Why get up in the morning?

With the dark nights closing in it gets quite difficult to jump out of bed in the morning. But I woke up today and wanted to take a look at the manifesto website. Having developed the manifesto with the support of organisations and individuals all over England, I was and am heartened to see that since going live at the NALGAO conference on the 7th October it has around 96 members already.

Then last month it was a good time to move roles from setting up Voluntary Arts England in 2004 (a national role) to wanting to probe more deeply into the fabric of our urban communities on social housing estates. To really scrutinise the power of participation as a lever for change.

Therefore I was delighted to be offered a job working for the regeneration directorate of Bolton At Home. Yes it meant relocating from my beloved Newcastle, family, friends and fave pubs, but I’m kind of driven and need to keep interested and fired up about my work!

Bolton At Home (www.boltonathome.org.uk ) is about improving lives at neighbourhood level for both private and social housing tenants. So that means taking care of the physical environment (houses, roads, signage, pedestrian ways, community centres & parks etc) but also the people themselves.

It’s rather special on a few levels having been the first organisation in the North West to receive 3 stars from the Audit Commission for the delivery of its housing and regeneration services. It has about 18, 500 homes within its ‘stock’ with about 7500 of those within my remit (the South of Bolton) with Arts Officers allocated to the North, East and West. B@H has invested £250 million into housing and environment in the last 5 years as part of its capital improvement plan. AND where appropriate it allocates 1% of its capital budget to the arts! “Percent for Art” is well known to some of us in the arts but more special is the idea of having dedicated arts officers for a microcosmic urban area.

So what? Well, the potential to make the case for delineated geographical spend, based upon need firstly. Secondly unleashing the power of the arts to help people be happy, decide how they want their area to look, help them make choices about colour, form, shape, quality and style; help them be able to decide that if they want to BE an artist in any medium then that path is open TO THEM. It means showing the ways in which the arts can tackle isolation, address crime and have an effect on all the other social factors affecting the lives of people today. Help people not working directly in the arts to realise “there’s more to life than bins” and that coming to work is more than just another day when what we can collectively do is inspire ourselves and others, have fun, make changes and vast improvements and become leaders in the field of cultural change. That’s a few pretty good reasons for getting out of bed.

Anyway – onwards with the order of the day.

A manifesto for public participation in the arts & crafts

While I’m in blogging mode I think I should just drop something into this space about the above.

A couple of years ago I was on the DCMS PSA3 advisory group. The discussion was all about how to increase participation in the arts and crafts (unsurprisingly or why else would I be there?)

Anyway, those of you who know me, know I am not really one for sitting in meetings. I mostly get restlesss. I used to reproach myself about this and question what ‘calibre’ of person I must be. But nowerdays I remember that anecdote from Sir Ken Robinson (world leader on creativity) about a girl who got into trouble for never sitting still in class and the psychologist who was called in to assess what was “wrong” with her, telling both her mum and teacher “She’s not sick, she’s a dancer”. The dancer is Gillian Lynne.

So I don’t feel so bad about being a fidget now.

What I did instead of waiting for an answer coming from Government was to pose myself the question “who is best placed to increase participation in the arts?” and my answer was to decide that it is the very people tasked with making the arts happen in the first place who need to do something – ie. US.

My starting point has therefore been to concieve of developing a manifesto for public participation in the arts and crafts. We were offered seconded staff from DCMS, grant support for consultations from ACE, gained over 250 expressions of interest from organisations all over England and set up a development group with representatives who attended the original DCMS PSA3 advisory group and includes NCA, NALGAO, NCF-LL, DCP, FCD and of course ourselves.

We now have the manifesto and a website and both will be launched at the NALGAO conference on October 7th 2009.

It’s a growing wave of support and a changing tide of thought; and the manifesto works hand in hand with the developments outlined in my last post below about the work happening with the Department for Business, Innovation & skills and the informal adult learning agenda.

I hope you’ll keep your eyes ‘peeled’ for when I post the website URL and that you’ll pledge to do something to support public participation in the arts and carfts.

