Filed under: comment | Tags: DCMS, England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, UK, volarts, Wales
Tomorrow marks the beginning of Voluntary Arts Week, which provides a unique opportunity to highlight and celebrate the often-neglected riches of the UK’s voluntary arts sector.
Around the UK nearly ten million people belong to voluntary arts groups and regularly take part in the voluntary arts. This includes activities such as singing in a choral society, acting in an amateur theatre group, folk dancing, painting, lace-making, calligraphy, pottery and bell-ringing. Every week millions of people take part in voluntary arts rehearsals, classes and meetings. This activity becomes such a vital part of people’s lives that it can be the main focus of their week: the day-job sometimes seems like a mere distraction from the preparation for our next performance or exhibition.
Participation in voluntary arts groups is, for many people, their main opportunity for social interaction – the place to make friends. It is incredibly difficult to measure the importance of the voluntary arts to its participants but it is clear that it makes a massive contribution to the quality of life, wellbeing, happiness and learning of millions of people across the country.
From 12 to 20 May 2012 Voluntary Arts is promoting the first UK and Ireland Voluntary Arts Week. Voluntary arts groups across the country will be running special events during the week to raise their profile and celebrate their achievements. Groups can add their events to the Voluntary Arts Week website where the full list will be published. We are also encouraging everyone involved in the voluntary arts to promote their activities through the ‘What’s in your Window?’ campaign, showing their skills by creating a crafty window display at home, or in a local community centre, library or charity shop during Voluntary Arts Week.
Please take a look at the Voluntary Arts Week website, take the time to visit some Voluntary Arts Week events, look out for the What’s in your Window? displays, try taking part in a voluntary arts group for the first time or take the opportunity of Voluntary Arts Week to tell people about your own involvement in the voluntary arts.
You can support Voluntary Arts Week in the following ways:
- encourage more voluntary arts groups to register their events at http://www.voluntaryartsweek.org/ (it’s not too late!)
- attend the Voluntary Arts Week 2012 launch event in Falkirk town centre tomorrow: Voluntary Arts Scotland has secured the use of an empty shop unit at 43 High Street, Falkirk. Between 12 pm and 4 pm on Saturday 12 May the doors will open and passers-by will be welcomed into the space where they can try their hand at some of the arts and crafts on offer, watch a performance or two and find out more about the groups running in their area. There is a fantastic range of groups involved, with activities ranging from Floral Art to Martial Arts, and everyone is invited!
- visit some Voluntary Arts Week events – use the events listing at http://www.voluntaryartsweek.org/ to find events near you
- tweet about Voluntary Arts Week using the hashtag #voluntaryartsweek
- take photos of Voluntary Arts Week events and other voluntary arts activities and use the instagram app (free for iphone and Android) to upload them with the hashtag #voluntaryartsweek
- keep an eye on the Voluntary Arts Week blog – go to http://www.voluntaryartsweek.org/ and click ‘News’
- encourage people to display their art or craft skill in a window, take a photo and upload it to the ‘What’s in your Window?’ page at http://www.voluntaryartsweek.org/
- read my guest blog on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport website at: http://blogs.culture.gov.uk/main/2012/05/voluntary_arts_week.html
- join us online at 2 pm on Wednesday 16 May for ‘Voluntary Arts Week LIVE’ – a live video webcast which will feature Voluntary Arts Week highlights and interviews from across the UK and Ireland – go to http://www.voluntaryartsweek.org/ at 2 pm on Wednesday to watch and comment live
Robin Simpson.
