What do you do if you’re a newish dance artist or theatre company in the North East keen to be reviewed? It’s hard to get your name in the local magazines and papers and online. That’s why you need to get in touch with The North East Artist Development Network. They will send a reviewer to write about your latest work and publish the review online.
NEADN is led by a small group of organisations committed to support artists to develop their work. It grew out of the NewcastleGateshead Cultural Venues Creative Programmers group coming together with the North East Venues group to form an independent network.
The Network’s vision is to make the North East the best place in the UK for artists to develop work, by creating a strong and effective artist development infrastructure that not only retains talent in the region, but also attracts talent to the region.
The Network secured funding which is allowing a select band of reviewers (I’m one of them) the chance to get out and about across the region to review work and get paid for our time. This is crucial. I began my working life at Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle. I attended tons of gigs and got paid for writing about bands. Brilliant! After university I was employed by magazines and newspapers to interview bands as well as review recorded material and gigs.
The internet’s changed arts criticism for bad and good. Yes anyone can tweet and blog about films and concerts but there is a place for constructive criticism by reviewers. And they should be paid for their efforts.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reviewing for NEADN and look forward to more opportunities in the coming months.
For more information about NEADN http://northeastreviews.com/ and you can read my recent review of FRESH North East at The Late Shows.