Join the Revolution

Guys,

I’m listening to the Beach Boys singing “Wouldn’t it be nice” and I’m reflecting on a conversation a colleague from the MLA and I were having about 4 years ago at a NIACE conference.

The conversation started with exactly those words “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” and we both went on to agree strongly with each other about giving people the opportunity to share what they know in informal settings, in commonly used, familiar spaces (libraries, dis-used shops etc), augmented with resouces and signposting to make it easy to get involved.

Think about it… people all over England doing arts and crafts activities their way, in places that are comfortable for them; shopping malls, cathedrals, railway stations; ordinary people sharing what they know with people who live right up their street… Naive utopian dream? Well maaaybe BUT that’s exactly what we’ve been tasked with delivering. Courtesy of a hugely generous grant from DBIS, VA England have developed four tiers to the vision for the next couple of months.

1) “The Learning Revolution Festival – is right up your street” In every region across England we’ll be giving amateur arts and crafts groups the opportunity to share their passion for making and doing the arts and crafts through sessions and events in a myriad of places. Regional facilitators will work with groups on the ground and focus on one specific aspect of an art or craft.

2) “The Learning Revolution Festival – is a journey and a destination” Nationally a facilitator will work to mirror these events with a national partner e.g. train stations, wholesaler/ supermarket or brewery chain

3) “The Learning Revolution Festival – is opening doors” Umbrella bodies and their members will be awarded grants to enable ‘open door’ and taster events to first-time informal adult learners.

4) “The Learning Revolution Festival – has a taste for tutoring” We’ll be delivering training for all you budding arts and crafts group tutors out there. If you’ve ever fancied running your own group we’ll help you on your way.

Lookout for the logo, look out for your own chance to get involved. If you have an event, session or informal happening then contact us and we can sort you out with “The Learning Revolution Festival” – logo, posters, postcards etc to alert people to the opportunities and excitement happening all over the place.

The revolution is coming…

The Learning Revolution

It has been of great importance to us to raise awareness of the role the arts play in informal adult learning as well as adult learning more generally. We have been really pleased to see this being taken on board by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills – originally under John Denham now under Kevin Brennan.

If you have a commitment to arts participation, then you’ll understand the massive contribution self-organised groups make towards building skills through the arts. Music, Drama, Dance, Visual Arts, Crafts, Literature – in fact every facet of arts participation lends itself to developing people on all levels.

So I for one was over the moon to see this message being spread through John Denham’s white paper. I urge you to read the white paper “The Learning Revolution” (just google it) and visit the website related to the forthcoming celebration of informal adult learning called www.thelearningrevolution.ning.com .

The learning revolution festival is taking place throughout the month of October with a two day high profile launch in London and with events all over England.

We’re very pleased to say that we have been made one of the national partners of DBIS alongside 8 prestigious national organisations.

So we’re working on putting the voluntary arts constituency on the front page. We want to see arts and crafts participation happening on every street, in libraries, shops, everywhere and anywhere.

If you’re planning any of your usual voluntary arts activities during October and you’d like to ‘badge’ your event with The Learning Revolution brand let us know. We have a PR company on board and would be pleased to get you some terrific national coverage.

Hope you’ll join the revolution!

Society – tis a business doing pleasure with you!

Have you ever wondered how – the things that matter to Government end up having to matter to you? Well I often wondered this when as a 10 year old I wanted to make, do, promote and present the arts (in a fashion), only to be told “no-one will support that”. I often didn’t really know what ‘they’ meant by ‘support’. I mean, who needed support?

Well as the years went by I started to learn that even though I had gone miles away from even thinking about ‘support’ for any of my work and certainly NOT from public funds; if what others were doing as an arts project was something that could potentially merit charitable/ grant ‘support’ then understanding and awareness would be needed about the current ‘priorities’ as set down by Government in order to allow any such applications for ‘support’ to go forward.

Now – back to my first question in relation to my second point. You need to think what is it that is broken in society or what is it that needs improving in society or what is it that makes for a good policy that might get votes at central Governement? And then you’re getting somewhere close to uncovering how the things that matter to Government need to matter to you – for you to make your arts relevant enough to merit that brass ring of ‘support’.

