A year in the life of folly

In 2009/10 folly successfully delivered another year of ground-breaking digital arts programming. folly presented work in towns, cities and rural areas across England's Northwest as well as providing innovative online content. The programme reached over 185,000 members of the public and the response was overwhelmingly positive with 86% stating they would recommend future folly events to their friends.
 
2009/10 allowed us to reach new audiences with diverse and experimental work:
 
- Love Culture, one of our newest online projects, has developed a keen following. Users have been steadily rising with current trends suggesting a growth of 20% per month. Join today to see what the fuss is about.
 
- Radar was another successful addition to the programme. Radar is an artist residency scheme based in public libraries across Lancashire which aims to explore the implications of digital evolution on the role of libraries.
 
-In 2010 Radar's first resident artist Jennie Savage created 'A Walk from A-Z'; an audio walk specifically for Lancaster Library. 2010 will see two more artists in residence in public libraries across the county.
 
-In Spring 2010 folly lead on programming the AND festival in Cumbria and Lancashire. So far in 2010 AND has engaged over 60,000 audience members in Cumbria, Lancashire and online. The programme included 8 new commissions, 2 residencies, 9 film screenings, 13 exhibitions, 18 live events, 1 community project and 2 online projects from over 100 leading and emerging international artists and film-makers across 21 venues and public spaces.

Abandon Normal Devices (AND) is a regional festival, taking place across the Northwest and is a catalyst for production and experimentation at the intersection of Digital Culture and New Cinema. AND invites us to consider what are our normal devices? Why and how might we abandon them? AND is driven by a unique collaborative partnership between three of the UK’s leading organisations in the exploration of art and digital culture; Cornerhouse in Manchester, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in Liverpool and folly in Lancaster. The festival forms part of WE PLAY, the Northwest cultural legacy programme for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
 
AND next stop is Manchester from 1 - 7 October 2010, keep checking the AND website for the October 2010 programme.
 
- Portable Pixel Playground, a digital play-space designed by artists, also had a fantastic year. The public interest in the project exceeded our expectations and the feedback we received revealed both adults and children alike found the experience to be exciting and engaging. We celebrated our success by extending the Portable Pixel Playground tour, which included taking it to the Leicester Sparks Children’s Festival as well as touring across five towns in Pennine Lancashire as part of the empty shop scheme LET (Liberating Empty Terrain).
 
- This year also marked the start of Predict; a new programme for developing the next generation of arts leaders. Predict supports young people to excel within a future job market and to imagine new horizons within the arts. Predict was launched with the appointment of Future Jobs Fund training positions as well as volunteering, internship and work placement opportunities.
 
2009/10 has been a great year for folly. The work we have achieved has had real impact and has provided a strong foundation for future research, commissions and events. 2010/11 is looking to be just as exciting so keep checking our website to get the latest updates on all our events and projects.