Photograph courtesy of Smoggynorm Photography.
The latest on this project is as follows…After many months of waiting the SSI Task force committee are to consider the request for grant funding to progress our project this Friday. I shall attend the meeting to give information and answer queries. They will have our business plan and some supporting notes which are being written tomorrow.
Let us hope for a positive outcome and patience rewarded. Its all a bit like supporting the Boro- Keep the Faith !
All the best… Geoff Taylor Acting Secretary Tees Steel-Bridging the world
Update 2021:
Unbeknown to me, Redcar Arts had lined up a year – long exhibition called Steel Stories at the Kirkleatham Museum, telling the history of the industry and the people that worked there. The exhibition was a couple of months in before I had heard about it, from a friend. You would have though, as a local playwright, who had written a play about the 1980 Steel Strike may have been an interesting person to get involved. No such luck, despite meeting after meeting and getting a lot of interest from the community and artists, suffice to say the the proposed week – long festival Steel Stories: The Festival, hit a massive brick wall and a lot of time and energy was wasted.
The key observation I would make, is that there wasn’t one sentence about the Steel Strike 1980, a massive event in the communities history and 2020, was the fortieth anniversary of the strike!! I know what you are thinking… the Covid pandemic would have done for us all anyway.
Here’s an idea of what the festival was all about…
The Steel Stories Festival Draft programming – Feb 15th to Feb 25th
| Day/Date | Morning Workshops at 10.30am | Afternoon Talks at 2.00pm | Evening Concerts/ Performances at 7.30pm |
| Sat Feb 15th | Opening ceremony: Remembering the Strike. With guests. | T.B.C. | |
| Sun Feb 16th | Family Fun and Drama Games | Guest event? | Harry Simpson Music Night with local bands |
| Mon Feb 17th | Guest workshop? | Arts success stories: Saabat Gallery. Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum. Earthbeat. | An Evening of Guitar with The Paul Donnelly Trio. Flamenco Confusion |
| Tues Feb 18th | My name is Tom: a drama workshop on E-safety for 14- 17 yrolds | Guest event? | Remembering the… British Steel Teesside Band. In Concert. |
| Wed Feb 19th | Guest workshop? | Talking Teesside with Phil Philo, Ian Stubbs, Joan Heggie and Tosh Warwick | Folklines: Poetry and Song. With Sara Dennis andGuests |
| Thurs Feb 20th | Introduction to playwriting: Over 18’s | Guest event | Nowt Like This in America. by Alan Spence. |
| Friday Feb 21st | Guest workshop? | Pete McCarthy and The Art of Steel. | Nowt Like This in America. by Alan Spence. |
| Sat Feb 22nd | “Parmo’s are not the only fruit” – a fun role-playing drama session for 9-11yr olds. | Guest event? | T.B.C. |
| Sun Feb 23rd | Your Steel Stories. | Closing ceremony… Redcar’s Got Talent Winners and guests? |