Proudly announcing The Glitter Project – Part 2: ‘A Safe Place’, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
‘A Safe Place’ is a continuation of The Glitter Project, our upcoming mentoring initiative at the Edinburgh Fringe, which will build on our existing virtual and community event programme. We will provide opportunities for participants to gain self-confidence and increase their creativity via writing, performing and producing their own work, based on tried and tested comedy techniques honed from running the Funny Women Awards, workshops and courses.
Getting the ACE funding comes at the perfect time and we will follow up our Glitter Project mentoring programme at the Fringe with monthly workshops and ‘open mic’ showcases in Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton, Bath, Medway and London by providing a physical ‘Safe Place’ as a regular point of contact.
Under the direction of six regional producers, we will offer a range of creative strategies to women and non-binary participants to increase their confidence and embrace new skills for performance, professional and personal development, and community leadership. The funding ensures that this will be accessible to those on low incomes and attract non-arts-based audiences to support wellbeing and provide an introduction to creative careers.
Speaking about the impetus for The Glitter Project and A Safe Place, Funny Women founder Lynne Parker says: “Funny Women has provided a safe and inclusive environment for women to perform, write and create comedy for 22 years and we are currently experiencing our biggest ever demand for places where we can work together safely in person regardless of gender, age, ethnicity and ability.
“Despite our campaigning, women are still underrepresented in the historically male dominated creative industries and there has been an increase in women voicing their experiences of sexism and sexual misconduct across the arts, as the #MeToo movement has demonstrated. There is still a need for safe places for all of us at different life stages. Comedy is a fantastic way of bringing us together.”
Much of the ongoing Glitter Project beyond Edinburgh will be modelled on existing output. We have piloted activity regionally in Medway, Brighton and London (see above picture of Funny Women Live at the Groucho Club in London) and the programme responds to a demand for more in-person creative engagement via a programme of workshops, open mics, mentoring schemes and networking.
We will be announcing more details about the new regional hubs and events programme over the next few weeks and expect to be active from October 2024 onwards. In the meantime, details of all our Glitter Project events at the Edinburgh Fringe can be found here.