Naive? Over simplistic? Not really I find. Make your arts relevant to any of those agendas – AND BE ABLE TO MEASURE THE IMPACT – and BINGO you merit ‘support’.

Selling out? Don’t think so. Personally I do think we’re a bit of an ailing society on the whole, but looking at central Government websites it looks like it’s destruction, desolation and displaced people’s all over the place. Maybe it is. So take this as the assumption and go on with my thinking…

Our civil society is in a mess, our children are under achieving, our ‘communities’ are no longer communities, our people are lonely, afraid and isolated living their lives through reality TV programmes, soap operas and enjoying watching Jeremy Kile bully some poorly educated people in the name of ‘entertainment’ and “helping them and others to not make the same mistakes”; people pinning their hopes on a lottery win and coveting the material goods others have.

I still hear “I used to be able to leave my front door unlocked” and taxi drivers say how much they and everyone they pick up would like to leave this Country and never look back.

Gun crime is on the rise, so is unemployment with the West Midlands having the highest rates. Drinking is the highest amongst women (I can’t possibly comment), teenage pregnancies are increasing. As for health, self esteem, confidence and active citizenship forget them. Not to mention the rise in xenophobia.

I’m not for one minute suggesting that the arts are the ‘fix all’ in society, BUT expressing your own creativity is pretty good at helping people gain perspective on things. Ever wrote a letter to yourself or someone else (with the intention of not ever sending it), but somehow finding that the creative exercise in itself has been cathartic? Creative expression and participating in the arts with others especially is widely documented as helping to put the equilibrium back into things on a personal level, and each individual makes up a community and each community makes up a society and so on.

There is one word that matters to me which I have alluded to but not said and it is seldom used and that word is “happiness”. Maybe it’s a bit childish to suggest that just being ‘happy’ makes for a much better quality of life. Well – it does.

So back to the point, community cohesion (people knowing they are part of something, a neighbourhood an area – a community), active citizenship (people knowing they can become involved in local decision making, place shaping, defining the areas they want to live in, knowing their views are important), community empowerment (people knowing they have access to all the things they need to live the lives they want); all these are the common areas that central Government beleive to be the building blocks of society and are the things the central objectives are looking to address.

Now, take a peek in more detail at what the priorities are from Government:

http://www.culture.gov.uk/about_us/our_priorities_and_targets/default.aspx/

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pbr_csr07_psacommunities.htm

You may also wish to note the following which is a quote from Treasury’s website re PSA 21 regarding DCMS’s delivery agreement – ie what DCMS is doing to ensure they meet the target. (Remember DCMS has a funding agreement with Arts Council England.)

“From the smallest village hall concert, local museums and neighbourhood festivals through to national events, the cultural sector allows people to get involved in the kinds of positive activities that can help to create more active communities. Such active communities can be a key part of enabling people from different backgrounds to interact on an ongoing and equal basis.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has a key role in working with the sporting and cultural sectors to ensure that their contribution to building cohesive, empowered and active communities is fully understood by local partners and is delivered on the ground. This will be achieved by giving young people and adults the opportunity to develop their talents to the full and providing the opportunities to enjoy other talents. More specifically DCMS will:

• continue to invest in and work through its NDPBs (including Sport England, Arts Council England, English Heritage, the Museums Libraries and Archives Council) to help create more cohesive and active communities by increasing cultural and sporting opportunities for people of all backgrounds to mix in a safe environment;

• invest in the essential infrastructure and people, including volunteers, to deliver excellent cultural and sporting opportunities;

• maintain a focus for the department and its partners on narrowing gaps in participation between different groups, working throughout the country to raise the level of activity of those with lower rates of participation. DCMS will do this by setting clear a strategic direction to its partners, providing funding and measuring performance. The national Taking Part survey will measure participation of different groups across culture and sport. The evidence base will be used by DCMS and partners to understand the positive effects on communities and target government investments better at all levels and advocate and encourage partners to share best practice in local and regional provision of culture and sport, in conjunction with the Local Government Association and the Improvement and Development Agency (IdeA).”

And finally – ask yourself:
What is my work in the arts trying to achieve?
How does my work contribute to and align itself with the Central Government targets?
What can I do to make a better case for investment in the arts?

