QueenSpark was delighted to receive Heritage Lottery Funding to create the Brighton & Hove Photographic Collection, an online repository of historic and contemporary images of the city. We are currently planning a series of collection days across the city. These will be led by volunteers, and over the next six months there will be many opportunities for local people to submit their photos to the collection (although we will be scanning and digitally storing the photos, rather than keeping the physical image). The website will be launched in Spring 2011, and a selection of images will be published in a book in the summer.

PUBLIC PHOTO COLLECTION EVENTS:
Saturday 9th October Jubilee Library, 2pm - 5pm
Saturday 23rd October Saltdean Library, 2pm – 5pm
Saturday 6th November Patcham Library, 2pm - 5pm
Saturday 13th November Fabrica Art Gallery, 12 - 4pm
Saturday 20th November Hove Library, 2pm - 5pm

We are interested in your photographs on the following themes:
Sport (inc. Falmer Stadium, skateboard ramps, lawn bowls, open swimming club, naked bike ride etc)
'Where you live' (estates, houses, doors, squats...)
Shops and shopping (inc. all the markets...)
Pubs and clubs (interiors, exteriors, signs...)
Weddings and civil partnerships (old large family shots, ceremonies...)
Youth culture (teddy boys, mods, graffiti culture...)

Over the last few months, QueenSpark volunteers have been interviewing a series of fascinating people who use the Pavilion Gardens Café - from somebody who lived in the Royal Pavilion itself as a child in the 1950s, to somebody who has raised tens of thousands of children over many decades, to the owner himself, whose family have run the establishment for 60 years. The interviews will go to make up a new book - funded by Awards 4 All - to be published in Spring 2010.

QueenSpark is more than halfway through its Arts Council funded Write to Publish project. This offers training, guidance and support in how books and web publications are made from inception to finished product, including commission and research, writing, editing and design, sales and distribution.

The project is structured so that participants - Write to Publish course 'graduates' and volunteers - can get involved in:
a) working on future QueenSpark publications (the first of which produced Back Row Brighton, the next of which focuses on theatre-going in Brighton & Hove)
b) get help in publishing their own material, or help others to do the same
c) organising and staging of small-scale events that will celebrate their involvement in the project and give them first hand experience of literary event management.

If you would like further information, contact John Riches on 01273 571710 or send your e-mail details to John for inclusion on the QueenSpark e-mail list for regular updates on programme activities.

On The Deckchair, our literary website for Brighton and Hove, you can look up books about Brighton, novels set in Brighton, books by Brighton authors and much more. You can also make your own contribution on the website or get more involved by contacting Sarah Hutchings.

Depending on the projects we are engaged in at any given time, QueenSpark offers volunteer and training opportunities in many areas of our work. We are also committed to sharing the processes that inform what we do with others engaged in community publishing and history work. To find out about other volunteer activities, contact John Riches.