On Tuesday afternoon I was at Tate Britain in London for a meeting organised by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to discuss the honours system and how to increase the number of nominations for women in the arts and media. Lord Stevenson, who is Chair of the Arts and Media Committee which considers nominations from these sectors, chaired a fascinating session of presentations and discussion. He was joined by two other members of the Arts and Media Committee, Dame Jenny Abramsky and Dame Liz Forgan (“a gaggle of Dames?”) to talk about the quite shocking disparity between the numbers of nominations for male and female candidates for honours. Jenny Abramsky said “the honours system should be diverse, should be fair and should recognise what is going on in this country”. Liz Forgan said “the honours list is a very cheap, simple way of saying thank you to people”. She felt there was no shortage of potential nominees in the arts and media. Alison Bennett from the Cabinet Office, which oversees the honours system, explained that nominations are considered by eight expert committees (including the Arts and Media Committee). The Community, Voluntary and Local Services Committee (CVLS) accounts for around 40% of the honours list. Nominations are received directly from members of the public as well as via Government departments. Alison told us that women have never made up more than 47% of the overall list and the disparity was particularly bad in the higher level awards. In the 2012 New Year honours there were 7 Dames compared to 27 Knights. Within the arts and media nominations only 37% were for women (and only 33% were awarded). Pat Le-Bruin from DCMS said that it seemed that “everyone assumes someone else is doing something”. She emphasised that DCMS is happy to work with organisations planning to nominate someone, to advise them on how to create effective citations etc. We also heard from the playwright and critic, Bonnie Greer OBE, who spoke about how she had felt on being awarded an honour. She talked passionately about why she had decided to accept and said “if I can be awarded an OBE then everybody can”. It was a fascinating and inspiring session and certainly succeeded in enthusing me to look at what more we could do to encourage nominations for honours from the voluntary arts sector.
Robin Simpson.
I was at the National Theatre in London on Tuesday to take part in the World Shakespeare Festival partners’ meeting. This event, chaired by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Director of Communications, Liz Thompson, brought together marketing and communications officers from organisations including the National Theatre, Barbican, Sage Gateshead, Royal Opera House, British Museum, National Theatre Wales, Birmingham Rep, Northern Stage, Shakespeare’s Globe and Brighton Festival. Our Open Stages project and the way amateur theatre groups are getting involved in the World Shakespeare Festival got prominent attention (it was the first item we discussed!). Ian Wainwright from the RSC outlined the progress of Open Stages and representatives of three of the Open Stages partner theatres (Contact in Manchester, Questors in London and the National Theatre of Scotland) described the plans for their forthcoming Open Stages showcase events. It was also fascinating to hear about the multitude of other World Shakespeare Festival productions in preparation across the UK – from Simon Russell-Beale in ‘Timon of Athens’ at the National Theatre to ‘Forests’, a new work based around the forest and heath scenes from a variety of Shakespeare plays which is being directed by Calixto Bieito at Birmingham Rep, to a new Welsh language translation of ‘The Tempest’ by Gwyneth Lewis which will be performed at the National Eistedfodd. There is so much going on within the World Shakespeare Festival it is very difficult to grasp all the details. But that is nothing compared to the mass of events under the wider Festival 2012 banner: we had a presentation from Claire Hutchinson from LOCOG, Head of Marketing for Festival 2012, which was mind boggling in terms of the scale and variety of activity due to take place around the country over the coming months. The World Shakespeare Festival starts on 23 April (Shakespeare’s birthday), full details at: http://www.worldshakespearefestival.org.uk/
Robin Simpson.
On Friday morning I was at Broadcasting House in London to meet Miriam O’Keefe, the Director of the BBC Performing Arts Fund. The Performing Arts Fund distributes the money raised by phone-voting on TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing. It runs grant programmes which are open to performing arts groups across the UK. Over the past year the fund’s focus has been on dance, they are about to launch a new community music scheme and next year they will be turning their attention to theatre. Miriam told me that the trustees of the fund are looking to get more exposure in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in order to encourage more applications from those places. We talked about how Voluntary Arts could help to publicise the fund’s programmes to amateur arts groups and how the BBC Performing Arts Fund could help us to promote our Running Your Group services, Epic Awards and Voluntary Arts Week.
Robin Simpson.
Quilts 4 London presentation at The Guildhall, Northampton
Last Friday evening I was in Northampton to attend the Quilts 4 London presentation event. Quilts 4 London is working to create an A3-sized pennant as a gift for each of the 14,000 athletes taking part in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Quilts 4 London presentation at The Guildhall, Northampton
The project has volunteer organisers across the country: when Shirley Wiblin-Hales took on the role for Northamptonshire she promised to ensure that at least 25 pennants were made. On Friday, in the beautiful setting of the Guildhall, Northampton, Shirley and her team of volunteer helpers formally handed over to the national organisers of Quilts 4 London an incredible total of 1,561 pennants made by children and adults from Northamptonshire as gifts to the Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Every one of these pennants has been photographed for the official Northampton Council archive and the display in the Guildhall was spectacular.