And then “Make it so number 1″. (Jean-Luc Picard)

National Campaign for the Arts – Manifesto

The following is ’stolen’ from our VA England e-news which goes out weekly courtesy of VA England Information & Research Officer Paul Devlin.

The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) is inviting people to contribute to its consultation on the draft Arts Manifesto for the next General Election. The document has been produced after lengthy consultation with interested parties across the UK, including open meetings held in Scotland. The manifesto is not a policy wish list, rather it seeks to articulate a vision for the UK and the arts sector’s place within it.

You can read the draft document at: www.artscampaign.org.uk/info/artselectionmanifestodraft.pdf.

In summary below are the key beliefs and statements.

We believe the future of the UK lies in a highly educated, creative workforce that is innovative and adaptive to change

Sector: The sector needs to develop new, coordinated mechanisms of reaching out to schools and community groups in order to identify and nurture new, home grown talent.
Government: We believe that Government should ensure more and better teacher training in individual art forms and that every primary school teacher has a thorough
grounding in the arts and feels confident enough to provide basic artistic and creative
instruction to their pupils.

We believe that the future of the UK’s economy lies in its capacity to create and innovate.

Sector: The sector must adapt to changing concerns and attitudes about the environment. By striving for carbon neutrality the arts can demonstrate both dynamism and pragmatism and so the sector should look to partner with designers and providers of green technologies, make an effort to adopt greener practices and assess the environmental sustainability of all publicly funded arts capital projects older than five years.
Government: We believe that Government must commit to extending the current length of funding cycles and consider the arts as long term investments. This broader thinking should also extend to focusing funding on ideas and new ways of working, rather than just on organisations, if we are to provide the time and space in which artists can innovate and create.

We believe that a stronger civil society lies in the experiences shared by a community and the opportunity for everyone to get involved.

Sector: The sector must do more to gain the trust and support of its local communities and be more responsive to its audiences. We must recognise that the creators of art are not only the professionals or institutions, but seek to engage all sectors of society across all age ranges.
Government: We believe Government should require all local authorities to focus on culture and the arts within their local strategic plans and to consider the provision of arts and culture in planning policy.

We believe that the United Kingdom’s standing and reputation will be vital to its future success.

Sector: The sector must continue to encourage progressive thinking and a broadness of mind, looking to international cooperation and exchange to ensure that the UK continues to inspire and innovate on the world stage.

Government: We believe Government should commit to sustaining investment in the arts at current levels during the economic down-turn and, once the economy returns to growth, to increase investment at levels comparable to the growth in arts funding over the last decade.

We believe that art has the power to change lives and therefore its contribution to our national life is worth supporting and championing

Sector: The National Campaign for the Arts commits to producing an annual State of the Arts report which will form an evidence base for arts advocacy across the United Kingdom. The first report will be published in September 2010.

Government: We believe Government should develop and implement a plan for arts involvement across all government departments within one year of the General Election.

NCA would then like you to consider the following questions:

• Is the overall vision broadly focused on the right area?
• Is the overall vision suitably ambitious?
• Do the statements of belief address the correct priority areas?
• Are the statements of belief suitably ambitious?
• Do the sector specific challenges address the correct priority areas?
• Are the sector specific challenges suitably ambitious?
• Do the challenges to government address the correct priority areas?
• Are the challenges to government suitably ambitious?
• Do you and/or your organisation feel you will be able to sign up to and support the document?
• Do you have any other comments?

Responses should be submitted by e-mail to: campaigns@artscampaign.org.uk

The Art of Engineering

On Saturday my dog Storm and I took a drive down to the Scarborough area to get him fitted with his “wheels”. His spine is fusing (a recurring condition making it pointless to operate) and this in turn is forcing problems on to the nerves which control his back legs. There was and is of course no reason why getting a wheelchair for him would make any less sense than getting a wheelchair for a human being.

Arriving at the lovely home and workshop of the Dogmobile Company it was interesting to learn about the approach husband and wife team Bob and Angela take towards the design process, and the cathartic effect of the creativity involved.

