College seeks to reconnect with former students
Plus Silent Synced comes to the UK, songwriting with the Ashen Keys, library news, upcoming Kent events, and more
A Kent college aims to build new connections and provide opportunities for past students with the creation of an alumni network. We’ve been speaking to the man behind it to learn more. Further down, we have news of a new series of silent films mixed with modern albums coming to Kent cinemas, details of a songwriting workshop with folk trio the Ashen Keys, some important library news, upcoming Kent events, and more.
College seeks to reconnect with former students
MidKent College has launched a new Alumni Network to build new connections, support lifelong learning, and provide opportunities for past students to stay engaged with the college. We met with Deputy CEO Chris Hare at their Medway Campus to learn more…
In his own words, Chris Hare has a broad remit at MidKent College. “An eclectic mix of responsibility” including HR function, payroll, marketing communications, apprenticeships, IT and data protection. What Chris does day to day, “because I have amazing managers that do the work,” is spend a lot of my time on external relations. “I work effectively alongside the CEO, Simon Cook, to manage stakeholders and to work with stakeholders across the region.”
Chris is on his third stint at MidKent College. He was there as a student, on the former Horsted site in Chatham. After working for a number of years in engineering, he joined MidKent in 1994, working in various roles. “I had about five different promotions,” before becoming Director of Business Development. Chris then left to work for West Kent College and Kent Further Education, before returning to MidKent ten years ago.
As both an alumnus of the college and the lead on their new Alumni Network, why does he feel there is such a strong connection to the college? “It's such a friendly place, a friendly place to learn.” Chris stayed in touch with his tutors from his time there. “It's an inclusive college and I really felt at home here.” As an employer, Chris recognises these same aspects brought him back to work there twice. “I've had happy years working here, and I work with amazing people.”
The Alumni Network is Chris’ brainchild. “I've been wanting to do this for a number of years. The turning point for me was when I sparked real interest from ex-students that reached out to me via LinkedIn.” They had studied with Chris and shared fond reminiscences of the college, and wanted to reconnect. Chris spoke with the college’s governing body to ensure that the network would succeed. As a result, the project was linked to raising MidKent’s profile as an organisation. That ensured that funds were put behind the project, and they were able to create a role that now effectively runs the alumni service.
MidKent’s aim is to “use it as a way to reconnect with our student population,” and there are a number of reasons why. “Reconnecting is a good thing, and it's a good way of keeping in touch with how our students progress.” Chris recognises the need to utilise people in business in their day-to-day operations, from work experience, work placements, guest speakers, and lecturers. “We find those external relations are important to the running of the college.” The college sees the alumni network as a great way of engaging with people who “already knew us, had an affinity with us, had a connection.”
In the first week, the network has had over 200 people sign up, and those people have come from all parts of the world. “People who have emigrated to Australia, America and some obviously closer to home in the Medway Towns and Maidstone.” The college is developing a goodie bag for people who sign up, something that's environmentally friendly, “because of course our green credentials are really important to us and very sincere to us.” Once people have signed up, the team connect with them, and as well as the goodie bag, there are engagement events planned for the future.
These are likely to be sector-oriented, based on the sector they qualified in, and the sector they are now work in. “We will then bring them together, where we can reconnect, but also introduce them to our current student population.” Somebody becomes eligible to join the network from the day that they leave the college, though with the network fresh, some students have joined before officially leaving.
“We're going to be focusing on working with the students that are due to leave us, to gain that connection.” Chris wants them to leave their details and maintain that relationship as they go forward. Whether through university, into employment, or through apprenticeships. “We can plot their journey, because their destination is really important to us.” As well as enabling them to measure the success of qualifications, “actually where they end up, what they do and how they benefit society and how they reach their ambition is important.”
“FE has a real place in society, and I think people arrive at the college where opportunities haven't allayed themselves up to that point.” Chris sees the ability of the college to transform lives. “I'd hope that our alumni would look back with fond memories about what part we played in that journey.” Despite some outliers, early data suggests that many alumni have not gone far from that starting point, “which actually is interesting as well and helpful to the local economy,” with the college focused on developing skills in people for local jobs.
Alumni of the college have included Simon Ryan, who works for Wilmot Dixon, a developer, who has had an illustrious career working for organisations including Locate in Kent. Sarah Howard MBE, who studied A-Levels at City Way, is currently the British Chamber of Commerce chair. Steven Grix, a brick-laying student who returned years later to be the college's principal. And this writer, who graduated from Media Production in 2000 and 25 years later is writing a story about the place.
To learn more about the Alumni Network or to join, you can visit the MidKent College website here.
Silent Synced is coming to the UK
Josh Frank is the owner of an independent drive-in cinema in Austin, Texas. We spoke to him about Silent Synced, an exciting new project that is coming to the UK later this year…
Silent Synched was first created in Josh’s home office. He has been the owner of his drive-in arthouse theatre for 15 years. “Playing the content I want,” but also “seeing the change in the industry, the pandemic, streaming, the writer's strike. Every time there was a content squeeze, it was scary and frustrating.” That led to his thought experiment: Can small cinema owners take content into their own hands and create something interesting, original and appealing that other cinemas would also want to play?
Josh started tinkering around in his home office and created a technique for making new interpretations of old classic silent cinema. Josh edited the film to modern music albums. “I made a couple of them and a friend of mine urged me to send them to the management of the bands,” to see if the bands would approve of what he had done.
Josh had started by searching through famous, and some obscure, silent films that were 100 years old and in the public domain. “Then I put my headphones on and started going through all my favourite rock bands’ albums to see which paired well.” Josh went through them and figured out his own techniques for “shaving off seconds from the dialogue boxes to make them hit harder with the beats.” Once he had this content, he took his friend’s advice and contacted the bands.
