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June/July/August 2009
arts work with people
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ARTWO E RK BACK C ON OVER
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If Walls Could Talk • The art of political process Streetwise Opera • Homeless people sing out Don’t Drink the Water • Community Theatre Mexican style Something to do this summer • Hijinx Theatre’s Unity Festival
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June/July/August 2009
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Contents
SUBSCRIPTIONS One year (four issues including p&p) individuals £20 voluntary & not-for-profit £27 public sector/commercial organisations £38 discounts for multiples
Letter from the editor Your mailout Surf’s up Artman Ear to the ground Courses conferences & events Funding Calipso
Cheques payable to mailout ADVERTISING RATES Vol/not-for profit organisations: full page £230, 1/2 page £150, 1/4 page £90 Commercial/corporate/statutory: full page: £350, 1/2 page £230, 1/4 page £150 10% discount on series of three inserts Web advertising by arrangement Booking deadline 09 Augustl 2008 MAILOUT IS: Published by mailout Trust Limited Editors: Rob Howell & Sue Robinson Funding editor: Julian Dunn e-mailout editor: Jules Cadie Administration: Ruth Coe
REGULARS 3 4 4 5 6 34 35 35
COLUMNS Talking through the arts Paul Kelly tackles Local Government arts development Clipout How to get the best out of an empty shop Review Jane Hetherington on Arts and Communities – the Journal
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FEATURES Arts Council Reorganisation Phyllida Shaw provides the long view PlAAy Amy Cham on shops, cockroaches and international art If Walls Could Talk Ros Small on the Art of a Political Process
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Arts and regeneration Julian Dunn defines Hard to Reach Groups Creative Carers Caroline Wright and a story of development, journey and endeavour in Suffolk. Working with Women’s Aid Thames Valley Partnership’s work with vulnerable groups Streetwise Opera Matt Peacock celebrates the progress of a homeless people’s Opera company Empty Shops Network Dan Thompson presents a pick and mix of creative uses for empty shops Don’t Drink the Water Tony Horitz on community theatre in Mexico Arts and agriculture Sjoerd Wagenaar on community, art and agriculture in The Netherlands Contact get Co-operative Young people, djs and an empty Coop Something to do this summer Hijinx theatre tackle festivals and employment rights for learning disabled actors Arts and Communities Journal: the story Huw Champion on the background of a new journal
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Designer: Richard Honey, dg3 Printer: Creative Copy ‘n’ Colour COVER: Main photo – Hijinx Theatre: Scene from ‘Miss Brown to You’ Thumbnail – Heart Close, Nathan Bean. In Pop-Up Gallery, Worthing mailout is the national magazine for people developing participation in the arts. The Mailout Trust aims to promote and advance the practice, understanding and profile of high-quality participatory arts in the UK. ISSN 0959 0013 The Mailout Trust Ltd is a Company Ltd by Guarantee. Registered in England No. 5252801 Mill Barn, Clowne Road, Barlborough S43 4EN
Letter from the editors Sometimes the best way to understand the present is to look at the past. In this issue of mailout we look back at an article from 18 years ago on Arts Council reorganisation with an update from the same author, (page 10). Mailout’s age and experience uniquely allow us to do this – to take the long view. Whilst on this subject back in December 2007 we wrote the following in our letter: “Somewhere in the north of England there is an urban arts and regeneration project in receipt of European money. It does its best to meet ambitious outputs; it ducks and weaves its way through rules, regulations and expectations. It has a budget of £20k and employs two part time freelancers. It has to provide evidence of spend every quarter. One quarter it didn’t provide enough evidence for £1.96. A letter was sent to the project asking for the evidence. The worker and the finance manager spent thirty minutes trying to understand the problem. Most reasonable people don’t care about
such small sums. It went downhill from there. The project worker was summoned to a meeting about the quality of her monitoring. She had to explain the origins of the £1.96, (96p for stamps, £1.00 to a volunteer to pay for their bus journey home, no evidence of a ticket but the £1.00 was signed for). This was not good enough. They required proof that the 96p was real expenditure and the actual bus ticket. The worker banged her head against the wall, then the desk, then the floor and pointed out the conversation alone had cost far more and aren’t there more important things to worry about? This did not shift the monitoring people. The evidence had to be found….” For the record and in the interests of openness your editors receive, in addition to a fee, adequate expenses of £60.00, inc.VAT plus mileage per issue of this magazine. As we write this sat below our patio heater staring at the swans on our cleaned moat we are safe in the knowledge that the mortgage is paid mortgage is paid and the ducks are housed.
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YOUR MAILOUT
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This is your magazine and it is here to reflect what is happening in the participatory arts sector; to inspire its readers with new ideas, put people in touch with others and to save you reinventing the wheel every time you’re about to develop a new project. We look at policy and strategy as well as the nuts and bolts of developing arts work with people.
Did you know you can now subscribe to mailout magazine on-line? Just visit our website at www.e-mailout.org and follow the links on the home page How do you feel about cuts in Local and you can start Government budgets? Have you your subscription claimed only for your costs, or all you instantly. feel entitled to? Do you want to be the Fourth Plinth? Do you harbour a secret wish to run your own shopthere’s plenty out there to play with. Are you optimistic for the future? What role can the sector play in campaigning for the arts and ensuring a future for itself when belts are tight? In the early 1980s Mailout was a campaigning magazine in times of limited arts funding and social unrest. How will culture respond to this recession? We can only reflect what we see; we can only help inspire others if you help us shout about your ground
breaking initiative: we can only put people in touch with you if you raise your head above the page. We need to know what you’re working on; what is inspiring you; what is getting under your skin and making you want to shout and scream? We’re always on the look out for new voices, new projects and new opinions. We don’t just publish articles, we have room for pictures and cartoons, ideas and news. We are a place to tell others about your training event or conference and a place for you to have a rant. We want your creative shop stories. Send us a picture, tell us what you did. Have a free art work you want to donate to the back page? Send it in. We can link it to our website.
your creative building owned by you, or imposed on you? How to contribute > Write a letter > Comment on a past issue > Send us a news item > Write us an article > Suggest a topic for clipout > Draw us a cartoon > Write an article > Suggest an interviewee Our contributor guidelines are available on the e-mailout website. We look forward to hearing from you.a editor@e-mailout.org
APOLOGIES:
We’re here to reflect, but to help inspire you we’re keen to cover identity and a sense of place in the following issues. Did you take part in Made in England? Are you new to the Uk and trying to get your voice heard above the din of negative media?. Is
Rebecca Lee’s article Rural Arts Networking in the East Midlands in the last issue was originally commissioned by and appeared in ArtsProfessional magazine. www.artsprofessional.co.uk
www.fusioncommunityarts.co.uk www.hilton-foundation.org.uk www.hlf.org.uk www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals www.investinpoole.com www.jrct.org.uk. www.knittaplease.com www.lankellychase.org.uk www.living-places.org.uk www.locationpoole.com www.media-box.co.uk www.mysecretheart.co.uk www.nalgao.org www.nklaap.com/heiPeople.html www.nominettrust.org.uk www.peergroup.nl www.plaay.co.uk www.rotherham.gov.uk
www.sitatrust.org.uk www.streetwiseopera.org www.suffolkartlink.org.uk www.takingpartinthearts.com www.thamesvalleypartnership.org.uk www.thebeautifuljourney.com www.thebristolfestival.org www.artscampaign.org.uk www.tudortrust.org.uk www.voluntaryarts.org www.wildworks.biz www.womensaid.org.uk www.wren.org.uk
Surf’s up We’ve listed here some of the web addresses listed in this issue of mailout. Why not have a random surf. You may find something you otherwise wouldn’t have thought of. Links to all these sites are also on the e-mailout web site: www.e-mailout.org
www.actionfactory.org www.allenlane.org.uk www.artistsandmakers.com www.artscouncil.org.uk/actiononrec ession www.artswales.org.uk www.awardsforall.org.uk www.boroughofpoole.com www.cabe.org www.can.uk.com www.comicrelief.com www.communities.gov.uk www.contact-theatre.org www.contentsmayvary.org/ www.creativeclusters.com www.danthompson.co.uk www.facelessco.com/quest www.firstlightmovies.com
The days of individual arts officers benevolently supporting worthy arts initiatives are long gone Write a rant they said. But Local Government officers are better, I think, at lamenting than ranting. It would be easy to chart the last decade of Local Government arts services as one of slow decline and waning influence. But in fact it’s a very mixed picture. Arts services in small authorities have been vulnerable. Nalgao has charted the loss of over 50 Local Authority Arts officers and a smaller number of authorities have cut their arts services completely. And the last phase of Local Government reorganisation, that crept in almost unseen to most on 1 April – the merger of a number of small District Councils – into single Unitary Authorities – will inevitably lead to the loss of more arts officers as District posts go and smaller teams established in bigger organisations. But a smaller number of big Local Authorities have been in expansive and innovative mode; Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester and Birmingham, to name a few, are all major players in the arts with significant and in some cases growing budgets. And some, Liverpool is a leading example, are managing to place arts at the centre of mainstream and better resourced services like children’s services and health.
Artman
The fall out from the credit crunch and the ensuing recession is doubtless going to affect this to a degree. But how hairy the hair shirts will be is hard to judge at this point. Local Authorities per se are changing and will continue to change and that is driven by a number of factors – finance and government, local politics and managers trying to wring more bucks from their budget through efficiency savings. The result has, in some quarters, resulted in a continuous cycle of restructuring – a circle of change that is anything but virtuous and that can be as confusing and wearing for staff as for clients and customers. Apart from the inevitability of more change, the future from here looks uncertain. It’s as if this isn’t really 2009, but 1939. The storm clouds are gathering, we are in a phoney war, only this one is economic. Everyone is expecting something dramatic to happen, something to collapse. So far it hasn’t, but it’s anticipated. We just don’t know where or when. Let me outline one or two potential changes and also some more positive developments. There will be an election within a year. If the Conservatives win they have pledged to strengthen the powers of local
“In addition, if the Conservatives implement the recommendations in Sir John Tusa’s ‘A new Landscape’ report, they will also remove the largest arts clients from Arts Council control and hand them to the DCMS. Some say that could involve the top 50 ACE clients. That could leave Alan Davey’s impending ACE restructure in tatters.”
government. This might sound positive, but the proposals include allowing residents to veto ‘high council taxes’ and instigate local referendums on local issues. You don’t like your arts centre? Think your theatre is costing too much? Call a referendum and cut its budget! In addition, if the Conservatives implement the recommendations in Sir John Tusa’s ‘A new Landscape’ report, they will also remove the largest arts clients from Arts Council control and hand them to the DCMS. Some say that could involve the top 50 ACE clients. That could leave Alan Davey’s impending ACE restructure in tatters. Strategically, that might require ACE to focus more on local arts delivery and development. Meanwhile an alliance between ID&eA – the Local Government improvement agency – nalgao and the LGA is pushing a service improvement agenda. This might sound dry and dusty and a million miles from the sort of hands-on engagement beloved of community activists. But it is vital to showing politicians at local and national levels the impact that arts and cultural activities have at grassroots level. The days of individual arts officers in Local Government benevolently supporting worthy arts initiatives are long gone. If the positive impact of cultural activities had been properly measured 20 years ago, some of the cuts and contractions in Local Government arts services might have been avoided. Paul Kelly Paul Kelly was member of nalgao’s Executive Committee for 10 years. He is Editor of their magazine ‘Arts at the Heart’ and Lectures in Arts and Event Management at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth.
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TALKING THROUGH THE ARTS
>> DISASTROUS ACT
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EAR TO THE GROUND
In 2008 Lord Clement-Jones, the Liberal Democrat Spokesman for Culture Media and Sport in the House of Lords wrote a piece for Mailout on the Licencing act. He firmly believes that it has been a disaster for live music. Commenting on the recent Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee report on the Licensing Act, which recommended an exemption for certain performances of live music, he said: “The conclusions of this report are welcome and support what the Liberal Democrats have been saying for a long time.
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Scarecrows top of the crop A series of scarecrow-esque figures that appeared overnight in various locations in Kent has won a top art award. ‘Hei People’ has won the prestigious Rouse Kent Public Art Award 2009 which is awarded every two years by Kings Hill developer Liberty Property Trust UK Ltd and Kent County Council for the best new piece of public art created in the county.’Hei People’ was created as a series of three site-specific temporary installations by Reijo Kela, and comprised a total of 646 dressed scarecrow-like figures made from straw, wood and dirt which appeared in three locations – in a wheatfield at Barrett’s Folly Farm in Shorne; at Fort Amherst in Chatham and at Cowstead Farm on the Isle of Sheppey. Early in the morning and late at night the figures appeared motionless but in
daylight they ‘came alive’ and with the setting sun presented a bright and joyous picture. When the wind blew, their hay hair and clothes flapped rhythmically as if they had suddenly sprung to life. The project website www.nklaap.com/heiPeople.html continues to receive over 500 viewings a month. The award attracted 28 entries and to be eligible to enter the works had to be made for, and sited, in a public space in the county of Kent to which the public has free access; be the work of a professional artist; have been completed between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2009; and highlight the important contribution of commissioned artworks to quality public spaces and to place-making.
Fusion Community Arts provide free of charge, participatory arts activities for children and young people across the borough of Pendle in Pennine Lancashire. Fusion Community Arts was set up in April 2008 by parents concerned about the lack of free / low cost, high quality, arts activities for young people in the area. The organisation has recently been granted funding from The Lottery’s “Awards for All” scheme (£10,000) and the Community Foundation for Lancashire’s “Grassroots Grants” scheme (£5,000). This money will allow them to keep the regular groups going for another 12 months and also to add on additional activities right across Pendle. www.fusioncommunityarts.co.uk
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ear to the ground>>
“Despite government promises at the time of its introduction that it would lead to an explosion in live music, the Licensing Act has been a total disaster.”
Fusion Community Arts
Arts and well-being evaluation toolkit available! Arts Pulse, the 2007–2008 Arts in Health project run by Rotherham MBC Community Arts, (Arts in Health) has produced an Evaluation toolkit. The toolkit is designed to help community groups and workers to evaluate projects designed to improve well-being and health. It is easy to use and includes templates that can be downloaded and photocopied. To download the template go to Rotherham’s Arts in Health page, part of the community arts pages on the Rotherham gov website or go to: http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/graphics/Leisure/Commu nity+Arts/Arts+in+Health.htm. ArtsPulse worked with 6 groups, A parent & toddler group, a mixed youth group, a teenage girls group, an older persons group and 2 mental health groups. For more information contact: Rhiannon Lister-Coburn, Arts in Health Officer, 01709 823637 rhiannon.lister-coburn@rotherham.gov.uk
The Taking Part survey asked nearly 29,000 adults (aged 16+) in England about their arts attendance and participation. It is the biggest ever survey on arts engagement in England. The survey sample was been specially designed to be representative of the population, including people in every region, from every type of social group. The Arts Council is confident that the findings in this briefing are an accurate reflection of attendance and participation in music in England. The combined reach of music through either attendance or participation is 39% of the English population. In comparison with other arts events, attendance at ‘other live music’ events is relatively high (fourth highest after cinema, musicals/pantomime and play/drama). As for active participation, playing a musical instrument for own pleasure is among the more popular arts activities alongside textile crafts (13%), creating computer art/animation (12%) and painting/drawing (12%). At present the majority of the English adult population have no encounters with the professional music sector; and those few that do attend tend to do so relatively infrequently. Also those taking part in musical activities represent a very small minority.
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TAKING PART SUMMARY (music) <<
‘yarnbombing’ Knitters turn to graffiti artists Knitters around the world have begun wrapping their huge woolly creations around public property like trees, street signs and lampposts. They then take photos of their art and post them on internet sites for fellow knitters to view and comment on. The phenomenon, called Yarnbombing, is thought to have originated in the US but knitters are now beginning to cover British streets in woollen ‘tags’. Let mailout know if you spot one. For more info: www.knittaplease.com
There are a number of barriers preventing people from attending music events or participating in musical activities. Some of these appear to be primarily practical in nature, such as poor health and fewer opportunities to attend opera, classical music and jazz outside London. Others, however, appear to be more attitudinal in nature. For example, the persisting low levels of opera, classical music and jazz attendance among those of lower social status, lower educational level and nonwhite ethnic background suggests that these types of music events are not seen to be relevant or accessible to a majority of the population. This is backed up by findings from the arts debate, which showed that a large number of people believe that the arts are ‘not for people like me’. A range of different strategies are therefore required if we are to overcome both the practical and attitudinal barriers to engagement with music. The full report can be found at: www.takingpartinthearts.com
Streetwise Opera wins Royal << Philharmonic Society Music Award On 12th May 2009 at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards Streetwise Opera was presented with the Audience Development Award in partnership with Classic FM. The Award is in recognition of Streetwise Opera’s latest production My Secret Heart which is enjoying a world tour and will be seen by an estimated 80–100,000 people worldwide. Streetwise Opera uses music as a tool to help homeless people move forward in their lives through a weekly music programme running in 11 homeless centres around the UK and an annual production that involves top professionals working with Streetwise performers. Streetwise Opera commissioned electronic composer Mira Calix and video artists Flat-e create My Secret Heart, a century-leaping music and film installation starring 101 Streetwise Opera performers from London, Luton, Nottingham, Newcastle and Middlesbrough.
