Creative & Connected: 2 Conference Broadway Cinema, Nottingham - Friday 30th March 2012 How can we work together to develop a cohesive arts and cultural offer for all children and young people in the East Midlands? Context What was the conference for? The Creative & Connected: 2 Conference provided the first opportunity for the region’s arts and cultural sector to come together to shape how this work will develop over the next 3 years. It followed a successful event in Derby in November 2011 that looked at the impact of Creative Partnerships. Creative & Connected: 2 aimed to help build a shared ambition for high quality arts and cultural work with, by and for children and young people. TMC also used the day to listen and learn about the many challenges and opportunities that organisations and freelance professionals are facing in the new and changing landscape. Who was the conference aimed at? The conference was marketed to staff and volunteers from arts and cultural organisations and creative practitioners who work with, or are interested in working with, children and young people: • Arts Council England National Portfolio (NPO) organisations • Non-NPO arts organisations • The museum and library sectors • Freelance artists • Creative and cultural practitioners • Chief Executives • Board members • Participation coordinators • Education officers • Programmers Attendance 89 people attended the conference with an additional total of 30 including the speakers, workshop facilitators and TMC staff giving a total of 129 attendees on the day. The full attendance list is included as an appendix to this report. A dedicated conference website was set up where presentations, website links and notes and recommendations from workshops have been compiled. The website address is www.cc2conference.squarespace.com Photographs were taken during the event by Jo Wheeler. Overview of programme with key recommendations Keynotes
Richard Clark - Chief Executive - The Mighty Creatives Richard opened the conference with a presentation centred on a paper called The Cultural Life of the Child. Vince Attwood, Jenna Forbes & Curtis Clacey - Soft Touch Arts, Leicester Vince and Jenna outlined the work of Soft Touch highlighting examples of good practice relating to leadership opportunities for young people. Curtis performed an entertaining rap interacting with the audience. Workshop programme Artsmark and Arts Award Facilitated by: Martha Toogood and Wenna Stockdale - Arts Learning East Midlands (ALEM) This workshop shared the early findings of the initial data gathering that will culminate in a ‘State of the Region’ report, and open discussion on the key areas for future collaboration and development. Recommendations: • Communication between the two themes needs to be improved to allow for a more clear and consistent message. • Strong emphasis on the development of relationships between both current and new schools looking to join the programmes. • A need for proactive, arts organisations supporting the award to pursue goals and outcomes, ensuring that young people and schools recognise the benefits of completing the schemes. • For arts providers to be given clear opportunities to support and promote the schemes (including support though funding). Bridge Intelligence Facilitated by: Karen Birch - The Mighty Creatives Elly Fletcher - Focus Consultants Part of TMC’s Bridge role is an annual intelligence gathering exercise to understand the lives of children and young people in the region, identify gaps in provision and the key issues to support the development of a demand led, coherent arts offer for young people. This workshop shared the early findings of the initial data gathering that will culminate in a ‘State of the Region’ report, and open discussion on the key areas for future collaboration and development. Recommendations: • Effective partnerships between libraries, museums, schools and arts organisations are essential so that they may offer consistent support for young people. • Advice and support required on how new effective connections can be made between practitioners, organisations and young people - where are the gaps/opportunities for new participants? • Greater need for access to information regarding what others are currently doing and where expert advise is available to provide support at every stage. • New mechanisms to be put in place to engage freelancers and individual practitioners rather than just larger organisations - possible opportunities for more partnership working. • Look more closely at the possible effectiveness of ‘cultural hubs’ similar to the current music models to be used in other art forms. • Placing greater focus on trust for young people to make their own decisions. Aim to provide them with better tools, to build confidence and promote active learning (see Lincoln Drill Hall for best practice) Henley Review of Cultural Education
