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The Leading Edge Founder Members 2007Leading Edge is an exciting new national network. The aim of the network is to promote the work of learning disabled artists all over the world. For more information, click a link: The Founder Members are participating in a series of weekend seminars that will enhance and develop key leadership skills in areas: influencing people the Media and new media working with others how to sell your work and ideas The members also spent two weeks in Cumbria following an intensive leadership programme which included individual coaching sessions As part of the networking training, the members have been exploring social networking sites and also travelled to Ghent in Belgium for an international theatre networking meeting. The money to run Leading Edge comes from Arts Council England. They have an important national fund, the Cultural Leadership Programme, which gives money to leadership projects. You can find out more about the Cultural Leadership Programme by visiting their website http://www.culturalleadership.org.uk/default.aspa The first members of the Leading Edge network are: Jez Colborne from Nottingham Marsaili Farquhar (Scottish Arts Council Fellowship) from Edinburgh, Scotland Anna-Marie Heslop from Bradford Wayne Hooks from Newcastle Donna Lavin from Leeds Faisal Yusuf from London Jennifer Stuart (Canadian Fellowship - Calgary Scope Society) from Calgary, Canada The first meeting: The founder members all met for the first time in Bradford for the Orientation Weekend on 19 and 20 May. They weren’t sure what to expect… ‘I think it’s going to be informative, difficult in some places, but great fun.’ ‘I’m hoping I’ll learn about being a positive influence on people.’ ‘I’d like to show Tony Blair and Gordon Brown how badly the voluntary sector is coping!’ Over the weekend they explored what leadership meant by identifying some good leaders and looking at their skills. They looked at Disability Art and discussed how it is seen by others. They had their photos taken, created a video diary and got to know each other better. IETM meeting, Ghent 'We went to the meeting in Ghent to get contacts with other artists, to meet new people and to raise the profile of Mind the Gap and Leading Edge. It was very nice to meet people, although I was a bit worried about approaching people. I didn’t know what they’d think of me. I had to find things in common that we could talk about,otherwise our conversations might be very short!' Faisal Media awareness weekend The members worked extremely hard in January, creating media profiles for themselves and for Leading Edge. 'We want to find our feet, and our voices' Wayne The workshops were led by Maggie Graham from MENCAP, and a film crew arrived on the second day to make short films with the Leading Edge members. We'll have a link here soon so you can view clips of those films. All the members enjoyed the weekend a lot. They were particularly proud that they had a ready-made short film introducing themselves and their work to use in the future. For information about Leading Edge for 2008-2009 please telephone Rebecca on 01274 729575 or email rebecca@mind-the-gap.org.uk Want to read more? Download the full Leading Edge Newsletter here as a Word document.
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