Filed under: meetings | Tags: DCMS, funding, heritage, ncvo, OTS, politics, vcs, volarts
On Friday I was in London for my regular voluntary cultural sector alliance meeting with the Heritage Alliance and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. We discussed a range of current policy issues including localism, Big Society and philanthropy, as well as the proposed changes to Gift Aid and the future of cheques. Kate Pugh told us that the Heritage Alliance is to take on responsibility, as part of a consortium of organisations, for running the annual Heritage Open Days from next year. James Allen from NCVO urged us to encourage voluntary arts and heritage organisations to use the Voluntary Sector Cuts website, see: http://voluntarysectorcuts.org.uk/.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: ace, DCMS, heritage, politics, UK, volunteering
On Friday afternoon I took part in a meeting of the ACEVO Arts, Culture & Heritage Special Interest Group. This gathering of Chief Executives of a range of arts and heritage organisations provides a valuable opportunity for peer support. In this week’s meeting we also discussed the work of the NCA/A&B Culture Forum, the forthcoming meeting representatives of the Special Interest Group are to have with the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, and the need to champion the importance of local authorities in relation to the arts and heritage.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: DCMS, England, heritage, politics, UK, vcs, volarts
On Friday morning I was in London for my regular voluntary cultural sector alliance meeting with the Heritage Alliance and the Sport and Recreation Alliance (formerly the Central Council for Physical Recreation). As usual we compared notes on a host of topics including the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s review of regulatory burdens (‘Red Card to Red Tape’) which is due to be published on 22 March, the Localism bill, the Giving green paper, the national planning framework (consultation to be launched in April), Gift Aid and lifetime legacies.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: England, heritage, OTS, politics, vcs, volarts
I was in London again on Friday for a voluntary cultural sector alliance meeting with the Heritage Alliance, Central Council for Physical Recreation and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Among many other things we discussed the Big Society, the Cabinet Office consultation on voluntary and community sector infrastructure, the effects of the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Localism Bill, the Reducing Red Tape Taskforce and the review of the Charity Commission.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: funding, heritage, politics, UK, volarts, volunteering
On Friday I was in London for a regular meeting of my voluntary cultural sector alliance with the Central Council for Physical Recreation and the Heritage Alliance. Following the departure of Andrew Hanson from CCPR we welcomed the new Head of Policy, James MacDougall, to his first meeting with us. We spent some time comparing our draft responses to the Government consultation on changing the proportions of National Lottery funding given to the Lottery distributors. We also talked about Gift Aid and legacies and the 2011 European Year of Volunteering. I was interested to learn that CCPR has been asked, by the Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, to undertake a review of regulatory burdens affecting sports clubs: we agreed to identify particular areas of regulation that might be common to arts, sports and heritage groups.
Robin Simpson.
On Wednesday I was in London for a meeting of the ACEVO Arts, Culture & Heritage special interest group. In preparation for the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, attending our next meeting in September, we had an extremely interesting discussion about the role the cultural sectors can play in ‘The Big Society’. In particular we focussed on the three main ideas of ‘The Big Society’ as described by Jonty Olliff-Cooper of Demos: to ‘turbo-boost’ the Office of Civil Society; to encourage civility and neighbourliness; to reform public services. We agreed that there was much that the cultural sectors are already contributing to civility and neighbourliness and the potential for them to do more.
Robin Simpson.
On Tuesday I was at Tate Modern in London to take part in a DCMS seminar on ‘Encouraging Digital Access’. The focus of the seminar was mainly on how cultural institutions could be making more use of digital technologies to extend access to their (publicly owned) cultural assets. Opening the seminar, the Culture Minister Margaret Hodge spoke about the importance of the digital agenda in relation to extending audiences, extending participation and deepening the experience of individuals. The Minister suggested that most arts organisations currently use their websites just to provide information about their physical offering. She encouraged cultural institutions to discover the shared advantage created by co-operation with each other. DCMS had engaged Jonathan Drori to draft a guidance document on ‘Encouraging Digital Access’. Jonathan, who chaired Tuesday’s seminar, said he was trying to get to a step change in the way the public engage with the wonderful things in our cultural institutions. The leaders of a range of cultural institutions, including the British Library, the Royal Opera House, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Sage, Gateshead, the Cornerhouse in Manchester and the Watershed in Bristol, took part in the seminar to share details of their progress in increasing digital access.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, funding, heritage, ncvo, olympics, UK, vcs, volarts
I was in London again on Friday for my regular voluntary cultural sector alliance meeting with Heritage Link, the Central Council for Physical Recreation (CCPR) and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). As usual we covered a vast range of topics including CCPR’s Facilities Inquiry – an independent inquiry into built and natural sports facilities in the UK (see: http://www.facilitiesinquiry.org.uk) – Heritage Link’s rebranding (at the instigation of new Chair, Lloyd Grossman) as ‘The Heritage Alliance’, the progress of NCVO’s Funding Commission and the wide range of activities we are all undertaking in relation to the London 2012 legacy.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: ace, arts, CLG, DCMS, England, excellence, heritage, politics, research, volarts
On Thursday afternoon I was at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for a meeting of the Opportunity and Excellence Programme Board. This Board brings together DCMS Directors with the Chief Executives of the Department’s five main Non-Departmental Public Bodies (including Arts Council England, English Heritage and Sport England) to oversee progress against two of DCMS’s four Departmental Strategic Objectives. At this week’s meeting we heard a fascinating presentation on the effects of arts participation on mental health from Jenny Secker, Professor of Mental Health at Anglia Ruskin University. Professor Secker’s 2007 study of new arts participants produced some interesting conclusions on barriers to arts participation and ways to increase participation. We also had a first discussion on ‘digital participation’ in the cultural sectors and how promoting increases in digital engagement might help DCMS reach beyond the cultural organisations it (and its NDPBs) directly fund to have a greater influence on the cultural activities of the nation as a whole.
Robin Simpson.
