Bristol Old Vic Ferment and The Leverhulme Trust Announce Recipients of the Leverhulme Arts Scholarships

Bristol Old Vic Ferment have teamed up with The Leverhulme Trust to offer five Leverhulme Arts Scholarships running until April 2018, and are today delighted to announce the recipients.

Local artists Tanuja Amarasuriya, Rachael Clerke, Laura Dannequin, Malcolm Hamilton and Vanessa Kisuule will work with the support of Ferment to explore their practice.

The Scholarships will enable these exciting artists to, over the course of the year, receive support from the Ferment team, encouraging the artists to think about their own creative and professional development. They will also have the opportunity to share work-in-progress during Bristol Old Vic's scratch festival, Ferment Fortnight, and explore how this support from Ferment can enable them to experiment and try out new ideas.

Ferment Producer Emma Bettridge said: "I am very proud, and completely delighted, to announce this cohort of excellent-ness. The standard of application was so high, we had no choice but to extend the offer by adding a fifth bursary to the previously announced four. Bristol Ferment has been in existence for eight years now, so this evolution in artist support offers opportunity like no other: time, space, and support to truly delve into your own artistic practice. I can't wait to see where this year takes us."
About the artists
Tanuja Amarasuriya is a director and producer. She is co-artistic director of Sleepdogs, who make theatre, film and audio work that is characterised by surprising storytelling and intricate sound design that has been presented internationally.

Rachael Clerke is a theatre maker, wannabe satirist and keen punk singer. Her work is political and funny at the same time. She is currently touring Cuncrete, a drag king satire about concrete architecture, alpha-masculinity and housing policy.

Laura Dannequin is a French-born artist working predominantly in and with movement; her work is present, live, raw and explores bodily being in the world. Her recent projects include Hardy Animal, and she is a regular and long-term collaborator to Dan Canham and Still House, working on Of Riders & Running Horses as associate choreographer.

Malcolm Hamilton is an actor and theatre maker who uses games and play to create interactive experiences. Working recently with Mufti Games, he has been creating play projects and hands-on theatrical games commissioned by Bristol Green Capital, Barbican Centre and M-Shed.

Vanessa Kisuule is a writer, performer, burlesque artist and general empress of blag. As a poet, she has won over ten slam titles and been featured on BBC iPlayer, Radio 1, Radio 4 Woman's Hour, The Guardian and TEDx. Her debut poetry collection, Joyriding The Storm was published in 2014, with her second collection Sorceress due out in late 2017.

To find out more about Bristol Old Vic Ferment, please visit: www.bristololdvic.org.uk/ferment.

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