Up For Arts

I’m Helen Randle, and I’m the Broadcast Manager for ‘Up for Arts’, at BBC Radio Lancashire.

Up for Arts is an exciting project which aims to get people involved in the arts and crafts and increase participation across Lancashire. It uses the power of radio to reach a wide audience, raising the profile of volunteering and inspiring people to get creative in their community.

It’s a new project here in Lancashire, but the idea is to use a wide range of on air features, trails and promotions as well as stories about arts participation and volunteering, all designed to inspire and motivate listeners.

We’re planning a series of ‘taster’ events and workshops to engage with BBC Radio Lancashire listeners, so they can try their hand at a new art or craft, brush up their skills and maybe be inspired to take up a new hobby. A similar ‘Up for Arts’ project at BBC Merseyside saw participants regularly coming away with new skills, greater social confidence and new friends! Our first campaign will be Creative Writing workshops, including poetry and short story writing, led by two local writers. It’ll be a lot of fun - nothing like creative writing at school!

All enquiries about joining an arts or crafts group are handled by our Help Desk team of volunteers: they signpost listeners to amateur arts groups all over the county, so they can contact them directly and find out more about joining in. The project will run through 2013 and is funded by Lancashire County Council and BBC Outreach.