THIS IS ME FESTIVAL 2023

Our proposal to hold a five day festival of Arts in Middleton Hall, thecentre:mk in the summer of 2023 has been given the green light and it will be taking place during the first week of July next year. The five days would include one weekend. Middleton Hall is the large open area adjacent to John Lewis store in Milton Keynes which has a floor size of 1,800 square metres. (See pictures below)

As many people will already know, our key strengths are the creative & performing arts and our ethos is on promoting people's Abilities rather than their Disabilities, creating an environment where they can flourish and realise their full potential. So our festival will reflect this and be a festival of abilities.

FESTIVAL PROPOSAL: WHY DO WE WANT TO DO THIS?

As per our ethos, we want to showcase, promote and celebrate the amazing creative talents of our clients with support needs who we call ‘group members’ and indeed all people with learning difficulties, neuro diversities and support needs, to the maximum number of people as possible in a prominent public and accessible space.

WHY MIDDLETON HALL?

Inspired by success and achievements in 2019 and 2021, where we hosted a Fashion show at The Chrysalis Theatre, an ambitious Art exhibition at the new Gallery space at MK Museum, and more recently a Pantomime held at The Chrysalis Theatre, we now want to embrace an outlet that can reach out to more of the general public in a larger forum.

The great attraction of Middleton Hall is that in such a venue we will have vastly more exposure and not be ‘preaching to the converted’ as we would be if we were to hold the event in traditional gallery, exhibition or performance spaces. The footfall through Middleton Hall is in the many thousands per week and the vast majority of people see events held there in passing, ‘stumbling on’ them whist out shopping or just passing through. Middleton Hall is clearly therefore by far and away the best venue for such an event, aimed at reaching as many people as possible to get our message of positivity of people with disabilities across.

WHAT ARE WE PLANNING TO DO?

We plan to allocate a large section of the Hall to a major exhibition of creative art produced by our group members. The work will include painting, prints, photography, crafts, fashion work and sculpture.

To tie in with this, we will have some interactive creative activities which members of the visiting public can be involved in including art & craft workshops for both adults and children.

Alongside this fixed feature, we will have a series of changing activities including performances of dance, singing and music by our performing arts group members led by our session lead for performing arts, Karina Streeton. Again, there will be opportunities for public engagement.

During lockdown of 2020 we established our own TV channel called ‘HI VIZ TV’ which our Media group members produce and we plan to do a broadcast from the event. Members of the visiting public and local retailers will have the opportunity to contribute to this. We also plan to hold a live broadcast from the event on our radio show on Stony Radio.

THEME: ‘THIS IS ME’

This Is Me’ is all about standing up for yourself and being proud of who you are, accepting yourself and others with all our differences, challenges and insecurities. The value of the individual and individuality and the enriching qualities that diversity of all kinds can bring to our communities. Whilst the key thrust of our festival will be to promote and champion the positive contribution that people with learning difficulties, disabilities and neurodiversity can make to our community/society, we also want to draw attention to the value of ALL people no matter what their background, ethnicity, colour, creed or abilities.

CAN YOU HELP US?

We are looking for local business sponsors to work in partnership with us in a mutually beneficial way on this fabulous event and help make it a reality. Such a partnership can fulfil a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mission and generate valuable publicity, or simply provide the satisfaction of giving something back to the local community.

We really hope that there are some sponsors out there who will want to get on board with us towards promoting this important message and take advantage of the huge public exposure opportunity and positive 'feelgood factor' of this uplifting event offers.

So we're not just asking for handouts here. We're inviting you to get involved and help yourselves too!

So, tell us how WE can help YOU when YOU help US ?!

Need more information? Please contact Adrian on 01908 318140 / info@phoenixmk.com

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