East Midlands Arts in Rural Areas Network

Welcome to the EMARAN online home

East Midlands Arts in Rural Areas Network (EMARAN) is a regional voluntary network established in autumn 2006 with the aim of supporting arts in rural areas and rural regeneration through the arts.

Our mission is to create opportunities for artists, creative practitioners, creative industries and cultural organisations in the rural East Midlands to meet, build relationships, and share experience and knowledge. We also act as an advocate for rural culture. This work embraces the voluntary, community and statutory sectors. We also aim to make connections and create partnership working with other sectors of relevance to rural culture such as rural regeneration, tourism and economic development.

The way we achieve this is by holding two regional events each year, in rural (including market towns) cultural venues across the East Midlands region. Events so far have taken place in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire; Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire are forthcoming. Our spring event tends to focus on individual artists as well as those who work with, commission or employ them; and our more formal autumn conference is aimed at the broader arts and cultural sector.

EMARAN also recently launched its first artist’s commission, at the EMARAN spring event which took place at Harborough Theatre on 14 May 2008. Artist and NESTA Fellow Jo Fairfax will be producing a piece of artwork reflecting the ethos of EMARAN and some of the themes of the Spring Event. The final artwork will be featured on this website, so watch this space!

EMARAN has, for the last year, been a sub-group of the East Midlands Rural Affairs Forum (EMRAF), charged with developing the Active Communities aims of the Rural Action Plan 2007–2013. One of its purposes as a sub-group of EMRAF is to feed back to EMRAF on news from the constituency – issues affecting arts, artists and arts organisations in rural areas – and input into rural policy making.

The EMARAN website is also a useful source of information on issues affecting arts in rural areas, so do please explore the site.

If you would like to join EMARAN as a member, and receive updates on our forthcoming events, please do so by following the instructions below. We are broadening our membership all the time, and very much welcome new members from all sectors with an interest in arts and culture in rural areas. The larger our membership list, the stronger we are as an organisation, and the better we can fulfil our mission.

I hope that you find our page informative and useful.

Sue Stewart, Chair of EMARAN, May 2008

EMARAN Steering group 2007 – 2008

To avoid junk or spam emails reaching these addresses, we have disguised them. Please re-type the email addresses and replace the [AT] with @. Thank you

• Chair of EMARAN, Sue Stewart, Director, Write2B Ltd., sue.stewart[AT]write2b.co.uk
• artsNK (EMARAN administration), Jo Turpin, Business Management Administrator, Jo.turpin[AT]leisureconnection.co.uk
• Elaine Knight, Performing Arts Manager, Elaine.knight[AT]leisureconnection.co.uk
• Nick Jones, Visual Arts Manager, nick.jones[AT]leisureconnection.co.uk
• Chris Kirkwood/ Daniel Buckroyd, New Perspectives Theatre Company, ChrisKirkwood[AT]newperspectives.co.uk
• Sue Beresford, Strategic Officer for rural communities, Nottinghamshire County Council Cultural Services, sue.beresford[AT]nottscc.gov.uk
• Nikki-Kate Heyes, CEO, SoundLINCS, nikki-kate[AT]soundlincs.org
• Simon Steptoe, CEO, Firebird Trust, director[AT]firebirdtrust.com
• Wendy Honeyman-Smith, Co-ordinator, Greater Nottingham Action on Tourism, Rural Community Action Nottinghamshire, WHoneymanSmith[AT]rcan.org.uk
• Becky Stickland, Regional Development Officer, Making Music, Becky[AT]makingmusic.org.uk
• Nicki Gardner, Senior Arts Officer, East Lindsey District Council, nicki.gardner[AT]e-lindsey.gov.uk
• Zoe Bremmer, Public Relations Officer, British Association of American Square Dance Clubs, RPMsquaredancing[AT]aol.com

Become a member of EMARAN

You can sign up to become part of the EMARAN network by using the contacts page on this website and stating in your message that you would like to join. We will then contact you and find out your details.

Members of the network will receive emails from artsNK with news on the development of the network as well as other interesting and useful information on EMARAN events and initiatives.

Members will also be listed below (with their approval). This will help to provide a useful list of individuals and organisations active within rural culture in the East Midlands.

You can leave messages and make contact with other members of the network on our new message board.

Thank you

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