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The Gillian Hush Bursary Fund

Throughout her association with Cartwheel, Gillian was an indefatigable, cheerful and positive supporter of our work.  A regular attender (and participant and, when needed, organiser) at local events organised by Cartwheel, Gillian's empathy, compassion and commitment to the individuals taking part was inspirational and unfailing.  She shared this gift in supporting our staff through often highly challenging times and in her contribution to Board deliberations. She gave her time unstintingly in spite of her numerous commitments to other cultural, educational and community organisations, and is much missed.

The Board and staff of Cartwheel wanted to pay tribute to Gillian and her association with the charity by establishing a Bursary Fund to be operated by the charity.  The aim of the fund is to support young people who are desperate to begin a career in the arts, but cannot get on the first rung of the ladder because they have no experience. Whenever we advertise opportunities, we are struck by the number of enthusiastic young people who are passionate about the arts and just need that first break. Gillian’s final involvement with Cartwheel was to assist in the recruitment of a young trainee on a short placement. This was to have been a one-off initiative but we felt it was entirely appropriate and very much in keeping with Gillian’s passion for encouraging young talent if to offer further opportunities.

Each bursary will enable a young person to gain experience and skills by working alongside one of our artists on a Cartwheel Arts project and in our Heywood office.  The young person would be mentored through their part time placement by a member of staff.  The bursary will be used entirely to pay a basic fee to the trainee. This is important to us – there are enough unpaid internships on offer to those who can afford to take them.  We will also explore the potential for accreditation of the work undertaken.

These are short placements with a modest budget of £500. Were the Gillian Hush Bursary Fund to total £5,000 this would therefore enable ten young people to benefit and to be helped into employment through their experience in creative participatory arts.

We are extremely grateful to Gillian's Book-group for their donation, which has allowed us to proceed with our first trainee: Jenny

Joy Anderson

Teresa Bell

Peter & Dorothy Jordan

Shelagh Knowles

Bernard & Elisabeth Lawrence

Elaine van der Zeil

Carole Weinberg

We would like to invite a small number of committed individuals to commit to helping to raise the rest of the money through donations or fundraising activities. We are also looking for at least one volunteer to sit on the Bursary Panel, which will meet annually to ensure that the fund is managed appropriately. Each donor would be invited to meet the young people and their mentors by attending presentation events, just as Gillian loved to do.

If you would like to support this idea please send a cheque made out to Cartwheel Arts to the address above, marking it “Gillian Hush Bursary” on the reverse. If you wish to pay electronically, our bank details are:

Co-operative Bank

Sort code 08 92 99

A/c number 65549836

If you make a payment in this way, please e-mail Lucy Sutcliffe at admin@cartwheelarts.org.uk to advise her that you have done so.