Phase one of Cultivator worked with over 600 creative businesses and organisations. The University supported creative practitioners through three key activities.
Professional Peer Support Network (PPSN)
The purpose of the PPSN was to enhance growth and development within creative businesses and organisations in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. We did this by providing access to academic experts from the University and also external experts from across the UK’s creative industries sector.
Showcasing
This involved giving practitioners the opportunity to showcase their business at key regional or national events such as London Design Fair, The Great Escape, Port Eliot Festival, Celtic Media Festival and British Museum Conference. The showcasing element of the programme gave practitioners the opportunity to increase awareness of Cornwall’s creative industries as well as networking with industry professionals.
The Great Escape Festival is a three day globally renowned festival for emerging musicians across the UK and Europe.
We took four emerging acts to the festival and offered them the opportunity to be a part of the fringe element of the festival and provided them with tickets to the convention part of the festival, which included key networking and workshop opportunities.
The four acts showcased were singer songwriters, Rue and FARE, and bands including Milo Gore, and LIPS.
“Seeing everyone together at the Cornish showcase was pretty special; looking back and being like, ‘wow, we did that!’” –Showcase performer
We partnered with high-end craft magazine Hole & Corner who curated the British Craft Pavilion at the London Design Fair and were able to secure seven stands for Cornish makers. The aim was to raise the profile of Cornish makers nationally and internationally and create selling opportunities for them, and to launch the Design Frontier initiative.
We gave seven makers the opportunity to exhibit at the London Design Fair, these were: furniture makers Head & Haft; ceramicists Dor & Tan; ceramicist Michel François; furniture and objects d’art maker Kinsley Byrne; silversmith Alex O’Connor; the Leach Pottery; and furniture maker Felix McCormack.
The makers exhibited under the collective title, Design Frontier, and as part of the British Craft Pavilion, curated by Hole & Corner.
The Celtic Media Festival is an annual three day event that promotes the languages and cultures of the Celtic regions in media. The event combines a conference of seminars and master classes across all the main content genres in TV, radio film and digital media.
We took eight film-makers from Cornwall to the festival, varying in experience from student to highly accomplished.
The eight film-makers who attended the festival were: Alex Falconer, David Morris from S2S Media, Florence Brown, Jane Darke, Andrew Tebbs, Denzil Monk, Sema Basharan and Charlie Fripp.
“It was brilliant—just what the industry in Cornwall needs. Please do it again!” – Celtic Media Festival attendee
