Presentations
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Presentations
This year's Spark:Lite programme puts the spotlight on our places, our creative community, and what comes next.
We'll start by exploring the relationship between culture and our towns, bringing creative and town-centre voices into the same conversation. Then we'll pick up the pace with Spark Shorts, a quick-fire showcase of new work, ideas and opportunities from across the sector. Finally, we'll look ahead to one of the biggest changes facing our area, Local Government Reorganisation, and begin exploring what it could mean for our creative community.
Three sessions, three different perspectives: place, opportunity and the future.
Here's our draft programme:
Session 1: 10.30am – 11.30am
Culture and Our Towns
What happens when culture, business and place come together?
Festivals fill our streets, venues animate our town centres, artists and creative businesses occupy shops, studios and workspaces, and cultural activity gives people new reasons to visit, explore and stay longer. But how well connected are the people making that activity happen with those working to support our towns and their businesses?
Bringing together voices from Kenilworth, Leamington Spa, Warwick and Whitnash, this session will explore where culture and our towns are already working successfully together, what we've learned along the way and where there could be more potential. From festivals and events to high streets, public spaces and local businesses, we'll look at the role creativity can play in making our towns lively, distinctive and successful places.
Most importantly, this session brings culture and the town-centre community into the same conversation – exploring the shared interests, opportunities and connections between them.
Session 2: 11.45am – 12.45pm
Spark Shorts: New Work, New Opportunities
Four slides. Four minutes. One opportunity to connect.
One of Spark's most popular sessions returns – but this year we're speeding things up. Spark Shorts is a fast-paced showcase of new work, projects and opportunities emerging across our creative and cultural community. A diverse line-up of speakers will each have just four minutes and four slides to tell us what they're working on, what opportunity it creates for others and what they're looking for.
Expect a quick-fire snapshot of new projects, commissions, collaborations, spaces, funding and opportunities – and plenty of reasons to continue the conversation afterwards.Once the clock stops, we move straight on. After the final Spark Short, we'll bring our speakers together to pick up some of the common themes and questions from the room. Four slides. Four minutes. Make it count!
Want to take part? Complete our short expression of interest form:
Session 3: 1.30pm – 2.30pm
A New Council, A New Cultural Landscape?
Local Government Reorganisation and what it could mean for our creative community
Local government in Warwickshire is changing, with Warwick District Council, Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Warwickshire County Council set to come together as part of a new South Warwickshire Council. So, what could that mean for our creative and cultural community?
This session will bring together local government voices to share what we know, what is still to be decided and what the transition could mean for the sector. There will understandably be questions, from cultural venues and assets to grants, programmes, partnerships and existing commitments – and we won't have all the answers yet. This is an opportunity to have an open conversation about the changes ahead, while also considering the opportunities that a new South Warwickshire landscape could create.
How might our creative communities connect across a larger area? What should we carry forward? And how can culture and creativity remain part of the conversation as the new authority takes shape? We may not know exactly what the new landscape will look like yet – but this is our chance to start exploring it together.