We are delighted to announce our partnership with The Audience Agency (TAA) to research audiences in the outdoor arts sector as part of the Audience Focus programme, funded by ACE and devised and delivered by TAA.  The overall aim of our partnership is to change outdoor arts for the better, helping the sector reach new and bigger audiences and access new resources.

The years ahead will be challenging for the arts.  This programme will enable ISAN to support all in the sector, including artists, to meet this period of challenge. This programme will provide us all with real evidence to make the case in support of continued public and private investment in outdoor arts.

This is the start of a two year process of gathering evidence with our members through partnership with The Audience Agency.  In this way our members will be able to benefit from the sector wide results and reporting. ISAN helping to make the case for outdoor arts.

If you would like to be part of this initiative and are not currently a member join up by contacting us at info@isanuk.org 

This is the first annual ISAN membership and sector-wide evaluation we have conducted. We welcome your participation and commentary on what needs you have and what issues you face now working in the sector. Your feedback will also help us know better your actual needs and enable us to improve our services to you in delivering, supporting and developing outdoor arts. This will enable us to inform our work in moving forward.

We are seeking responses not only from ISAN members against our member services but also all those working in the outdoor arts not currently members, against our sector wide services and development role.

Please complete your questionnaire here: ISAN Membership & Sector Survey

If you wish to take part in our prize draw which will offer a free place at the ISAN Conference in 2013, please complete your contact details.

Only completed questionnaires will be valid. DEADLINE: by Monday 13th May 2013.
Thank you for your support.
Helen Cadwallader
Director, ISAN

The ISAN Access Toolkit by ISAN is one of 117 exceptional Cultural Olympiad projects in the South East to have been awarded the coveted London 2012 Inspire mark. In total there are 717 Cultural Olympiad projects across the UK. Access Toolkit will be part of an amazing Summer of Culture in the region which includes everything from midnight choirs in woods, giant puppets, carnival processions, street dance, exhibitions, films and even a sculptural exercise trail.

Seb Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games said: “The ISAN Access Toolkit is one of over two thousand seven hundred projects using the Inspire mark across the United Kingdom. I’d like to thank ISAN for all their support and hard work using the power of the Games to inspire change.”

Download the full press release here…

ISAN participated in the ACE 2012 Meet the Press event today Tuesday 15th May 2012 in London raising awareness of the cultural programme being produced across the UK through the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Through the London 2012 UK wide cultural programme, outdoor arts will bring people and public spaces together, creating opportunities for cultural tourism and enhancing economic return in city centres on public investment. Outdoor arts are increasingly recognised as an important and popular part of contemporary UK cultural life evidenced by the huge growth in both community and commercial festivals, with millions of people attending across the UK. By its very nature – accessible, free and exciting – outdoor arts reaches more and more people in England and the UK each year.

ISAN has led the way in supporting the outdoor arts sector, through its members, to prepare for and deliver the cultural programme across the UK and through the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. ISAN has produced the following good practice guidelines in the delivery of outdoor arts work:
• ISAN Environmental Sustainability Toolkit
• ISAN Access Toolkit (2012 Inspire Mark)

Download the full press release here…

It is designed to help the wider outdoor arts constituency to develop sustainable practice. It is intended to be used by both small and large organisations as a means to support and develop greener and more efficient working practices.
We commissioned Julie’s Bicycle to create the Sustainability Toolkit as a relevant, useable and sector specific guide, designed for outdoor arts. We achieved this through our on going support from Arts Council England. Julie’s Bicycle is the leading not-for-profit company working across the arts and creative industries, providing expertise in environmental sustainability to hundreds of organisations in the UK and internationally.

Keeping it green: Download, and pass the message of the Toolkit on…

Bill Gee the ISAN Chair is really pleased to announce that Helen Cadwallader has been appointed as the first full-time Director of ISAN and she will start in early January 2012. From 2007 to 2011, Helen was Executive Director of Brighton Photo Biennial, leading on the vision, strategic development, re-branding and re-positioning of the organization. From 2000 to 2006 she was Arts Council England national lead for the strategic development of photography and media, publishing and distribution, advising and developing its Photography and Media strategy, conducting research and managing a range of funds. Prior to this she was the first to manage and further develop the BAA Art Programme, a strategy to commission contemporary art in BAA airports including Heathrow, which operated from 1994 to 1999.