Based on Miserere Mei, Allegri’s haunting 17th-century choral masterpiece, My Secret Heart exists as a touring 50minute installation and 7-minute film. The installation and film now tour to around 40 festivals and venues worldwide. On receiving the RPS Award, Matt Peacock, Founder and CEO of Streetwise Opera, said: ‘It is a massive honour to receive this award – Streetwise Opera is proving that the arts can be a fundamental part of the support of homeless people and that productions can be of equal artistic and social merit. This award is testament to the dedication of the staff, trustees, the vision of our funders and most of all the courage and inspiration of our performers.’ For further information, please contact: Matt Peacock, Streetwise Opera Tel: 020 7495 3133 mp@streetwiseopera.org
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>> INDESIT SUPPORT
ENCOURAGES YOUNG PEOPLE TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES THROUGH FILM
Peterborough-based Indesit Company has announced it is supporting a community project in Peterborough run by the City Council’s Young People’s Service, which encourages young people in the city to flex their directorial muscles and express their creativity and insight in their community through the medium of film. The Film in the Community project, part of a wider service to contribute to young people’s personal and social development, encourages young people to produce short films linked to the theme of ‘my community’. Allowing their voices to be heard, the project also provides the
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Amadou & Mariam & BWO © Shaw & Shaw
opportunity to develop communication skills and experience working as a team. Run by Peterborough City Council’s young people’s service, which works with people aged 14–19 across the city, the project specifically targets areas with high levels of disadvantaged or disaffected young people. Indesit Company is providing crucial funding to the project which will enable the purchase of new filming equipment and allow more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get involved. The films will also be entered into the Young People’s Film Awards which takes place on 13 July 2009. For enquiries: Emma Fountain, Indesit Company Emma.fountain@indesit.com + 44 780 172 4888
The Beating Wing Orchestra – a unique partnership between Community Arts North West and the Manchester International Festival The Beating Wing Orchestra will perform in the Pavilion Theatre on July 7th and 8th as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival. They are currently collaborating with global superstars Amadou and Mariam to produce a rich fusion of musical styles based on the Malian duo’s existing catalogue for these events.
LIVING PLACES TOOLKIT
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>> More info : www.artscouncil.org.uk/actiononrecession
The Orchestra formed in 2007 when Community Arts North West (CAN) were commissioned by the Festival to create a ‘refugee orchestra’. CAN targeted established musicians from both refugee and host communities and the original line-up of the Beating Wing was 12 musicians, six of whom came from refugee backgrounds. The Orchestra worked intensively with the highly-respected composer/singer Reem Kelani, undertaking a series of devising workshops and rehearsals in early 2007, developed by CAN as part of the Exodus refugee arts programme. Each member of the group was able to contribute aspects of their
Arts Council England Town Centre Initiative ACE have set aside £500,000 of Lottery income as a fund to which artists can apply for grants to help them carry out artistic activities in empty shops made available to them through the scheme. ACE are talking to the government departments involved to determine the best way for the scheme to be administered, so that it can ensure the quality of the art that is funded.
The Culture and Sport Planning Toolkit is a practical source of information and advice for all practitioners involved in culture and planning. This toolkit brings together a combination of existing and new tools to incorporate planning for culture and sport into new and existing developments. Culture and sport planning is an integral part of creating and sustaining new and developing communities. This toolkit provides a planled and plan-together process for addressing
culture and delivering cultural and sporting resources through planning for culture and sport. The toolkit is primarily aimed at planning and regeneration professionals working in regional and local authorities, private sector consultancies, developers, housebuilders and infrastructure providers. Cultural, leisure and sports officers in local authorities and delivery agencies will also find this toolkit useful.
own cultural heritage leading to the development of a unique, eclectic sound. CAN is still highly instrumental in supporting the development of the group, helping the orchestra become formally constituted and offering support in capacity-building. With this support the Orchestra is becoming successful in developing its own funding streams. CAN continues to offer practical support and advice in addition to its role in facilitating the empowerment of the Orchestra. However, the key partner in this relationship is now the orchestra itself, who are taking an increasingly significant role in deciding their own future development. Amadou and Mariam and the Beating Wing Orchestra, Pavilion Theatre, Albert Square, Manchester. 7th & 8th July, 8pm, £9 – £16.50 For more information: www.can.uk.com
As the toolkit aims to support the sustainable communities’ agenda, it will also benefit a wide range of interested non-professionals and organisations working in the built environment and the community including third sector community groups, local partnerships and service providers. For information: www.livingplaces.org.uk/culture-and-sport-planningtoolkit/about-the-toolkit
New report says “honest dialogue” the way << to deal with community tension A change of thinking is needed on multi culturalism and community cohesion. Many attempts at improving community relations have failed because they have not properly involved the people they have sought to bring together, contends a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT). With the recession increasing fears about tensions in Britain’s towns and neighbourhoods, Combining Diversity with Common Citizenship, concludes that these attempts have often been dogged by misunderstandings and a lack of clarity about race and cohesion issues. These tensions have been exacerbated by the larger than anticipated economic migration from the new EU States, the poor handling of the needs and presence of refugees and asylum seekers and the discovery that a small number of British born Muslims, far from becoming well integrated into
society, have been attracted to extremist causes. The report proposes that giving people the chance to honestly confront their differences and address these issues head on – in a way that recognises diversity, but embraces common citizenship – is the best way to begin to resolve the resulting tensions. The report is based on an exploration of issues in towns and cities in the north of England, and written from the author’s unique perspective as a local government officer with a history of developing community cohesion initiatives in a northern town. Mike Waite, the report’s author, commented: “Since the disturbances in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in 2001, lots of groups and individuals have been working hard to improve community relations in England’s northern towns and cities. Sadly, despite their positive intent, many of these initiatives have failed because the people from the
communities concerned have not Forthcoming issues been given enough opportunities to of mailout will be talk openly with each other. exploring identity and sense of place. “We found that in the few cases where Please contact edicommunities have been allowed to tor@e-mailout.org if create a context which allows ‘difficult you wish to submit conversations’ to take place it is showan article. ing signs of breaking down barriers and bringing people together. This honest dialogue will not only help with the social management of community relations, but could have a positive effect in building up civic skills and a stronger social sense of shared stake, belonging and citizenship, with benefit to the quality of democratic life.” The JRCT report is based on the particular circumstances of the towns of north western England but will have general lessons for policy makers and local authorities across the country. For more information about JRCT and copies of the report visit: www.jrct.org.uk.
>> CREATIVE CABINS IN POOLE Creative Cabins is a joint project with the Arts Service, and Economic development/Town Centre Management in Poole, that enables artists to access empty shops in Poole for short term exhibitions and arts events and, exhibitions. The project not only provides space for artists and creative industries to promote their work; it also raises the profile of the property being used; the agents and owners of the property;and enables culture to help regenerate parts of town affected by recession. We listened to the arts community in Poole, and have created a Toolkit in consultation with Planning, building regulations, property agents and town centre management– which explains the process for artists in detail…and gives information about logistics, health and safety planning, and advice is given on curating and marketing their unit if required.
The process: > Read our toolkit and write a proposal of what you want to do > Browse available units in Poole through the online Property pilot > Contact the CC team with your proposal and preferred properties So far, we have enabled 5 successful exhibitions to happen in Poole since February 09, with 45 different artists work being shown, resulting in at least 2 off site commissions, generating a new vibrancy in the town centre and promoting Poole to artists and students from the AIB and university, as a place where they can be supported in promoting their artwork and arts events.. Creative Cabins dovetails with a national movement of artists showing their work in empty retail units – that has been gaining momentum over recent years…. And regionally as a local authority, we are ahead of the trend due to the skills and sector knowledge of our partnership
team, and we are often contacted by agencies such as South West Regional Development Agency to share our good practice. This grassroots arts movement is now being recognised for its economic benefits through a £3m fund from the DCMS to support this work, and the publication of the practical guide ‘Looking after our Town Centres’ which can be downloaded from the DCMS website. Culture secretary Andy Burnham recently said on this movement “By transforming otherwise empty town centre premises into hubs for culture and creativity, we can regenerate both the physical space itself and the hope and ambition of all those that have a stake in them” Go to Clipout for more information or contact: Marianne Scahill, Arts in the community officer for the Borough of Poole m.scahill@poole.gov.uk
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EAR TO THE GROUND
Arts Council Reorganisation Last Bus to Slough
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FEATURE
(from Mailout December/January 1991/2)
Reorganisation – who needs it? Enormous amounts of energy are being spent on upheavals within the funding structures, and there’s just the tiniest suspicion that the outcome might not quite justify the effort. Then there’s the cost.... people are a bit coy about that, but it’s all money that can’t be spent on arts. Phyllida Shaw picks her way through the mess. If the directors and staff of the Regional Arts Boards have anything in common, it is probably a recurring nightmare. A rusty double-decker bus, its roof sagging under the weight of excess baggage, is kangaroo-hopping the wrong way down a dual carriageway. There are legs and arms protruding from every window, three ministers at the wheel, and a heap of former RAA staff scrambling for the handbrake. Small bundles of discarded discussion papers pile up at the side of the road. Whichever way you look at it, the reorganisation of arts funding has been a mess. There is no point attributing blame, but the losses to the system in terms of skills, confidence, credibility and cash need to be acknowledged. Reorganisation was necessary. Nobody argues with that Minor alterations had been made since the creation of the present system nearly half a century ago, but this was the first attempt at root and branch surgery. Richard Luce could not ignore the facts. A National Audit Office report on the Office of Arts and Libraries and the Arts Council told him that in 1987–8, the RAAs distributed eight times as many revenue grants, per member of subsidy staff, as the Arts Council. The average cost to the RAAs was £210 per client, compared with £2,586 for the Arts Council. It also revealed that 23 percent of Arts Council grants were worth less that £1,000 and 70 percent were worth less than £5,000. Was this really the best use of Arts Council time and money? Then came the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report saying that the Arts Council’s relationships with the RAAs were poor and that it was confused about its role. The Wilding Report, commissioned by then Arts Minister Luce, confirmed that change was necessary. Delegation, accountability, coherence and administrative savings, said Mr Wilding, should be the principal goals of reorganisation.
What has dismayed many of those involved has been the way in which the reorganisation has been handled. The key points of contention – the size of the new Regional Arts Boards, the representation of local authorities, the choice of chairs of the Boards, the recruitment and dismissal of staff, and the delegation of certain clients from the Arts Council to the RABs have all threatened to hobble the process.
merge with their neighbours; in London, CIA was literally mugged by the Arts Council and made into a sub-committee of the Arts Council pending the establishment of the London Arts Board; and few RAA officers will forget the Arts Council’s failure to defend them against assertions by potential candidates for delegation that RAA staff were not as competent as Arts Council staff.
The resignation of Richard Luce in the summer of last year was an undoubted upset. In came David Mellor, puppy-keen to make his mark. Then out he went and in came Tim Renton. Renton has calmed the whole process down. He spotted a cart pulling a small team of horses across his domain and called the Arts Council in for questioning. There was reorganisation well underway before the publication of the National Arts and Media Strategy. How could decisions about structures, staffing and delegation be made before the content of the NAMS was known? It was too late to postpone the restructuring, but other than the removal of a few willing clients to their respective RABs next spring, delegation has been suspended until the NAMS is published – much to the relief of several large and needlessly anxious Arts Council clients.
The Arts Council’s new staffing structure will be in place in December, and it has already been criticised for being too similar to the old. It is the issue based teams such as disability, cultural diversity, women in the arts and education that have undergone the most drastic changes. The artform departments have remained largely intact. ‘We are issuing a without-tears guide to who’s who and who’s doing what’, says Everitt. ‘That will be available soon.’
If delegation does go ahead, there is likely to be a further round of restaffing to deal with the delegated clients. ‘Please don’t call it another reorganisation’, says Anthony Everitt. ‘This is a two-stage process – the reorganisation now and, in the event of a delegation, a transfer of staff and resources to the RABs.’ There has already been a massive turnover of personnel. Merseyside and North West Arts lost 70 percent of their combined staff; and of the 12 officers who attended a CoRAA drama officers meeting in Birmingham during the summer, only four are still in post. ‘Memory loss’ has become a temporary feature of RAB life. In Merseyside and Lincolnshire and Humberside, officers saw their organisations
The question of how much the reorganisation has cost remains unanswered. ‘There is no special extra money’, Everitt told Mailout. ‘The system is going to have to pay for the costs of the changeover. We are saving £1m altogether and the Arts Council is bearing the lion’s share (f600,000). The initial costs, which are not yet clear, will be more than made up for by the permanent savings. The purpose of the restructuring’, he affirms,’is to assure a more effective way of delivering funds and policies and all the rest of it And we’ll stand or fall by whether or not we can show that we have done this in two or three year’s time.’ In his foreword to the Arts Council’s report, published earlier this month, Everitt admits that ‘... to many outside observers – especially artists and their publics – the reforms may have seemed an infuriating and probably costly exercise m bureaucratic narcissism. To such critics I reply, “Wait and see’. Cautious as ever, the Secretary General is still hedging his bets.
In 1991 Phyllida Shaw wrote an article for mailout about the restructuring of the Regional Arts Associations into Regional Arts Boards. 18 years later, we asked her to reflect on the current changes. We’ve reprinted the original article on the left, so you can compare and contrast. It’s good to have an archive. Although I don’t remember writing the article opposite, it’s no surprise that as Arts Council England finds itself tiptoeing through the minefield of yet another restructuring, Mailout has been able to unearth a very similar story from 1991. Remember 1991? The dissolution of the Soviet Union? Operation Desert Storm? The release of the Birmingham Six? The death of Freddie Mercury? Familiar themes: the instability of superpowers, war in the Gulf, miscarriages of justice, the passing of stars, and an apparently tireless human appetite for tinkering with bureaucracies. The parallels between then and now are striking but predictable. There has probably never been a restructuring (of a shop floor, a board room, an education system, a health service, or an army) that has not resulted in the loss of good people, good will and overspending on the process itself. Anyone who has been through a restructuring process knows that at its worst it can be like operating without an anaesthetic or changing the wings of plane in mid flight: a delicate and risky business. Despite the apparent similarities in how we experience the restructuring of the arts funding system in 1991 and 2009, there are some important differences. In 1991, life was simpler. The Arts Council of Great Britain ruled supreme. The creation of wholly independent, national arts councils for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was still three years away. The Arts Council was accountable to the Office of Arts and Libraries (considered a minnow among departments); Minister for the Arts was a part-time role, and there was still a clearly discernible arm’s length between the Arts Council and its
political paymasters. That’s not to say that all was calm. Far from it. The late 1980s and early 1990s were years of vigorous campaigning against government funding cuts and legislation (most notably Section 28), which threatened freedom of artistic expression and what we would now call the ‘sustainability’ of the arts sector. A high point of this period was the nationwide consultation exercise, commissioned in 1990 by the then Minister for the Arts, to produce a National Arts and Media Strategy (‘a mission statement for the next ten years’). NAMS was never going to achieve its objective but it did produce some of the most exciting and open debates about the purpose and value of the arts and about the role of the arts funding system that the country had ever heard. The process also underscored the evident flaws in the arts funding system identified by the National Audit Office and the Wilding Report, and the Arts Council was forced to press ahead with the process of review, redesign and implementation that has now become so familiar. That was the background to the article opposite. It’s not hard to see how the Arts Council’s restructuring habit has grown since that first big hit in 1991. One obvious cause has been the change in the scale of its financial responsibilities. In 1994, the creation of the National Lottery turned the organisation from a distributor of a relatively small amount of money from a single source (the Treasury) to a limited number of beneficiaries, into a distributor of much more money (from the Treasury and Lottery combined) to a much larger number, and wider range, of organisations and individuals. It was in 1994, too, that the Arts Council of Great Britain gave way to independent councils in each of the four nations. Now the newly formed Arts Council of
England had only England and its network of Regional Arts Boards to worry about. Three years later, a new, change-hungry government replaced the Department of National Heritage with the Department for Culture Media and Sport and made it clear that its nondepartmental bodies would be expected to work with it to achieve the government’s objectives. The arm’s length policy made a discreet exit and DCMS and the Arts Council were left holding hands. Over the past ten years or so, the proximity of this relationship appears to have made the Arts Council feel less secure and less confident in itself, prompting a constant search for improvement. Regional boundaries have been moved, departments and units have been created, merged and abolished, staff have been made redundant, a national IT system has been introduced and most recently, assessment procedures have changed. If improvement results in the Arts Council being able to support the creation of more and better art and opportunities for more people, across the country, to enjoy it, then improvement is a good thing. The challenge for the Arts Council now is to convince doubting employees, clients and observers that this latest restructure will result in a better public service. This was an easier task in 1991, when the primary objective was to overhaul a badly constructed, inefficiently run system. The objective today is simply to save £6.5m, but when was that ever simple? Phyllida Shaw is a facilitator, writer and researcher with 20 years of freelance experience in the voluntary and public sectors, and specialising in the arts. W: www.phyllidashaw.co.uk
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& Now
FEATURE
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FEATURE In the November issue of mailout we included a free art work by Wit Pimcanchanapong, with a cut out and keep fruit donated by plAAy. This issue you have a chance to create your own cut out and keep cockroach. plAAy coordinator Amy Cham, talks about a creative use of an empty shop and how the cockroach ended up on the back page of this magazine.