“Each band got back to me relatively quickly and said, ‘We think this is really cool.’” The first band to respond was a small indie band called Radiohead. Their albums Amnesiac and Kid A have been synced with the silent film Nosferatu. “I thought that would be the biggest long shot,” but it was a shot that worked. This experience will be the first Silent Synced performance to make it to the UK this October.
Other bands include the Pixies, They Might Be Giants, and REM. The latter has been synced with Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr and will be in UK cinemas next year. Having worked with independent movie distributors in the United States, he contacted those who he thought would be supportive of the project and contacted CineLife at the Art House Convergence Conference two years ago. “I said, ‘I’ve got this thing that I want you to consider.’ Immediately they were like, ‘We're in.’” Through them, Josh was able to contact CinemaLive in the UK.
“I had people coming out of the premieres in the US and LA, being like, ‘Huge Radiohead fan, this was the coolest thing and I'd never seen a silent movie before in my life.’”
Cinemas across Kent will be screening Silent Synced films. To find out more about this project and other events that CinemaLive support, click here.
Library news
Should you need a book from a library they don’t have in stock, the good news is that you can order it via the SELMS system, which will reserve the book at any participating library in the southeast and deliver the book for you to collect from your local library.
The less-than-good news is that the non-refundable reservation charge to order a book through SELMS has increased by a third from £3 to £4. The powers in charge told us that the increase for this financial year was the first since April 2013. The charge contributes towards staff time, packaging and transportation costs, but doesn’t cover the whole expense.
For the year ending March 2025, 1,808 items were requested by Kent borrowers via SELMS, and 159 items were supplied to SELMS borrowers.
We were also curious about this story in the Guardian about requests to libraries to remove books. Kent County Council told us that they have only had one request in the last year (and before that, nothing for many years), which was to remove copies of Zombie by Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore, a children’s fiction book. The book was not removed as it was in the appropriate age category as recommended by the publisher.
Write songs with the Ashen Keys
Marshy Mudflats and the Call of the Curlew is a 10-day exhibition at St. Mary’s Church in Higham, organised by local artist Fiona Spirals as part of the Estuary Festival. Rachel Lowrie and Vicky Price of the Ashen Keys will hold a songwriting workshop as part of that exhibition. We spoke to Rachel to find out more…
“We've taken inspiration from nature and from Fiona's work. Fiona's going to have poetry displayed, and it will be a celebration of the exhibition.” The workshops will enable people to craft songs and look at the processes Vicky and Rachel use to inspire songwriting and focus on place.
Rachel has been friends with Fiona for some time and has watched the exhibition evolve. “An ongoing conversation about the importance of the marsh, the local habitat, the stories from the marsh, the river… The peninsula where she lives is caught between both rivers.” In Rachel’s mind, this unique and beautiful place on the Thames Estuary connects Medway to wider parts of Kent.
The Ashen Keys performed at St Mary's Church last year, so already felt a connection with the exhibition space. “It's such a beautiful church. The pulpit is this beautiful wooden work. Even the front door is an absolute thing of beauty.” Even if you can’t make the exhibition, Rachel is enthusiastic that people should visit the church regardless.
Vicky and Rachel have held the songwriting workshop before at Swale Wassail. Vicky also has many years’ experience as an educator within the cultural sector. “I cannot wait to see the actual exhibition and be writing some songs with participants in the space as well.” Participants do not need to have any previous experience with songwriting, as there will be a variety of tasks to suit different levels.
All are welcome from those who “fancy having a go, someone who's just finding their sea legs with songwriting or someone that's looking for a bit of a challenge.” Rachel wants to highlight that the toilet facilities are basic. “When Fiona checked yesterday, there were two little baby owls nesting in the toilet space,” though they are due to be rehomed before the exhibition.
If it's hot, bring water, but also bring a notebook, a pen and “bring your creative soul.” The two-hour workshop is on Saturday 28 June from 11am to 1pm, with tickets ranging from £10 for those unwaged to £20 for those waged. “Very happy for people to take the ticket that's appropriate. And obviously we're not going to know who's got what”
You can book tickets for the Ashen Keys songwriting workshop here.
Upcoming Kent events
🏳️🌈 Sat 21 Jun - Pride Ashford // Inclusive celebration of Ashford’s LGBTQIA+ community and its allies with a full day of activities. Ashford Town Centre. Free.
🌊 21 - 29 Jun - Estuary Festival // Extensive lineup of arts events on both sides of the Thames Estuary, with Kent events in Gravesham, Medway, and Sheppey. Free.
⚓ 25 - 30 Jun - Nao Santa María // Explore a replica of Columbus’ ship that visited America in 1492. Gravesend Town Pier. Tickets £10.
🖥️ Sat 28 Jun - Crash Festival // Day-long program featuring talks from designers and creative professionals. The Ashford Cinema. Tickets £25.
🎸 Sat 28 Jun - Careful Now Medway Foodbank Fundraiser // All day festival of music featuring excellent indiepop bands, including Tugboat Captain. Oast Community Centre, Rainham. Tickets £18.
🎸 Wed 2 Jul - Crywank + support // Anti-folk trio play special summer show in Rochester. Three Sheets to the Wind, Rochester. Tickets £15.
More Currents
Earlier this week, we reported on the latest happenings (or not) at Kent County Council, whose new Reform administration seems slow off the mark in getting things done. The longer things go on, the more questions start to be raised about precisely what is going on at County Hall.
What’s (not) happening at KCC this week?
It’s been another odd week at Kent County Council, where accusations of inactivity have plagued the new Reform administration. Little this week will do much to dispel that perception. We’ve got the latest on what’s been (not) happening below. Further down, we have news of the Lower Thames Crossing edging closer with new funding, Kent residents recognise…
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