First day nerves

Friday 13th June was the first day of my placement with Fierce Earth and Creative Republic, and apart from a small mishap with a sticker machine it went quite well.

The team were extremely welcoming and felt at home from the moment I arrived, with a cup of tea offer from Simon, the Office Manager (or as he joked…Head of Glitter).The schedule of my morning was:

7:00 – Out of Bed
8:00 – In my KA (or more affectionately know as the KAK!)
8:15 – Walk from the Car Park in Stoke
8:25 – Buy Ticket return to New Street at £14.90
8:39 – Train arrives and I have a seat
9:34 – Arrive at New Street and begin my walk to New Street
9:55 – Arrive at the Big Peg in Birmingham to start my day!

Greeted by Helga and Simon I automatically felt at ease and although I was not nervous or scared, I felt unsure of what to expect.

I was introduced to the team – those there and those not. I also had a whistle-stop tour of the offices.

Mark Ball is Owner of the Company and Creative Director
Helga Henry is Managing Director
Simon Pickthorne is Office Manager
Andrew Tims is Creative Learning Manager
Kevin Isaacs is the Executive Producer

Also on the team was Sindy, and the second office was Sub-let to Commissioner, Sarah Allen and her assistant Gemma (Another from Sunny Stoke!)

After looking through the impressive collection of press cuttings from previous Fierce! Festivals in local and national press, I began to read further about the company to familiarise myself with its structure.

In brief…

Fierce Earth and Fierce! (Festivals) Ltd were divided into two separate companies to avoid confusion in who was receiving funding.

Fierce! (Festivals) Ltd is a Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) of Arts Council England West Midlands (ACE) for the festival they run every year in May and June. This year’s festival has just finished but you can find out more here.

The Companies Misson is to:
“present the best live art from across the world in new contexts and settings throughout the West Midlands, surprising and delighting audiences by challenging the conventional understanding of what the arts can be, do and say, and inspire regionally based artists into making innovative and ground-breaking live art.”

Fierce Earth is the production company that Fierce! use to produce their festival each year. There 3 niches are:
• Events & Festivals
• Learning & Development
• Consultancy

An example of the projects that Fierce Earth are involved with is the ArtsMark event from ACEWM

I am going to be taking part in upcoming projects within Fierce Earth but hopefully planning and executing a Creative Republic event in Stoke-on-Trent where there seems to be a thriving creative community developing.

Creative Republic does three things, as described below:
“Basically, Creative Republic comes down to three things:
• Representation and lobbying
• networking
• commissioning research”

After familiarising myself with the office, staff and company structure I took part in a meeting and walkthrough for the upcoming project. This was an even better insight to the dynamics within the company, and I really enjoyed it!