CO FOUNDER & CO DIRECTOR  

2010-2013

In 2010 I co-founded Wide Awake Devon in response to a lack of connectivity and producing culture across Devon. 

By 2012 we were a team of 5 working to support artists and organisations through resources, access points, brokering, workshops and fundraising.

Our Ambition:

Wide Awake Devon is committed to providing frameworks for learning and support for the Devon performance sector. We work to provide opportunities that enable making and producing new work by developing a culture of productivity, connectivity, quality and ambition using collaborative practice, leading to the recognition of Devon based artists across the UK.

We have four main strands of activity that forms this framework:

a. To support development of a producing culture within Devon.

b. Through clearly defined objectives, develop and support the live performance sector in Devon.

c. To enhance a supportive learning environment in which young artists, arts students and graduates recognise Devon as an attractive place to work within a developing live performance community.

d. To continue to develop an organisation whose sole aim is to support and represent the sector.

Our ambition is for Devon to become a healthy bloodstream for extraordinary live performance, which can act as a propeller for local work in a national context, so that work made in Devon is celebrated both within the county and across the UK. Our opinion is that Devon needs to create a greater capacity for support networks and resources in order to nurture ideas with promising potential that is then able develop into high quality work. Local artists will start to proudly acknowledge their roots, building the reputation for extraordinary artistic practice in Devon and at the same time captivate artists from around the country who want to perform here and (if only temporarily) be part of that energy. (WAD Ambition 2011)