Openmind

OpenMind help performers bridge genre boundaries and achieve creative collaborations by forging a diverse artistic community.

OpenMind is the name of the event /performing arts /promotion /production company run by Ushiku Crisafulli.

OpenMind help performers bridge genre boundaries and achieve creative collaborations by forging a diverse artistic community.

The premise OpenMind is an OpenMind for creative possibilities, and an OpenSpace to share them.

OpenMind project goals:

Live Events:

At each event we have a performance artist(s) /poet(s) /band /musician(s) /comedian(s) /theatre practitioner(s) /dancer(s) etc sharing a new work with an informal Q + A online beforehand making familiarising them with our audience. What was initially a theatre specific event has been transformed by the community it serves into a united artistic community.

As well as the main OpenMind artist slot we derive our name from, we also book roughly 3 or 4 artists each month in 15 - 30 minute guest performance slots in the second half, often styles outside of traditional theatre. For instance poets, bands, comedians, musicians, MCs, and dancers have and shall continue to work with us.

We are also known for our OpenSpace, a one hour Open Mic with a difference - some pieces don't even need a mic. If you're a dancer you dance, if you're a contortionist you contort. . . basically whatever your performance skill or talent is, if you want to share it you're given 5 minutes to do so. Many of our guest and headline acts wowed us with their skill at the OpenSpace before going on to perform in longer guest and headline slots, and our supportive circle of artists often appear on the OpenSpace even when they're not listed on the bill as part of our wider performance community within Manchester.

If you're a performer, writer, theatre practitioner, band, dancer, musician, singer, comedian, ventriloquist, breakdancer, beatboxer, MC, rapper, poet, circus performer or anything anywhere in between we're happy to give you a platform to perform.

Workshops:

OpenMind provide workshops in a variety of performance arts and creative writing disciplines, including our monthly writing workshop format 3Write. 3Write is a workshop in which each month the workshop participants are given 3 themes along with 3 genres of writing, and must produce a piece for each theme and for each genre - pairing whichever genre to whichever theme they choose.

We have also specialised in Autism Awareness training and teaching creative writing for schools, and can work with a versatile client base.

Grim Ushiku Media:

Grim Ushiku Media (GUM) is our plan to create a huge multimedia platform for artists, musicians, actors, and project participants through the providing of free to use high quality video footage to enrich their portfolios, regular video and audio podcasts of OpenMind's plans and developments including announcements and video recorded project meetings, digital radio, promotional videos, audio and video recordings of new work, live audio and video streaming of events, album releases, high quality HD video streaming and digital downloads of events, competitions, and exclusive online content. This will enrich artists, musicians, actors, and project participants in the local Manchester area whilst also providing a global reach for our work and theirs via the internet.

Community Outreach:

OpenMind are trained and experienced in working in creative community partnerships with children, those with disabilities, homelessness services, LGBT organisations and their wider communities locally and nationwide. They are also Think Big Champions, and encourage others to set up creative community and social innovation projects in across the UK.

f you are aged 13 – 25 and have an idea that can improve your local community and beyond then please visit www. o2thinkbig. co. uk and Be Inspired to do well by doing good.