I was interested to see how something would start out as one thing and with some adaptation or even re-invention would become something totally different.

This is partially due to my fascination with utilising things made for one purpose for a totally different purpose, and how much more interesting things become when pure disciplines work together. (I always decided when I do some more academic study it won’t be at a University, it’ll be at Multi-versity.)

Anyway, point being that all this reminded me to share with you a couple of discoveries of mine which explore the development of what I think are pretty intimidating objects and show what exciting stuff can be created when art meets engineering.

Respect.

http://www.transmutant.co.uk/index.asp

http://www.mutoidwasteevents.co.uk/

http://www.princeton.edu/engineering/news/publications/equad-news/s08/articles/feature.xml?id=651

I won’t apologise for the arts

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6251188.ece

You see now, this is what we’ve been telling people for ages. Mind you I’d quite like to take Kevin by the hand, not only because he played K-Pax and that’s a cool enough reason, but also to ask him to tell EVERYONE that the person on the street can not and will never be able to appreciate the art of others until they have an understanding of, or a chance to express that of their own.

Our arts may be the envy of the world, a few trips to the states will prove that, however we may be a little in danger of resting on our publicly funded laurels.

Sometimes I feel the sector is too ready to believe their own (our own) propaganda. Too quick to say ‘didn’t we do well’. Obviously we can’t go around saying ‘we’re rubbish’, but a more measured opinion (a bit like Mr Spacey’s) wouldn’t go a miss every now and then.

Magical Digital

Watching the film “The Hunt For Gollum” sent to me by our very bright Daniel Carpenter in the Link Office http://is.gd/wAoN
I was excited and heartened to learn that “The Hunt For Gollum” is an “unofficial not for profit short film by a group of enthusiast filmmakers.”

The people who made the film go on to explain; “As a Lord of the Rings Fan Film, we are not affiliated with the Tolkien Estate or New Line Cinema and are producing this project as an entirely non commercial film. As with other fan films we are making this purely for the enjoyment of the material and the experience of making a high quality low budget film.”

Now, I’ve seen a few so-called ‘fan-films’ but have to say – this one is truly the best example I’ve ever seen. But it got me thinking…

As more and more people embrace the potential of digital technologies – I ask the question – where, amongst all of the voluntary arts umbrella bodies that we work (representing 9.4 million people), are the people representing this vast area of digital activity?

I know from personal experience that once I start using my computer for creative purposes I drift off into a world of isolation (or pure bliss as I prefer to call it).

BUT I also know that at the same time – you guys are out there doing loads of creative things in groups that could perhaps benefit from a little support or recognition or even funding?

So come on – let me know if you exist? The search is on for groups of people using digital technology creatively. Tell us if you are creating work collectively and where and how you’re sharing it. I’d be really psyched if you come back to me with hundreds of organisations and prove to the uninitiated that we who quite like the digital world are not all anti-social people locked away in our world of “The Big Bang theory” and especially the episode called “Talk Nerdy to Me”.

Know this also – that the Arts Council is embarking on a number of key initiatives too:
• a major three-year programme of research examining public engagement, digital markets and the development of digital artforms
• encouraging digital innovation through new partnerships such as Channel 4’s 4IP initiative
• championing the arts in national debates about media policy before digital switchover in 2012
• building the digital capacity of staff and regularly funded organisations; sharing knowledge and best practice

Future opportunities are in the fibre optic pipeline perhaps?

Talk the Talk

Today is the 16^th April. It’s a reflective moment for me to think about a forthcoming meeting on 20^th April 2009. This is the first of a number of ‘forum’ meetings which are set to take place with Arts Council England. It’s an opportunity to bring to you, the people who care about arts participation and voluntary and amateur arts exactly that which you have all been telling us you need… an opportunity to talk through the issues affecting your particular art form or craft.

I look forward to seeing those of you who can make it on the April 20^th date, but don’t worry if you can’t there will be annual opportunities to meet with the strategic directors and CEO of ACE, and I’ll keep sending you the invitations to attend as they come up.

In the meantime below are a few of the agenda items as suggested by those attending the next meeting which will be discussed on the 20^th. Perhaps you’d like to give your views, share your thoughts and experiences about what the issues below mean to you?

