DCMS Opportunity & Excellence Programme Board
October 8, 2009, 2:24 pm
Filed under:
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volartsOn Monday I was in London to attend a meeting of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Opportunity & Excellence Programme Board. This Board brings together Arts Council England, Sport England, English Heritage, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, the National Museum Directors’ Council, the Voluntary Arts Network and the Local Government Association with DCMS Directors to oversee progress against two of the Department’s four Departmental Strategic Objectives (DSOs). DSO1 relates to the levels of public engagement in the DCMS sectors – including arts attendance, arts participation, sports participation, visitors to museums etc. We had an interesting discussion on Monday about the effects of the recession on engagement. The DSO1 target focuses on raising the proportion of the population that engages with the various sectors rather than the total number of people participating (which would include foreign tourists and repeat visitors). We also did some further work on an initial basket of indicators to track progress against DSO2 which seeks to increase ‘excellence’ across the DCMS sectors.
Robin Simpson.
DCMS Opportunity and Excellence Programme Board
On Monday I was at DCMS in London for a meeting of the Opportunity and Excellence Programme Board. This Board oversees the department’s progress against two of its four ‘departmental strategic objectives’ and brings together senior civil servants with the Chief Executives of Arts Council England, English Heritage, Sport England, the Museums Libraries and Archives Council and the National National Museum Director’s Conference. On Monday we discussed the set of indicators that will be used to track progress against the ‘excellence’ target (DSO2). I stressed the need to look at how we can collectively encourage excellence in those parts of the cultural and sporting sectors that do not receive public funding. We also spent some time discussing barriers to participation (in relation to the ‘opportunity’ target (DSO1)). Research shows that the common barriers (across the cultural and sporting sectors) are lack of awareness, practical difficulties, personal difficulties and psychological fears. The last of these seems to be the most significant in relation to arts participation with lack of confidence and perceived lack of skill being the most common reasons for not participating.
Robin Simpson.
Arts Council England Amateur Arts Forum meeting
June 24, 2009, 4:11 pm
Filed under:
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volartsToday I have been back in London to attend the Arts Council England Amateur Arts Forum meeting – the inaugural annual meeting chaired by the ACE Chief Executive Alan Davey. Representatives of 14 national amateur arts umbrella bodies and ACE senior staff gathered around the board table at the ACE national office to discuss a range of issues. We were delighted to be joined before the meeting by a surprise guest – new Arts Council England Chair, Dame Liz Forgan – whose presence emphasised how seriously ACE is now taking its relationship with the amateur arts. Following up our discussions at the ‘Excellence and the Voluntary Arts Seminar’ in June 2008 we identified some different ways in which the amateur sector creates ‘great art’ and discussed how ACE and the amateur arts could work better together to encourage this. The three annual Amateur Arts Forum meetings will provide a platform for ACE to involve the voluntary arts in policy development. Today we started to discuss how this might work in practice. We also discussed how the amateur sector might feed into the development of an evidence base to advocate more collaboratively for the value of the amateur arts. We know that there are many potential sources of funding for amateur arts groups (eg from the Office of the Third Sector, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Big Lottery Fund) which are not currently providing much funding to the voluntary arts sector. We agreed that ACE might be able to help with this – both in terms of talking to these funders to ensure that they are open to applications from amateur arts groups, and in publicising the availability (and relevance) of such funds to the voluntary arts sector. Finally we discussed the effect of ACE’s new free theatre tickets scheme for young people (‘A Night Less Ordinary’) on the amateur theatre sector. It was a fascinating, productive and very positive meeting, reinforcing how much the arts landscape in England has changed as a result of ‘Our Creative Talent’. Notes from the meeting will be distributed to all national voluntary arts umbrella bodies shortly.
Robin Simpson.
Amateur Arts Partnership Development Programme
On Tuesday I was in London to take part in a meeting of the Amateur Arts Partnership Development Programme steering group at Arts Council England. We reviewed our progress on each of the nine themes in the action plan derived from the ‘Our Creative Talent’ research. We also discussed a number of issues raised by voluntary arts umbrella bodies at the first ACE Amateur Arts Forum meeting in April. We agreed to mark the first anniversary of the ‘Our Creative Talent’ conference in July by publicly launching the Amateur Arts Partnership Development Programme and issuing a summary of our achievements in following up the conclusions and recommendations of ‘Our Creative Talent’ over the past twelve months.
Robin Simpson.
