DESPITE lockdowns, Richard Evans, the Creative Industries Officer at Creative Industries, Trafford (CIT) has overseen several successful events.

A former freelancer with Redeye, the photography network and the much missed Design Initiative, he joined CIT in 2006, for a while doing all three jobs together.

The organisation, which has a staff of four, exists to support artists’ careers and develop their creative skills. It plays a key role in the culture of Greater Manchester and beyond.

Richard said:  “CIT is the artist development strand for Waterside Arts who hosted our latest successes the Northern Lights Writers Conference and Puppet Masters Animation Conference.”

The first, a digital version of their annual writers’ conference, delighted their audience.

“One of the positives was that we were able to feature international guests who were no longer required to fly.

“We were delighted with our key note speakers.”

He said that the conference was a mixture of an author interview with Heather Morris, who wrote The Tattooist of Auschwitz, creative workshops and a writers’ panel. 

It had also enabled individual writers to get advice. Another success was the on line Puppet Masters Animation event.

Richard said: “We were able to feature two prominent international guests from the animation world. 

They were Phil Tippett, the stop motion artist for RoboCop, Star Wars and Jurassic Park and Georgina Hayns, the animation supervisor on Kubo and the Two Strings and ParaNorman.

“There was also a workshop from Francesca Berlingieri Maxwell.  She is a UK production designer who has worked with Tim Burton, Wes Anderson and Aardman Animation.”

Thanks to awards from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation their team of Puppet Wranglers were still devising ways to bring the Cosgrove Hall Films Archive project to audiences again.

COVID safe rehearsal space for has been provided for some theatre makers.

“I love working with artists and my team,” said Richard.

CIT are funded by Arts Council England, Trafford Council and the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

The Writers Conference can be re-visited free at Divergehub.org.

For information about Cosgrove Hall Films Archive, see cosgrovehallfilmsarchive.co.uk.

See also creativeindustriestraffod.net.