User:AmirThak

Carousel
Carousel is a learning disability led arts organisation. The charity was Founded in 1982, Carousel works to promote the active involvement of people with a learning disability in the arts,managing arts projects by and for people with a learning disability. Carousel is a organisation that develops projects to enable artists with a learning disability to manage their own artistic and cultural work. Carousels main two initiatives at the moment are 'Oska Bright' which includes the Oska Bright Film Festival and 'Shut Up and Listen' which includes the Shut Up and Listen Radio show. Carousel is also known for creating 'The Blue Camel Club', a club night for anyone with a learning disability and their friends.

The Oska Bright Film Festival
The Oska Bright Film Festival is a International Film Festival run by people with a learning disability, showing short films made by people with a learning disability. The Steering Committee that runs and delivers Oska Bright is made up of learning disabled film makers. The Oska Bright film festival takes place every two years. The year between festivals they spend touring the films and delivering film making training sessions in the UK and abroad, this is called Oska Bright On the Road. Carousel and Junk TV(film production and screening company specialising in youth and community production)are partners on this project. Oska Bright is in development to develop a digital media presence as part of the festival, expanding the festival to more broadly include digital media.

Shut Up and Listen
Shut Up and Listen is the name for all the music work at Carousel. All the work at Shut Up and Listen is run by artists with learning disabilities.

The Shut Up and Listen steering committee is a group of musicians and DJs with a learning disability. They make the Shut Up And Listen radio show. The show is recorded at Radio Reverb and broadcast on a monthly basis, the show is currently the only place on the radio to hear music made only by artists with a learning disability. Aside from the radio show, Shut Up And Listen takes part in other projects.


 * Create This! Music – an introductory music making course for young learning disabled people to try their hand at making music.
 * Electric Academy – a skills building project for building new learning disabled bands.
 * Currently their are four Bands that have been created by Shut Up And Listen – Beat Express, Zombie Crash, Fuzzbomb Band and Ghost-hearted. They write and perform their own work.
 * Outreach in schools – led by Carousel bands to promote music making amongst children attending special schools.

The Blue Camel Club
The Blue Camel Club is an event based in Brighton and Hove that showcases live performance by people with learning disabilities, this includes bands, musicians, magicians, dancers and comedians. The club is run by the Blue Camel Club Steering Committee, they have been meeting once a month since January 2006 to plan and organize the Blue Camel Clubs, they are made up of people with learning disabilities. The event is for people with a learning disability and their friends, there are four Blue Camel Clubs a year and Carousel staff support the Blue Camel Club with help from volunteers. Carousel have worked in partnership with West Sussex Arts Partnership to develop other Blue Camel styled clubs across West Sussex including the Blue Wave, Blue Oasis, Blue Starfish and Blue Bird clubs in Bognor Regis, Horsham, Worthing and Crawley.

Other Projects

 * Partnered with Glyndebourne and South East Dance to deliver and tour a rock opera fusion event bringing together the different projects of work at Carosuel
 * Ten years of touring original dance theatre performances by High Spin across the UK
 * A three year collaboration with an organisation in Dieppe to make a joint film and dance piece. This project was funded by Interreg IIIa
 * Currently working with Glyndebourne to develop a Choir of learning disabled singers in a project called 'Gold Run' themed around the 2012 Olympic games.