mailout carnival arts 31
FEATURE British Museum Day of the Dead © Robert MacFarlane
On a quiet suburban, residential street in Lambeth, as we fast approach the summer months, there is an increasing buzz of activity on Atkins Road. A strange and wonderful float structure is being built out on the street. Vans are being filled with bright sequined and feathered costumes, a 50ft Chinese Dragon, the Pineapple Queen with her mini pineapple princesses, multicoloured monkeys, fluorescent skeletons and more – Mandinga Arts is preparing for one of their many summer projects.
Mandinga Arts
Mandinga Arts, a carnival and outdoor arts organisation based in South West London, has created work for a range of festivals, carnivals and events; participating in the Mayor’s Thames Night Carnival for the last ten years and, most recently, producing the highly successful Mexican Day of the Dead Parade at the British Museum.
Established in 2002 by Co-Artistic Directors Charles Beauchamp and Julieta Rubio in response to a need for artists to work together on outdoor performance and to practice, improve, educate, share and promote carnival arts. The company brings together live music, carnival and street costume and dance, drawing on diverse influences from Europe, Latin America and Africa, with community based contributions to the carnival and outdoor performance movement in the UK.
Situated in the back garden of a residential property, Mandinga Arts’ studios are also used to facilitate workshops that enable the Co- Artistic Directors to share ideas and expertise with artists, practitioners and the community. As well as providing workshops for adults with an interest in expanding their expertise in costume design and outdoor arts, Mandinga Arts also facilitates exciting workshops in schools and colleges for children and young people.
Great Yarmouth Out There Festival 2009 © Adam Shawyer
The company offers two types of workshops: the Mandinga Backstage Workshop and the Mandinga Master Workshop. The Backstage Workshop goes behind the scenes in the studio, covering all the processes involved from initial ideas right the way through to completed works. The participants view drawings, DVDs and other visual documentation from numerous Mandinga designs. Costumes, props and puppets are used as a source of reference and participants are encouraged to try them on and experiment.
As well as the two Co-Artistic Directors and the full-time Project Manager the company also operates a rolling Internship Programme
which offers young people and graduates a chance to gain invaluable and relevant experience working for a small not-for-profit company. The three-monthly voluntary placement enables an individual to join Mandinga for 2-3 days a week for 3 months and have the chance to dabble in all things Mandinga, from general admin, marketing and publicity to project management and even mucking in on site at events. The internship programme has so far been highly successful for both the company and the interns. Lesley-Anne Francis, who joined Mandinga as an intern in August – December 2009, says;
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