Cockroaches and empty shops plAAy is a 2 year Contemporary Asian Art Programme as part of Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. It is supported by Arts Council England and aims to promote and support Contemporary Asian (International and UK Based) Artists through a programme of exhibitions and artist residencies.
Sarbjit Kaur: Magical Material Monsters
Luke Ching: Spot the Cockroach
Luke Ching: Work created during his residency
PLAAY SHOP ART As part of the borough wide ‘Celebrate Blackburn’ events plAAy occupied a former retail space in the Waterloo Pavilions. Over the month both floors were taken up with artists and artwork converting the former space into a gallery. plAAy invited selected artists to either display existing work or create work within the space using it as an artist studio. The exhibition ‘grew’ organically as the month progressed. The artists responded well to working in the space especially Sarbjit Kaur who created new work using found materials left behind by the former furniture business that occupied the retails space. The work, Magical Material Monsters, was then displayed as part a future exhibition. One great offshoot from this miniexhibition has been that local art students have since occupied the Waterloo Pavilions for an exhibition. This is encouraging as it means that local artists are now beginning to see the possibilities of occupying retail space for creative purposes around Blackburn.
LUKE CHING FOLK ARTS SERIES As a contemporary artist in Hong Kong Luke Ching uses different art forms to respond to the city, the platform of everyday life. By making art, he explores every possibility of understanding the public realm, from both physical and cultural aspects. He hopes that his artworks can play a role as a bridge between people and public space. During his residency at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Luke Ching further developed his Folk Art Series Project inviting people to create fake cockroaches, which were then hidden throughout the Museum as part of the Hide and Seek Trail. Luke also created several new works in response to the collections within the Museum. He was given the freedom to explore the building and its contents to inspire his practice. He was particularly interested in the taxidermy collection, using several pieces in a site-specific car installation that was situated outside of the Museum.
For further information about the plAAy programme please contact: Amy Cham, Asian Art Coordinator T: 01254 667130 E: amy.cham@blackburn.gov.uk W: www.plaay.co.uk
plAAy is a 2 year Contemporary Asian Art Programme as part of Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. It is supported by Arts Council England and aims to promote and support Contemporary Asian (International and UK Based) Artists through a programme of exhibitions and artist residencies. The programme is also part legacy project following on from the hugely successful C21 Project in Blackburn with Darwen in 2005 – 2006.
If walls could talk Roz Small, Arts and Tourism Co-ordinator, Greater Shankill Partnership tells us about the Art of a Political Process – The Cupar Way Peace Wall Project ‘If Walls Could Talk’ brings art to bear on one of the most enduring symbols surviving Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ – the so-called Peace Wall in West Belfast dividing Protestant and Catholic communities. The location of this public art project may be seen as important as the engagement process and the artworks themselves. The ‘canvas’ is the Protestant, Shankill side of the Peace Wall in Belfast, a divisionary wall that has outlived the Berlin Wall. It is one of many in Belfast, but is probably the most significant and imposing. It is a current tourist attraction with hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. The Peace Walls of Belfast still exist as abiding scars on the landscape of the city. Mostly situated in North and West Belfast they were erected at the start of the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’. There are now over 40 walls which span about 5kms. The Cupar Way Peace Wall is the original, first erected on the 15th August 1969, when the British Army entered the network of streets in the
Shankill (Protestant) and Falls (Catholic) areas of West Belfast and installed barbed wire barricades to keep the rioting communities apart. This was superseded by the wall we see today, when on the 9th September 1969 Northern Ireland Office officials decided as an interim solution to the continued localised violence, to create a solid partition to separate the communities that lived in these neighbourhoods. At the time it was considered this was to be temporary and was not expected to still be in situ forty years later. The Cupar Way wall is an imposing; immense wall of grey concrete and corrugated iron fencing 8 meters high and approximately half a kilometer long, it is an enduring symbol of the City’s troubled past. That being said the wall has, over the course of the last 40 years, become an ordinary part of these communities’ lives. Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which started the Peace Process, Belfast has been growing as a tourist destination with 7.1 million visitors coming to the city in 2008. This has brought a new focus to the
“In reality however, the vast majority of residents living on either side prefer the wall to remain. This collective decision reflects the existing context of remaining cultural differences and the perceived potential for sporadic conflict.”
Wall as one of Belfast’s major tourism sites. Over a million messages of hope and peace have been left by international visitors. The Walls ‘popularity’ makes this the perfect site to tell the Shankill story to the world. However, tourist destination or not there is an aspiration that the wall be dismantled and society to exist without unnatural barriers between citizens. In reality however, the vast majority of residents living on either side prefer the wall to remain. This collective decision reflects the existing context of remaining cultural differences and the perceived potential for sporadic conflict. The ‘If Walls Could Talk’ project was conceived six years ago by the Greater Shankill Partnership, an organisation tasked with the regeneration and renewal of the Greater Shankill area, an area that is home to some of the most deprived neighbourhoods of Northern Ireland. It is an area that despite its long and colourful heritage is recognized as having a weak arts and culture infrastructure.
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FEATURE The ambition of ‘If Walls Could Talk’ is to create one of the world’s longest outdoor art galleries; stimulate arts and cultural activity in the Greater Shankill area of Belfast; as well as raise the debate on the very existence of peace walls. This is laid out in our vision and aims: “Our vision is to create an outdoor art gallery of world-class art pieces, which will transform an iconic negative symbol into a canvas for positive expression of the Shankill and its people. Both authorship and ownership of the art will belong to the community; a community where expression through art is valued and where roots for participation have been developed.” If Walls Could Talk > Creates a world-class work of public art. > Brings creative rather than destructive energy to the wall. > Provides visual evidence of the impact of peace and intimation of the day when walls may come down > Develops creativity and practical skills in community art > Provides a canvas for expression of the rich history and cultural heritage of the Shankill. > Builds community confidence and contributes to the renewal of the Shankill community
high quality artworks and ability to complete the community engagement process, design and install all artworks by the third week of March 09. Just before Christmas, three artistic teams were selected based on their understanding of the brief and relevance to the criteria. They were: Brian Maguire and Brian O’Connor – Brian Maguire is a well known and respected Dublin based painter whose overriding practice is one of engagement. He is an international artist and his work has been exhibited in London, Paris, New York, Houston, Belfast and Dublin. Brian O’Connor is also a well known Dublin based artist. He has worked for the past 10 years collaboratively with Maguire on art projects in Brazil, USA, Belgium and Northern Ireland. Dr. Eleanor Wheeler and Alan Cargo – Eleanor and Alan are renowned local artists who have created art across the globe. They have 15 years experience in working with community groups to create public artworks exhibiting at both a national and international level. Eleanor’s focus is on making large scale ceramic, mosaic and brick artwork and Alan is a designer who works on site specific sculpture.
Thanks to grant support of £170k from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, awarded late 2008, we were able to commission three major artworks on the Wall and complete the first stage which had begun with a number of capacity building projects in 2004–6 which were supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
John Johnston and David Craig – John is Artist and Lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London and is renowned for community arts education in Belfast and London. David is a community artist, based in Belfast who specializes in mural painting; he is largely self taught and for the past 20 years has created large scale mural art in Northern Ireland.
In December last year we received submissions from individual artists and design teams from Northern Ireland, mainland UK and the Republic of Ireland. Important to the commissioning process was an understanding of the brief of the project, which included acknowledgement of the potential that the Wall may someday come down and thus all works had be easily removed and re-sited; the artwork had to draw on the heritage of the area, allowing local people to identify with it, as well as having visitor appeal; commitment to and experience of community engagement; evidence of delivering
The first production meetings with the teams were in the second week of January. All teams had concerns about the extremely tight timescale. It was at this point that the role of the community based Steering Committee came to the fore. Membership of the committee was purposeful – with three members including myself. The selected members have over 50 years experience of working in the Greater Shankill and from this have a vast amount of knowledge of and connections in the area. The commissioning process, in which an Arts Council NI officer was involved, ensured we had committed,
professional, high quality artists on board. The next stage, the selection of appropriate individuals / groups for each team to work with and the programming of consultations and workshops was now the key to successful and timely delivery of the project. At these first meetings, the committee discussed the themes, outline designs and processes of engagement with each of the teams and within a week all teams had timetables for consultations and workshops in place. The groups/ individuals were selected for the
benefit they would gain; for their relevance but also importantly for their reliability. Workshops and consultations started in the third week of January. Maguire and O’Connor arrived with an ‘open book’; their piece was to be written by the Shankill people or those who have had a deep impact on the community. Art practice workshops were held with young people aged 8 – 18 in the mediums of painting, drawing and digital art. O’Connor worked directly with all participants and involved a personal development trainer Tom Herron in the sessions with the young people to encourage opportunity for frank and meaningful discussions. Through these sessions with young and old, O’Connor drew together images and stories garnered from the present; life experience or interest in the social, political or cultural heritage of the area and wove the past lives of the Shankill into those living today. Maguire’s main contribution to the piece was the sketches and original portraits of many of the participants involved in the workshops and forums. Brian painted or sketched these models on site which enabled a mutual connection, through which he could capture the openness and honesty of the individual in his work. In his sitting with Baroness May Blood, he engaged her to talk about her life as a Trade Union organiser in the linen mills and a community worker in the Shankill. From this, the work carries her quote ‘we were going to set the heather on fire… but over the years we never found the matches’ her allegory for how you can only change the system from inside rather out. The completed artwork relates to a cross section of ideas, community memories and experiences; the imagery and text connect to the heart of the Shankill, its people. Alan and Eleanor have had over 5 years experience in working with people of all age ranges on community arts projects in the Greater Shankill. This knowledge and experience, enabled them to present their design at the outset. Their choice of materials-brick; fabricated steel and bronze plaques was deliberate, symbolising the solidity of walls; history of brick making and the
past and present day. The piece is framed by the location of other divisive walls around the world such as Baghdad, Nicosia and Israel/Palestine – perhaps the most important symbolic reference is the presence of two trees in the background which are shown to stand on different ground but are fed from the same soil. These symbolise communities around the world that are divided by political or religious belief but to all intent and purpose live and grow in the same environment, it challenges the fact that walls remain in post peace societies and alludes to the fact that some day these walls may come down.
industrial heritage of the area. The main body of the work comprises six carved brick panels, created by Eleanor, which reference the community’s life in the two up two down houses that were typical of the Shankill up to late in 20th Century. The brick panels depict images of typical door and window scenes from these houses such as the iconic image of a woman mopping her doorstep. The fabricated steel bars cut, rolled and welded by Alan represent threads of stories and ideas that intertwine and flow upwards being passed from one generation to another. Consultation with both individuals and groups was central to the content of the steel pieces which contain the names of old industrial trades such as ‘spreader’, ‘ring oiler’ and ‘fetter’; songs and street games and inspirational messages from world figures.
Overall the artwork is representational, easy to understand and resonates with both the Shankill community and its neighbours. The three artworks only cover about 60m of the 500m wall, and so while the Wall remains there is much to be done to complete this outdoor art gallery. A clear outcome of this first phase has been the development, interest and skills of the community in visual art, which says something to them and by them. It has proved an effective mechanism for engagement; personal development; building community confidence and contributing to regeneration.
Community engagement was central to the making of the bronze inlays. Workshops were held with 16 – 18 year olds and utilised skills such as foundry metal casting, design development and presentation. The sessions were aimed at increasing skills, self confidence, pride and ownership of the participants. The completed artwork both depicts and narrates so much of the social history of the Shankill, but it also tells a story of hope for the future for the Shankill and its inhabitants. The third work was created by John and David (Dee). This was the first project that the pair has worked on together. Dee has been strongly influenced by neighbourhood mural art, representing local issues and this has ensured that the content and imagery are meaningful to the Shankill community. John’s focus was on the message he believed the work should portray, with references to conflict on a global scale linked to comparisons with Belfast. The pair delivered workshops in both the Shankill and Haifa, Israel and made connections from the various communities stories which have created a body of images and symbols that although from different sources combine into a cohesive piece. All the foreground images are from archive sources; are pictorial and traditional but form a link between
All photos ©Octagon Design Roz Small Arts and Tourism Unit Greater Shankill Partnership T: 028 9031 1455 E: roz@greatershan killpartnership.org
NOTES A book to accompany the project which details background, processes and impacts is available by sending a large (A4) S.A.E to: Arts and Tourism Unit Greater Shankill Partnership 331 – 333 Shankill Road Belfast BT13 3AA
Then there is the Wall itself, an abiding scar on Belfast’s landscape and legacy of a troubled past. Far from “decorating an obscenity” as some might have it, ‘If Walls Could Talk’ has brought an international and most significantly a local focus to the very existence of the wall, so long taken for granted. It has given rise to a renewed commitment between and beyond those involved to see it ‘tumble down’ in their lifetime. Such is the power of visual art on Belfast’s streets. Our next stage is securing more funding to ensure we don’t just stop here. The project has been the most enjoyable and educational one that I have worked on in my 9 years with the Greater Shankill Partnership and I believe it can become a major part of the regeneration of the Greater Shankill and its surrounding communities.
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Active participation in the arts is the key to radically transforming lives In April, the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers, NALGAO, ran a conference on Arts and Hard to Reach Groups in partnership with mailout. Here, Julian Dunn, who made the opening presentation, tackles the subject head on. I first came across this wonderful technique, a self-portrait cartoon (see image) just a matter of weeks ago when I was contributing along with many others to the review of arts policy and action planning in Burnley. I’ve subsequently shared it colleagues, some of whom were delighted to be given a new approach to breaking the ice with a group of people, whilst others were mildly surprised that I didn’t already know and use this well established technique – just goes to demonstrate that learning is for life – now that particular slogan – learning for life was all part of the New Labour Agenda when they first came to power – Life Long Learning like so many ‘good ideas’ has dropped off the agenda. However, having lived through my third ‘credit crunch – economic downturn – recession – must bail out the banks ‘ period, it can be said, with a reasonable degree of certainty that resources will be available to contribute to maintaining a degree of stability in society. As such, my view is that the participatory arts sector will survive by and large intact and importantly contribute to learning for people of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Recession or no recession there is and will remain just cause to bring people together, to share life experience, learn about each other and in some way connect the individual with the bigger picture in as meaningful way as is possible in these turbulent times. So Arts and Hard to Reach Groups and Communities – I have yet to find a hard to reach group or community. I’ve certainly experienced challenging behaviour, difficult to work with individuals and groups and situations where it has been necessary to give more time to addressing bigoted and extreme views rather than those situations where the majority go
Progress was seriously under threat but the artists shifted their energy towards the group of ‘difficult – hard to reach young people’ and by identifying with their cause and with them exploring the common ground with the wider community and in particular the needs of their younger siblings, progress was made and eventually a positive outcome achieved. The names of their dead friends being marked in brass inlay with words associated with them and a climbing wall that will benefit generations to come, in particular their younger brothers and sisters. To this day the project is cared for and maintained by the local community because the community came up with the ideas and were engaged in a genuine way in the creative journey.
with the flow, and embrace and subscribe to the agreed agenda. However, in the former you often learn more and also gain a rich body of very useful and persuasive evidence – that – genuine engagement in the arts can transform lives and give people a fresh perspective on their lives and their relationship with wider society. I’d like to illustrate this point with a short story about a project in Salford which was featured in the October/November 2005 issue of Mailout – Pink Poodles in Salford. A project which I think has stood the test of time. What the article didn’t emphasise, probably because of lack of space was the issue with the ‘difficult’ boys who, for their own reasons did not want the project to go ahead except on their terms – their terms were significantly different to those of the majority in the community who were busy sculpting dogs, making suggestions about the placing of seats, raised planters and final resting places for the collectively agreed ferro-concrete dog sculptures.
