Much Ado out of nothing (Portsmouth, Shakespeare)

Project aim

We need a prize for a logo competition to get our Shakespeare festival off the ground, and have accepted the challenge of starting with £0!!

About the project

Much Ado About Portsmouth Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MAAPfestival/

MAAP website: This is being created over the summer of 2015 by MSc Digital Media students at the University of Portsmouth.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MuchAdoPompey 

Project leads:

Dr Rosie Paice, University of Portsmouth English Literature (@Rosie_Paice)

Ms Lynda Povey, UoP Public Administration

Ms Sue Roberts, UoP Enterprise

Project:

This is a fundraiser for a logo competition and it forms part of our larger Much Ado About Portsmouth festival project. If you want to help create opportunities for young people, creative people, resourceful people, this is for you.

The background is that a group of keen entrepreneurial minds decided that the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death (23rd April 2016) deserved a festival. We knew we could count on local expertise -- from individuals, schools and the university. We also knew that any large funding bid that would cover everything people we met over the next year might want to contribute would not allow us the flexibility to help enable all the possible things people could come up with. And so we took on a challenge: to create a festival out of 'nothing' -- or, as we like to think of it, the resources, resourcefulness and expertise of local organisations, groups, businesses and university.

And so, Much Ado About Portsmouth (the name chosen by and voted for by University of Portsmouth students) was born. MAAP functions as an umbrella organization rather than as a funding body, and its mission is to foster communities: we are committed to getting university, local groups, schools and colleges, and businesses working collaboratively towards producing festival materials and events, where possible with a community legacy.

The catch? We have no start-up funds! 

What we do have are enthusiasm, expertise and fantastic projects already in the pipeline. -- I'm particularly excited by the work we're planning with the University of Portsmouth Environmental Network (UPEN) and Wymering Manor, both of which relate to a 'Tudors at Risk' theme and can be showcased as part of the festival as well as provide legacy. Our UoP students, I have to say, are more excited about the planned fashion show and masquerade ball! Yes, if you questioned the Portsmouth-Shakespeare connection, believe us, you'd be amazed at the enthusiasm for Shakespeare and related things Tudor in Portsmouth. Shakespeare may not have visited the city, but he'd have known about it. Did you know that the first scale map of any British town or city is of Portsmouth (1545)? It was a pretty important place for the Tudors and we'd like to put it on the map in a big way again next year. 

Given that so many are dedicating their time, expertise and willingness to make this big and special, we hope that you'll see that what we're asking for is just enough to get the word out there to local students and enable possibilities and opportunities to grow across our local region. 

We have MSc students lined up to create our website and app over the summer, but to get to that stage we need a logo. Our community-fostering brief has led us to the decision that the logo should be decided by a competition for all full- and part-time students of 16+ years in Portsmouth: this is not a well-off area, and there are talented students here who could really do with the recognition and confidence-boosting that this kind of venture can provide.

For every other part of the project, we can see the potential for sponsorship, but, for the logo competition, we're stumped: schools, universities and the city council all look outside themselves for sponsorships, and local design companies already look to outside sources to fund projects.

That's where you could come in and help us provide an opportunity for a talented, but currently unknown, designer in Portsmouth -- and, as a result, opportunities for all the other people involved in the MAAP festival now and in the future: this one competition is our route into everything else that we have planned, and all the other possible plans to come.

Please note: In order to cover crowdfunder fees, we are asking for £220 (the rest of the fees and VAT being covered by my donation) but the prize will be £200. All funds gained through this crowdfunder call that exceed our target will be donated to the National Literacy Trust (http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/)