 

1. Valuing Amateur Arts Leaders and Practitioners

 

Whilst understanding and appreciating the usefulness of involving professionals, there is too often a requirement that they must be involved and paid a professional rate – which can take a high proportion of any grant offered. This issue needs to firstly be acknowledged by policy makers, and then by the major regional decision makers.

Without wishing to denigrate professionals, there are a huge number of very proficient and inspiring amateurs who are willing to contribute for smaller fees and/or just expenses. 

 

a)    What is your current experience with regard to involving professional artists in your amateur/voluntary arts events?

 

b)    Is there an unfair demand or expectation?

 

c)     How do we strike a balance of working across paid/ unpaid/ professional/ amateur remits?

 

d)    What role do the venues and regularly funded organisations of the Arts Council have in this?

2. Strategic support

 

Very often amateur groups need relatively small sums of money to maintain basic services, such as communication and volunteer expenses. Whilst directed toward supporting arts activities, these sums are not always art-activity specific and therefore do not always fit wider grant criteria. A funding programme for this strategic support and development would be very useful I suspect for many amateur arts groups. 

 

a)    Where should support for this type of activity come from?  

 

b)    Is it an issue of semantics and a case of not knowing where to put certain types of expenditure? And therefore is training needed in how to make better grant applications?

 

c)     What role do support organisations and grant givers have in helping organisations access funding?

 

d)    What improvements could be made to grant giving in order to ensure generic activities are supported?

 

e)    How do you (or should you) measure ‘return on investment’ when supporting, for example volunteer expenses as compared to say audiences?

 

                                                3. Great art for everyone

Yes, I’ve deliberately taken the emphasis off the ‘great’ word and placed it on the word ‘for’.

We all know the arts are hugely subjective, what one person deems to be ‘great’ (whoever that person may be), another person thinks is positively mediocre.

Arts Council England tells us

“Our ambition is to put the arts at the heart of national life and people at the heart of the arts. Our aim is for everyone in the country to have the opportunity to develop a rich and varied artistic and creative life. We will ensure that more high-quality work reaches a wider range of people – engaging them as both audience and participants. We will support artists and arts organisations to take creative risks and follow new opportunities.” Source: www.artscouncil.org.uk accessed 16^th April 2009.

a)    What do you think about the idea of ‘great art for everyone’?

b)    Where arts participation is concerned, is too much attention given to using the ‘qualitative’ argument? Is it used to relegate public, amateur and voluntary arts practice to a, ‘less than acceptable’ standard or is it ensuring we drive up the arts ‘experience’ for everyone?  

c)     How does the amateur/ voluntary arts sector contribute to ‘great’ art for everyone and the excellence agenda? Do you have examples of ‘great’ art?

 

4. Arts participation and Wellbeing

 

We are all aware of the mass of evidence that exists in the arts and ‘healthcare’ arena. What is perhaps less known is the wider, more holistic role the arts can play in the wellbeing agenda, and specifically where people on the margins of society are concerned. A ‘well’ society is one that cares for its elders, it’s infirm, it’s ‘less capable’ etc. Arts participation and creative expression unlock processes in the human psycho-spiritual self. This in turn can help ‘balance’ return. Balance on both an emotional and physiological level.

 

 

a)    How can we improve the health and well being of people through active participation in painting?  Especially those in care homes, hospices, hospitals day centres and one to one in people’s homes, through the use of tested methods and the use of staff and volunteers.

 

b)    How can we capture credible, robust evidence from this (as many people’s health records for example are confidential)?

 

c)     What role should the media play in pushing the concept of arts and wellbeing?

 

d)    Is it all just ‘a placebo effect’?

 I’m also interested to hear your thoughts on the topics below, which we’ll also cover in the forthcoming meeting.

Arts Education

Working together to increase participation

Opportunities in the Cultural Olympiad

Building Schools for the future

Empty Shops – using unused spaces for the arts – see: http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=398607&NewsAreaID=2

Now you’ve seen what we’ll be discussing, are we ‘way off the mark’? Is there another burning issue you want us to tackle? Let me know.