Kino Kult CIC is a not-for-profit organisation that functions 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 collective further coalesced around the development of an online social network which was developed in part as a way of curating the first ‘1000 Plateaus: digital potlatch‘ at The Spring Arts Centre in January 2009.
Initially, the organisation operated under the organisational framework of a non-incorporated association named The Kino Foundation and was set up as a vehicle for managing funding applications and project delivery. As The Kino Foundation, the organisation was successful in delivering a range of audiovisual arts activities including DVMISSION 48 Hour Film Challenge and Making Waves Film Festival.
Focusing on projects which play with immersion, experiential storytelling and live cinema The Kino Foundation was able to draw down funding from Southsea Town Council for ‘Asea-Ashore’, Arts Council England 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’. More recently The Kino Foundation has been successful in applying for Arts Council England funding for Cursed City Dark Tide (2019). In 2021 the organisation partnered with We Shine Portsmouth, festival of light for a second time to deliver Octopuses & Other Sea Creatures (2021), a large-scale site-specific audiovisual installation and performance.
In 2023 the organisation transitioned to a formal Community Interest Company (CIC) and adopted the name Kino Kult, originally the name of a loose VJ collective the collective led in the mid-2000’s. Kino Kult CIC was subsequently funded by Arts Council England to deliver Rituals for Earthly Survival (2024), an interdisciplinary arts project that combines Butoh, audiovisual installation and community performance into an integrated, durational installation as part of We Shine Portsmouth 2024.
The organisation has facilitated a range of art projects by other practitioners and continues to collaborate with other creators and makers in and around the city of Portsmouth. 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, running workshops and providing technical services to arts organisations and artists in the region.
