan’s spare bedroom and into a proper office at Crookesmoor Road training centre, where we are still based.
Our limited company status was given in May 2006. We continued to hold monthly events in parks and other public spaces in North West Sheffield.
It was from spring 2006 that Art in the Park began to contract professional and emerging artists to work on the projects. This included the one off monthly events and also longer term linked events in communities. For example, the Circus Project in August and the Ballonistas project at Edward Street flats in autumn 2006.
Charity status…
Art in the Park became a registered charity in November 2006. Our volunteers were now crucial to the running of Art in the Park. We began to offer more than just turning up at events and had regular volunteer meetings and training sessions with the artists before events. This was to help volunteers to learn the skills needed and techniques involved before each event took place.
Throughout 2007 Art in the Park continued to work mainly in parks and green spaces. We also began doing more project based activity through working for longer periods of time in Blake Street, Edward Street flats, and Philadelphia Greenspace. Turnover this year increased to £47,000.
In June 2007 Art in the Park became an employer, which meant that workers were no longer self employed. Roanna became the Project Manager and Cassie Kill joined as Project Worker. In September 2007 it was decided that a new role of Project Support and Admin worker would be created. Aukje joined the team in this role.
During late 2007 and into 2008, Art in the Park’s activities were concentrated to just a few long-term projects that built links with communities, as well as one off events and fun days.
Changes in personnel and funding mean that long-term links with Sheffield City Council Ranger service decreased. We began to build links with Sheffield Homes, an arm’s length management organisation that deals with council housing in Sheffield. It was with them that Art in the Park ran projects such as, Get Fired up about Philadelphia, a series of dinosaur inspired clay and art events to encourage more people to use the park.
Becoming more sustainable…
In summer 2008, Roanna, the founder and Project Manager, left the organisation to have a baby. Lu Golob was recruited to replace her, bringing fresh ideas about projects and the long term sustainability of the organisation. Funding began to move away from large blocks of Arts Council funding and towards smaller ad hoc pots. Projects were longer term and strongly themed, such as Go Wild with African Art and A Garden You Can Eat.
In winter 2008, Aukje, the Project Support and Admin worker, left to start a new life in the Netherlands, running children’s dance classes. In February 2009, Charlotte Head, an Art in the Park volunteer since 2006, was successful in being appointed to the post.
By 2009, Art in the Park were using bought in services to supplement the income from grants and funding pots. This included the Dens with a Difference project as part of the Sheffield Children’s Festival and a sculpture project at Wisewood Secondary School.
In autumn 2009, our Art Bytes project began. Funded by the Learning Revolution Transformation Fund, this was our largest and longest term project to date, involving adult learners from diverse backgrounds from six locations in Sheffield. Click here to find out more and see the step by step guides produced.
Our past year…
In 2010, Art in the Park are a popular provider of environmental arts events and projects. Our skills and experience in working in a creative way with groups and communities has led us into new areas of work, such as consultations on green spaces.
So far this year, we have worked with Action for Stannington, First Start and Primrose Children’s Centres, and have been commissioned to run events as part of Positive Activities for Young People, the Sheffield Open Weekend as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad campaign and the Off the Shelf Festival.
We’ve been delighted to take part in several village galas, fun days and festivals over the summer, at Oughtibridge, High Green, Richmond Park, Ruskin Park, Stannington Carnival and Peace in the Park.
We have held regular after school clubs in Stannington, Winn Gardens and Stocksbridge and more recently have ran a number of Poetry workshops in Schools in Stannington, Penistone and Denby Dale for local school children thinking about their local areas and to help them express their thoughts about the rural landscape through the medium of spoken word.
We also began a series of free adult art classes in Stannington, Penistone and Denby Dale in late September, which will run until August next year