Katy, the creator of our website is also designing the adverts that appear in fRoots. We rather like them so they’ll posted up as they come out in print. Can you collect them all?

October 2010 marked the end of an era: the handover of day to day running of Shooting Roots from Laurel Swift to the new team. This is her thank you message: huge and glorious.

Dear participants, tutors, demi-tutors, past-tutors and anyone in between…

I have been extremely privileged to work with Shooting Roots these past 13 years. Getting young people together to discover, learn and create their own folk arts has a brilliant unsquashable energy. The landscape of the English Folk Scene is almost unrecognisable from the one we started out in and I am thrilled that Shooting Roots has been able to play a part in this explosion. Whatever happens behind the scenes, the face of Shooting Roots is it’s tutors and I would like to say a huge, massive, noisy THANK YOU! to all of you for being so brilliant over the years. I hope you all continue to find your niche within Shooting Roots as it continues to develop.

As an individual Shooting Roots has given me unlimited opportunities to put ideas into practice, to engage with skilled leaders, tutors-in-training, workshop participants and their families, festivals and the ‘folk arts industry’. My duties have ranged from planning festival programmes and training events to writing articles, giving presentations, attending meetings and making countless exciting phone calls, not to mention a little tedious late night typing! Throughout all of this I have worked closely with a large number of fabulous individuals, and whether volunteers or paid staff from other organisations, all of them gave their time freely because they really believed in the unique organisation that Shooting Roots is. Collaboration is an amazing thing, and Shooting Roots constantly facilitates it. By its very nature, Shooting Roots has always been its own entity and it has been an honour to be part of the mechanics that help guide and shape it.

I have written references for many tutors applying for jobs and it is gratifying to know that Shooting Roots has contributed in a very real way to so many people’s development, whether as artists, tutors, or simply well-rounded individuals. It is high time that the benefits I have gained at the helm of Shooting Roots were passed on for a new team to explore in their own way. And it is now a team: the scope of our programme has grown sufficiently that we created four new management posts and probably more posts to come. I am extremely excited by the enthusiasm, diligence and approach of the new team, and in a climate where arts funding is about to all but disappear, I am confident that whatever happens next elsewhere, there are good times ahead at Shooting Roots. Shooting Roots is all about teamwork and process, and where you can learn from the process and make friends along the way, you never emerge poorer for the experience. I wish all of you the very best of times in participating in Shooting Roots’ onward journey and hope there is much laughter and fun along the way!

Laurel Swift
London
December 2010