Quest receives an award! 11/08/09

In December 2009 Helen Owen Arts Development Officer at Gloucestershire County Council received an award as the Champion of the Cultural Olympiad, for the Severn Project, at the BBC West’s Sports Awards 2009 in Bath. The Severn Project was led by the Desperate Men with support from Cirque Bijou, and was the first Quest activity in the South West.
 
It happened in Tewkesbury and Lydney, and involved local dancers, choirs, musicians and street artists, inspired by A Sleep Walk on the Severn, a specially commissioned poem written by Alice Oswald. The Tewkesbury show finished in a spectacular walk across the river Avon by high wire walker kwabana Lindsay.
 
As part South Gloucestershire Council’s ‘What’s your Quest 2012’
Cirque Bijou and the Desperate Men produced workshops in November 2009 based on the Hero’s Journey to inspire young people to create their own Quest projects to take back to their schools and to take up the Quest Challenge – ‘ What are you going to do over the next three years leading up to 2012 that will make a real difference to you or your school?
 

Overview of Quest

Cirque Bijou are delighted to be working with the Desperate Men as Creative Producers of Quest, the proposed main focus for Cutural Olympiad activity in the South West. Quest is a series of journeys and events bringing people together in celebration of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

• Quest is a visionary project that will create a series of physical, virtual and performance journeys that will connect the region, moving towards the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic sailing events in Weymouth and Portland then beyond.
• Quest will operate across the sectors and disciplines of culture, arts, sport, science and education, representing a series of unique and powerful partnerships.

Image courtesy of Tim Hill / Rag and Bone / Leviathian Whispers

There are three integrated strands:

• The central performance journey in 2012 led by Cirque Bijou and Desperate Men - an inspiring, accessible and engaging voyage through landscapes and communities that will connect people, places, arts, sports and culture across the South West. In 2010 and 2011 the two lead organisations, Desperate Men and Cirque Bijou, will be creating the Quest central performance journey in the West of England, that will be launched from the sub region in 2012 before it journeys across the South West leading to Weymouth and Portland for the Olympic and Paralympic sailing events in July.
• Sub-regional Quest activity - journeys, explorations, interventions and connecting events, linking to the central performance journey and led by local artists and stakeholders.
• The Quest challenge  - 'What is your Quest?- an umbrella programme aimed at individuals and communities with a simple central idea under which a myriad of creative possibilities can exist. At its core it asks, 'What are you going to do over the next three years that will make a difference to you personally, or to your community / organisation?'

 

For more information about Quest call 0117 902 9730 or email billy@cirquebijou.co.uk