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At 8:32am on January 12, 2011, John Dean said…
Addendum - Darlington in Culture will hold a meeting at the arts centre at 7pm on Thursday Jan 20 to discuss the developments. Looking at the details of the council announcement, the civic gets another year and the timescale for the arts centre is more open ended and based around talks with Darlington for Culture and other organisations. This crucially gives us the time we need to develop our plans for the future of the centre and also means that redundancies at both venues are drastically reduced.
At 8:10am on January 12, 2011, John Dean said…
Hi guys
You may have heard by now that the arts centre has been given a year's reprieve during which time arrangements can be put in place for its future, involving the council, ourselves and other organisations. Thanks to all who supported the campaign to keep it open
 
John
At 3:45pm on January 10, 2011, John Dean said…
 

Just got this from Paul Harman

DARLINGTON FOR CULTURE

PUBLIC MEETING POSTPONED FROM 13 TO 20 JANUARY

Dear Supporters

We have been called to a meeting with officers of Darlington Borough Council on Tuesday 11 January and your steering group will discuss the outcome that evening. Details of a second round of Council proposals to meet Government cuts to Darlington’s budget will appear in the Press over the next few days, together with our response.

If, as we hope, the Council offers us a real opportunity to contribute to planning for the future, along with other partners, then a public meeting on Thursday 20 January will be devoted to programming an Autumn season at the Arts Centre.

We will invite you to bring your ideas as an individual user of the Arts Centre or concrete proposals from your association.

But we also believe it wrong to raise false hopes or encourage people to give time to making plans if there is not a clear and long-term commitment from the Council to supporting arts and culture across the town. Not just for a year or two at the Arts Centre but as part of a sustainable future.

We will keep you informed and seek your consent before making any final agreement. Plans to set up a democratically accountable body to succeed the present Steering Group are well advanced.


Please wait for confirmation of the meeting on 20 January.


Paul Harman


 

 

At 2:08pm on December 16, 2010, John Dean said…
Hi
Good news. You will recall that Inkerman Writers applied for funding months ago to finance the production of original fiction CDs for the partially-sighted and disabled, complete with launch at the arts centre. We have been told we have been granted £1510 to finance the project. Once I see the colour of their money we can get on with some serious planning. Hope to see lots of you tonight
 
Thanks
 
John
At 10:08am on December 12, 2010, John Dean said…
Hi again
Thank you all for your encouraging comments on the notes I sent round and your offers of help. To clarify two questions that have cropped up a couple of times
1 No, the centre would not be exclusively a writing centre if this went ahead. This would be part of a much wider jigsaw of arts and community activities organised by all sorts of groups and individuals.
2 Yes, it will have to pay for itself. Everything the centre does has to be financially sustainable and the writing side of it would have to pay its way in the world
 
Thanks
 
John
At 2:00pm on December 10, 2010, John Dean said…

Hi

Following on from my earlier email, this was the idea outlined last night. There are more detailed considerations to it but this is the basic premise

 


The proposal

A centre of writing excellence looking to primarily serve the south of the region and be for writers of all abilities, from beginners to the most adept. It would be very inclusive.

The work would be based on

Continued and increased courses

Masterclasses with guest writers dealing in all sorts of genres

An annual literary festival (linked to a book festival)

 

In addition, this would include the UK's first (as far as I know) crime writing centre. Based on the same premise as above and with the potential to become a regionally, if not nationally, important centre.

Thanks

John

At 2:19pm on November 22, 2010, John Dean said…
Hi
Next term starts January 18
Cheers
John
At 9:22am on October 6, 2010, John Dean said…
Hi Mark
Someone mentioned at the class last night that you were not attending this term because we were full when you tried to book. I had not realised that, otherwise I would have contacted you earlier (the office had told me that one person had cancelled because their shifts had changed and I had assumed it was yourself) Hope to see you for the Spring term - we are missing Arthur terribly!!
At 7:36am on April 7, 2010, John Dean said…
Hi Mark
Welcome to the site. I emailed folks some instructions for uploading stories yesterday, let me know if you need any more help
Thanks
John
 
 
 

DfC

The Inkerman Writers are members of Darlington for Culture (DfC), which was set up  in 2010 to help save Darlington Arts Centre from closure.

Its members include representatives of arts and community groups.

DfC was established after the centre’s owner, Darlington Borough Council, announced that budget cuts meant that it would have to withdraw its subsidy from the Arts Centre.

Although the centre closed, the organisation remains active - more at www.darlingtonforculture.org

 

Publications

Welcome to the site created by the Inkerman Writers to showcase our work.

Based in Darlington, North East England, and having celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2013, members have enjoyed success in a variety of arenas, including winning, and being shortlisted and highly commended, in short story competitions, having novels published and publishing the short story anthology A Strawberry in Winter, which can be obtained by visiting the website www.blurb.com

The group's second anthology of short stories, Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories, can be obtained, cost £4.95 plus postage and packing, from

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/2173759/4a79a32f5cf205f6bfd37b6f1df30e33900a5ab0?utm_source=TellAFriend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2692827

The Inkerman Writers latest book, Out of the Shadows, which was launched as part of the 2013 Darlington Arts Festival, is on sale. The book can be ordered direct from

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4204019-out-of-the-shadows

The group also produced The Last Waltz, a double CD of short stories, available by contacting deangriss@btinternet.com, cost £5 plus p and p.

Several of our writers wrote original one-act plays in a collaboration with the Green Theatre company, which were performed at Darlington Arts Centre early in February, 2012.

 

Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have produced their latest anthology of short stories, Inkerman  Street, based on the demolition of a fictional northern street and the stories of the people who lived in it.

The book, which features a variety of stories ranging from horror to comedy, was launched to a large audience at the Darlington Arts Festival Literary Day on Saturday May 26 and begins like this:

Inkerman Street is still and graveyard-hushed tonight, the terraced houses cold behind boarded-up windows, silent sentinels among a sea of wasteland. No one lives here now and tomorrow the bulldozers will move in to flatten the houses to make way for the Council’s Grand Plan.

“Although the people are long gone, the houses still have life. Peek into one of the bedrooms and see on the wall a painting of a seaside scene, brightly-coloured boats bobbing in the harbour, fishermen pipe-smoking in the noonday sun and seagulls wheeling high above the choppy waters. In the roaring silence of the night, you can hear the screeching of the birds and taste the salt air, acrid and herring-sharp at the back of your throat. It is an illusion; the bedroom is empty and the blooms on the faded wallpaper have long since wilted.

“The air in the houses is musty with neglect yet but a few months before, these were bustling homes filled with frying bacon and steaming irons, whistling kettles and playing children. The houses witnessed all these scenes for more than 150 years. Behind their curtains were enacted a thousand stories but tomorrow they will be destroyed because Inkerman Street is the last of its ilk.

“Now, on the eve of the street’s death, the people who once lived here have returned, gathering solemn and silent in the mist, the ghosts of the past come to pay final tribute….”

The anthology can be purchased at http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/7524452/bae89c993c98ec8c8b37b12d6b9b37ecced5dec3

 

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