Helen said: “ISAN offers a unique platform to represent and promote the interests of outdoor arts including, companies, organisations and individual practitioners. I am looking forward to building on the significant success and achievements of the organisation, working with the ISAN board and membership network, to lead the organisation into the next exciting phase of its growth. I look forward to meeting and speaking with as many members as possible in my first few months in the role.”

The Mascleta at lunch time is by Ricardo Cabeller again and his mastery of pyrotechnic rhythm is greeted by a crowd who jump and wave their arms in the air as it builds in intensity. The noise is incredible as it bounces back at us off the buildings. Apparently there are people who don’t like Las Fallas and they book their holiday each year to coincide. Well, at least they don’t stick around and complain.

At the moment there is a super moon. It is the closest the moon has been to earth since 1992. Under this moon and in the buzz that is building up on the night that the Fallas burn I wonder round on my own in bliss. It is interesting that as a woman on my own I have not had one moment of feeling unsafe or even uncomfortable.

There was a night time fire procession. I was, being from a bonfire town, expecting lots of hand held fire torches. This, however, was a display with hand held fireworks. People in devil costumes jump and dance demonically under hand held Catherine wheels and small gerbs, graceful dancing women on 20 foot high moving stands are wheeled along, caterpillars filed with fire, all with brass and drums. It ends in yet another firework display at a big city arch.

I am drawn back to my favourite Fallas, I am trying to resist saying ‘huge Fallas’ but I can’t, however in Spanish the ‘ll’ is pronounced as ‘y’ and so it really doesn’t sound rude at all. As it is such a popular one, I pay a euro to go inside its barrier and get a closer look at the detail. At one end, just on the other side of the barrier there appears to be a group of Arabic courtiers looking like Mary Pickford in the Fall of Babylon. I look closer, they move slowly up the street, stepping side to side to the accompaniment of faux Arabic brass music, behind them are two camel riders doing tricks and then more Arabic harems and Lawrence of Arabia types, then horses, then a Cleopatra on a giant float. This parade is so exotic that I feel a moment of uncomfortableness with its lack of PCness in terms of racial stereotyping and cruelty to animals. But no one else here feels it, clearly, and I feel churlish for doing so. I force myself to be less English and to see it in its context and I am instantly mesmorised as if a child, the passion in the music and the choreography, the scale and ecstasy of the walkers as they finish just in front of me carries me to the point of feeling that this is the best procession I have ever seen ever!

I find the WTP boys at ‘their’ bar and after a few drinks and chat with the bar owner and his son we head back to the ‘best’ Fallas to watch it burn. We get a good position at the front. As I look up I can’t imagine how they will get it to burn in a way that will be remotely safe. Where we are, the pavement between the barrier and houses is all the space there is. We stand and watch for two hours, as crew from Ricardo Cabeller set, fuse and wire strings of bangers, fountains and gerbs. Whilst I am relieved at the general lack of liability focused Health and safety rules, and the sense that people are responsible and will work it out, I am disconcerted by some of the practice such as the scaffolders who jump with bravado up onto poles above our heads and remove flags and poles with jack hammers. The closeness of the fireworks is, whilst slightly alarming, very exciting. The pyrotechs climb inside the structure and punch at holes at various points to allow air flow. An hour and a half late, the burn begins with fireworks going off, sparks flying into the crowd, though no one gets hurt or panics.

When the Fallas starts to burn, the heat is immense and instinctively we all rush back, only there is no where to rush as the crowd is thick and up against the wall. I put my scarf over my head and am torn between desperately wanting to look at the spectacular of the burning structure and having to turn away from the heat. The blaze quietens and the neat little fire engine that had backed up before it started now runs hoses that hose down the trees around the burn. Spectacularly, the fire drops safely to huge cheers as each large piece falls.

