Minutes: 14 September 2010 Present: Michelle Carwardine-Palmer (Chair) Salisbury Playhouse Peter Riley, Salisbury Libraries and Galleries Peter Ursem, ArtCare Sue Kent, La Folia Peter Tyas, Wiltshire Council Dave Buxton, Devizes Carnival Caroline Peacock, Salisbury International Arts Festival Maria Bota, SIAF Deryck Newland, Salisbury Arts Centre Keith Nimmo, Wiltshire Music Centre Dominic Somers, TheatreWorks
Apologies: Mark Bishop, Big State Juliann Worall-Hood Stephanie Jalland, Hoodwink Nicolas Fogg, Marlborough Jazz Festival 1. During Apologies TS shared information about a project Julieann Worall-Hood is working to develop around giving groups of young people the opportunity to engage with Visual Art from the Rabley Drawing Centre or within their own settings. MB requested that her information be shared with the group via email. Action: TS to email group Juliann’s details to the membership 2. Caroline Corfe, Relationship Manager for Regional Development, ACE presentation: a) Caroline offered herself as a contact for any artist or organisation that doesn’t currently have a contact within the Arts Council. Caroline’s email address is Caroline.Corfe@artscouncil.org.uk b) Caroline shared the presentation that was made to RFO’s at recent ACE mtgs with the membership. It contained a lot of information around changing in funding process and priorities that I will not note here but will forward the presentation Action: TS to email out the presentation to the membership 3. Peter Tyas, Wiltshire Council, Head Of Arts presentation: a. Since being in post Peter has worked to: i. map who the Arts Service fund ii. establish the different needs that organisations have iii. Encourage partnership working between the arts and other sectors within Wiltshire Council The Arts service work with both the professional and voluntary sectors providing funding and advice.
The Arts Service works with the Area Boards and Community Area Partnerships and see that there is a natural ‘hub’ within Trowbridge, Melksham, Corham, with smaller more defined hubs in Devizes and Marlborough. b. Wiltshire Council’s priorities: i. Young people and closing the inequality of achievement ii. Vulnerable older people iii. Waste iv. Leisure v. Economic impact, a growing economy that underpins everything in Wiltshire Within Wiltshire 22% of employment is within the public sector which is relatively low in comparison with other Counties. A Creative Industries forum is being developed to support private sector growth though developing skills, training, access to markets and promotion. c. IEP, Local Enterprise Partnerships (replacement of RDA’s) are being developed. There needs to be 1 million people in each area and Wiltshire is to be part of Swindon and Gloucestershire. Peter feels we have a ‘head start’ here due to the work that W&SSA has done with Wiltshire and Swindon. d. Peter has looked at the economic impact of the arts in Wiltshire which is challenging as using the audited accounts the council have of its core funded organisations is not a true enough representation and although both Salisbury Playhouse and Salisbury International Arts Festival have done some very specific work around their economic impact their formulas would not work for all. Peter will be seeking support in this work from his Wiltshire Council colleagues. e. Visual Arts, Peter reported on a visual arts project that works to share artefacts with schools. It has over 200 schools subscribe to it and provides over 100 artefacts per term. This is currently predominantly with primary schools but is looking to extend its work with secondary schools. Peter feels that there is a real political drive to use the assets we hold more effectively. MB commented on how useful it would be to have a way to collectively communicate with schools maybe through ‘Cultural Ambassadors’. KN is interested to know where these schools are clustered, are they specialist schools. Action: PT to share contacts with WAP f. Appointment of new Arts Officer: i. Will begin at the beginning of October, pending the receipt of signed contracts ii. Officers will be designated hubs: 1. PT – Salisbury and lead on film 2. Meril Morgan – Trowbridge, Melksham, Bradford On Avon and lead on Public Art 3. New Officer – Marlbrough and Devizes g. The Cultural Strategy consultation was due to have been shared in the summer, has not yet been shared. It is being written by Julie Martin DN feels that WAP needs to ensure it finds a place within the Cultural Strategy as a recognised mechanism by which the strategy may find traction. Action: TS to speak to PT about the best way to ensure WAP’s inclusion in this
Questions to CC and PT