Some years ago, in the participatory sector, we deliberated the significance of ‘quality in the finished piece’ – it was probably in response to some one else’s agenda and greater emphasis was placed on the finished work in some instances to the detriment of the process. I think that we now recognise the importance of maintaining a balance between outputs as they have become known and the journey of discovery that is the creative learning experience, the aspect of any project which does imbue greater confidence and self worth in people – which in our time is referred to as outcomes. Arts work with people will survive this period because we have always been adept at identifying with the agendas of so many other agencies – I always remember Gerri Moriarty, a participatory arts practitioner, workshop leader and great advocate for the sector relating how an officer in a local authority cleansing department had made the observation (with more than a hint of cynicism) that there was absolutely nothing, no issue, that the arts could not contribute to – Gerri,
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been hijacked by central government with the remainder administered by an impenetrable army of bureaucrats with a process of application equally alienating and impenetrable to the potential needy.
subsequently pointed out how perceptive was his observation and then went on to illustrate how the arts could contribute to a reduction in dog fouling. The challenge is that we have to keep on reminding people – evidencing what we know and making it absolutely clear that arts work with people works and that it does involve serious money. We have recently undertaken a series of projects in partnership with Blackburn with Darwen Inter Faith Forum. Their raison d’être to build bridges between the different faith communities – ours to build bridges between young people, polarised by an education system informed by a heady mix of religion and league tables and underlying tensions fuelled by economic circumstances, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has moved from being 17th in the league table of deprivation to 15th and has one ward in the top 1% of the poorest wards in the country – intervention to bring people together, explore differences and celebrate commonality has to be high on the agenda. The most recent two projects have been funded by the inappropriately titled initiative ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ – we cleverly avoided reference to PVE but have a body of work which illustrates in unambiguous terms that given the opportunity to take part in a creative journey young people, by and large, are ready to accept each other, recognise and celebrate their differences and share a laudable set of values. We recently discovered that despite the position of the Borough on the deprivation scale the schools as a whole have a multi-million pound underspend. We are currently
working with the Inter Faith Forum to influence the Primary and eventually Secondary Head Teachers to ‘buy into’ the scheme. There is no doubt that some groups are maligned and artificial barriers to engagement created for all the wrong reasons – generalisation of communities by local and national media being one example – we’ve undertaken very successful projects in Moss Side in Manchester, which has an outside world view that it is a gun capital – not so – a myth based on half truth and sadly, a very small number of nevertheless terribly tragic incidents – I know I live on the border – I’ve met many of the people we’ve worked with and I’ve had the good fortune to share their celebration of achievement and joy in creativity. It’s always worthwhile reminding ourselves that active participation in the arts is often the key to radically transforming lives, giving people fresh hope and impetus – there are difficult and challenging groups of people who, by necessity need additional resources in order to facilitate their involvement and engagement. We need ourselves to be fully committed and prepared for the longer haul – change takes time and people and communities are fluid entities and don’t necessarily fit comfortably into a single box or prescribed limit of words or even characters. I would maintain that there is only one hard to reach group and they are the managers of the peoples millions – The Big Lottery – never before in the history of Big Lotteries has so much of the peoples cash – with the exception of bailing out the banks –
Recently, I was tasked to develop a project in partnership with an NHS Trust providing a range of support services for people with mental health needs. I presented my partnership group with a latest Big Lottery Fund initiative administered by MIND –comprising a thirty three page application form – supported by Guidance Notes Part 1 – 20 pages and Guidance Notes Part 2 of 15 pages, which, unless you are a seasoned professional, it is yet again an impenetrable form designed to alienate most people – my partnership group of middle management health professionals faces dropped when I suggested they fill it in – speaks volumes – yes there is a hard to reach group – and the Big Lottery like so many institutions that impact upon our lives have swallowed managerialism hook line and sinker to the detriment of their ability to think on their feet and make decisions based on prevailing circumstance and good judgement. It is this lack of fluidity and ability to respond to prevailing circumstance that needs to be addressed. So much has changed in the wider world in recent times and certain accepted values are coming under considerable scrutiny and justifiably so. What we need is a resource infrastructure that is flexible, responsive and grounded in the real world. Ask yourselves, how many good ideas have fallen by the way side, never to come to fruition because of the amount of time it takes to answer all the questions on the 33 page application form or equally distressing how many communities of interest have been seriously damaged by the bidding culture and the eventual rejection letter.
Julian Dunn Funding and Development Manager Action Factory Community Arts T: 01254 679335 E:jdunn@actionfact ory.org W: www.actionfact ory.org Images: Albion Park Group in Salford National Association of Local Government Arts Officers W: www.nalgao.org
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FEATURE
CrEaTivE Carers
A story of development, journey and endeavour in Suffolk.
“My confidence has been boosted and I am doing more with people [and have] more ideas. I have enjoyed it; I haven’t not wanted to do things. The idea here is to improve lives. They [the older people] have the right to have as much input into their last days as anyone and to be treated with respect. That’s what they have put over to me [the artists and trainers]. I can now believe in what I am doing – it’s a finished product now. Before I was never quite sure what I was doing, it’s helped me to get there.” Activities Coordinator
“Other staff who don’t normally get involved in activities are joining in. They find out what we are doing now because of the noticeboard and photographs.” Carer
Creative Carers is a training programme developed and managed by Suffolk Artlink and artists Caroline Wright and Helen Rousseau. The programme focuses on training care home staff to deliver high quality creative activities with the older people in their care. Staff from residential homes,day centres, and occupational therapy assistants have taken part and Suffolk Artlink has now worked with a total of 15 centres. Caring for the elderly is an increasing concern. The growing population of older people has meant an increase in the need for care provision, with the consequent increased need for workers to join the caring profession. Care homes are subject to national and local government regulation of the services they offer and this includes the activities available for their clients. It is from this that Creative Carers has developed. Growing from a project in a Suffolk care home, Creative Carers has responded to the current climate for the caring profession whilst retaining its core principles. In 2003, artist Caroline Wright was engaged by Suffolk Artlink to work as lead artist on “The Haven” – a series of artist led workshops leading to the re-design of a room in a care home day centre. Four artists delivered the workshops to clients and staff; the outcomes informing the room design. The workshops were planned within key philosophies – process over product, looking forward and celebrating what people can do, rather than reminiscing, inclusion, and the use of easily found materials. As it drew to a close, the home manager and carers were disappointed that the workshops would end. These people acted as advocates for the project, informing their colleagues from other homes of the benefits they and their clients had drawn from it. As a result, Suffolk Artlink and Caroline Wright were approached by several care homes
requesting their own ‘Haven’ project. It became clear that care workers were also keen to learn new skills to assist them in their work. Discussions led to a training programme that aims to give carers the tools to deliver creative activities confidently and with benefit to all. The programme offers strategies for ideas generation, design of activities to engender physical and mental benefit, continuity of ideas and record keeping. Creative Carers, was launched against the backdrop of the identification by Suffolk County Council of the need to improve the skills of care workers in delivering activities. A year later artist Helen Rousseau moved into the role of trainer, working with Caroline and Suffolk Artlink to expand the project. Particular issues were addressed: > What support structures are there for staff to enable them to devote the time to fully benefit from the programme? > How to ensure care home managers were bought into the ethos of the programme? > Should there be a charge for participating homes? > How to ensure a range of media and artforms are incorporated into the programme?
The programme starts with an open day when care home staff can listen to presentations from past participants, Artlink, the lead artists and take part in creative activity. For the homes that sign up, this is followed by a training day focussing on creativity and planning, after which are three artist–led, best practice workshops. The workshops are delivered in-house to ensure the programme is tailored to each centre. Two trainer supported sessions are then carried out with the carers planning and delivering an activity of their own. Finally, all the participants get together to share their experiences and initiate a support network. Throughout, the homes are encouraged to involve as many carers (and volunteers) as possible and care home managers are also encouraged to participate. Participants are encouraged to reflect on their own creativity – be this in cooking, gardening, applying make up or choosing what to wear. The trainers introduce methods for ideas generation using everyday objects or conversations as starting points. This is followed by the development of workshop plans by participants and finally discussion around how to link ideas into related sessions to create a coherent activities programme.
This journey can be challenging for some. There is often some surprise by participants that this programme does not present them with a readymade toolkit. Both trainers are aware of the value of empowerment for carers and realise that a planned activity, set out and already developed, does not stimulate originality of thought. In the mid stages, carers are supported in the delivery of their own activity. After observing and assisting with artist-led best practice sessions in house, the trainers work with the carers on their own ideas and then assist them to deliver their own sessions to their clients. The programme recommends record keeping and this is done creatively through video, pinboards, photographs or writing. Building up a log ensures a growing resource for present and future staff. Finally, all the participants and managers are invited to a sharing session. This supports networking, and allows the trainers and Suffolk Artlink to evaluate the programme’s sustainability. It is at these gatherings that the real value of the programme is articulated. Managers have noticed improved staff job satisfaction and carers are keen to present the personal activity plans that they have developed with their clients. The artists were keen to focus the programme on the care staff. By empowering the carers and
“I remember that we were worried about the high standard expected of us at first and we were slightly sceptical. However, we made it our own and have put our own edge to the activities…. I did not realise creative activity could be so stimulating for our residents. The course has helped us to provide a properly structured programme not an ad hoc one.” Care Home Manager
increasing their ability and confidence in their work, both trainers knew that it would benefit the cared-for. This approach supported the programme’s sustainability. Another issue that is sometimes raised is whether it reflects on the role of the professional artist – does it undermine opportunities for employment? The programme is very clear on this. Creative Carers empowers carers to be better equipped to undertake their work, it does not make them professional artists. Both lead artists have worked on projects where they have worked with a community only to leave community enriched but somewhat adrift from any sustainable benefit. The programme has also produced direct benefits to both the older people in care and the care workers. Managers have reported a decrease in requests to see the doctor and less attention seeking behaviour. There is a more humanised relationship between carers and cared-for as both parties are able to share in creative experiences. Carers have also reported an increase in confidence, increased job satisfaction and greater creative skills. In 2008, the Creative Carers programme had a dementia focus in order to meet the growing demand for activities suitable for people with dementia. Suffolk Artlink has also recently worked with the Alzheimer’s
Society to provide creative activities for people with dementia and their carers, usually family members. Artist-led creative activities provide a platform for carer and cared for to explore their creativity and allow them to reclaim their original relationships. The new, shared experience creates an equal environment, allowing the group to express themselves as individuals. Dementia mapping, an international approach for measuring wellbeing in people with dementia, was used to evaluate the sessions and all participants in the group had an increased wellbeing score at the end. The work was successful in starting a support group in one location which now meets twice a month to take part in activities or just have a coffee and conversation. Suffolk Artlink, Caroline and Helen are constantly reviewing the programme to ensure it is responsive to the needs of the care industry and is as effective as possible in delivering its aims. Regular meetings and follow up of care homes has provided valuable evaluation material; reappraised approaches and improved ideas are frequently incorporated into the programme. Suffolk Artlink is now fundraising to continue these strands of work and all are keen to broaden the reach beyond Suffolk and are in talks to roll out the Creative Carers programme to other counties in the region. Caroline and Helen are keen to build up the pool of professional artists who work within the ethos of the programme and develop clusters of artists in the regions where the programme will be taken forward. Suffolk Artlink commissioned a reflective study written by Caroline Wright which is available to from the Creative Carers section of the Artlink website Caroline Wright Caroline Wright is a freelance artist and trainer and is Course Leader for MA Drawing at Norwich University College of the Arts. She regularly works on projects in community contexts and shows her own artwork in galleries, festivals and theatres across the UK and internationally. E: carolinejwright@btopenworld
Suffolk Artlink www.suffolkartlink.org.uk
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FEATURE
mailout arts and women’s aid 20
FEATURE
“It has helped keep depression at bay as there is something else to think about and to focus on – there is so much I can do with my life.” Judy Munday from Thames Valley Partnership, and artist Christine Wilkinson outline their work with Women’s Aid and offer advice on setting up similar projects.
“It takes you into another little world” “It is a good positive experience and we would like it to continue as part of the overall programme for clients”
“I can’t put into words the amount of confidence one participant has gained as a result of this project. It’s too overwhelming”
Working with women from Women’s Aid organisations is immensely rewarding. But how do you get started? Thames Valley Partnership works with a diverse range of partners and across a broad range of themes under the banner of Community Safety. One strand of work focuses on the difficult area of violence and abuse which usually happens within the home, and creative approaches sit within this. We have run projects in three different locations and as an independent charity we are ideally placed to broker partnerships and to act as an advocate for the power of the arts in these settings. We offer organisations like Women’s Aid both funding and project management. We often take a risk with our work – we are able to pilot an approach with new partners, new art forms, and new participants with the aim of developing new learning. We, and our partners, have been learning about the power of creativity in these settings – ways that hidden stories and survival can be unleashed. This enables them to find ways to explore strengths and enjoy a sense of accomplishment. This is an exciting and inspiring area of work for artists to explore significant issues that are often marginalised in society. This gives artists the opportunity to work with women who can emerge as a creative force with insightful comments on their communities. Artists working alone often have too little time to develop long term
relationships and ensure sustainability. Often you may feel as though you are a lone voice advocating for the power of the arts, as well as having to deliver it. Encouraging the support of your local Arts Development Officer to act as ‘intermediary’ may be beneficial, set the work within a broader programme and lead to a longer term relationship between Women’s Aid and the artist. If you are an Arts Development Officer, then choosing the correct artist is of paramount importance. We aim to embed activity within the organisation so that it can have a life of its own once our funding and support has ended. The work is more meaningful when it is not done in isolation. Think about training a core group of participants/volunteers/etc to develop, shape and apply for funding for further projects. This achieves independence and skill development. Don’t make assumptions; you may be working with emerging or closet artists. Build up a relationship with your local Women’s Aid centre before broaching the subject of running an “arts” project and establish clear communication lines between all the partners – Women’s Aid staff, the artist and hopefully an Arts Development Officer or similar. Clarify a consensus about who does what, what the issues for both participants and staff may be, broader issues around safety and appropriate themes of work.