When it is all done, I follow the WTP boys who climb through the barrier to chat with pyrotechs from Canada and we all have our photo taken with the Fallas queen and scavenge the remains of the bonfire for prizes. We find an Aztec chiefs eye and a toe of the reclining woman, I am offered a frieze of a lizard. I am nervous about us getting caught wondering around in the flaming debris, but the Bomberros, (firemen) are not in the least bit worried, not even about the children who are also scavenging the ashes for treasures.

We went back to the bar for a lock in and the WTP boys cooked up a plan to do a social drink moment next year for all the fireworkers and pyrotechs who come from all over the world to this festival.

Overall, I am deeply affected by this festival, the generosity of the city and its people. I feel that Valencia embraces culture in all its forms, with its intensely modern cultural palaces where people of all ages do want to be, the spectacular range of architecture, the flamenco, the bull fights, the tomato fling they have in the summer, and mostly for me, Las Fallas, as a community festival that has managed to remain integrally local whilst inviting thousands to take part.

I have never wanted an ‘I heart anything’ T shirt, but if saw an ‘I heart Valencia’ T shirt right now, I would buy it and wear it with pride, though it would have to be a vest as T shirts really don’t suit me.

Today was certainly the morning after the night before! I did manage to get myself out of bed to go and make the most of what the festival has to offer. The knowledge that there is a gap in activities around 7pm, when a late siesta is possible, helps in my endeavour!

Seeing the Fallas in the day time, the atmosphere of gentle pride around each one is tangible. Children and older people relax around them, families play table football outside; big tables are set up where the neighborhood share large meals. The Fallas is attended to all day. There is this large scale creation that is there in their square that represents their community and they want to be around it, to spend time with it and in its general vicinity.

After my early evening siesta I head out to the big firework display. Tonight it is by Ricardo Cabeller, a star in pyro world. The crowds are huge and excited. We have collectively waited for over an hour. All the street lights go out and it begins. I can see why he is a star. The rhythms and patterns that he builds up are sublime. It is visibly a choreography as silent low level, gentle and slow moving fireworks emphasise the impact of the huge bursts of coordinated colour that just keep coming at us. The generosity of this display is appreciated by an ecstatic audience.

Last day tomorrow then homeward bound.

At breakfast there are Princess Leah women wondering around who have had their elaborate hair done yet are still in their jeans and sweat shirts, shopping and eating and smoking. I think that the plaits over the ears are actually ear muffs, to protect against banger malaise. I find that ongoing exposure to bangers makes one slightly drunk.

In the hotel lobby, I have the good fortune to be stopped by a man form the tourist board. He wants to ask me some questions, so after telling him how much money I intend to spend and how I got here and expressing my adoration of a city council that are so supportive and generous towards a wild and potentially dangerous event, he kindly tells me the history of Las Fallas.

It started as a domestic affair in the nineteenth century. Each year at the beginning of spring, the Valencians could put everything they no longer wanted on the street and burn it. At some point someone decided to make something of it, the rubbish, and someone else got competitive and it grew to become what it is today. It stemmed from a domestic routine and a creative spark grew and gave flower to a set of traditions and an event of enormous creativity.

He also told me that each Fallas raises its own funds all year round and as such the richer areas tend to have the biggest and most elaborate Fallas. He said that he prefers some of the poorer Fallas where people have really had to use their imagination. The City pay for the big firework displays, the big mascletas and the infrastructure. There is a fantastic amount of continuous rubbish clearing, road cleaning, barriers in the right places and noticeably, at the big events, emergency services, nurses with crash helmets and police.

This morning there is a seemingly endless procession of Princess Leah’s, Queen Leah’s, little girl Leah’s and old lady Leah’s. Each area has its own group of nineteenth century men and women. The men and boys wear Spanish breeches, socks and canvas sandals with cloths around their heads and striped cummerbunds. A pipe or brass band attends, meaning that every block in the town practically has its own band! Some Fallas groups collect a prize flag from a podium as they pass by.

