Meet Jyothi Kuna, Factory Academy Alumni and Director of Altrincham Arts Festival

By running The Factory Academy, we meet some of the most brilliant creative minds of Greater Manchester. Meet Jyothi Kuna, theatre maker, academic, and director of Altrincham Arts Festival. She attended our Managing Creative Projects course in January 2022, and here she shares her experience with the course. Read on to find out more about Altrincham Arts Festival, and how The Factory Academy has been helping her manage the project collaboratively with her community!

1. Hi, Jyothi. Could you please tell us a little about yourself?

Hi, I’m Jyothi Kuna, theatre director and performing arts lecturer. I’ve been teaching and making theatre for 20+ years with my theatre company, Whatsthesketch. I have a huge passion for collaboration across all art forms and often bring multidisciplinary arts into my projects.

Me and Whatsthesketch have been working in the community in my hometown Altrincham for the last 5 years. This year, I decided to bring back Altrincham Arts Festival to create collaborative opportunities for artists and bring some magic back into the town.?

2. Can you tell us more about Altrincham Arts Festival?

Altrincham Arts festival 2022 : SHIFT is a rolling festival that runs from March to December 2022. This is a festival to encourage artists from all disciplines to support each other and create jobs within our community. In the last two years when opportunities were limited for people like us, I felt a strong need to bring artists together to create support bubbles to share skills, practises and artistic expression.

In the process, I also wanted to bring arts into non-art spaces by collaborating with independent businesses in Altrincham. The festival so far has been an amazing experience. There are moments of magic during collaboration between artists, venues and the public. You can see how art brings the community together.

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3. How did you find out about Managing Creative Projects, and what made you enrol in it?

I saw it on social media and I just knew that I needed to enrol. Despite having a lot of experience in events, managing a festival felt different, and I knew that I’d learn so much from connecting with peers. I wanted to be able to plan the project in detail, and wanted to connect with other creatives to learn from their experiences.?

4. What was the most memorable thing about the course?

It was the consistent support from the Factory Academy. This was absolutely invaluable. Tutors went above and beyond to help me plan and believe in my ideas. I felt motivated and encouraged the whole time to think big about plans that would help me reach my full potential. Everyone has been so enthusiastic about my ideas and I feel my belief in the social value of the arts has deepened. I got myself friends, mentors and a practical work environment to contextualise my practice. I feel so lucky to have done the course. Everything from induction day to my finished business plan and guest lecturers from Team MIF was brilliant!

5. How did the course help you run Altrincham Arts Festival?

The course has helped me run Altrincham Arts festival in so many ways. I was able to create business plans and decks that communicated the concept clearly. I feel much more confident in managing large teams. My skills as a curator, facilitator and organiser feel more defined. I came out of the programme as an extremely organised director who is capable of mapping out and running the festival in a coherent, innovative and flexible manner, embracing room for change throughout the process.?

6. What kind of friends and colleagues did you meet in the course?

I have honestly met some amazing people on the course, some of whom are joining the festival! It was a massive pool of creative people - very inspiring and constantly encouraging - with everyone supporting each other. I can’t remember being around so many creative people with a wealth of experiences to share.

The enthusiasm from MIF was infectious as well. I’ve been in quite a few courses and consider myself to be a lifelong learner, but this course really made me contextualise who I am as an artist and theatre-maker, and gave me a direction on what I want to pursue in my career as a creative practitioner.

Find out more about Altrincham Arts Festival here:

Want to take your project management skills to the next level? Our next Managing Creative Projects course is still open for application. The next course runs from Monday 20 June to Friday 29 July. Register your free place now!