Amateo Annual Meeting 2009, Utrecht
Last Thursday and Friday I was in Utrecht at the annual meeting of Amateo – the European Network for Active Participation in the Arts. A year after launching the network in Ljubljana the Board has registered Amateo as a company in Belgium, developed contacts and links with other European networks and planned activities for the coming years. Amateo now has 18 member organisations in 12 European countries (including Voluntary Arts and Making Music in the UK). The annual meeting included presentations on European Union cultural policy and funding opportunities from Culture Action Europe and Haute Equipe. The highlight, for me, was the Dutch composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven talking about the different ‘qualities’ of amateur musicians and why he prefers working with amateur orchestras. At the Amateo AGM we agreed that the network’s priority for the coming year will be to collate existing statistics and research to build a picture of the overall levels of participation in the arts across Europe. Aled Rhys Jones will continue to represent Voluntary Arts on the Amateo Board and I look forward to watching progress over the next twelve months before the network meets again in Denmark in June 2010.
Robin Simpson.
Maximising The Importance Of Arts And Culture Throughout The Economic Downturn
Last Friday I was in London at a seminar on ‘Maximising The Importance Of Arts And Culture Throughout The Economic Downturn’ organised by the Centre for Public Policy Seminars. An audience of more than 300 assembled at The Brewery to hear speakers including Mick Elliott, Director of Culture at DCMS, Sir John Tusa, consultant John Knell and Arts Council England Chair, Dame Liz Forgan. The general message seemed to be that times are tough but could be worse and, so far, the arts sector is remaining reasonably stable. There was also a strong feeling that the recession could present significant opportunities for the arts and a consensus emerged through the day that we need to see the recession as a catalyst for collaboration – across sectors and between arts organisations on different scales. In the first plenary question and answer session, I said I was cautiously optimistic that the recession was an opportunity for the voluntary arts. With people becoming more focussed on their local communities, less inclined to travel and more intent on giving something back to society through volunteering, there is potential for the voluntary arts to benefit. I was pleased to hear the calls for greater collaboration but stressed the need for this to include voluntary arts groups. I suggested that this might be the time for the arts sector to realise that ‘the arts’ is not just those organisations funded by Arts Council England. Liz Forgan closed the seminar by announcing the details of ACE’s new £40M ‘Sustain’ fund to support excellent arts organisations suffering as a result of the credit crunch. Perhaps more importantly for the voluntary arts, she also announced a £4M increase in ACE’s ‘Grants for the Arts’ Lottery fund which provides grants from £1,000 with applications for £5,000 or less turned around in 6 weeks. For bite-sized summaries of the day’s discussions read Taylor Nuttall’s twitter feed at: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23miacted
Robin Simpson.
Driving participation in culture, sport and tourism
March 18, 2009, 1:28 pm
Filed under:
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England,
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heritage,
localauthorities,
politics,
volartsOn Wednesday I was in Brighton to speak at the Local Government Association/Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association annual culture, tourism and sport conference. NODA Chief Executive, Tony Gibbs, and I led a session called ‘Working together to develop participation in the voluntary arts’ in which we discussed how councils might work more effectively with local voluntary arts groups to increase participation. We looked at the role councils could play in helping voluntary arts groups to network with each other and in capacity-building the sector. A recurring theme was the need to build the financial sustainability of voluntary arts groups through more effective marketing, planning and management. We also called for more fairness and consistency in how councils engage with our sector – particularly in relation to venue hire and licensing issues.
I then attended a session titled ‘Recession: opportunity or threat for cultural services and sport?’ in which the Chief Executives of Arts Council England, Sport England and MLA and the English Heritage Director, Policy & Communications, discussed the initial impact of the recession and the prospects for their sectors.
Alan Davey from Arts Council England said that in times of recession people want the things the arts can provide. Arts attendances appeared to be holding up so far but the pattern from previous recessions was that there might be a twelve-month time lag before effects are seen. Alan warned that, in previous recessions, boards of arts organisations had become very conservative which had led to unadventurous programming, resulting in declining audiences – creating a spiral of decline. He urged small arts organisations to maintain the quality of their work whilst adapting how it is offered, to accommodate the way audiences behave, eg performing at different times of day to suit changing lifestyles. Alan said ACE’s aim was to use its funding to “keep the excellent excellent”.
Roy Clare from MLA agreed that there may be a need to reduce numbers but it was important to ensure that the quality of those remain is high. Roy urged local authorities to remove ‘silos’ to reduce overheads – suggesting, for example, that adult education doesn’t need to be in a separate ‘silo’ to the provision of libraries.
Jennie Price from Sport England felt that the recession was just one of a number of factors representing a period of immense change. She thought the biggest change, in relation to participation in physical activity, is going to be informal ways of organising sporting activity using online social media.
