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Mintfest International Summer School for Street Arts

Lakes Alive — Mon 22, February 2010 06:13:54

A unique and exciting opportunity for new and emerging street artists to learn from some of the best in the business during a week-long residential summer school from August 29 - September 5, 2010 in Kendal, Cumbria.

Students will work intensively with leading UK and international artists in the week leading up to Mintfest and will then have the opportunity to perform their work to large audiences, world-class artists and industry professionals alike over the festival weekend.

For further information and application forms click here

Evaluation Report 2009

Lakes Alive — Tue 02, February 2010 05:55:51

An independent evaluation report, created by CRESC at the University of Manchester, has been published about the impacts of Lakes Alive 2009. To view a copy please click here.

March 2010 Carlisle event announced

Lakes Alive — Wed 25, November 2009 05:49:38

We wanted you to be one of the first to hear about a new Lakes Alive event in 2010 which has just been announced. It's a special one-off event as Cumbria's contribution to a project spanning the North of England, and is a prelude to our full season which begins later in the Spring.

You may have heard that plans have been unveiled to create a spectacular line of light from coast to coast, along the length of Hadrian’s Wall, next year. This once in a lifetime event will take place on Saturday 13 March 2010 and will follow the route of the 84 mile long Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail. There will be around 500 individual points of light, placed at 250 metre intervals. The first one will be illuminated at Wallsend in the North East, with the line of light then making its way along the Wall to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria over the following hour, literally lighting up the north of England.

As a partner on this project Lakes Alive will be running a very special celebration event in Carlisle City Centre on the evening of Saturday 13 March to welcome the light to Cumbria. Full details are being kept under wraps at this stage, but it will include international artists and performers and audiences. There'll be lots of exciting detail to announce closer to the time and there'll also be an event happening in the North East that night.

Our contribution to the Illuminating Hadrian's Wall project is an important and exciting part of the four-year Lakes Alive programme building up to London 2012 which is all about bringing to life the rich and spectacular landscapes and heritage of Cumbria through inspiring world-class outdoor arts events. We feel privileged to be part of this celebration of one of the UK's few globally-significant landmarks. This has been made possible through a dynamic North of England partnership with Hadrian’s Wall Heritage Ltd and the exceptional culture¹⁰programme in the North East.

Please do keep the date free and we hope you'll join us to help make the Carlisle event on 13 March a fitting celebration of this iconic landmark. Keep up to date with the project at www.lakesalive.org or www.illuminatinghadrianswall.com (soon to be live) or think about making a weekend of it with more information about visiting the area and accommodation at www.golakes.co.uk or www.hadrians-wall.org

2010 Programme Coming Soon

Lakes Alive — Fri 30, October 2009 07:15:19

The 2010 Lakes Alive programme will be announced soon. Sign up to our free mailing list (top right of home page) to be the first to hear!

Two new Lakes Alive films on You Tube

Lakes Alive — Wed 05, August 2009 02:50:59

We're now the proud owners of two new Lakes Alive films which you can view on You Tube.

The first is a compilation of all our events so far, view here.

The second features footage of our Dance Daze festival in Penrith on 26 July, which many people turned out to, despite the rain! View Dance Daze film here.

Dance Daze You Tube clip - Lunaticks, plus photos!

Lakes Alive — Mon 27, July 2009 07:39:26

See the Lunaticks from Barcelona bboying (hip hop/break dance) at Penrith Dance Daze event here.

Or click here for photos of the event.

Images of Shall We Dance? in Egremont

Lakes Alive — Fri 17, July 2009 05:06:40

Images of Shall we Dance? In Egremont now live - can you spot yourself?

Click here for the images.

Film Footage now live

Lakes Alive — Tue 09, June 2009 07:01:31

Film footage for all the Reach for the Sky events is now live.

Click here for a short film from Bowness, Carlisle and Penrith.

Click here for a short film from Maryport, Whitehaven, Barrow-in-Furness.

Guardian review of Reach for the Sky

Lakes Alive — Tue 26, May 2009 08:25:24

Read The Guardian's review of the first events of Reach for the Sky here

Take Part!

