Legendary singer, compere and porn connoisseur Ophelia Bitz. Image: David Hammonds
When arts charity IdeasTap announced last week the end of its seven year mission to support up and coming productions, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Since 2008, it has helped many artists to create or grow new work giving away around £2.3m in funding and mentoring to their members and benefitting around 62,000 people from the opportunities it created.
One of those people is Ophelia Bitz. The singer and compere has made many memorable contributions to London cabaret shows, not least Alternative Eurovision in 2010 and 2011 as well as appearing more recently in Circus Of Men and Between The Sheets.
It was her own show ArtWank!, though, that has raised the most eyebrows. The cunning concoction of live performance, a TED-style talk from a sexpert and lashings of vintage porn has outraged and aroused audiences around the UK and returns this year to its original home in Brighton.
Before that happens, it is worth remembering a magical night in 2011 when, in the prestigious Old Vic Tunnels (RIP), ArtWank! emerged as the surprise hit of a high-profile night organised by IdeasTap. Ophelia Bitz talked to us about how the charity helped her and lets us in on the wonderful story behind that particular show.
Say it ain’t so! The thought losing of IdeasTap makes me very sad indeed; their opportunities listings alone make it one of the most useful resources for young artists online.
The arts is a difficult sector to work in at the best of times, but with increased funding cuts and free-labour intern culture out of control it’s vital that we have access to sound career advice from the professionals who have gone before and connection with our creative peers. The fact that IdeasTap offer thousands in funding and creative briefs every year isn’t too shabby either. To apply for anything, you have to have a portfolio and profile online and be seen to be engaging with the site; half-assedery isn’t the game here.
Creating good art will never be about marketing, but developing a career in any field relies upon the ability to present your ideas clearly. IdeasTap’s magazine-style networking site seemed to me a nice halfway between pretending to be a grown-up on LinkedIn and stalking the blogs of funded artists to find out their secrets.
I had the good fortune to work with IdeasTap when my project ArtWank! was selected to be part of their “Coming Up” festival collaboration with the brand-spanking new Old Vic Tunnels in 2011. Taking a trip to their shiny offices was a novelty, as it always is for a wastrel who has been self-employed all her life, and always full of hot-desking young things with burning ambitions. It was a bit of a strange meeting: they wanted to give me the award but had concerns about the pornographic content of the show. Gamely, they agreed to let me bring some Victorian smut to the office and talk them into letting me fill the Tunnels with filth and neon lighting and bringing Dott Cotton, Luna Rosa and graphic artist Sarah Beetson along for the ride.
After a great conversation about censorship, watershed, pubes and my ambitions to bring the examination of the social function of sex on film into public dialogue they agreed to give me a wedge of cash and production support to put on ArtWank! Thanks to their amazing spruiking skills, 800 people registered for the 200 available tickets and we had a queue around the block on the night.
Having such a lovely bunch of people believe in my work gave me a huge boost of confidence and has subsequently helped me get more support for my work, and indeed helped me get the position I have today as a trainee in Arts Management and Producing. I hope that IdeasTap is saved and more people go on to benefit from their expertise and generosity.
Those looking to help extend IdeasTap’s existence beyond its current 2 June closure date can lend a hand in a number of ways. There’s a petition, a campaign and another petition. Go for it.
Ophelia Bitz can be seen in Brighton’s Marlborough Theatre next month with ArtsWank! on 11 April and a week later at Kennington’s Cinema Museum for Kinima presents: Network (1976) and Cine-variety. Finally, as part of this year’s world-famous literary festival at Hay-on-Wye in May, she will be the ringmistress for the critically-acclaimed Midnight Circus. You can also keep up to date with her works on through Twitter and Facebook.
Image: David Hammonds
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