New Appointments for 'The Full English' project announced
31-10-2012
New staff appointments for The Full English project
Several key appointments have been made for an ambitious programme that will see the creation of the world’s biggest online portal of English folk music and dance alongside a nationwide learning and participation programme.
The Full English project will bring together the collections of Harry Albino, Lucy Broadwood, Clive Carey, Percy Grainger, Maud Karpeles, Frank Kidson, Thomas Fairman Ordish, Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Alfred Williams for the first time, to create the most comprehensive searchable database of British folk songs, tunes, dances and customs in the world.
Louise Bruton and Rowan Musser have been appointed as Cataloguers. They will be responsible for archiving, conserving and digitising materials from six archives containing some of the country’s most important folk music collections. This material will be available free to the public through a new web portal to be launched in 2013.
Frances Watt has been appointed as The Full English Learning Manager. She will head up the ambitious community and schools learning programme, working with partners across the country.
Frances has a background in arts development and management. Most recently she has worked with the national Sing Up programme based The Sage Gateshead, as Head of Sing Up Training, Networks and Partnerships, and before that as Programme Manager (Sing Up Vocal Force). She has also worked in local authority partnership projects, and festival and event management. She is involved in the folk arts as a musician and performer.
The learning programme will increase awareness and knowledge of folk in education by training music educators and teachers, provide educational resources regional learning events, and creative projects in primary and secondary schools and the wider community.
It will also partner significant cultural organisations to deliver community projects comprising of participatory events and concerts, archive and history projects.
The cultural partnership organisations covering nine English regions are: Cecil Sharp House, London, where EFDSS is based; Sound Connections and The British Library in London; SoundLINCS and Lincoln Drill Hall in Lincolnshire; Cambridge City Council/Cambridge Folk Festival and Cambridgeshire Music; Folkworks/The Sage Gateshead; The Met in Bury; The Stables in Milton Keynes; Colston Hall/Bristol Music Trust in Bristol; mac (the Midlands Arts Centre) in Birmingham and Opera North in Leeds.
EFDSS will be digitising its collections held within the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) at Cecil Sharp House, and significant folk collections from the archives of project partners: The British Library in London, Clare College in Cambridge, The Mitchell Library in Glasgow, The Folklore Society Library and Archive at University College London, and the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.
Frances said: “The Full English is a very exciting project with the potential to bring folk music and dance to a whole new audience. It will continue to spread the traditions of folk to a new generation.
“I am very excited to be part of this and look forward to working with our partners to deliver a interesting and stimulating programme of learning events.”
Louise has worked in the heritage sector in both the South West and North West of England since completing undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in English Literature. She has worked in museums, visitor centres, libraries and archives in a variety of public-facing and administrative roles. She has previously catalogued the papers of playwright Willy Russell, undertaken a traineeship in Archives and Records Management at Unilever Archives and worked for University of Bristol as both a Library and Archives Assistant.
Rowan Musser has recently completed an MA in Archives and Records Management at UCL, She has worked as a Documentation Assistant at Marylebone Cricket Club and with the Cornish Audio Visual Archive as an Oral History Project Co-ordinator for a multimedia project ‘Family, Farming and Tradition’. Rowan has also developed her knowledge in a wide range of archival institutions including The National Archives, the Rambert Dance Company Archives and the National Theatre Archive.
The Full English project is being funded by a £585,400 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is being supported by the National Folk Music Fund.
Read more about the project
