Expression of Interest: Partnership Research Bursaries

The Mighty Creatives co-mentoring programme for individuals from schools, museums,
arts organisations and the creative and cultural sectors

Please complete all sections on both sides

About you

Name: Kayleigh Glasper

Postal address (main for any correspondence): The Firebird Trust

The Stables
Wellingore Hall
Wellingore
Lincoln

Postcode: LN5 0HX

Email address (one that you use regularly please): admin@firebirdtrust.com

Telephone: 01522 811229

Mobile: 07813 754054

Organisation name/ school (if applicable): The Firebird Trust

Brief description of your responsibilities/ work:

I am a Project Coordinator, Project Manager and Administrator at The Firebird

Trust. I have also been covering the duties of the Finance Officer whilst she has
been on maternity leave. I also work as a freelance music leader delivering
workshops in schools and the community.

Background
Do you work in the education, museums, creative or cultural sectors in the East Midlands?
Yes
Have you been involved in programmes delivered by The Mighty Creatives (TMC)?

Not personally. However, Firebirds Executive Director was involved in the pilot
of Creative Partnerships Co-Mentoring Programme in the East Midlands.
Please give details, i.e. your role, what you do, how you have been involved with TMC (Max
200 words)
My job at the Firebird Trust includes many different aspects, Project Manager,
Project Administration, Musician & Office Management. I am involved in
Firebirds diverse range of projects in a range of guises. I provide administration
support for some of our projects, project manage our MUSICOM artist CPD
programme or assist on others projects such as KOMPOSIT our orchestral and
compositional initiative for the East Midlands. My work at Firebird means that I
am also involved in our Artists Association as an observer. I have also been able
to explore my role as a community musician through the Pebbles in Ponds
project. As one of the trainees for this project I have been able to observe high
quality artists running workshops in a variety of settings and been able to be
involved in the delivery of these sessions. This has built my confidence and
helped me to undertake freelance work for Lincolnshire Dance running dance
and music workshops for children with physical and mental disabilities and I am
also a Music Facilitator for SoundLincs. Finally, I have been the sole Event
Manager for the Trust since I started, organising the 25th birthday Celebration
Concert including managing the event, marketing, catering, promotional
materials, sound, lighting, set up and take down at the venue, room dressing,
booking and looking after the artists Matthew Barley and Julian Joseph. I have
also started the rebranding of the organisation to make publicity material more
cohesive.

Have you been involved in co-mentoring or enquiry based practice before? If yes please give
details e.g. role, length of involvement, purpose of the relationship etc. (Max 200 words)

Through my work at Firebird I have been involved in a number of projects

containing major elements of mentoring, coaching and reflective practice.

Pebbles in Ponds, funded through Youth Music, is a creative music project

running in rural villages across Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. My role is multi-
faceted. I act as the Project Administrator supporting the Lead Musicians and
also work as a Trainee Musician alongside them. I have also received mentoring
support from the projects External Mentor, Roger Watson.
I manage Firebirds MUSICOM training programme. This provides training for
emerging talent in community music in Lincolnshire. The trainees are drawn
from across the world of community music and have included: Sian Croose,
Peter Moser, Paul Griffiths, Mary Keith, and Hugh Nankivell. The foundation of
these training sessions is built on the concept of reflective practice.

I am also involved in Firebirds Artists Association research programme led by

Dr Daniel King from Nottingham Trent Universitys Business School. The core
values of the AA are: Creative autonomy for artists; transparency, including
financial transactions; non-hierarchical, democratic organizational structures
utilising the energy and strengths of all participants; reciprocal relationship
between the artists involved and Firebird where everyone works in consensus
toward realising mutual interests; a shared vision; to function as a learning
organization. Action Learning methodologies are used as a basis for reflective
practice within the sessions.

