Herts Year of Culture 2020 Update

Living Magazines HYOC logo colour

Herts Year of Culture has been continuing online, with many organisations/artists adapting to offer some great activities, along with acquiring new digital skills. They have continued to promote local/Dacorum activities on their DBC HYOC2020 webpage, so please let Annie Smith, Community Partnerships and Wellbeing Officer (Projects) know if you have something you would like her to feature on the webpage and Active Dacorum social media pages. You can also upload your activities to Creative Hertfordshire’s What’s Online section, which is listing countywide activities.

Big Ideas!

This month’s theme is ‘Big Ideas’ and this flagship event for June, hosted by the University of Hertfordshire, has been adapted to become an online festival. The ‘Festival of Ideas ReImagined’  includes online/virtual stages and will be hosting discussions, thought pieces and exhibitions with a specific focus on how the arts helps us in periods of crisis and thoughts on what our world may look like post-pandemic. To view the line-up, which includes names such as  Helen Lederer, Mike Newell and Marie Le Conte, visit www.herts.ac.uk/about-us/ideas. You can also follow their Facebook and Twitter pages for news and updates. The festival launches on Sunday 28 June at 10am and the events are free.

HYOC2020 Activities Pack

A ‘Herts Year of Culture Activities Pack’ is being created to benefit isolated, lonely and vulnerable people and support wellbeing. HYOC2020 and Creative Hertfordshire are collecting creative and cultural activities from organisations and artists across the county, encouraging residents of any ages to be creative and cultural. These will be short written/illustrated activities (not online activities), involving materials people may already have around them/at home, encouraging people to try something new or take up an activity they have not done for some time. We are looking to include arts, culture and heritage activities that people can complete on their own or with others. We would very much appreciate any support with creating the pack and activities, which should be reasonably short time-wise and easy to complete at home. Please see the attached form for details and to submit an activity. Contributors will be fully acknowledged in the pack, which will be downloadable from the Creative Hertfordshire website.

Fun Palace 2020- celebrating culture and communities

There are plans to hold another Fun Palace event this year as part of HYOC2020, in partnership with Hemel Hempstead Library, on Saturday 3 October from 11am-3pm. It’s not certain at this time what form it will take but I wanted to get in touch to find out if you would like to be involved and to ‘save the date’. If we are unable to hold a physical Fun Palace in the venue (Library and Forum café area), as this will subject to Government measures/guidelines, then we will be looking at how else we may be able to deliver it –  such as offering an online Fun Palace programme of activities with links to live workshops and sessions that people can join in with at home. Please see attached flyer for details and if you would like to be involved, please get in touch. For more about the national Fun Palaces campaign for culture visit www.funpalaces.co.uk.

Funding

Whilst many HYOC2020 events have been cancelled/postponed, we are starting to tentatively look at whether delivery of some events may be possible later in the summer and the autumn, subject to Government guidelines and measures. The HYOC2020 districts group is also considering how we can continue to celebrate year of culture into 2021, as many of the events are likely to be rescheduled next year. I shall keep you informed over the coming months and send all good wishes in these challenging times.

Annie Smith
Community Partnerships and Wellbeing Officer (Projects)
annie.smith@dacorum.gov.uk
Tel: 01442 228390