The lunch time Mascleta is just unbelievable! The loudest thing I have ever heard. The huge crowd gathers round a big cage in the main square. The cage is surrounded by kiosks and infrastructure vehicles so you can only see into it at various points. Inside, strings of giant firecrackers are strung form one side to the other, colourful washing lines of explosion! No one seems to be bothered about not being able to see and it is not until it goes off that I understand. This isn’t about looks, it is entirely about sound. Rhythms build, one set of bangers respond to another orchestrally. The smoke blocks the sun and the scene is at once diabolic and joyous. The noise builds to a crescendo, people jump with arms in the air, it is incredibly exciting! The ground shakes and so does my chest and ears. It occurs to me at this point that the firework display of the previous night had no music, no gentility, just pure visual bravado and rhythm.

Later, the same procession goes up to a big square in the old town, with every woman and girl carrying a bunch of white, red or pink flowers. In the square there is a vast wooden slatted structure the shape of the orthodox and ornate Virgin Mary. As they pass the women drop their flowers and men then throw them up, assembly line style to other men on the structure who place the flowers firmly in the slats. They are making, or colouring in with flowers, the virgin’s coat of white pink and red ornate patterns. The whole thing is covered with a canopy of sheets of canvas with holes in to stop it becoming a sail. This canopy is strung between two large churches. My first thought was that it was to protect from rain, however I am already burning in the sun here and realize that it is to keep the flowers in shade. Perhaps this could be a solution for an English festival when there is no shade for the audience.

In the evening I meet up with some fireworkers from Walk the Plank. As we wondered about, we came across a street of light. A huge Arabic looking set of arches as entice us into a tunnel of solid LED confection. The effect is dizzying. The overhead displays are all mounted on wooden poles that are freestanding on the road surface. The thought that in some countries, this fantastic creation would simply not be able to happen because the poles would have to be dug into the road saddens me, and yet here I am joyous in the fact that this is happening here. On a pavement a group of kids are making their own Mascleta. They have commandeered some crowd barriers and inside it they are making circular and strung arrangements of bangers, they are very serious, there is not an adult supervisor in sight and no one bats an eye at them, accept us, and they are slightly incredulous at our surrounding them and taking pictures. With their particular focus, the WTP boys have discovered the small firework shops that are everywhere.

Of course, this is where all those children get their fireworks. These shops are like sweet shops for pyro fans, selling everything from bombettas to rockets. Some of the fireworks are so inventive, a tank that fires along on three bangers as guns, little bees that fly up in the air cutely and my favourite, a spinning top that flares as it spins along the ground. Armed with carrier bags full of sweet pyro loot, we go to the river bed and I watch the plank lads become boys as they play, delighted, taping bangers together to see what happens. Occasionally three police bikes go by slowly, just to make sure that no one is being to courageous in their experiments. Some Spanish young folk run fast as they have just been letting off the ‘follow you’ gerby things that fly around out of control amongst the trees.

We then go to see the 1am big firework display which surpassed the one of the night before. Jubilant, we went to a bar that the WTP crew had adopted, where we were eventually invited for a lock in, which, if you consider that we probably got to the bar around 2am was at some point in the morning.

Two more days to go!

A lot has happened tonight!

Well, that is as it should be, I am at a festival after all.

Firstly, I am a Las Fallas virgin. All I know is that it is a wild Spanish fire festival. On the way here I had many good tips from my more experienced colleagues, such as:

-Take ear plugs, so that you can sleep at night.

-Look out for 3-4 yr olds with bangers.

-Watch out for hand held gerb type fireworks…don’t run away, they will follow you.

-Don’t wear synthetic clothing (I guess because of the ‘follow you’ fireworks and 3-4 yr olds with bangers).

-Go to the Mascletas at lunch time (I don’t know what a Mascleta is).

-Do a reccy on the big firework sites – plan a good and safe viewpoint and let the crowds disperse before you do…at 2am.

So, sounds like fun, though part of me wants to turn around and go home. What am I doing coming to a crazy firework festival in a strange country all on my own?  However, the idea of being at a festival with no meetings scheduled and no shows I HAVE to see is a huge draw.

All fear turns to anticipation as I exit the metro at Xativa and emerge into the buzzy air that is the air of a festival – full of excitement and different smells and sounds. It is dusk and the activity of banger and firecracker throwers is prevalent. Two very helpful young people show me the way to my hotel. I am fairly impressed with myself in that not only did I get the right metro station; my hotel IS right in the thick of it and I have new cowgirl boots! I am smiling with joy already.

