MIF Creative
MIF Creative is Manchester International Festival’s creative learning programme, launched in 2009. At its core is a series of commissions created by leading UK and international artists developing new work in collaboration with local communities.
The 2011 MIF Creative programme saw a series of new works connecting with diverse communities across the city. Sacred Sites brought leading international performers of sacred song and recital together with local faith communities in a week of events in Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish and Sikh sites of worship across the city; That Day We Sang gave opportunities for 100 local school children to perform onstage in a new play by one of the UK’s best loved comediennes, Victoria Wood; Music Boxes extended MIF Creative’s reach into Greater Manchester with artist residencies and professional development opportunities across the city region – before transforming Media City into a fantasy world of sound and music; and Biophilia Music School saw secondary students from Wythenshawe meet Bjork and explore her inspirational ideas for fusing technology, music and science in Biophilia. Looking ahead, Dr Dickson Despommier launched Vertical Farm, a commission in planning to explore ideas of vertical farming and food sustainability in the run up to the 2013 Manchester International Festival.
Trainee Producers
As a commissioning and producing Festival, MIF’s success depends on our ability to pull together a team of talented producers who can nurture and support risk-taking and experimentation in international teams of artists. Supporting the development of the next generation of producers who can build on this work in the future is a key commitment. For 2011, MIF has been hosting a Trainee Producer, Gemma Connell, DCMS Creative Bursaries Postholder in our MIF Creative department. See below for how she has been getting on:
If you’d have asked me when I was ten years old, I would have never have said that I wanted a career in the performing arts. Why? Because even at that age, I didn’t think it was possible… It wasn’t until I went to university that everything changed. I chose Warwick University because of its vast array of student-run dance and theatre societies and in my second term there, I finally saw myself on video. And I was good. I was really good. I don’t know why, but something in me clicked; I no longer cared how difficult it would be to have career in the performing arts – I was having one. I got myself a portfolio together, set up a website and a YouTube channel. I made it my mission to let the world know that I was going to get into the industry if it killed me. So I’m sure you can imagine my excitement when I saw the ad for Manchester International Festival’s new Trainee Producer with MIF Creative, funded by the DCMS Jerwood Bursary scheme.