Be clear about what your objectives are for each partner –for Women’s Aid it may be merely an afternoon distraction activity or there could well be the desire to open doors to further training/education, leading onto job security and independence. If you are a Local Authority Arts Officer, you may have a whole range of objectives to cover. Be clear up front on all of these. For the women, the main objective may be to have fun and some headspace. After the project starts, as confidence levels rise, choices of arts options are understood, the women need the opportunity to shape the project and to become more creatively ambitious. Choose an artist carefully – one who is enthusiastic, self assured, unthreatening, genuinely interested in people and has energy and enthusiasm. Also one who is able to offer a range of activities to cater for the different and growing needs of the group. The artist must have public liability insurance and a current, suitable CRB*, be prepared to do a ‘risk assessment’ and know what to do if a ‘vulnerable ‘ person tells them something which they think may harm that person or someone else. Boundaries of responsibility are vital – it should be made clear to all that any disclosures will be fed back to support staff. The artist should not ‘carry’ any potentially difficult issues which have been disclosed and equally needs to be careful not to offer more information on their private lives than is appropriate. Do not offer to exchange phone numbers or emails – any contact should be directed
“Positive sessions like these are necessary to balance life at this traumatic time”
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through the Women’s Aid organisation to protect both the artist and the women themselves. The Voluntary Arts Network has very useful online resources in their Publications – Briefings section FUN! – the main objective of the projects. Ensure you have access to a dedicated space with provision for childcare. Women value the time without their children and the freedom from worrying about their well being. Running a project which includes children is equally valid but will have a different emphasis – away from the women themselves. Consider drawing up a confidentiality contract which is signed by everyone at the start– things will be talked about freely. If this feels too formal, writing a set of ‘ground rules’ may feel more comfortable and obtain written permission from the women to exhibit the work, in case this becomes a desired outcome. Achievement is important: run short blocks of work, with the scope to finish a piece of work within each session –Many women are only in the refuges for short periods. 6 to 8 weeks for a project is good. Visual art works best to start with, although you could be bold and try community singing, storytelling, dancing. Once you have built up trust, explore possibilities directly with the women – in different surroundings they often
come up with ideas other than those understood by professionals who work with them. Have plenty of tea and coffee. A small celebration, with cakes at the end, is a good opportunity to appreciate the sense of achievement. Look on www.womensaid.org.uk which has all listed organisations by region. Don’t be put off when you phone your local organisation – they often call you back. This is to protect privacy. Not all refuges are run by Women’s Aid themselves – some are run by housing associations and it is not the same throughout the country. Most will have between 1 to 4 houses (locations for these are confidential) and run drop-in centres. What you could expect from the Women’s Aid partner: this should be covered in initial conversations about expectations of all partners but it is reasonable to expect the following: > A staff member who actively participates. This is an opportunity for support staff to have a greater understanding of the women they are trying to support. It allows relationships to be differently formed. It is also necessary for dealing with any issues which may arise – the artist is not responsible for overall pastoral care. This is also important to share successes and to discuss challenges. Sometimes women will reveal disturbing
autobiographical details. It is essential for the artist to be able to have an ally who can help share the impact. Staff to run a crèche, arrange childcare and organise transport An understanding from staff about the project to encourage participants between sessions to continue their own work and generate enthusiasm in the house Organisation of a venue and covering this cost (if a large room in one of the houses is not appropriate) Provision of refreshments.
“I am normally a fidgety person and this has given me the ability to focus calmly”
Women’s Aid may have project funding via their own funds or through a fund the women contribute to for trips. Liaise with your local Community Safety Officer who may have these women as one of their target groups. Local grants and trusts can be a good source. If Women’s Aid provides the space, staff and childcare support ‘in kind’, the only cost is artist time and materials. You can run an effective project for as little as £1500
“This has given the staff something other than domestic violence to talk to their clients about”
Exhibiting and sharing the work should be dealt with sensitively – do not make plans on the first session – it could overwhelm. Once they have gained confidence, it may be an idea that comes up naturally. Display in the houses or go for something more public – a library or public space and perhaps link it into wider public awareness. Consider a trip to an art gallery or museum, linking in with another Women’s Aid for joint working or finding out what the local college offers so you can signpost keen participants onto longer term courses.
“The sessions have blown me away!”
We are currently considering designing a training programme for artists working with Women’s Aid and refuges. If you have an interest in this area, or feel you could benefit from this training, we welcome all suggestions and comments. Judy Munday, Thames Valley Partnership E: judy@thamesvalleypartnership. org.uk W: www.thamesvalleypartnership .org.uk E: cgwilkinson@btinternet.com
Other background information: W: www.voluntaryarts.org W: www.womensaid.org.uk *Criminal Records Bureau check
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FEATURE
Photo © Graham Flack
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FEATURE
Streetwise
“The most important day of the year is the day after the curtain falls on one of the productions” Chief Executive Matt Peacock charts the progress of the award –winning Streetwise Opera and its achievements.
OPERA Streetwise Opera was born following a comment by an MP in the later 1990s that, ‘the homeless are the people you step over when you come out of the Opera House’. At the time I was a part-time Key Worker at The Passage Nightshelter and as you can imagine this comment created some strong feeling with the residents. They felt that they needed to respond and the best way of doing this was by turning the tables – if they were in an opera it would challenge public perception and show society what homeless people could achieve given the chance. The message coming loud and clear from the residents was that instead of sympathy, they wanted recognition – to change stigma into celebration. The Passage was building a new nightshelter and all the staff were being asked to think up additional fundraising ideas. The residents decided to put on an opera and we managed to persuade the Royal Opera House to donate the use of their Linbury Studio free of charge for a couple of days. We staged a children’s opera with a local school and the show sold out quickly and there was a palpable buzz in the media. As the residents of the nightshelter took their bows at the end to a standing ovation, many said
that it was the first time they had felt appreciated and valued in their lives. One resident who now works back-stage on all our productions said that it was a defining moment for him and helped him get his life back in order. There was a lot of friendly pressure to keep the work going and we put the wheels in motion to start a charity. Streetwise Opera is now seven years old and runs a weekly music programme in 11 homeless centres around the UK and its current production, My Secret Heart, a music and film installation staring 101 of our performers, will be seen by an estimated 100,000 people around the world. In the past 6 months, Streetwise Opera has been awarded two of the most prestigious accolades in the homeless and arts sectors, the Andy Ludlow Homeless Award and a Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award. At the core of Streetwise Opera are two values – legacy and quality. It was obvious after that first pilot project that we needed to continue. Raising the expectations and aspirations of vulnerable people without follow up or an exit strategy can be hugely detrimental. We vowed that we would continue and that the
main energy of the charity would not be the headline-grabbing shows but the weekly singing and drama workshops in the centre. There’s a saying at Streetwise that the most important day of the year is the day after the curtain falls on one of the productions. That is when our performers need us most so that the powerful feelings of self-esteem and confidence can be channelled and progressed with the help of the support workers of the centre. Quality is perhaps an obvious value for any organisation but for us quality is relevant for both the artistic and social aims of our work – the quality of the process and product. The genesis of the charity is the driver here – our performers wanted to show the public what they can do. It’s essential for them to feel as though they are not being patronised or involved in something that is tokenistic, but an endeavour that is regarded as ‘mainstream’. This means that in all our annual productions, we draft in top professionals to work with our performers on and off stage. The result is that every one of these ‘proam’ shows has won 4 and 5 star reviews in the national press. This would be pointless however if the process wasn’t 100% inclusive or the
participants’ role was peripheral. We maintain a policy of no auditions for our performers so everyone who comes through the door is welcome to take the stage (or work backstage) – and we make sure that participants take solo as well as chorus roles. It is our job to make each person shine and to help them to reach their potential. Aiming for a polished artistic standard in this arena is also important for the sustainability of our work – how long would audiences remain if they respected only the social merits of our work? Would they come back to pay for tickets if the shows weren’t very good? Now we have developed an artistic track-record, we feel we can do a lot more in terms of building long-term public awareness about
homelessness on the back of that; continuing to explode myths and challenge assumptions about homeless people. Streetwise is not unique by any means and there is a wealth of excellent companies and projects that use the arts in the homeless sector – work that has helped raise the arts up the agenda both in the homeless sector and in government thinking. In the last decade for the first time we are seeing meaningful activities approaching the centre of policies to improve people’s lives and the front-line agencies themselves are embracing the arts in a way never-before witnessed. Where once the nearest homeless centres got to the arts was a stack of second-hand books in the TV lounge, now you see a number of day centres and hostels running a full arts programme and some even employing arts coordinators; Crisis has gone one better by launching not one but two Skylight centres that focus on delivering a programme of meaningful activities – there may be 10 Skylights by 2013; Look Ahead
Filming workshop during the making of My Secret Heart. Photo© Flat-e
“It is our job to make each person shine and to help them to reach their potential. Aiming for a polished artistic standard in this arena is also important for the sustainability of our work – how long would audiences remain if they respected only the social merits of our work?”
Housing have just presented major artistic commissions in five hostels. The most powerful indication that there has been a shift in opinion is through government policy documents and independent research. Papers published by government departments as well as studies produced by Broadway, Crisis, New Philanthropy Capital, Homeless Link and the Westminster Primary Care Trust all talk of homelessness not being solved by housing alone and that, ‘a multi-layered support approach is needed including recreational activities such as sport and the arts’ (ODPM, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005). In the government’s new strategy to end rough sleeping, the Department of Communities and Local Government devote a section to the arts in the paper. Meanwhile Streetwise Opera’s recent Andy Ludlow Award is notable because this is the first time an arts initiative has won this key homelesssector accolade. So what has been the cause of the sector warming to the arts? As in most social-welfare applications, the arts has tended to be seen as a distraction or ‘add-on’ when it comes to delivering real change because the change can be more subtle, ‘softer’ or take longer to develop. What is different now is that the arts is being recognised as having strong benefits when placed in the context of other interventions – the idea of the ‘multilayered approach’ from the ODPM report. On the ground in homeless centres this plays out in a compelling and intriguing way. The confidence and self-esteem, increased communication and motivation that results from the arts are being shown to be the building blocks to help individuals move forward quicker and better: someone with increased confidence may engage with a housing worker more; someone who is more communicative may tell their key worker more about themselves and therefore be signposted better; someone with more motivation may sustain a tenancy or enrol in further education and training. There are numerous real examples of this that anyone working the arts and homelessness arena can quote – at Streetwise Opera we often use a case study of a man who we started working with in 2006. A long-term alcoholic, John* is in his 50s and
attended the centre every day to have his lunch and sit in the same chair. He rarely spoke to anyone and would not engage in any other service. After three months of running our weekly music workshops in the centre, he started to show an interest and agreed to work backstage at one of our productions. We gave him some free tickets and he used them to invite his family who he had not seen in 10 years – he wanted them to see that he was doing something positive and moving forward. His daughters came to the show and he met his granddaughter for the first time. Following on from this he started doing some voluntary work including at the homeless centre he had visited every day. His life has moved on dramatically as a result of the arts as an intervention running alongside the portfolio of support John was receiving. I use this example partly because the end result isn’t something you would necessarily expect – something much less obvious than an individual getting a job or a house and moving out of homelessness. The arts is important not because it can deliver a strict set of outcomes but because it can be the catalyst for people to change – a spark than is needed to make people feel proud of themselves for the first time; to show them that they can achieve something if they are given the chance. They then have the motivation and courage to face some of the tangible issues in their lives – issues that the primary services of the centres can then help with. Matt Peacock Chief Executive, Streetwise Opera E: mp@streetwiseopera.org T: 020 7495 3133 W: www.streetwiseopera.org Streetwise Opera’s installation, My Secret Heart, is touring internationally in 2009/10 including dates in Paris, Japan and at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. See www.mysecretheart.co.uk for more details and a full list of tour dates.
* Names of individuals have been changed to protect privacy
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FEATURE
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FEATURE
It’s an old song, written by The Specials, but they’re back on tour right now and it’s never sounded more relevant. Dan Thompson from Sussex –based Revolutionary Arts Group and the Empty Shops Network responds to mailout’s recent call for stories about creative uses for empty shops with an introduction to projects across the country.
“This town is coming like a ghost town” “There’s even a suggestion from thinker and writer Tim Anselm, that the current move by the creative community to occupy the space left by empty shops mirrors the way that the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII cleared space for a renaissance in the arts and education.”
The high street has been hit hard by the recession. We know from the national news about the big shops that have gone – every town has tales of an empty Woolworths, and letters in the local paper about turning the massive floorspace it leaves into a community centre or local produce market. But the independent sector has also been hit hard, with supply lines disrupted by the collapse of distributors and other costs are rising too. And of course, unemployment is up, bills are getting bigger, and shoppers are responding by spending less. So there are empty shops of every shape and size on every high street now, and every one that closes means less people visiting the neighbourhood and less trade for nearby shops. And it’s not just the industrial towns and cities, in the Midlands and The North, that have traditionally suffered in a recession. “Stowmarket in Suffolk was a thriving market town 40 years ago but has slowly slipped into decline,” says resident Becca Gibbs, “until recently all the shops were open, it was just a bit grotty and unloved – but with the departure of Woolworths and several other smaller shops, it’s really depressing!”
Dodo: Coventry
In Coventry, which has been hit as hard by closing shops this time as it was by the decline in manufacturing in the 1970s, the City Council own nearly one in three of the town’s shops. It’s a legacy of the Luftwaffe’s bombs and the energetic, optimistic postwar regeneration of the Gibson Plan. The city centre is a warren of precincts and arcades, brutal concrete butted up against 1950s redbrick, broken up by the few remaining timberframed buildings and the skeleton of the medieval cathedral. But in the City Arcade, a covered street of narrow frontages and small shops, it’s starting to get interesting. While it’s not those green shoots of economic activity, something strange is growing in one shop. Local organisation Artspace have been given an empty unit, and have housed two artists in the space for six months. Frieda van de Poll and Shiam Wilcox have collected together old bottles, plastic sheeting, wire, odd patterned crockery and heavy 1930s furniture. In full view of an intrigued public, they’re creating a museum of recycled curiosities. Odd specimens are housed in display jars made from old coke bottles, weird creatures are crawling up the walls, giant plants are filling the space. There’s even a Dodo, made from plastic bags. The act of creation is on full view, with
the artists working in the middle of the space while their installation grows around them. It’s a behindthe-scenes view that the public don’t usually get. In another unit in the arcade, also managed by Artspace, community groups, arts organisations and individual artists are staging their own short exhibitions. And another unit has been used by the city’s masterplan team, for public consultation. Meanwhile down on the South Coast, Worthing is a very different town, with a mix of Edwardian fanciness, 1930s modernism and a Victorian street plan. Empty units in its Guildbourne Centre have been housing local artists since 2007, when the Revolutionary Arts Group used one to promote the local arts festival they run. The Artists and Makers Festival brought together community groups, leisure painters, a dozen textiles groups, a local theatre company producing family-friendly Shakespeare and a trail of artists’ open houses. For a month, the shop housed changing exhibitions, showcase events, demonstration days and bold window displays, engaging directly with an audience intimidated by the town’s august civic museum and gallery. The extra interest meant that the festival brochure’s usual print run wasn’t
enough to meet demand, and extra flyers had to be printed. Directly opposite the Artists and Makers Festival shop, a group of young students from the local art college took over a unit at the same time to highlight their work and encourage more students to join media and photographic courses. More recently, the town’s voluntary sector took over that same shop for a week. Worthing Arts Council staged a week of events to mark the first anniversary of the Ice Prince shipwreck, when thousands of tons of timber hit the town’s beaches. Less a mark of the shipwreck and more a celebration of the local community, the exhibition and surrounding events created a new folklore around the wreck and explored the history of shipwrecks on the coast. And just a few weeks ago, the unit had another existence, with a fiveday Pop-Up Gallery. The Revolutionary Arts Group’s short project showed how quickly empty shops can be brought back into use, and kickstarted the creation of a local network to bring more community projects into local shops. The London-based Temporary Autonomous Art (or TAA for short) also use spaces for fast projects. Unusually, but in a tradition started with the squatting movement in the 1950s, they squat derelict spaces rather than borrowing high street premises from landlords. “We normally take over a derelict or unused space and over the course of four days transform the place into a work of art,” says member Natalie Smith, “with workshops, performance, film screening and much, much more we are proud to provide a space that shows that anything is possible.” Of course, the projects happening in Coventry and Worthing highlight a significant trend. The projects are taking place legally in empty shops, but aren’t about replicating the commercial use of that space. They are community projects, short-term and all the more exciting because of that shelf life. They are thrillingly uncommercial, throwing the balance sheet out of the window and instead opting for engagement and excitement. They’re not in competition with local business,
instead celebrating local distinctiveness and bringing an increase in the high street’s Holy Grail of footfall. They’re low cost, but high impact. Landlords with empty shops have traditionally been able to keep them empty, with the lost revenue offset on paper by rising property values. With prices falling, landlords are left with empty space, rates and bills to pay, and an increasing anger from local communities at the damage done to their towns. If they own other property nearby, there’s an added risk of those businesses losing customers and closing too. Arts and community organisations around the UK are finding it easier to negotiate to use space on short term agreements, often rent free, taking the burden of bills and rates away from landlords and maintaining the empty spaces. It gives organisations a chance to respond quickly to local needs, and to maximise opportunities for engagement with the community. And it supports local business by bringing extra shoppers. It’s no surprise that central government has picked up on the movement, inspired by the Empty Shops Network founded early this year. Of course, this colonisation of empty spaces by the arts community is nothing new. London’s Roundhouse was an empty engine shed, when it was taken over by theatre company Centre 42 in 1964. Tate Modern was famously a derelict power station. Baltic a redundant warehouse. Brighton benefited from creative people taking over cheap, commercially unviable property to set up quirky independent shops and galleries, starting the city’s regeneration. There’s even a suggestion from thinker and writer Tim Anselm, that the current move by the creative community to occupy the space left by empty shops mirrors the way that the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII cleared space for a renaissance in the arts and education. Perhaps the difference though, between today and the historical precedents, is that many of the current projects aim to be temporary. “The fact that the trees are in
blossom very briefly is what makes them important to us,” says Tim, in an elegant metaphor in his blog, and the temporary “would force artists and other people making use of the buildings to be inventive and thrifty, creating unique, memorable and beautiful spaces.” Inspired by the empty high street, the community and what makes one town different to another, it’s a celebration of the local; a perhaps unconscious reaction to globalisation and the creep of the ‘clone town’. “The event used a number of different venues around the town, including empty shops,” says James Lowther, organiser of Art Land in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, “in an attempt to introduce art into everyday life, raise awareness of the town and bring in new visitors.” Beyond that, empty shops help local people engage with their high street in a way that they may have done when shopkeepers were local, but that has been missing in interaction with big businesses. Many of the projects are more interested in using the small spaces than the big floorspaces of Woolworths, Rosebys and the like. It’s the scale, feel and history of the local shop that is of most interest. While the Empty Shops Network helps organisations across the UK share ideas and expertise, every project is truly, inspirationally, independent and local: In Hastings, Artkiosk has one specific aim – to help artists to explore the local heritage and the urban environment of the town. Worthing’s Ice Prince project did the same. In Aberystwyth, the town’s museum is celebrating local history in empty shop windows. And in Halifax, Temporary Art Space devotes space on its website to the history of their Grade 1 listed home – and offers no expenses, but plenty of free Yorkshire Tea. You don’t get that at Tate Modern. Dan Thompson Revolutionary Art Group Empty Shops Network E: dan@artistsandmakers.com W: www.artistsandmakers.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ artistsmakers Blog: http://danthompson.co.uk Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ danthompson/ YouTube: http://uk.youtube.com/ user/DanThompson33
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FEATURE
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FEATURE
Al Abrir La Llave ‘What Comes Out When You Turn On The Tap?’ Tony Horitz writes about a Theatre in Community Health Project with Science with students In Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico. with little response, and holding several poorly attended public meetings, the university looked for another approach. A freelance producer suggested a play dramatizing the problem might prove more successful in making people aware of the risk and avoid drinking from the tap.