I swing round the corner into Plaza Del Ayuntamiento, and am simply awe struck by the scale of the hugest tableaux (wood, foam and polystyrene model / scene) I have ever seen. Three to four stories high, a super hero like sportsman flies over a mass of sporting images, all made in immaculate 3D, smooth and pastel colored. I knew to expect this as I had looked on the internet, however the sheer scale and skill is phenomenal. We call these tableaux, the Valencians call them Fallas.

After dropping my bags, I decide to take a quick walk. Five hours later I am still getting to grips with the scale and intimacy of this huge event. Every block seems to have its own Fallas and light displays, and each corner beckons a new wonder to behold.

Each Fallas has a baby Fallas near to them, a kind of ‘mini me’ Fallas. I wonder if these are made by children. In fact many questions are arising that I endeavor to find answers to in the next few days. I was given a guide at the airport; however it simply says times and places, helpfully in a number of languages. There is no history or explanations.

My feet are telling me that my new cowgirl boots are breaking me in and not, as I had presumed, the other way round, so I decide to head back….but Gosh! What’s this? A 30ft reclining naked woman with the most seductive eyes and holding an apple lies in the road flanked by a five story also naked friend carrying a fruit basket with five flamingoes flying around her head…oh and an Aztec chief, a line of ape to man models, only these are ape through roman to modern day soldier…some blindfolded and suited cooperate marchers complete with Apple Macs (yes!) heading to oblivion. The best of the Fallas have an irreverence involving some form of erotic or lewd content along with satire and political comment. One had a conquistador with an amazed erection upon seeing a naked native South American woman.

All the while I have noticed the odd woman, real and life size, with the same Princess Leah hairdo. A giant plaited spiral at the back and two over the ears, all held together with ornate jewelry. It just so happens that this a hair do I aspire to and so am fascinated.

These women also wear ornate corseted hooped dresses along with various bits of lace and patterned cloth shoes. Having lived in two towns where occasional period dressing by the masses occurs (Tudor Tuesday in Totnes and bonfire night in Lewes) this seems completely natural.

Again, I’m heading back to the hotel and walk into a street full of groups of family and friends each round a paella dish cooking on a fire on sand in the road. Young and old are all together. This is the most beautiful thing I have seen so far.

At last, in the hotel lift, I meet a man who has come from the United States of America (I think he thinks I’m Spanish), he hasn’t slept for 30 hours, and of course, it turns out he and his 24hr party crew are in the very room opposite me…who would have thought!

I realise, once I get to a place to see the 1am firework display, that I forgot to do the recommended reccy. Oh well, I’ll just hang here with the crowd and see what happens.

What happens is an absolutely blinding firework display, only there is a traffic light post (with a lot of traffic lights on it) between me and the fireworks and by this point I can’t move for folk pushing against me on either side. Normally such proximity of other bodies would make me uncomfortable and slightly claustrophobic, however, the atmosphere is one of friendliness and shared anticipation, even the rowdy drunk young people are actually playing an innocent looking singing game, though I can’t understand the words and it could be filthy, they do seem to be laughing a lot.

A drum band catches my ears on the way back, probably about a block away. As I get near, the band are not playing samba, it’s a fiercer rhythm, full of energy. In the street the band are surrounded by people dancing as they walk. Some cars come the other way, and I realize that they don’t actually do road closures for these back streets, it is just presumed that anyone driving would be insane and is expected to be totally jolly about the fact that they can’t get anywhere. There is a stand off, with the band playing at the cars and the car drivers beep their horns in response and laugh…..eventually the band part a passage for the cars to pass through, when they start to play again it is electric and the crowd go crazy.

There are actually very young children everywhere with fireworks, it’s true! They are actively encouraged by adults and some gather round one adult who holds a lighter, another crouches down to tentatively light a fuse while granddad goads him to do it… when the child does and the little set of bangers has cracked and jumped he dances with joy.

Time for sleep.