Deborah Lamb from English Heritage confirmed that visitor numbers were holding up so far. She said “a lot of what we have to offer is fantastic value for money: making people feel better is a great offer!”
Robin Simpson.
A new manifesto for the arts
On Tuesday I was a guest of Lord Salisbury at his ancestral home, Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. As the National Campaign for the Arts launches a series of consultative events around the country to draw up an arts manifesto ahead of the next general election, Lord Salisbury hosted an initial meeting of national arts sector infrastructure organisations. I joined representatives of the Independent Theatre Council, Theatrical Management Association, Equity, Association of British Orchestras, Museums Association, National Association of Local Government Arts Officers, Creative Partnerships, Visual Arts and Galleries Association, Arts & Business and the NCA to look back at the NCA’s 2004/05 Manifesto and start to think about the shape and content of its successor. While I was delighted to see a section on the voluntary arts in the 2004/05 Manifesto, I was keen to suggest that the new Manifesto should take a more holistic view of the arts – looking at broad topics such as participation, excellence, audiences etc rather than dividing the territory into subsectors. I also urged the NCA to ensure the Manifesto covers the arts as a whole – not just those arts organisations funded by Arts Council England.
Robin Simpson.
Developing opportunity and excellence
November 28, 2008, 10:53 am
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DIUS
On Wednesday I was at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in London for the second meeting of the Opportunity and Excellence Programme Board. This Board, chaired by DCMS Director General Andrew Ramsay, brings together the Chief Executives of Arts Council England, Sport England, English Heritage, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and the National Museum Director’s Conference with the relevant DCMS Directors to oversee progress against the DCMS Departmental Strategic Objectives relating to cultural opportunities and excellence. This time we concentrated on developing adult participation, looking at current initiatives to increase the numbers of people taking part in cultural activities and discussing what more could be done. Paul Raynes from the Local Government Association has joined the Board to help us look at how best to involve local authorities in this work. We discussed the suggestion that while the recession might reduce cultural attendance, it might actually encourage more participation in local cultural activities. We also agreed the importance of co-ordinating the drive to increase cultural participation with similar initiatives from other Government departments – such the work on informal adult learning at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the focus on increasing volunteering by the Office of the Third Sector. As well as being a Departmental Strategic Objective for DCMS, the work to develop adult participation in cultural activities also contributes to the cross-departmental Public Service Agreement on Cohesive, Empowered and Active Communities (PSA 21) which DCMS shares with the Department for Communities and Local Government. I was encouraged to see that the official DCMS PSA 21 Delivery Plan now includes the following reference to the voluntary arts:
“‘Our Creative Talent: the voluntary and amateur arts in England’ was launched at a conference on 2 July and represents the first step towards developing a comprehensive understanding of the size, make up and impact of the voluntary arts sector in England. It considers two key aspects – voluntary and amateur arts groups and the importance of the informal adult learning sector to arts participation. Headline statistics show there to be over 49,000 voluntary and amateur Arts groups in England and a total of 9.4 million people participate in voluntary arts. We are currently working alongside ACE, the Voluntary Arts Network and other stakeholders to draw up an Action Plan to follow up on the report and further work undertaken with the sector.” [Department for Culture, Media and Sport, PSA 21 – Active Communities, Delivery Plan]
Robin Simpson.
Developing an action plan for the voluntary arts in England
August 7, 2008, 2:25 pm
Filed under:
meetings | Tags:
ace,
DCMS,
England,
excellence,
funding,
localauthorities,
research,
training,
volartsOn Wednesday I was in London to meet David Brownlee and Meli Hatzihrysidis at Arts Council England to discuss the first draft of ACE’s action plan for the voluntary arts sector. At the joint VAE/ACE/DCMS ‘Our Creative talent’ conference at The Barbican on 2 July, ACE Chief Executive Alan Davey committed ACE to working with VAN to develop a plan which would respond to the findings of the ‘Our Creative Talent’ research. The first draft of this plan meticulously draws out the key needs of the sector identified in the research report. At Wednesday’s meeting we began to prioritise these needs, to identify potential programmes of support and to agree which of us would be responsible for leading the work in each area. There is still much to do but it looks like we are moving towards some formal mechanisms for regular consultation and strategic involvement of the voluntary arts by ACE and some specific programes of capacity building for the sector. The second draft of the action plan should be ready by September when voluntary arts umbrella bodies and other relevant organisations will be consulted in detail. It is very exciting to see this genuine and serious commitment by ACE to address the needs of the voluntary arts.
Robin Simpson.