Tony with the Mexican students
“This was another point of contention – as the producer struggled to understand why I wanted to consult the students in making the play at all. From her perspective, they had no prior education in theatre arts, and therefore could not usefully contribute to the creative process.”
What role can theatre play in challenging attitudes to personal and social health? What barriers will need to be overcome? What impact can it have on participants who are not arts specialists? I was invited to Mexico in 2008 to work with science students from the University of Guadalajara on a new play for performance to the community of Lagos de Moreno, a growing town in the state of Jalisco. Since my Degree was in Drama and Spanish – and I have concentrated since almost exclusively on the Drama side – I was keen to go. I took unpaid leave from my post with Bournemouth Borough Council’s theatre in education. My son, Dan, who wanted to make a documentary film, accompanied me. The issue was water. In 2006, the socalled ‘potable’ supply in the district aquifer was found by a scientific team from the town’s University to have 21 out of its total of 23 wells contaminated with excessive amounts of naturally occurring fluoride – 9 times above the recommended safety norm. This is damaging children’s teeth and attacking their organs and bones. After broadcasting on local radio
It became clear there would be several problems to overcome. Firstly, the issue of the ‘message’ came sharply in focus. I discovered that both the producer who’d chosen me and some university staff had a different view of community theatre from mine. They suggested didactic scenarios, one of which involved the revered Virgin of Guadalupe appearing miraculously to townspeople, telling them not to drink water from the taps. The scientists’ experience of lack of public interest in their discovery had apparently left them feeling it was pointless attempting to engage people in any kind of scientific exposition. Although I accepted the locals were very catholic, this cameo ‘Deus ex Machina’ appearance in the play seemed likely to offend – apart from insulting their intelligence. Community theatre workers will be familiar with the issue of commissioners wanting to impose simplistic messages on projects – even if they don’t usually stretch as far as divine intervention. So I needed to come up with a valid counter approach. It helped that, once we had started workshops with the student participants, they shared my perspective. This was another point of contention – as the producer struggled to understand why I wanted to consult the students in making the play at all. From her perspective, they had no prior education in theatre arts, and therefore could not usefully contribute to the creative process.
They were there to act the script that ‘we’, the experts, created. This ‘top down’ concept conflicted with my understanding and practice of community theatre as a social artform, in which plays are constructed with a group through a shared process and the creative artist is a facilitator and educator. I tried to explain this, but pressure to follow a more elitist model continued. I wondered if I was imposing a western liberal model on a developing country, until I reminded myself that ‘collective creativity’ has long been practised widely in theatre contexts in other Latin American regions (Van Erwen, 2001,). It appears, however, there is a less strong tradition of community theatre in Mexico. This mis-match of ideas proved to be the most challenging aspect of the project. When staff came to watch rehearsals, they began to see the whole picture. But I had to involve the most senior university officials to gain support for my approach. It was essential for a positive outcome. As a nod to those who had wanted a spiritual dimension, we began the play with a new legend, which physicalized the abstract nature of the threat of fluorosis rather than telling people what to do about it. Using group story-making and physical theatre, we personified it as an invisible monster, who had waited underground for hundreds of years before emerging through the new water supply to attack the town’s inhabitants. The rest of the scenes in the play were more contemporary. Our devising process combined educational drama techniques with theatre exercises, movement and improvisation. Emerging material was discussed. Students volunteered to write up drafts, after which we
began a collective process of choosing the most effective and relevant scenes, redrafting, and finally sequencing them. I then wrote a script, incorporating as many of the group’s ideas (and words) as possible. Mexican colleagues supported me by rendering my Spanish more authentic and vernacular. Dan filmed images of the town, the university laboratory and public water supplies. These were projected behind the live action, to link scenes and provide a local authenticity that would interest audiences and help them to follow the action – as well as establishing a powerful atmosphere. Music was selected and more formal rehearsals took place over the final weeks. The first performance was outdoors in an accessible, open-air public theatre – a simple concrete building with raked seating. To perform here required powerful voice projection and physical expression, as well as effective teamwork. The student participants comprised science, megatronics, engineering and computing students, most of whom had never done drama before. This last challenge proved the least problematic. Though they were doing this project to gain extra credits, the 25 volunteers soon revealed that they liked to have fun. Almost every game, exercise, and improvisation was greeted with laughter, cheers and applause. They appeared to enjoy having the chance to work together – in pairs, in groups or all together – and were appreciative of each other’s work. There were no put downs, just constructive criticism. In spite of their lack of theatre experience, they joined in the debate about the form and content of the emerging play with energy and commitment –their scientific knowledge enhanced their ability to contribute. The only problem was their exuberance, which often made the rehearsal room so noisy that I did wonder if they would find the discipline required for performance. I need not have worried. Not only did the group perform with tremendous energy and enthusiasm, but with team spirit and discipline – everyone appearing in the right costume at the right moment, with the right props. They spoke and moved clearly and powerfully and the audience appeared gripped. The most exciting
part for me was the last scene, in which we ‘staged’ a meeting within the play, supposedly called by the student protagonists to alert the town to the dangers of fluorosis. This was a completely improvised piece of ‘Invisible Theatre’. The 300 plus members of the audience became the audience at the meeting. Our cast of students on the panel invited, and fielded, spontaneous questions about the real issues of fluorosis confidently, secure within their fictitious roles, opening the discussion up for more. They were joined on the panel by the real student who had led on the investigation and her tutor, who grew more and more excited. He had a lot to say. It was, in his words, “The best meeting we have had – at last people are engaging with the issue”.
“The only problem was their exuberance, which often made the rehearsal room so noisy that I did wonder if they would find the discipline required for performance.”
Finally, a member of the local authorities stood up and congratulated everyone on their work, before promising to take the matter back to the council with some urgency and requesting to work closely with the university on improving the water supply. To all of us involved, this felt like ‘a result’. The estreno1 was an important celebration of human and group endeavour. From the community perspective, a large number of the town’s population had become engaged as an audience of spectactors, to use Boal’s phrase2, in debating how to solve a serious problem of local water contamination in a non-hierarchical, non-judgmental forum with experts and non-experts alike. The production confirmed my conviction that co-devising with an untrained group can bring dividends both from a sociological and aesthetic perspective. A cross-section of participating students agreed that it was their involvement in the creative process of making the play that they valued most highly – they had been given an important task (to use theatre to educate the public, and with this came a strong sense of responsibility to do the job right). They had grown in confidence and stature. They identified significant positive shifts in their attitudes towards: > Their ability to act dramatic characters, through voice and movement;
Since returning, I’ve learnt that Bournemouth Borough Council has made our service redundant in the light of the current recession. To my knowledge, Bournemouth Theatre in Education was one of the last LA subsidized TIE teams remaining in England. My colleagues and I are saddened and angry at the demise of a fortyyear public provision in Dorset, but we are planning to continue our work in a freelance capacity.
> The nature of theatre, which noone had previously envisioned as encompassing serious, so-called academic themes; > The capacity of education to be playful, non competitive and indeed intensely co-operative (thus offering them an alternative to the prevalent neo-liberal orthodoxy); > Their ability as young people to influence the community; > The role of the university as a key force for change in the community. The management problems I identified have reminded me of how important it is to negotiate and write a clear contract, to ensure partners understand and agree to your working principles from the start. Fortunately, the project commissioners were pleased with the outcome. The production brought the university together with the townspeople in a community venue. It enabled science to show a human and creative face – people saw that not only is it about important matters of public health but also that it is practised by ordinary people, fired with the same passions and aspirations as any others. Scientists are not dry, robotic, uncreative number crunchers, but concerned citizens like them. After this first performance we had planned for the group to continue performing the play around the town, and formed a committee of students to run the process. To the best of my knowledge, this is yet to happen. In community theatre, sustainability is the name of the game, especially if you want said politician to keep his word and activate other councillors. More pressure will undoubtedly be required. I hope the students, supported by their lecturers, will tour the play. To view a copy of the resulting short documentary about ‘Al Abrir La Llave’, or discuss this (or any other educational or community theatre project), please feel free to contact me. Tony Horitz E: tony.horitz@talk21.com 1
First night performance
Bibliography 2 BOAL, A. (1979) Theatre of the Oppressed, Pluto. VAN ERVEN, E. (2001) Community Theatre – Global Perspectives, Routledge.
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FEATURE
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FEATURE The PeerGrouP is based in a rural area in the North of The Netherlands, in the province of Drenthe. The operational base is in Veenhuizen, a former penal colony that consisted of five prisons with 800 prisoners The PeerGrouP likes to collaborate with people working in various disciplines and backgrounds. Such as actors, technicians, architects, dancers, sculptors, engineers, cooks, farmers, designers, musicians, philosophers and managers. All working towards a presentation. Mostly the outcome is a theatrical play or an event.
case of emergency. In 2001 there was the big disaster in the city of Enschede. An entire firework factory blew up, destroying a great deal of the city. With this disaster in mind the fire department was not amused by our plans for building a castle out of straw. The solution was found by just making ‘too many’ escape routes in the castle. An emergency exit was made in every tower. 150 people could escape in 1:30 minutes. Afterwards the fire department complimented us on the way we kept thinking with them to find a solution. They became our friends
good friend and is always prepared to help us. Every site, every location, has a history and specific feature and every site has people that belong to it or work with it. The focus of the PeerGrouP is mostly on the people. They contain the stories and the connections. The people are the key to the specific stories, the conflicts, the celebrations and ceremonies. They form the landscape of their community. The work is a mix between theatre and art in the broadest sense. The outcome could be, an exhibition, a performance or a
Dig where you Sjoerd Wagenaar of PeerGrouP, here writing in his second language, explores site specific theatre, art and landscape in The Netherlands. The work of the PeerGrouP is usually site specific (sometimes site generic) in a socially engaged manner. The PeerGouP hardly ever perform in theatre buildings, but find their own performance spaces. For instance a field, a big coaster or a whole village. Sometimes they create their own space. Three years ago they built an enormous castle out of straw bales as a performance space and ‘laboratory’. A metaphor for everything involved with agriculture and culture. The castle was built by the PeerGrouP, together with young prisoners and farmers. In the beginning there was a distance between these three very different groups. But after the first start and laying the first straw bales they believed that the PeerGrouP was making something very special. After a week there was harmony and a lifetime experience. At the weekend the young prisoners came back with their family to show them what they achieved. To build the castle we had to have permission from the fire department. We had to study a lot and make computer simulations of how the audience could escape the castle in
and every time we perform somewhere they come along. The castle existed from 2005– 2007. In the first year the PeerGrouP made several performances and organized many debates and conferences about agriculture and culture. This project was called “The Sector”. After a year the local government asked the PeerGrouP to keep it running. The PeerGrouP agreed and the local government took over the financial risk of continuing for another year. The year after, the PeerGrouP started using the 4 acres of land around the castle to create a big garden: “The Ministry of Peer” After 2 years working in the castle and on the land, we collected many stories, images and experiences. More than enough to make a book. One of the stories is about the farmer that farmed right next to the castle. His mother died in the first year of the castle’s existence. They lived together, and now he had to live alone. In his spare time, he was always helping us out with everything. Together, with his favourite cow, he performed in one of our performances. One day he said to me: “you helped me getting over the death of my mother”. He became a
gathering, a meeting, a social event or just a play. The social aspect of being together with the audience and the performers by sharing a drink or a meal is important to the PeerGrouP. There was no bakery in the village of Amen. The PeerGrouP started its work there by building a bread oven and creating a temporary bakery for the villagers to come and trade their stories for bread. This was done on weekly basis for several months. By doing this a friendship started and stories were collected. The final performance was as much a PeerGrouP performance as a performance of the villagers. PeerGrouP starts off as an outsider with every new project. We always start with not being part of the community. We are seen as strangers with strange intentions: “Theatre… art… that doesn’t belong here, does it?” Over the years PeerGrouP has developed special approaches to bridge this gap. Integrate and infiltrate. In this approach the PeerGrouP people just get to work on a site and try to find a (temporary) place in the community by using their artistic skills. People who work with their imagination awaken curiosity. From curiosity grows connection and from connection grows a desire to cooperate and to communicate and build a friendship. This way of working takes time and a deep breath, you need compassion
Performance space ‘castle’ built out of straw bales
stand “During research in Amen one of the members of PeerGrouP found an old road, one of the villagers had told him about. This became an archaeological site: one of the performance spaces in a theatrical walk through the village. In the village the whole village became a part of the set. Everyone living in the village could do something, and everything they did became part of the performance.”
and the ability to see every little step as something going forward. When we first started building a castle, it turned out there was a group of local people that wouldn’t have it. They organised a meeting in the council hall. I had to speak and explain about the straw bale castle. I told them about it being a metaphor for what was going on in agriculture and how it was supposed to be a support for the farmers. At that time there was a serious outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Within the group were some farmers who understood the possibilities and the challenge. Everything changed. In the end only one person was against it. He was the ‘diehard’ and he arranged another meeting with even more people. In this second meeting the farmers were very angry at him for seeing only problems instead of solutions. After this meeting we never heard from him again. Afterwards people told us he had only lived there for a year, and he was against everything happening in their village. PeerGrouP’s concepts are often not ‘theatrical’ in an obvious way. Agriculture, landscape, food… Topics like these require a different kind of research to find the stories, that have a ‘theatrical’ quality. Therefore in the research PeerGrouP works with people from a variety of professions. Sometimes we learn the specific
skills from foresters, scientists, farmers, cooks. We sometimes involve the local people with their skills in the performance. Working in this manner the members of PeerGrouP continuously keep confronting themselves with the reality of their subjects, trying to find the ‘true’ stories. They also keep developing new (artistic) site-specific methods and approaches to work with. In the village of Amen one of us learned skills from a local water rat catcher. The research starts with a fascination in a subject, not with a concept for a performance. During the research phase the results will be presented regularly to the people connected to the site. There are three reasons for this. One is to create more bonding, the second to show the process of creation and third is to create a new audience. PeerGrouP always searches for artistic ways to do this, so they create something tangible to share with the locals. With the reactions to these early presentations their research can be refined. To do this properly it is essential to delay the developing of ideas towards a possible shape of the final performance for as long as possible. Living and working on a site, being in contact with the locals (who can also become the future performers/audience) PeerGrouP uncovers the specific content and shape of the performance. The final performance is constructed out of the elements, which come up during the research, and prove the most consistent.