Lakes Alive — Wed 06, May 2009 04:07:24

Lakes Alive is looking for people to help create a visual spectacle - 100 giant flags - which will be part of Lakes Alive events and festivals this year. This is your chance to work alongside professional artists to be a part of Cumbria's cultural contribution to the Olympics and its legacy. Come along and work with us - tell us what inspires you about the landscape near you. We want to know your loves, hates, hopes and dreams.

There will be two free sessions taking place in each location below and places are strictly limited.

Grasmere Village Hall - 7 & 28 June, 10am-12.30pm
Brockhole Visitors Centre, nr Windermere - 6 & 27 June, 10am-12.30pm
Keswick - Friends Meeting House - 6 & 27 June, 1.30pm-4pm

Book your place now. Email Jenny Graham jenny@kendalartsinternational.com or call 01539 720252 by 31 May. 15 places are available in advance and a small number of places on the day.

Our newest recruits

Lakes Alive — Wed 15, April 2009 02:12:32

Lambs are the latest recruits in the advertising campaign for Lakes Alive.

New born lambs have long been one of the most popular sights for tourists visiting the Lakes at this time of year. Now we are giving farmers across Cumbria little plastic coats to promote the events and to help protect the lambs from bad weather.

The lamb raincoats, called lammacs, feature the Lakes Alive logo and a website address where people can find out more about the events, which will be taking place all across the Lake District and other parts of Cumbria from May. Lammacs are sold by agricultural suppliers Agrimin and help to prevent hypothermia, which is the biggest danger facing new born lambs.

Julie Tait from Kendal Arts International says: “Lakes Alive is all about capturing people’s imaginations by offering something quirky and memorable, so we wanted to do something out of the ordinary to grab people’s attention. Hopefully the lambs will help us to get our message to a wider audience so that as many people as possible get the chance to come and enjoy the events. “Our aim is also to give the beautiful and diverse landscapes of Cumbria and our fantastic natural heritage a contemporary twist by staging spectacular and innovative outdoor performances. We couldn’t think of any better ambassadors than Cumbria’s lambs who put on some pretty impressive performances of their own at this time of year.”

Volunteering opportunities

Lakes Alive — Wed 01, April 2009 03:16:43

We are looking for people from all backgrounds to join the Lakes Alive Volunteer Programme.

So if you:
- are enthusiastic about street arts
- can spare some time between May and August
- are confident, outgoing and friendly and at least 18 years old

...then we would love to hear from you!

The roles available for volunteers include: Marshalling, artist liaison including translators and people to conduct surveys. There will be two open evenings in May, where we will tell you more about the Lakes Alive programme and the types of roles that you can get involved in.

Once you have learnt a bit more about what opportunities we have to offer, we will ask you to select which area you are most interested in volunteering on. You will then be given some training on that area of our work.

Volunteering is an excellent way to meet new people, gain new skills, share your skills and experience, give something back to the community and enhance your CV.

Email michaela@kendalartsinternational.com

Lyn Gardner of The Guardian on Street Arts

Lakes Alive — Thu 26, March 2009 04:39:38

Lyn Gardner discusses the impact of Street Arts in her blog, The joy of street arts: how giant spiders and elephants could cure our woes.

New Events Programme. New Website!

Lakes Alive — Wed 18, February 2009 04:14:20

Welcome to the new Lakes Alive website. We hope you like it as much as we do.

It’s now just over ten weeks until Reach for the Sky, the launch week of the new four-year Lakes Alive programme, and new information about the events and our guest performers is being confirmed every day. We’re also busily firming up details of events during July and August and programming the very best performers from across the globe for Mintfest, the annual Street Arts Festival in Kendal which promises to be hotter than ever this year!

We’ll be adding lots more content and detail to this site as we go along so please do keep checking back, or sign up to receive our e-newsletter to make sure you keep in touch. We promise we won’t bombard you!

Please explore the site and get the dates of all the events into your diaries, as we’d love you to join us right from the start of what is certain to be a thoroughly exhilarating four year journey!

Julie Tait, Director - Kendal Arts International