The Shepton Mallet Digital Arts Festival (also known as the Shepton Digi Fest) [1] is a British annual public arts festival and creative industry showcase based in the Somerset town of Shepton Mallet at venues including Kilver Court.
Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel, its coastline facing southeastern Wales. Its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset's county town is Taunton.
Shepton Mallet is an English town and civil parish in the Mendip District of Somerset, about 18 miles (29 km) south of Bristol and 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Wells, with an estimated population of 10,369 in 2014. Mendip District Council is based there. The Mendip Hills lie to the north and the River Sheppey runs through the town, as does the route of the Fosse Way, the main Roman road into south-west England. There is evidence of Roman settlement. Its medieval parish church is among many listed buildings. Shepton Mallet Prison was England's oldest until it closed in March 2013. The medieval wool trade gave way to industries such as brewing in the 18th century. The town remains a noted producer of cider. Shepton Mallet is the closest town to the Glastonbury Festival. Also nearby is the Royal Bath and West of England Society showground.
Kilver Court is an historic house and gardens in Shepton Mallet in the English county of Somerset. The River Sheppey powered textile mills and it later became a factory, the headquarters of the Showerings brewing business, and then the headquarters of a leather-goods manufacturer, Mulberry. It is now used as a shopping centre.
The Festival was founded in 2009 [2] and marked its third year with a three-day programme of events from 6 to 8 October 2011. [3]
The 2011 festival featured contributions from Merlin Crossingham, the creative director of Aardman Animation's Wallace and Gromit, [4] Aardman model maker Jim Parkyn, film composer William Goodchild, Natural History film-maker Paul Appleby, [5] Icon Film's Dominic Weston and camera workshops from award-winning director of photography Jeremy Humphries. [6]
Wallace and Gromit is a British stop motion clay animation comedy series created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, but has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving inventor, along with his companion Gromit, a silent yet loyal and intelligent anthropomorphic dog. The first short film, A Grand Day Out, was finished and made public in the year 1989. Wallace was originally voiced by veteran actor Peter Sallis, and later by Ben Whitehead. Gromit always remains silent, instead communicating only through means of facial expressions and body language.
William Goodchild is a composer, orchestrator and conductor who produces music for film, television and the concert hall.
Icon Films is a British independent television production company that produces factual programmes for broadcast by networks both in the UK and US. The company was founded in 1990 by Harry Marshall and Laura Marshall, and is based in Bristol.
The festival describes itself as "The South West Showcase of New Film, Photography & Performance" and states its aims as connecting young talent in the digital arts with established businesses and professionals and showcasing digital creative talent in the whole of the South West, including Bristol and Bath.
South West England is one of nine official regions of England. It is the largest in area, covering 9,200 square miles (23,800 km2), and consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire, as well as the Isles of Scilly. Five million people live in South West England.
Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 463,400. The wider district has the 10th-largest population in England. The urban area population of 724,000 is the 8th-largest in the UK. The city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. South Wales lies across the Severn estuary.
Bath is the largest city in the county of Somerset, England, known for its Roman-built baths. In 2011, the population was 88,859. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Bristol. The city became a World Heritage site in 1987.
2011 also saw the festival's first engagement with the gaming industry, [7] linking up with Edinburgh Interactive and Sean Dromgoole of industry research company GameVision.
The festival is non-profit, and is supported by the Arts Council; The Open Innovation partners South West One, IBM, Plymouth University and Somerset County Council; Shepton Mallet Town Council [8] and a number of other public and industry bodies. [9]
Arts Council England is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. The arts funding system in England underwent considerable reorganisation in 2002 when all of the regional arts boards were subsumed into Arts Council England and became regional offices of the national organisation.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. The company began in 1911, founded in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924. IBM is incorporated in New York.
Somerset County Council is the county council of Somerset in the South West of England, an elected local government authority responsible for the most significant local government services in most of the county. Somerset County Council plans drastic cuts to services because the government has cut funding and the council cannot balance its books.