During research in Amen one of the members of PeerGrouP found an old road, one of the villagers had told him about. This became an archaeological site: one of the performance spaces in a theatrical walk through the village. In the village the whole village became a part of the set. Everyone living in the village could do something, and everything they did became part of the performance. When working towards the final performance, PeerGrouP selects the stories and materials allowing for the creation of an event that is specific and universal whilst at the same time of a place. A performance or play becomes an event, which an audience new to the site, can enjoy. The audience dives into this experience, creating a new storyin it’s own right. The centre can be anywhere… it depends on where you are. Sjoerd Wagenaar PeerGrouP E: info@peergroup.nl T: 0033 (0)592 396935 W: www.peergroup.nl
Visual artist and artistic director of the PeerGrouP Sjoerd Wagenaar and former financial director of PeerGrouP Cis van Helmond started the PeerGrouP in 2000. Last November, the PeerGroup published a book. “Dig where you stand” which has stories, by people with different backgrounds, describing the experience of working with the PeerGrouP. The book features comments on the projects, looking back over 5 years of hard work.
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FEATURE
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FEATURE
Contact Gets Co-operative DJ-ing inside the Co-op
dancehall, underage disco and local insurance broker. Its strong local connections meant that a lot of people were excited about the building opening, albeit temporarily, with a new life and energy.
In response to mailout’s recent call for stories about disused shops, James Stanley, Contact’s Communications Officer, talks about the creative use of an empty Co-op.
Hip hop over the tannoys and street art on the walls is not what most people expect when they walk into their local supermarket. That’s what the residents of Moston, Manchester, discovered when Contact, the north’s leading creative venue for young people, took over their local, disused Co-operative in March this year. Delivered in association with Manchester City Council and the Cooperative the project saw a group of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) work alongside artists to transform the empty shop into an interactive, cultural space, hosting workshops in everything from photography and DJing to dance, drama and song. ‘It may seem an odd choice for a venue but when we were researching we discovered that this project just wouldn’t work if it was based in your typical youth or community centre. A lot of young people we spoke to from the area felt patronized by staff at such facilities and many of them refused to engage with the project if it was held somewhere like that. The Co-operative therefore presented itself as an alternative, and neutral, space.’ Danny Fahey, a project manager In fact, the Co-operative building has always been a mainstay of the local community having previously been a
‘It was this kind of local knowledge that was essential to the project,’ continues Fahey, ‘We worked with several local people and organisations to discover the key neighbourhood issues and contexts. For example a huge ASDA recently opened very near the centre of Moston. Local long-standing independent businesses such as butchers and green grocers couldn’t compete and many of them closed down. ASDA, however, didn’t cater to the local African community. They therefore decided to fulfil their own needs by opening businesses in the newly vacated premises supplying their own products and services. This provided friction with other people in Moston who became fearful of the neighbourhood’s rapidly changing identity. The British National Party (BNP) are very active in the area and they often use economic factors like that to spread fear and hate in the community. This in turn had made Moston’s African community very insular.’ Exploring ways of breaking down barriers between different communities was therefore an important aim of the project. The artists chosen to work on the scheme came from diverse backgrounds and brought with them a wide range of different skills and disciplines. ‘The only thing they had in common is that they were all relevant fresh young artists,’ explains Fahey, ‘We had, for example, Skittles (a.k.a. Liam Kelly), a talent young musician, working alongside Akiel Chinelo, who specialises in traditional African-style storytelling; Bizarre, a local street artist, collaborating with Bobby K, a local African DJ. Because many of the artists we were working with had a
strong local profile it helped raise the young people’s esteem and positive expectations of what we were doing.’ ‘For many it was their first time participating in a creative project,’ continues Fahey, ‘We therefore programmed varied workshops to challenge their perceptions of what culture is and who it belongs to. In the end the Co-operative became a space where, for the first time, young people and adults from both the long-standing and the new African community spent time in each others’ company by choice, rather than being forced together in situations such as school or public transport.’ For most of us the increasingly common empty shop front has become one of the most immediate, and depressing, signs of the global recession but, as the Moston project shows, they can also be symbols for creativity, renewal and community cohesion. By providing a nonpartisan space in the heart of a neighbourhood the Co-operative building allowed young people, many of whom felt ignored and neglected, a platform to explore and discuss the issues that affected them directly. ‘There’s real talent in Moston and we hope we’ve helped to develop and nurture that into something for the future,’ concludes Fahey, ‘In the end we probably learnt as much from the young people as they did from us. We will definitely be using their thoughts and ideas to shape our future offerings at Contact and of our outreach programme. This time we could only stay for four days but I’m sure we will be back – in one form or another.’ James Stanley Communications Officer Contact E: JamesStanley@contact-theatre.org T: 0161 274 0627 F: 0161 274 0640 www.contact-theatre.org
Following on from mailout’s recent coverage of the punk band, Heavy Load, Hijinx talk about their Unity Festival and the start of a debate around employment opportunities for learning disabled actors.
HIjinx Hijinx Theatre’s Unity Festival 15 – 21 June, WMC, Cardiff Hijinx Theatre’s Unity Festival, now in its second year, was originally conceived as an inclusive arts festival. We define inclusive arts as work created by people with and without disability or learning disability working together. As one of the resident companies of the Wales Millennium Centre, it was a long held dream of Hijinx to hold such a festival so we were delighted when the WMC joined us wholeheartedly in this venture along with our associates Disability Arts Cymru, Mencap Cymru, Touch Trust and Community Music Wales to whom we are extremely grateful for working with us to make the festival a success. Unity Festival creates a rare opportunity for organizations to share their excellent work and for everyone to experience inclusive arts at its best. We have discovered a largely hidden world of organizations and people who are producing excellence in this field, working with great passion and inspiration. So much of the work is underrated and receives little publicity, but Unity provides a stage to make it available to everyone, including the wider community of casual national and international visitors to the Wales Millennium Centre, (one of the number one tourist attractions in Wales) – being loud and proud of what we all do and uniting in it. This year the festival includes disability arts and learning disability arts alongside inclusive arts, this is firstly to reflect the shared interests of all our associates who are contributing their time, effort and resources in the festival, but also, as the festival title suggests, it is to demonstrate a belief in Unity.
As we gear up for the second year of the Unity Festival there’s plenty for us to get excited about – some highlights include – the Oska Bright Film Festival, recent winners of the National Lottery Best Arts Project Award; StopGap inclusive dance company, fresh from their performances in Japan; comedian Laurence Clark and our own Hijinx Theatre. We are also very excited to add an international element to the line up this year, with Spanish companies Clownfish and Clownbaret visiting to work with our very own Odyssey Theatre. There will be a mouth watering (and possibly ear bleeding!) finale to the Festival played out by Heavy Load the Brighton based punk band, after a fantastic year for them with the national release of their critically acclaimed documentary. For me the band truly depict the attitude of inclusive arts, it doesn’t have to be pretty, it isn’t “high art”, but you know it’s going to be fun! We hope you are able to join us – united we stand, divided we fall! For the full line up please go to www.hijinx.org.uk and download the infopack or call 02920 300 331 for a programme of events. Debate: Training and Casting learning disabled actors As part of the festival Hijinx have planned this much needed debate which hopefully will include a ‘virtual Tim Wheeler’ from Mind the Gap, Peter Edwards, Head of Drama for HTV, and Sara Pickard, two actors with learning disabilities who have recently worked with Lougher, Artistic Director of Hijinx Theatre.
Hijinx is funded by the Arts Council Poster from the HiJinx Theatre production: Miss Brown to You of Wales to take theatre to communities all over Wales and England. With a huge commitment to creating opportunities for people with learning disabilities, to date we have employed 3 actors on recent shows. But, for so many reasons, including the issue of training, it continues to be a struggle for us to achieve this and in talking with many other people we realised that this is something which needed a public debate. So this is it – it’s just a beginning, the start of something and if anyone out there would like to share their experiences or thoughts with us we would welcome them. Ben Pettitt-Wade Outreach Officer, Gaynor Lougher Artistic Director, Hijinx Theatre www.hijinx.org.uk
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FEATURE
Arts and Communities – the Journal Huw Champion explains the thinking behind the emergence of a new publication that aims to tell the longer story of participative arts.
The mailout Trust came into the world to offer a focus for the growing area of generating creative opportunity and activity amongst communities where that wasn’t normally accessible. Its job is supporting, advocating and developing participatory arts work in all art forms and a wide range of social and community contexts. mailout the magazine has been the continuous thread from the beginning, with the website following in the mid 90s, and conferences and events cropping up along the way. These activities are quite good for pushing out bite-sized pieces of information and articles, and providing some platforms for dialogue, but not necessarily favourite for telling longer stories. Several years ago a phone call came through from someone who’d conceived and driven a music studio project. He’d been responsible for it from raising the capital and commissioning the designs right through to opening its doors to the punters. On an education campus, it was doing what it set out to do – make a difference to the music map in the town where it was based. Yes, he’d write an article for the magazine, but actually, he’d be interested in writing the book. In fact, it was already written, and would mailout be interested to publish it? Sadly, after a lot of discussion, the outcome was ‘No, sorry…’ but it highlighted the potential in, and value of, publishing case studies, histories, best practice and ideas at bigger than bite-size. It refocused mailout’s trust on some early debates about different levels of publishing, and target groups beyond practitioner networks. At one end of the spectrum was the need for striking and quick messages to decision makers who could open up funding opportunities for the sector, while at the other was the potential for the book on the project. Towards the ‘book’ end of the spectrum sat the potential, given both the extent of growth in the sector and the rapid growth of undergraduate and graduate courses in the broad field of
participatory arts in community and social contexts, for some kind of journal. Would an academic journal be of interest to people working in the field? Would the publication of extended studies of aspects and areas of the work by practitioners be of interest to the academic sector? The trust spent quite a lot of time trying to work up an idea that would fly, wondering about potential partners, looking at the market for publication of longer articles, booklets, or books, and where web publication offered particular opportunities. Feasibility research by former editor Mary Schwarz and contributor Jennie Hayes suggested that any aspirations for a freestanding ‘fat’ mailout were unrealistic. What emerged as worth exploring was the idea of an academic journal, and the realistic way of achieving this would be through an existing academic publisher. The one which immediately suggested itself was Intellect, Bristol-based, and in the publishing business for 20 years. Intellect has built up a portfolio of journals in the arts and humanities. Their list stands at more than 50 journals, ranging from ‘Arts, Design and Communication in Higher Education’ through to ‘The Big Picture Magazine’ and ‘The Radio Journal’. The background to all this was that, in common with every arts organisation in the UK, the mailout Trust has been in the throes of reviewing itself from its soul outwards. In the day job, trust members are all involved in delivering practical participatory creative opportunities in community contexts, in difficult economic conditions and comic political contexts, so re-engineering mailout makes for an interesting reality check. The field of work has grown vastly and changed steadily, resources have multiplied and creative programmes are common currency in regeneration. New creative opportunity, activity and product is opening up all the time
through flooding digital technology. In this context, what should mailout be doing for a vastly changed field, and what are the tools it should be using in the World of Twitter? Where, in all this does a Journal fit – especially one you can get on paper? The answer looks like ‘very well, thanks’. There will be other changes and developments coming up. After all the head-scratching about it, actually setting up the journal was embarrassingly straightforward. It’s edited by Professor Hamish Fyfe, of the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Glamorgan. Choice of name (Journal of Arts and Communities) sparked up the obligatory ‘what we’re here for’ discussion. Understanding what a refereed journal is, who the referee is, and when they can blow the whistle was an interesting learning process. Who’s going to read it, and where in the world, is starting to emerge. It’s out now, Volume 1, Issue 1. Amongst the content is community arts as ecological practice in Ruyang, an oral narrative project with professional footballers in Oxfordshire, and puppetry as community arts practice. It’s referenced and refereed, looks good and adds a different dimension to discourse about community and participatory arts. Look out for a conference not too far down the road. Published by Intellect, it’s available to individual subscribers as a paper publication for a half-price subscription of £16 per volume, normally 3 issues, normally published over one year. You can find out all about it from the Intellect website: www.intellectbooks.co.uk ISSN 1757-1936 Huw Champion
Principal Editor is: Professor Hamish Fyfe, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Glamorgan, Atrium, Adam Street, Cardiff CF24 2FN T: 01443 668607 E: hfyfe@glam.ac.uk
Review Arts and Communities Journal Given the broad profile and (what often feels like) the ongoing proliferation of community and participatory arts, it is promising that we finally have our first journal devoted to arts and communities. Printed in collaboration with Mailout, Arts and Communities is the first journal of its kind to recognise the importance of creative collaborations between artists and people in a range of community settings, and aims to develop praxis and theory for art and communities. The journal sets out to provide focus for research and information on the exchange of philosophical, sociological and practical concerns affecting arts and communities, with local, national and international perspectives. As someone with an active interest both in academia, as well as the mucky and messy world of community arts (I manage an arts and health programme in a hospital), I propose that the Journal of Arts and Communities contributes towards igniting a much needed conversation between practitioners, academics and communities themselves. The contributors cover a range of perspectives and provide a healthy combination of research, case studies and book reviews. Ranging from the review of established debates such as Lally’s exploration of qualitative evidence to more recent themes Sarco-Thomas’ analysis of community art as ecological practice, the papers contribute towards the development of a holistic critical framework which can transcend professional boundaries and funding criteria. As
perspective – Matt Smith’s intriguing case study on community puppetry provided a unique overview of a project which was not distant from the voices and the people it concerned.