Facilitated by: Sarah Bailey - The Mighty Creatives This workshop provided an overview of the key recommendations made in the Henley review and the response by the Government and other strategic bodies and looked at how the arts and cultural sector can act together as a result of the recommendations in the report. Recommendations: • Can it be fun? • Continued involvement in decision making. We need to have a voice so that is works. Us – practitioners (ensure diversity and equality here), organisations. Concern about top-down decisions. Pressure on us = pressure on young people in practice. • A voice from the bottom-up. At no point has anyone mentioned talking to the young people in Henley. E.g. digital. What would the report look like written by young people? • Integrated methodology. Let’s not put culture in a corner. Creativity can be used across the board (let’s remember the positive parts of CP). E.g. Arts in maths – maths in arts. • Important of locality – make sure the local voice is heard – it will vary region to region. One size doesn’t fit all. • Funding – who pays? How are the recommendations supported financially on a local level? Local Government Commissioning Facilitated by: Kate Duncan - City Arts This workshop explored the opportunities and challenges strategic commissioning presents for arts and cultural organisations and practitioners. Recommendations: • Systems are currently too complex and causing frustration, expecially in the current climate while everything seems to be on hold. Information needs to be clearer and opportunities for practitioners to apply for commissions etc needs to be more readily available. • The building of consortia and opportunities for self employed practitioners/small organisations to share support and resources is essential - ‘be part of bigger bid’. • Sharing of information regarding contacting commissioners/ experiences when applying for commissons/ concerns about the process etc. • Price and unit cost of commissions are more realistic - ensuring projects are viable for practitioners. Creating and Sustaining Opportunities & Pathways for Young People Facilitated by: Pat Thomson - University of Nottingham Simon Hollingsworth - Lincoln Drill Hall Providing access and opportunities for young people to experience arts and cultural activity is an essential part of our work. A greater challenge is to provide sustained opportunities that provide pathways into education, training and employment. The stimulus for this workshop came from presentations on developing young people’s leadership opportunities and pathways into University education. Recommendations: • A digital collaborative resource (website or app) is urgently needed: where by knowledge about pathways available could be shared and young people given the chance to offer advice directly to one another as well as from practitioners and educators. It was felt that the TMC would be an excellent organisation to support and guide such a resource. • The current curriculum and grading system is far too complicated: causing confusion and frustration: What does a level 2 in bricklaying actually mean? Parents, young
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people, educational institutions and employers all need guidance and support when it comes to making sense of qualifications etc. Active steps need to be taken to simplify this, allowing for greater understanding and transparency. Trusting our capable young people: A greater commitment is needed from organisations and practitioners to take a more active role in directly involving young people in the day-to-day running and decision-making processes; listening to their advice and ideas and creating the opportunity to discover genuine talents and abilities. It was acknowledged that the arts are consistently an excellent way of engaging even the most vulnerable and disruptive young people and that discovering a young person’s talent is the best way to secure a more stable future
Digital Technology Facilitated by: John Tobin & Andy Batson - Broadway Cinema Matt Trivett - Digital Artist and Producer This workshop explored how the arts and cultural sector can make digital technology an integral part of working with and for young people to create and experience art and culture. The workshop referenced innovative examples of current practice and explored the possibilities that are emerging for future work. Recommendations: • Recognising and optimising all the fantastic knowledge and experience that already exists in the sector. • Development of knowledge sharing and accessibility and encouragement of ‘active’ information - cascading down though organisations and networks. • Every network to have a clear purpose that is mission-led and understood by everyone involved. • A greater approach to mutual benefit with partners ‘investing’ in the development of networks. Partnerships and Networks Facilitated by: Kev Ryan - EMPAF & Charnwood Arts Vince Atwood - Soft Touch Arts Anna-Marie Whitaker-Johnson - Arts Learning East Midlands The importance of networks and partnership working are more crucial than ever in the current climate of financial uncertainty and strategic and organisational change. Keeping informed, developing new ideas, shared visions and goals, making unusual connections, sharing knowledge, skills and resources, joint bidding for funding and increased capacity are just some of the benefits. This workshop explored how we can build on the strengths of existing networks and partnerships to develop a cohesive arts and cultural offer for children and young people across the region. Recommendations: • Inclusion and accessibility • Mission driven with shared outcomes - Clear Purpose – people being clear why they are there and what they are getting out of it. • Mutuality/Equality – everyone benefits as a driving principle • Active (shared) Information – accessible and made available in an active way to people at all levels of engagement not just leads/gatekeepers.