Review of 2008 and Preview of 2009
Happy New Year from PANDA!
2008 was a great year for PANDA and our members:
- PANDA expanded our geographical reach from Greater Manchester to cover
the whole of the North West region and welcomed our first new members from Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.
- Our membership grew to include over 600 individuals and 200 organisations from all disciplines of the performing arts; theatre, dance, live art, street art, live literature and circus.
PANDA members Aqueous Humour present Oozebogs.
Photo by Michael Clarke.
- Our members include artists and performers, writers, directors,
producers, choreographers, technicians, designers, photographers and
people working at venues, rehearsal spaces, training providers,
industry organisations and in many other related services.
- The PANDA website
celebrated its first year since its relaunch in October 2007, delivering a whole year's worth of the latest
performing arts news, events, opportunities and exclusive member-only
resources, including 47 issues of the members’ favourite, the weekly PANDA Network Newsletter.
- The PANDA team saw a fair few changes this year too, with fond farewells to Zoe Pickering and Jenna Omeltschenko, big hellos to Fergus Evans and Nicky Hatton, and huge thanks to all the other people that made it all happen – John, Miranda, Jason, Rowena, Saira, Iysha, Kirsty, Sarah, Julia and Marie.
Some of our highlights of 2008 included:
- Delivery of 16 different events during 2008, including socials, a pilot Brunch series for more established practitioners and several Spotlight On panel events. Experienced guest speakers from organisations such as the BBC and Edinburgh Festival Fringe delivered their own unique insight into topics including Performing for Broadcast and Regional Support and Rural Touring Opportunities.
- PANDA’s project management service went full steam ahead, producing several projects both large and small during 2008, ranging from the 2-day residential Next Stage Symposium, to booking a UK tour, organising a VIP launch event and registering a new company.
I Hear Voices by Contact. Tour booked by PANDA project
management service. Photo by Clive Hunte.
“It was a joy to work with PANDA’s efficient flexible tour booking service. A potentially difficult schedule was managed efficiently and professionally. We are delighted with the results.” John McGrath, Artistic Director of Contact
- We were delighted to hear the many success stories from our members due in whole or part to the support of PANDA, such as the playwright who secured a sell-out run at the Lowry following the advice of a mentor she got through a PANDA scheme. Or the two trainee producers from the PANDA Producers Consortium who went on to secure great jobs at venues in London this year.
And so onwards and upwards into 2009!
We’ve got loads to look forward to this year. As well as making constant improvements to our existing services we hope to be delivering lots of exciting new projects as well. Here’s a taster of some of the stuff you can look forward to from PANDA in 2009:
- More of the successful Spotlight On events, focussing on topics such as Funding Your Work: Where Has the Financial Crisis Left the Performing Arts? and Evaluating Your Project: Making Evaluation Painless Not Pointless!
Spotlight On Performing for Broadcast at the BBC.
- The launch of our exciting new forum events for more established performing arts practitioners, the Creative Conversations series. VIP guest speakers will lead discussions on topics including Working Internationally and Creative Producing.
- PANDA members can look forward to more exclusive special offers and discounts
from our partners adding to our ever growing range of ticket offers,
discounted rehearsal space and reductions on membership to dance
studios and theatre organisations.
- We’ll also be using our expertise and ever growing network of contacts to roll out our project management service and take on even more projects from our members, partners and commercial organisations.
If you've got any ideas for things you'd like to see PANDA do this year or a success story you'd like to share we'd love to hear from you. Contact Rachel Morton on 0161 274 0626, email rachel@panda-arts.org.uk.