we witness a wide range of organisations, communities and even government departments employing creative tactics when working with communities, we are at risk of creating a silo culture. Funders, professionals, government ministers have a tendency to categorise community arts work – arts and health, arts and social inclusion, play…the list is endless and (even I admit!) sometime necessary. However, for those of us working in the field we know that so many of these issues are interrelated and how important it is to nurture a community arts community. All of the contributors have acknowledged the tensions regarding combining academic analysis with real life experiences. In particular Elaine Kelly’s fascinating article regarding qualitative evaluation in association with ‘Sweet Tonic’ – singing workshops for older people, carefully takes into account the value of anecdotal evidence – so often omitted from formal evaluation processes. The combination of research and case studies also helped create a balanced
Maybe some people will be interested in more critical analysis and a narrower perspective. It has the potential to cover a wide range of work, and arguably the breadth of work is too wide. Nevertheless, Patrick Ryan’s account of ‘Kick into Reading’ – a national scheme forging links between football and literacy, provided a welcome insight into a real life case study, and helped complement the more academic analysis. My only criticism is that the research and projects detailed in the papers are all to some extent bound by a professional framework such as education or arts and health, and none appeared to be community initiated. However, maybe that is a challenge set for us as readers, and as potential contributors. Peer review and book reviews are currently written by professionals working in the field – so maybe this is one area communities can begin to be involved. Fyfe in the Editorial writes of a journal in a fledgling state, and it is certainly the embryonic nature of this journal which is what is so exciting. It has the potential to serve as an important public platform for the development of Arts and Communities in both academic and the public realm. Janet Hetherington Janet Hetherington, Senior Lecturer, Creative Communities Team Staffordshire University T:01782 294540 E: J.Hetherington@staffs.ac.uk
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COURSES CONFERENCES AND EVENTS CREATIVE CLUSTERS SUMMERSCHOOL: 6–9TH JULY 2009 Entrepreneurship, Workspace and the Local Creative Economy As in the 1980s, the economy that emerges from this recession will look very different to the economy that went into it. The places that engage now with emerging sectors will recover fastest. Are you ready to provide the support and infrastructure that will be needed? Drawing on one of the great regeneration success stories of the last twenty years, the Creative Clusters SummerSchool offers welltested solutions and practical tools to support recovery: > Four days of intensive up-skilling delivered by chief executives, senior regeneration directors and top creative industry consultants. > Taking place in some of the UK’s most successful workspaces: the Workstation/Showroom complex in Sheffield, Dean Clough, Halifax, The Media Centre, Huddersfield and Digital Media Centre, Barnsley. > Practical solutions for beating the recession. Full programme and booking at www.creativeclusters.com Full programme and booking at W: www.creativeclusters.com WILDWORKS: THE BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY 2009 – 2011 In association with Theatre Royal Plymouth and culture10
Wildworks
Wildworks, the international company famous for large-scale outdoor theatre events, has announced the launch of its latest innovative promenade production, The Beautiful Journey. Taking place in Plymouth and the North East of England during 2009, this outdoor theatrical event is a world first for the company. Described as a promenade performance featuring film; food; flowers; flirting and hope; The Beautiful Journey is set in shipyards and dockyards, sometime in the future, where people are gathered together on the last place on earth. Where: Devonport South Dockyard, Devonport, Plymouth (2–20 June 2009) When: Newcastle & Gateshead, North East England (28th July – 8th August 2009) Information: W: www.thebeautifuljourney.com W: www.wildworks.biz
BRISTOL FESTIVAL 2009 Now entering its second year, the Bristol Festival is on September 19 & 20 2009. After a successful first year, winning Venue Magazine’s Top Event of 2008, the focus will again be on highly skilled performers and musicians from the local area – a celebration and showcase of talent from the Southwest region. Performances across 7 stages and 10 nightclubs will encompass a huge range of the region’s arts, theatre, and music, in an engaging weekend of action packed, highly interactive entertainment. W: www.thebristolfestival.org ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BECOMING A MUSIC PRODUCER? Want to learn about the music industry and how to set up your own small music business? CM is currently recruiting for its Creative Music Production & Business Foundation Degree course, which begins in September. With excellent links to the music industry, the programme is designed to develop your creative and technological skills and ability, and to focus on how you can channel these skills into career and business development. The course costs less than most other foundation degrees and there are no formal entry requirements. For more information and a prospectus: W: www.cmsounds.com T: 0207 3770621 FUTURE BRITAIN: ARTS LEADING THE WAY Clore Auditorium, Tate Britain 15 June 2009 10 am–4 pm Future Britain: Arts leading the way, a national cross artform conference discussing the development of the sector over the coming years and its role in shaping Britain’s future. The conference will also launch the Arts Manifesto for the forthcoming General Election. The NCA has been holding consultations up and down the country to gather views from artists and arts organisations which have informed the production of the manifesto. The document will form the basis for an advocacy campaign to promote the value of the arts around the time of the election. The conference includes expert panel discussions with leading
figures from the sector as well as open discussion sessions and opportunities for questions. To find out more : W: www.artscampaign.org.uk CONTENTS MAY VARY CAR BOOT FAIR 2009 Contents May Vary are hosting Manchester’s very first Art Car Boot Sale on Saturday July 4 2009 and are looking for 50–70 artists, artist-led groups, projects, galleries and publishers to participate. The event will be in a city centre location and coincide with the Manchester International Festival. The Car Boot Fair is the grass roots answer to hugely commercial art fairs allowing independent and noncommercial practitioners to explore ideas of value, exchange and independence. Selling is not compulsory and proposals should fully outline the exhibition aspect, responding to the physical, social, economical, geographical and/or literal situation. Participants will be provided with an average car parking space to park and install. Deadline: 15th June 2009 For more information: E: c-m-v@hotmail.co.uk W: www.contentsmayvary.org/ USING ARTS AND CULTURE TO DELIVER POSITIVE ACTIVITIES AND NI11 TARGETS Three free Arts Council events are being run at the end of June/early July 2009 exploring the contribution that arts and culture can make to delivering positive activities for young people and National Indicator 110 targets. June 29 2009 – Southampton Solent University, Southampton July 2 2009 – Austin Court, Birmingham July 7 2009 – Rosebowl, Leeds Metropolitan University These events are for all local authorities and their delivery partners. They will be of particular interest to local authority arts and cultural officers, officers working with or commissioning services for children and young people and NI11 lead officers. Visit thewebsite for more information: www.artscouncil.org.uk
Mini Mediabox is open for bids to enable 13 to 19 year olds the opportunity to develop and produce creative media projects, using film, television, print, radio or online platforms. Mini Mediabox provides grants of £1,500 to £5,000 and is open to grassroots and community youth organisations with a turnover of £100k or under. The scheme is run by a consortium of First Light Movies, Media Trust, Skillset and the UK Film Council, so, quite a few logos to feature on the credits. The initiative is intended to provide young people with the opportunity to express their own opinions, ideas, views, gain new skills, encourage creativity, boost personal development and get their voices heard. Further information W: www.media-box.co.uk BIG – Awards for All is apparently ‘Bigger Better and Faster’ – a total of £45 million is available in England offering grants of between £300 to £10,000 to grassroots groups in the community and voluntary sector, health bodies, schools and parish or town councils. In Wales there is £2.4 million and grants range between £500 and £5,000. In Scotland the Scottish Arts Council and Sportscotland supported by the Big Lottery Fund have identified £10.5 million to give away in grants from £500 to £10,000. In the north of Ireland a new Awards for All Scheme has been launched with a budget of £3.5 million. For all the info W: www.awardsforall.org.uk T: 0845 4 10 20 30.
Heritage Lottery also have two small grants schemes – Young Roots to involve 13 to 25 year olds in finding out about their heritage, developing skills, building confidence and promoting community involvement and Your Heritage to support projects that relate to the local, regional or national heritage of the UK and that help people to learn about and look after their heritage. Young Roots offers grants between £3,000 and £25,000, and Your Heritage between £3,000 and £50;000. For help and advice complete with a mentor to help run your project W: www.hlf.org.uk T: 020 7591 6042. The Arts Council of England are maintaining their Grants for the Arts scheme to support individuals, arts organisations and other people who use the arts in their work. Grants to individuals range from £,1000 to £30,000 and grants for organisations range from £1000 to £100,000. To find out everything visit W: www.artscouncil.org.uk or T: 0845 300 6200. The Allen Lane Foundation is interested in funding work which benefits people in the following groups, or generalist work which includes significant numbers from more than one such group: > asylum-seekers and refugees > gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender people > gypsies and travellers > offenders and ex-offenders > older people
> people from black and minority ethnic communities and migrant workers > people experiencing mental health problems; people experiencing violence or abuse Grants range from £500 up to £15,000 and they prefer smaller organisations. For further information go to W: www.allenlane.org.uk E: info@allenlane.org.uk Allen Lane Foundation, 90 The Mount, York YO24 1AR. T: 01904 613223. F: 01904 613133. The Tudor Trust are most interested in helping smaller, under-resourced organisations which offer direct services and which involve the people they work with in the planning. Funded groups don’t have to be registered charities. Tudor aims to be helpful, flexible and respond imaginatively to organisations’ real concerns and priorities. They want to offer high levels of support and make grants over one, two or three years but may work alongside organisations for longer periods although their funding will not continue indefinitely. They use a two stage application process to save people time and they estimate that about one in ten applicants go through to the second stage. Full guidelines are available at W: www.tudortrust.org.uk The Tudor Trust, 7 Ladbroke Grove, London W11 3BD. T: 020 7727 8522.
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FUNDING Nominet has created a Trust to support inventive Internet related projects that can make a difference to people. Any organisation can apply and they consider projects which: > are a new initiative or a distinctive extension of an existing project > are original and innovative – or provide a fresh and different approach to an existing project > have a wide reach or demonstrable potential in the long term > make a significant difference to the users > be capable of delivering what is promised – with risk mitigation assessed > have the internet at the core To apply complete their application form online. E: enquiries@nominettrust.org.uk T: 01865 334 000. W: www.nominettrust.org.uk The Tudor Trust and the LankellyChase Foundation are working together to support voluntary organisations working within the criminal justice field in the South West of England. They are seeking to support partnerships and will make between 25–30 grants over the next eighteen months from a grant fund of £1 million. To find out more visit: W: www.lankellychase.org.uk/ TLC%20Grant%20Guidlines.pdf Applications should be returned to TLC South West, c/o Karen Flippance, LankellyChase Foundation, 1 The Court, High Street, Harwell, DIDCOT OX11 0EY. T: 01235 820044. The Arts Council of Wales has come out in favour of projects delivered in acknowledged areas of deprivation and in particular those areas which have traditionally received less of the funding cake. The Small Grants Scheme provides grants between £250 to £5,000. The Mainline grants provides support between £5,001 to £30,000. and for large scale touring projects and for venues that have an identified role in more than one Arts Council of Wales strategy, they may consider applications up to £100,000. They also provide a range of grants for training and something called The Beacon Company Awards, up to £140,000 aimed to recognise and reward
excellence, enabling those companies and organisations which consistently create work off high quality and achieve levels of excellence to develop.
Deadline 13th October – Decisions 24th November; Deadline 19th January 2010 – Decisions 2nd March 2010; Deadline 27th April 2010 – Decisions announced 8th June 2010.
Further info go to: W: www.artswales.org.uk
For all the details go to: W: www.firstlightmovies.com/ funding/ E: info@firstlightmovies.com Remember they manage and allocate £700,000 of cash from the National Lottery. First Light Movies, Unit 6 Third Floor, The Bond, 180 – 182 Fazeley Street, Birmingham B5 5SE. T: 0121 7534 866.
Sea Change is a capital grants programme worth £45 million given to local authorities over three years to invest in the most deprived seaside resorts in England. The partners include the Arts Council of England, BIG Lottery Fund, CABE, English Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Regional Development Agencies with CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) providing advice, assessing applications and managing the decision making process. If you are beside the seaside might be worthwhile finding out what if anything your local authority is planning. Further information: E: seachange@cabe.org.uk W: www.cabe.org/seachange In North Staffordshire there is a further round of grants available from the Robbie Williams Give it Sum fund. The deadline is the 4th September and responses are given in November. For further information: T: 01782 720 040. W: www.comicrelief.com/apply for a grant/uk grants/give it sum Hilton in the Community Foundation provides grants up to £5,000 for projects that meet one of three chosen areas of focus: Young People-Education; Young PeopleHealth; Disaster Relief and International Fund. The next deadline is 4th August for a 2nd September gathering of the Grants Committee. Guidance and application forms are available on their website: W: www.hilton-foundation.org.uk E: info@hilton-foundation.org.uk The Hilton Foundation, 179–199 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 4UL. T: 020 7605 7733. F: 020 7605 7736. First Light Movies next deadline is the 7th July 2009 with decisions being announced on the 18th August. Further rounds are:
SITA Enhancing Communities Programme – Large Grants + Small Grants Scheme – fast track funding for projects up to £10,000. First, go to the website to see if you are in a suitable part of the England, different scheme rules apply in Scotland and Wales. Remaining deadlines for 2009 are: Large Grants Scheme – 31st July (Board meeting 13th October 2009); Small Grants Scheme – 15th June (Board meeting 18th August); 12th August (Board meeting 13th October); 14th October (Board meeting 15th December). SITA Trust, The Barn, Brinkmarsh Lane, Falfield, South Gloucestershire GL 12 8PT. T: 01454 262910. F: 01454 269090. E: sita.trust@sita.co.uk W: www.sitatrust.org.uk/apply/ community WREN are similar to SITA – money from the Landfill Tax. Remaining deadlines for application submission are: 24th June; 2nd September and 20th November. Further info at: Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd, WREN House, Manor Farm, Bridgham, Norfolk NR16 2RX. T: 01953 717165. F: 01953 718202. E: wren@wren.org.uk W: www.wren.org.uk The Government have recently announced a New Fund to prevent High Street Decline – £3 million is available and converting empty shops into interesting places is high on the agenda. For further information go to: W: www.communities.gov.uk/news /corporate/1201277
clipout>> mailout’s cut out and keep guide to good practice
Clip out is our regular cut out and keep guide to good practice. Creative uses for empty shops is a popular agenda. To get you started, Duncan Kerr from the Borough of Poole offers an abridged version of their Creative Cabins Toolkit for artists and officers wanting to be creative with empty shops.
Creative Cabins Toolkit This toolkit offers guidelines for things to consider alongside installing your artwork, especially if you want to invite audiences to see your work, and it also provides templates and forms to simplify this process. This is specifically for projects that do not include sales. We are presently working on expanding the project to encompass a point of sale and will update the full tool kit once this is done. To make sure you can be supported properly artists need to consider the following things:
1. Your Proposal Write a proposal for what you want to do in the property. At least one month before you wish to use the space and must include: > Dates and times you wish to use the space > Description of the activity / installation you plan to carry out > Full contact details of you and your team > Full contact details of your studio / course leader > Whether the property will be open to the public and the dates and times of this > How you intend to promote your exhibition
2. Finding a space for your project > Meet with the property agent who manages the property and agree terms > If the shop unit is a listed building,
some of the works proposed may require listed building consent. Displays that affect the shop front, or the fabric of the unit’s interior and/or exterior are likely to require such consent… Please be clear in your proposal about what you want to do, so you can be supported fully with any consents or applications needed – including Building Regulations. This will be dealt with on your behalf internally.
3. Keys to the property > You are responsible for the keys to the property, and must arrange collecting them directly from the agent, or from the Town Centre Management office
> Once you have the keys to the property, you are responsible for everything that happens there. We recommend you cover your activity with Public Liability Insurance to a minimum of £5m per claim; risk assess your activity thoroughly, check the building is secure when not in use, as you are responsible for any damage to the property whilst you are the key holder.
4. Exhibition guidelines > Agree terms of use with the property agent before you use the building > Allow for enough time to get in to the space and set up, and set down the work
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clipout>> > There must be no offensive work displayed and consideration given to children and families who will be walking past the property. > You must endeavour to curate your work well – make sure the work is installed well and the space is tidy and accessible.
5. Guidelines for sale of work > You must NOT sell work from the property. This will require licences and will undercut commercial galleries in the area. > Commissions are acceptable, but you must arrange this somewhere else, away from the property, with this being a separate arrangement from your Creative Cabins project.
7. Fire Safety > Emphasis must be placed on preventing fires and reducing risk It is your responsibility to ensure the safety of everyone who uses your premises and in the immediate vicinity. A set of guides has been developed to tell you what you have to do to comply with fire safety law, help you to carry out a fire risk assessment and identify the general fire precautions you need to have in place. For more guidelines go to: http://www.communities.gov.uk/fi re/firesafety/firesafetylaw/
8. Marketing > You may want to promote your art activity in the building. Write a Press release, and proof any posters / flyers before you go to print, as well as your online marketing. > You must include the local authority logos on your publicity, and send final proofs of the PR design to the Creative Cabins team. > You must include the agents logo and the property address itself in all press releases and print marketing, to help promote the agent and their property
9. Documentation, evaluation and monitoring > Please make sure you take some photos of the finished work in the building. This is for the Creative
Cabins team records, and to help promote your work and the Creative Cabins project. > Please send any comments from the public about your work to the Creative Cabins team – you could set up a comments book, or record statements when they are made. > Evaluation is really important as it helps you assess the successes and weaknesses of your project, and helps us to understand how to support you better. > Monitoring – Please complete the Monitoring checklist
Operational Note. The toolkit is intended for members of the public in the Arts/ Education community, and as such has been slightly simplified to ensure that the creativity we are promoting is not being stifled. However this does not mean that certain operational procedures are not being undertaken.
Planning Due to the short-term nature of the exhibitions planning consent is not sought after, however it is important to ensure the same exceptions with your planning unit. Also we restrict external modifications and advertising (some is permissible) to stop the need for additional planning consents. This is also the case with internal modification. It is stipulated that no alternations or structures are to be integrated into the actual fabric of the building, and any installations are stand-alone.
Listed Buildings As with general planning, the instance of the premises being a listed building is only an issue if any exterior additions are made.
Building Regs This is important, as this unit would usually deal with fire safety. It is essential that building regs are aware of the proposal and the intention to install anything may change the fire safety acceptance.
Environmental and Consumer Protection Services The nature of the pieces have to be acceptable to the general public (which is vetted internally) anything that you feel unsure about needs to be consulted with ECPS.
Local Property Agents These are the lynch pin of the project, to help sell the idea to them ensure they have their logos displayed on all marketing and ensure that there is no alternations to the property
Town Centre Management Here they play a vital role in providing a point where the artist signs in and out the keys to the property, we NEVER leave keys in the possession of artists over night or over the weekend. This may sound a bit long winded but it just simply a case of sending the relevant officers a copy of the proposal and property details to ensure that ever base is covered. If you would like to find out more about the Creative Cabins project and the full Toolkit contact: Duncan Kerr Economic Development Officer Planning & Regeneration Services Tel: 01202 633301 duncan.kerr@poole.gov.uk Marianne Scahill Arts in the Community Officer Arts Development 01202 633972 m.scahill@poole.gov.uk Borough of Poole Civic Centre Poole Dorset. www.investinpoole.com www.locationpoole.com
The full Creative Cabins Toolkit can be downloaded from the link below, or contact Marianne or Duncan. www.boroughofpoole.com –search “Creative Cabins”
www.plaay.co.uk cred‘Folk Art Series - Luke Ching’. Lukeching.blogspot.com To download instructions on how to make the cockroach visit www.e-mailout.org