Interest
What is your particular focus and interest in participating in a co-mentoring/research
partnership? (Max 200 words)

Firebird has been a leader in the realm of reflective practice for musicians and
artists for over 25 years. Its Coach-Mentoring scheme of 2003-5 had a major
impact in the region and pre-dated many of the current mentoring initiatives
available. I want to be able to extend my own skills and to develop my practice
as an artist, bring back the learning and experiences I gain from my
involvement on TMCs bursary programme to Firebird with a view to, not only
developing my role at Firebird, but also providing professional development for
my own career. I am actively developing my skills as a creative practitioner and
a community musician and feel that gaining a TMC bursary would also help to
provide a strong foundation on which to build my artistic practice, gain
experience in principles and reflective practice and knowledge of best practice,
and explore ways in which to bring these two components together.

I am highly motivated about the principles of inclusive practice in community

arts and see creativity as one of the most important keys to unlocking the
potential of young people.

Investment
TMC works in partnerships to explore how creativity can improve the lives of young people
in the East Midlands. What do you want to focus on that could support you to explore new
ideas and drive change in your own work with young people? What impact could this have
for your school/organisation? (Max 200 words)

During my work with Firebird I have encountered many different groups of

people within society. I have enjoyed my work immensely and would like to
focus my training and mentoring on how to engage with harder to reach
individuals such as people with learning difficulties and mental health issues. I
would also like to develop my skills in fully engaging groups of people, including
the people who seem to stand at the back and struggle to participate. I think
that in exploring these avenues I will be able to work with groups in a more
inclusive way that will mean everybody will get something of value from the
session. I am concerned that during my time as a trainee and through
observation sometimes participants get missed out and do not get the same
attention as other more confident members and that these are perhaps the
people who will actually gain more from the experience if they can fully involve
themselves. I understand that this takes time and effort from leading a session
and perhaps working on your own is a more difficult task however I feel that for
community music to be truly a uniting experience it is necessary sometimes to
put in extra effort with people who find it harder to shine through. The Firebird
Trust prides itself on the musicians that work for us. In our mission it states
that The Firebird Trust is a pioneering music organisation, committed to
artistic excellence. It is founded on the principal of inspiring, including and
empowering people through a creative involvement in music making. I feel
that by improving my own practise I could then feed back into the organisation
to our current artists the ideas and feedback I had developed from my
mentoring to make sure that all of us deliver our work with the idea of
including, inspiring and empowering every single one of our participants. No
matter how shy or what physical or mental impairment that they have to
overcome. This experience would enable me to feedback to Firebirds Artists
Association to discuss what I have learned and pass this information and skills
set on to all of the other artists that work with Firebird. I would also be able to
take the things I have learned and incorporate these into the CPD sessions I
organise and attend for my project MUSICOM.

Time commitment
Partners will attend a regional training day to start the programme; partners will be
expected to meet for two or three hours at least five times over the year and attend one day
long network group gathering and one day long regional presentation event. Museums
based research partnerships (offer 1) will also be expected to plan, deliver and evaluate
creative activity with young people (an activity budget of up to 1500 per partnership will be
made available).

Additional information
Bursary Offer

Please indicate which offer(s) you are interested in participating in.

1. museums / creativity / education / TMC creative agents YES / NO

2. creative practitioners / teachers / TMC creative agents YES / NO

3. Lincolnshire creative practitioners / arts organisations / YES / NO

teachers / TMC creative agents

Matching Research Partners

We are looking to match research partners from across the East Midlands. Please let us
know which geographical areas you would be willing to participate in and commit to
travelling to from the list below. Please indicate all that are applicable to your application.

Derby/shire YES / NO

Nottingham/shire YES / NO

Leicester/shire YES / NO

Lincolnshire and Rutland YES / NO

Northamptonshire YES / NO

Do you have any specific dietary or access requirements? YES / NO

If yes, please give details

Statement
In submitting this expression of interest I have read and understood the requirements of this
offer.

Signed: Date:

Deadline 12 noon on September 6 2010. Please send your completed form to

natalie@themightycreatives.com / 0116 2533 431 / TMC, LCB Depot, 31 Rutland Street,
Leicester, LE1 1RE