I am a writer, writing workshop facilitator, producer and arts manager.
I have been involved in developing and managing creative projects over many years, either independently or in partnership with artists and organisations.
New Projects
I’m interested in developing new projects which:
- encourage people with little or no experience of creative work
- use life stories as stimulus for creative work
- create products such as:books, art work, exhibitions
- take place in specific sites or locations
- work in partnership with other artists
Writing – Publications include:
Poetry, Short stories:
- Writing Women; Slow Dancer; Commended in Second Light competition;
- Commended by Jo Shapcott – New Forest Poetry Society Anthology;
- Odyssey; Myslexia; Frogmore Papers; Poetry Life;
- What People Eat: edited Judy Benson; Smiths Knoll;
- Cheatin’ Heart – Women’s Secret Stories Anthology (Serpents Tale 1998)
Other writing includes:
- Lyrics For Common Ground project: ‘Otter: Lutra Lutra on the Stour’
- Theatre scripts devised as part of site specific plays created by Wimborne Community Theatre
- Video: Voyages: a schools and community site specific theatre event at National Trust house, Kingston Lacy, Dorset, developed by Wimborne Community Theatre
- DVD: Behind Wise Eyes: an arts in education intergenerational project involving older people at Dorchester Hospital and local schools working with writer, Gill Horitz, artist, Jonathan Korejko, bookbinder Gavin Rookledge and calligrapher, Liz Farquharson. Project co-ordinator: Joanna Morland
Articles
- Public Art: Brightening Up Boscombe: an article published in Nalgao magazine, about a public art project at Boscombe Library
- Dance: Moving with the Times:an article describing a dance project with mothers and pre-school children in West Howe, Bournemouth Published in Primary Times (2000)
- Street Arts: A Dream of an Event: an article published in Nalgao magazine, about a street arts event in Bournemouth
- Music and Older People: Kings Park Live Music Project: a report describing the creative and health benefits of musicians working with older people with dementia
Creative Projects
Gill Horitz has initiated, developed and managed a wide portfolio of arts projects over many years, independently and within the voluntary and public sectors.
Projects include:
- Women Live – a national magazine of writing and artwork by women about their lives
- Sure Start Bournemouth – a programme of arts projects developed with users of Sure Start, including writing workshops
- Behind Wise Eyes – an arts in education intergenerational project involving older people at Dorchester Hospital and local schools working with writer, Gill Horitz, artist, Jonathan Korejko, bookbinder Gavin Rookledge and calligrapher, Liz Farquharson. Project co-ordinator: Joanna Morland
- Artshare South West – arts and disability projects
- Wimborne Community Theatre – a community theatre project based in East Dorset, involving local schools and community, developing theatre with professional artists in unusual non-theatre sites, usually outdoors
- Public Art projects – developed and managed on behalf of Bournemouth Borough Council in sites in Bournemouth, in partnership with other organizations; projects include Boscombe Library, Cover to Cover, Lower Gardens Exhibitions
- Street Arts projects – developed and managed on behalf of Bournemouth Borough Council with partners, including Emergency Exit Arts (Runga Rung and The Arena)and Inside Out Festival in Bournemouth (Fire Gardens by Carabosse)
- Cultural Research – Indoors:‘Symbolic and Expressive Dimensions’ within Familial Lives (MA Dissertation)
Women Live
Photos here (PDF)
After several years facilitating writing workshops and being involved in autobiographical projects with theatre and publishing co-operative Word and Action (Dorset) Ltd, I co-founded and edited ‘Women Live – a national magazine of writing and artwork by women about their lives’, in partnership with designer, Ruth Hecht.
Each contributor’s writing or visual art work was presented in the context of the woman’s life, with autobiographical introductions, and additional commentary by the writers and artists on the impact on their lives of making art.
Indoors: Symbolic and Expressive Dimensions of Familial Lives
This is an ethnographic study exploring the expressions of six women of their attitudes to engagement in arts and cultural activities, both within the home, school and the public domain. It identified the purpose and value they attributed to cultural activities undertaken specifically in their homes, and questioned how arts professionals, used to working from an ‘administrative’ approach to audience development research, might develop new relationships in which audiences/ participants were provided with, and are the providers of, knowledge within the cultural domain.
The study explored the attitudes of women participants of arts projects and was conducted through group meetings and one-to-one meetings over a period of several months. The research, undertaken as a dissertation for an MA(2005), followed the development and management of arts projects organized through a partnership between Bournemouth Borough Council Arts Development and Sure Start Bournemouth (now Kinson and North Bournemouth Children’s Centre).
Artshare South West
As Arts Animateur, Artshare South West (regional Arts and Disability organization) I developed writing projects and workshops in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch. Co-founded two disability theatre groups in Bournemouth: TOPS and DATCo, now known as Double Act Disability Theatre