OutdoorArts UK

Can you tell our readers a bit about what you do?   OutdoorArtsUK is a national membership and strategic organisation that aims to bring together the many diverse parts of the Outdoor Arts sector.   OutdoorArtsUK celebrates the wonderful work, amazing talent and tremendous achievements of the brilliant individuals, companies and organisations working in this most accessible of art forms.    What is the best way for people to approach you?   We can be contacted via email: info@outdoorartsuk.org or phone: 020 7388 9767    What makes your  organisation  stand out? How do you make a difference to the sector?   We are a member focused organisation; our Board is elected from the membership by the membership. We are the only funded membership organisation for the sector in the UK.     What new initiatives do you have coming up?  We are in the process of putting together the Outdoor Arts Conference that will be in Coventry this year in November.   The Conference is a great event for everyone involved in the Outdoor Arts sector, with discussions, workshops, networking events, ideas summit, marketplace, one-to-one advise sessions, presentations, performances, and panel discussions. It is a brilliant chance for the Outdoor Arts sector to come together, make connections, and celebrate the sector.     What else would you like our readers to know about you and your work?   At OutdoorArtsUK we are all about celebrating the OutdoorArts sector; the breadth of Outdoor Arts work is huge across the UK. Outdoor Arts includes many different art forms including theatre, contemporary dance, music, traditional dance, puppetry, comedy, pyrotechnics, visual art, digital art and lots and lots of circus.   Outdoor Arts crop up in public processions, enormous carnivals and huge melas, as well as at small local festivals, in shopping centres and in front of major cultural institutions.   We are very international, with some great companies from around the world visiting our shores and our own work playing an increasingly prominent global role. There’s often mass participation, so sometimes you’ll see a cast of hundreds or sometimes a cast of just one.   In the last twenty years, Outdoor Arts in the UK has developed into a distinct sector, growing from its roots in community arts movements, street arts, carnival, agitprop and radical theatre, which go back to the 1960s. Now, Outdoor Arts has firmly established itself through some nation-defining moments, ever-increasing artistic standards and an on-going cooperative network.   With our incredibly diverse audiences, our work is increasingly being recognised for the role it plays in social cohesion, place-making and community building.      IMAGE CREDIT: 'WILD' by Motionhouse at Brighton Festival (Without Walls Commission).