Cultural Olympiad update 1. Caroline shared that the West was not successful in its bid for national LOCOG funding but still intend to go ahead with the Quest project ‘The Journey’. There will be opportunities for people/ organisations to join in on this. http://doodle.com/ebbrqxrqa3dpadhe4cdr4p4u/admin The focus will be on Weymouth and Portland. The Journey will start with open weekends in September 2011. There is a call for ‘County Pavilions’ eg village halls, that will be used as showcase opportunities for Arts Organisations. Richard Crow remains the main contact for the Cultural Olympiad for our region. KN suggested we co-ordinate what we’re doing anyway, rather than create new work in order to give work a joined up profile even if resources are limited. Action: TS to liaise with MC-P re creating a working group to look at the programming of this Action: CC to forward the Cultural Olympiad newsletter to TS to forward to WAP membership. 2. Does the History Centre work with schools? a. Yes and has an Education Officer Laurel Miller WAP’s Terms Of Reference 1. DS suggested that members ought to commit a set amount of time, outside of the general meetings, to help achieve WAP’s objectives. This would be proportionate to the size of member organisations. This was adopted 2. Add: ‘by working collaboratively we fill in the gaps between organisations and are able to seize opportunities to work together’ 3. add ‘diversity’ to the third point about increasing audiences 4. Under Principles, add that there will be a ‘rolling’ chairperson, the effectiveness of this will be reviewed annually. Action: TS to amend Terms Of Reference and have signed off by the Core Group New Core Group members: Ian Martin, The Pound was nominated by DS and seconded by DN WYAP seat was agreed in principle, WYAP will confirm who will take the position when they have completed the recruitment process for its new Manager. Seat was nominated by MC-P seconded by KN Wiltshire Dancing’s Paula Hammond had shown an interest earlier in the year, the board agreed in principle. Nominated by MB , seconded by KN. Feasibility Study DN presented details of a possible future model for Arts Development in Wiltshire, in order that WAP’s members were able to share their thoughts. Key points were: Why-
To ensure a more sustainable future To take proactive ownership over the future, not wait for their fates to be decided To ensure that they are ‘Fit For Purpose’
Six months of work between TheatreWorks, Wiltshire Dancing and WYAP, facilitated by Chrissie Godfrey, has taken place from which a possible new model has emerged: What new model might look like: Working title ‘Creative Wiltshire’ (these are truncated notes that may be difficult to digest in isolation, please feel free to contact Deryck Newland for further detail if useful) The model proposedThere will be specialist ‘Creative Producers’ CP’s, within the pilot year, one theatre and one dance CP, who will work 2 – 3 days per week, embedded within existing arts organisations. They would sign up to a common development agenda, they will be supported by voluntary ‘Action Learning Groups’ who will feed in their specialist knowledge, they would be focused on specific priorities and work to a single governance. The benefits of this model are that: It’s joined up: it would be collaborative in its response to the sectors needs, not protectionist. There would be equal in that there would be no CEO It’s breathable and responsive and can change easily as the sectors needs change This simple framework will bring with it cost savings (30 – 40% in final model if it includes Wiltshire Dancing, TheatreWorks and WYAP). It is a proactive and innovative, a model that may work as one for other regions to follow? DN shared the timescale for the launch of this pilot, that there is to be a wider consultation in October, G 4 A to be submitted in December with pilot year to begin with 2 or 3 CP’s in April 2011 and 4 or 5 by April 2012. DN opened up the discussion to the group. KN shared that he felt there was huge value in this model and added the following cautionary thoughts: The test of effective development work is that the agents of it should be able to walk away from its projects which then remain sustainable. We need to avoid the trap of the agency itself becoming the mechanism for delivery These interventions need to bring about deep change that will last ‘forever’. It may not be that it’s artform specialists that are needed, rather skills in, for instance, disability, the elderly, diversity, funding etc. It needs to be about finding the need Question: how what was being suggested differed from the sort of work that was coming out of WAP’s membership, e.g. the Cultural Olympiad joint programming work? Response was that what is being suggested is a framework within which specialisms fit. Question: what WAP’s capacity will be in 2011?. The Core group feel that current funds can allow for the Development Manager post to continue further into 2011 than February as currently contracted, and that over the coming weeks a decision will be made about submitting a further G4A to continue its work.
Another possible challenge of suggested ‘Creative Wiltshire’ model is that it is possible that its board may have a different agenda and thoughts to WAP. There would need to be an equality in those represented on the group. AOB TS shared that she would like to set up 3 working groups: 1. To discuss the functions of WAP’s website, including possible County Wide booking and what’s on 2. Peer review how we might be able to support members as ‘Critical friends’ 3. Identify Key Priorities (strategy) of WAP’s members so that a joined up strategy can be developed to identify opportunities for further partnership working MC-P encouraged everyone to sign up to the save the arts petition. http://www.ivaluethearts.org.uk 100,000 signatures are needed The membership were reminded that the next Core group mtg is scheduled as 2 December, 10am venue TBC, and the full group meet again on 3 March. Action: TS to set next 2 full and 2 core groups with the minutes Future dates: Full meetings 11am
Core Group meetings 10am
Thur 3 Mar Thur 7 Jul Wed 7 Dec Wed 26 Jan Wed 25 May Thur 8 Sept