The Northamptonshire contribution brings the project’s national total to approximately 13,400 pennants – very close now to what seemed like an impossible target, thanks to the determination, enthusiasm and dynamism of Shirley and volunteers like her across the country. See: http://www.quilts4london.org.uk
Robin Simpson.
Quilts 4 London presentation at The Guildhall, Northampton
Filed under: meetings | Tags: ace, England, excellence, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, UK, volarts, Wales
On Monday evening I was at the Royal Overseas League in London for the Epic Awards Winners’ Reception. Representatives of the four winners of the Epic Awards 2011 – Phizzfest from Dublin, Buddy Beat from Paisley, Third Floor Gallery from Cardiff and Peterborough Male Voice Choir plus the Ireland runners-up, Ballymena Arts Partnership – were presented with their awards by Voluntary Arts President, Lord Luce. We were joined by an audience including representatives of Arts Council England, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, Audiences UK, the Theatrical Management Association, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and People’s Voice Media as well as Voluntary Arts staff and Board members. It was a lovely evening: all the winning groups had compelling stories to tell and gave passionate and inspirational speeches. The aim of the Epic Awards is to showcase excellence and innovation in the amateur arts and the 2011 winners are a credit to our sector and proved to be wonderful advocates for Voluntary Arts.
Accepting the England award, Peterborough Male Voice Choir Musical Director Will Prideaux said:
“Voluntary arts organisations transform lives and build stronger communities. I love the stories of friendships created and enthusiasm rediscovered or of depression beaten, horizons broadened or prejudices cast aside; of hope, of trust, of a sense of belonging or simply giving people something to look forward to – the list is endless and endlessly amazing.”
Tina Robinson accepted the Ireland award on behalf of Phizzfest, the Phibsborough Community Arts Festival, and said:
“Our experience to date has shown us the importance of the arts as a community development tool forging links and creating channels of communication within the many diverse groups in our area. Phizzfest is run entirely by volunteers and this award is a huge validation of our efforts and has given us great encouragement to continue with this project.”
Tom Chalmers from Scottish drumming group The Buddy Beat said:
“With the film we want to inspire people to get out there and get involved and if anybody’s got a mental health condition they should never let that hold them back because there’s so much out there that they can participate in – it helps you improve your mental health and your self-worth.”
Wales winners Third Floor Gallery gave a very entertaining speech about their humble beginnings and thanked all the photographers who entrusted their images to the gallery and endorsed their unique way of presenting exhibitions.
Watch Epic Winners 2011: The Movie at http://blog.epicawards.co.uk/2012/02/epic-winners-2011-the-movie/
The Government Culture Ministers in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland all sent messages of congratulation to the Epic Award winners:
Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Republic of Ireland Government said:
“Phizzfest is a wonderful example of local volunteers and business interests working in tandem for the benefit of the wider community. The festival was a resounding success with something for people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy. Through art and arts related events new experiences were shared by all the participants.”
Carál Ní Chuilín, Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Northern Ireland Executive:
“In many cases arts begins at grass-roots level and wouldn’t be successful without the support of the many voluntary and amateur arts organisations across the island. Many congratulations to Phizzfest from Dublin, this year’s winners of the Ireland Award, and also to Ballymena Arts Partnership who were runners up and the People’s Champion for Ireland for receiving over 3,500 votes online. These are great examples of arts in the community and are truly deserving of this recognition.”
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Scottish Government:
“Congratulations to Buddy Beat on winning the first Epic Award for groups in Scotland. This is a truly amazing group which demonstrates the power of the arts to change people’s lives for the better. Scotland is a creative nation with a thriving cultural community and our voluntary groups play an important part in that. This project is a worthy winner of an Epic Award in the Year of Creative Scotland 2012.”
Huw Lewis, Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, Welsh Government:
“The work of Voluntary Arts and here in Wales, Voluntary Arts Wales, in supporting and encouraging the voluntary arts sector is fully acknowledged. They are to be commended in bringing forward the Epic Awards to recognise the work and commitment of this sector. Third Floor Gallery is an excellent example of the ingenuity and creativity of the amateur arts in Wales, harnessing the enthusiasm and energy of local volunteers to create excellent opportunities and facilities for the local community. Their innovative way of working in attracting exhibitions of contemporary photography by world renowned photographers, is to be applauded. Here in Wales we have a long tradition of amateur arts and are very proud of their accomplishments. I am therefore delighted to congratulate Third Floor Gallery as the winners of the first Wales Epic Award.”
Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, UK Government:
“It was an honour to attend the first ever Epic Awards last year, and I’m delighted to see the ceremony return, and announce a new raft of winners in 2012. The story of Peterborough Male Voice Choir shows just what a group of committed and dedicated local volunteers can achieve, not only in terms of raising tremendous amounts of money for good causes but also – from what I’ve heard – putting on excellent concerts in the process. I’d like to wish them hearty congratulations on receiving their award. They are another excellent example of the wonderful amateur arts activity that goes on in communities across England all year round, and forms the bedrock of the arts in this country.”
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: Europe, ncvo, OTS, politics, UK, volarts, volunteering
On Friday afternoon I attended an Office for Civil Society Strategic Partners event, ‘European Years: What do they mean for us?’ at Europe House in London. Connecting the European Year of Volunteering 2011 with the European Year of Active Aging 2012 and the European Year of Citizenship 2013; this event involved the European Commission and key government departments coming together in dialogue with a range of civil society organisations. As the European Year of Active Aging 2012 begins, we shared learning from previous European Years as part of the last gathering of our European Year of Volunteering 2011 steering group. The general consensus seemed to be that the European Year of Volunteering had been very successful across Europe but only partly successful in England. The challenge was exemplified by one participant in a European Year of Volunteering event in Manchester who had memorably said “what on earth has Europe got to do with Oldham?!” There was some very sensible discussion about the need for a greater handover period between European Years – maybe three months at the end of each year in which the connections between the two themes are explored in more detail.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, DCMS, England, Europe, funding, olympics, politics, UK, volarts
I was back in London for a meeting at Queen Mary, University of London about the Points of Contact programme, organised by People’s Palace Projects. It feels a long time since we visited Brazil in March 2010 and a great deal has happened in the interim. There is a new Government in Brazil and a new Culture Minister – and there have been big changes to arts funding in England. So it was good to hear that People’s Palace Projects has now secured funding (from Arts Council England and the British Council) and agreement from the Brazilian Government to continue the Points of Contact exchange programme. The programme will now reflect five themes: youth arts, disability, digital, sustainability and the Cultural Olympiad (providing a link between the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games). In the first year of this second phase, Points of Contact will focus on youth arts, starting with the visit of a Brazilian delegation to the UK in March 2012. We talked about how those UK arts organisations involved in the first phase of Points of Contact have been influenced and changed by the programme and how we might be able to work with People’s Palace Projects in the next phase.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: comment | Tags: Republic of Ireland, UK, volarts
Voluntary Arts Week 2012 has been taking place across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. More than 100 events have been registered on the Voluntary Arts Week website, at http://www.voluntaryartsweek.org. Voluntary Arts Scotland ran a launch event in an empty shop in Falkirk on Saturday. A host of local groups gave visitors the chance to try their hand at activities such as floral art and playing the guitar and drums, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm5KpBYyl6Y. The Voluntary Arts Ireland team visited the Open Source event in Belfast at the weekend, see: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.364938660235835.88872.197806216949081&type=3. The Voluntary Arts England/BBC Radio Merseyside Up for Arts project in Liverpool gave significant on-air coverage to Voluntary Arts Week: Helen Jones broadcast 5 slots on BBC Radio Merseyside to promote Voluntary Arts Week and her Voluntary Arts Week trail has been played 18 times. We also established an Up for Arts choir as part of Voluntary Arts Week. I wrote a guest blog about Voluntary Arts Week which was featured on the official Department for Culture Media and Sport website, see: http://blogs.culture.gov.uk/main/2012/05/voluntary_arts_week.html. Kelly wrote a great article about Voluntary Arts Week which was published on the Guardian website, see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2012/may/15/voluntary-arts-crafts-week?CMP=twt_gu. There has been extensive discussion of Voluntary Arts Week on Twitter, using the hashtag #voluntaryartsweek. And on Wednesday afternoon I hosted the Voluntary Arts Week LIVE webcast: you can watch the video recording at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WlTdvTdYyo. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to making Voluntary Arts Week 2012 such a success.
Robin Simpson.