We are very proud to announce we have secured funding through Youth Music‘s Incubator programme for a second time. This will enable us to employ three new staff members – take a look at the first two job roles here.
Our first Incubator programme ran from September 2021 until June 2022 and it was such a success we extended the three staff members contracts by three further months to allow them to create the new Wakefield Live festival.
The project was praised for the level of control and responsibility it gave to young people, allowing them to make meaningful decisions and integrate into a cultural community over an extended period of time.
We’re delighted that we can now repeat this project, taking what we have learnt to make it even better. Two of the roles (Live Events Assistant and Creative Community Assistant) will be continued from the first project, with a new one – Music Education Assistant – being added.
With offer our deep thanks to Youth Music for the funding of £30,000 to support three more young people in taking early steps in their creative careers and massively increasing our own abilities to try and achieve Long Division’s own aims and goals.
Here are some comments from the first Incubator programme staff.
Since joining LD I’ve had the opportunity to explore parts of the industry that I never had before – like learning the logistics involved in planning a multi-venue festival. My confidence has also grown due to these new skills and it’s led me to doing things I never thought I’d have been able to do when I started. Since working with LD I’ve managed to get a full-time job, which I don’t feel would have been possible without the experiences I had with LD.
Within my time at Long Division, I have been able to massively develop my skills and knowledge of working within music and community-focused work. This role has enabled me to learn all the nitty-gritty ‘behind the scenes’ aspects to what I previously had surface level knowledge of. It has been particularly helpful having Amy Lilley, Paul Bateson and Dean Freeman as experienced colleagues and mentors. It has been great within this role to have been able to be given the responsibility to lead on a project but have the support of someone saying ‘good but – have you considered this? What about if that happens?’. I have enjoyed making new connections with other creative groups and individuals in Wakefield, feeling like I will be able to go forward with other future collaborations. Where I have worked as a support or assistant in the last nine months, I now feel I have gained the skills and experience to be able to now lead on similar projects.
During my time at Long Division, alongside learning about the logistical efforts of putting on a festival, I’ve also learnt about the difficulties of working in a city like Wakefield. With a city that has a disconnected music scene to residents, you have to be resilient, open minded and be able to offer new solutions to situations that aren’t necessarily improving, e.g. getting people to buy tickets and come to shows!