DARE: Opera North in partnership with the University of Leeds

The Pettman DARE Fellowship in Music Education and Community Engagement Project Management has provided 20 early career professionals with a year of practice-led research in the Learning & Engagement department at Opera North alongside studying towards a postgraduate diploma at the University of Leeds, before progressing to the next stage in their career. The Fellowship is supported through the generosity of Mrs Maureen Pettman and the late Professor Barrie Pettman. It is also conducted in collaboration with New Zealand Opera.

Pettman DARE Alumni now work at many UK, New Zealand and international arts organisations, including the Royal Opera House, Royal Albert Hall and New Zealand’s The Piano.

The role of the DARE Academic in Residence provides a University of Leeds academic with the opportunity to engage in a far-reaching piece of research involving Opera North which also enhances Opera North’s knowledge and ensures it remains at the forefront of academic thinking. Researchers have undertaken studies in digital and immersive technologies in live performance; race, ethics and representation in operatic storytelling; and an ethnographic study of Opera North.

University of Leeds staff can benefit from special Opera North ticket offers and discounts by joining the DARE More scheme. Opera North staff also have access to the University of Leeds libraries.

Over 10 DARE Sandpits have created forums for debate, discussion and creative endeavour for people from diverse backgrounds. Themes of sandpits have included: Staging Madam Butterfly; A World without Antibiotics; Culture and Climate; Benjamin Britten; the centenary of the First World War; music and violence; and the Carnivalesque.

The sandpit “Music and Mental Health: Autism and Opera” gave me an opportunity to see how the academic research work I was doing might connect to non-academic communities. Sharing ideas with artists and scientists led to me co-creating a new opera ‘A fortnight of Autistic Bedtimes’ with DARE Cultural Fellow Cheryl Frances-Hoad, something that could not have happened without the sandpit.”
– Professor Stuart Murray, Professor of Contemporary Literatures and Film, University of Leeds.

Held by the University of Leeds Special Collections, the Opera North Archive comprises material from the earliest programmes, recordings and organisational documentation, to more recent posters, advertising and photography. The Archive is more than information about Opera North; it is a reflection of the operatic art form and the way it has connected with and responded to society since 1978.

The Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy programme pioneered by DARE has been rolled out as a postgraduate certificate by the University. The project attracted £2.7m Arts Council funding for the collaboration on the Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy programme. The subsequent MOOC in Effective Fundraising and Leadership in Arts and Culture attracted over 13,000 international users.

The DARE Art Prize is awarded to an innovative, ambitious artist in any discipline, who is excited by the opportunity to work with leading scientific researchers at the University of Leeds, and with Opera North. It challenges artists and scientists to collaborate on new approaches to the creative process, eroding barriers between the disciplines. It is also supported by Yorkshire Contemporary (The Tetley) and the National Science & Media Museum. A prize of £15,000 is awarded. Five prize-winners to date have explored alternative ways to represent climate change; human perception and Artificial Intelligence; the impact of infrasound on the human mood, e-waste recycling as well as mathematics education and creativity.

“The thinking and experiences of artists and scientists are often thought to be mutually exclusive, however the DARE prize not only shows that this is not the case, but reveals the beauty and excitement of a symbiotic creative relationship between the two fields. I am delighted by the ingenuity and imagination shown by applicants and recipients.”
– Professor John Ladbury, Professor of Mechanistic Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds.

Placements, internships, projects, tours, opportunities to observe rehearsals and talks support learning and help equip students for their future careers. A number of bursaried DARE internships within Opera North departments are offered each academic year specifically for University of Leeds students. Recent internships have placed students in Publications, Chorus Management, Community Partnerships, Facilities Management, the Opera North Youth Company and the Howard Assembly Room.

“My time as a DARE intern at Opera North gave me invaluable experience working in the arts industry and many different connections and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity.” 
– Ellie McCreadie, DARE Intern, Facilities Management

The DARE Liberty Lectures held at the Howard Assembly Room explore the myths and realities of liberty in different ways. These talks, usually introduced and chaired by an academic from the University of Leeds, have covered a variety of topics as diverse as AI, bee and insect decline, the Russian Revolution, the Miners’ Strike and the freedom of the press.

DARE Cultural Fellowships were awarded between 2010-2015 and provided two talented emerging practitioners, stage designer and visual artist, Becs Andrews, and composer, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, with the opportunity to develop their craft.

“I look back on my DARE fellowship as one of the turning points of my composing career. Being able to concentrate on writing for two years, and having access to the wealth of knowledge and experience at Leeds University and Opera North was incredibly valuable, artistically and personally.”
– Cheryl Frances-Hoad, DARE Cultural Fellow 2010-12

DARE research projects demonstrate the power of collaboration to bring together academic and artistic curiosity and expertise to address global issues and cultural difference. ‘Performing Violence’, a public-facing research project explored how violence is portrayed in theatre, and how real-world violence is itself ‘staged’. ‘Operatic Encounters: Common Voices (OPENCOV)’ was a European Cultural Co-operation with Third Countries project exploring points of contact through the medium of opera that linked the University of Leeds, Opera North, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Bregenzer Festspiele in Austria and the Sibelius Academy in Finland.