The Kino Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that exists as a platform for fundraising, project management and promotion of audio-visual arts and performance. The organisation grew out of a “lessons learned” reflection that occurred after the successful ‘No Diving’ project that artist Jez Stevens and project co-ordinator Roy Hanney ran with $24,000 of Heritage Lottery Funding in 2007.
The Kino Foundation coalesced around the development of an online social network which was developed in part as a way of curating the ‘1000 Plateaus: digital potlatch’ at The Spring Arts Centre in January 2009. While the network is no longer in use it still exists as an archive of what was achieved by this experiment in online curation.
The organisation has been successful in sourcing funding from, among others: Screen South for DVMISSION 48 Hour Film Challenge (now an independent project in its own right), from Southsea Town Council for ‘Asea-Ashore’, Arts Council GB for ‘A Moment in Metaphor’ at the Spring Arts Centre, Awards for All for the staging of ‘The Thief of Time’ and Watch this Space (as well as for the purchase of a stock of video projectors) and Portsmouth City Council for ‘My Orpheus’.
The organisation has facilitated a range of arts projects by other practitioners; for example, the Punchbag project which saw artist Jez Stevens projecting onto buildings in Basingstoke and Southampton. The organisation continues to support the work of audio-visual artists in the Portsmouth and Southampton region most notably loaning projectors and technical services to City, Ejector Seat, Pandemonia and Music in the City.
