In May 2014 everyone at Venture Arts was delighted to hear that we had been successful in our application to the BBC's Community Doorway programme to make a short film about our organisation.
Venture Arts runs a wide variety of professional arts workshops for and with people with learning disabilities from across Manchester. We wanted a film that would showcase the talents of learning disabled artists in our area, reach more people and promote the work of our charity at a very important time in its development.
We have had an absolutely marvellous experience from beginning to end and I cannot thank the BBC team who worked with us enough.
Firstly Sarah came to visit Venture Arts in Hulme, Manchester and met staff and the learning disabled artists we work with. I was then invited down to MediaCityUK, where she showed me around the department and we looked at developing a storyboard. I was particularly impressed with the way in which she grasped what we were all about incredibly quickly and was able to understand the issues and key areas of interest for our organisation simply and succinctly.
We sat over a coffee and developed a storyboard and then met with Rob and Katie who were to make the film.
We were aiming to make a film narrated and delivered mainly by learning disabled people, which I thought would be a difficult task for people with little knowledge of disability or of the communication challenges that many people face. Again I was so impressed with the team’s commitment to this and ability to bring out people’s stories about our organisation.
People supported by Venture Arts displaying some of their work.
Rob and Katie spent a lot of time filming, sometimes in a really busy environment. They filmed during a particularly busy time for the team as we prepared for two exhibitions. This was perfect in one sense as it gave them plenty of interesting and varied material and people to film but somewhat chaotic at our end! They were completely unfazed by anything that was put to them. I think too that they have both gone away with a good understanding of the community that we work with so closely and got a lot out of it too – I really hope so!
I thought that it was just great that they fitted into our timetable even though I know that they still had full time jobs to do at the BBC – nothing was too much and I was amazed to hear that they were novice filmmakers too, they really managed to communicate and get people talking about our project beautifully.
Click to view film - cards created by by artists supported by Venture Arts
We now have a perfect film, in the main narrated by learning disabled people and we have just held a great event to officially unveil the film to all those in our organisation. 80 people and their families came to watch and completely loved it. We really can’t wait to show it to as many people as possible we are so proud of it! I think that the film will make a big difference to us as it will help us to build our (brilliant!) cause and to fly the flag for learning disability arts in the UK.
*The Community Doorway programme from BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility gives BBC staff the opportunity to work with various charities and community groups. Applications are particularly welcome from from organisations based in the neighbourhoods where a large number of our staff work - namely the London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster, Salford and Greater Manchester - and those that work with 16-24 year olds and/or groups that are considered to be disadvantaged or socially excluded. Venture Arts supports people who have a learning disability to play a valued role within the contemporary arts world.
