On Thursday afternoon I attended a meeting of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 working group at the Cabinet Office. We heard presentations from v – the lead body for the Children and Young People theme within EYV11 – and from Volunteering England who have been appointed to lead on sharing learning from the EYV11 programme in England. We also had an update on EYV11 activities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Robin Simpson.
On Monday I spoke to Jane Bryant, the new Chief Executive of Artswork (which manages the England National Youth Arts Network). Jane has been in post for two and a half months, having previously worked for Southern Arts and Arts Council England South East and as Chief Executive of the Coda Music Trust. As the conductor of two choirs, she is very familiar with the voluntary arts. Artswork has been going for nearly 24 years. It runs a nationally available professional development programme (‘Artsplan’) for artists, arts organisations and youth practitioners using the arts to work with young people. ENYAN is a network of 5500 organisations and individuals including youth arts practitioners, youth practitioners, artists and arts organisations. It has 9 regional advisory panels and a national panel which includes representatives from Arts Award, CCE, ACE and the Youth Justice Board. We talked about how Artswork and Voluntary Arts might work more closely together to build progression routes for young people from youth arts to adult amateur arts groups and to build the capacity of the amateur arts sector to develop arts practice and arts opportunities with for and by young people.
Robin Simpson.
Later on Monday I took part in a workshop at McKinsey & Company to help Lizzie Noel, the Mayor of London’s Advisor on Volunteering to develop a volunteering strategy for London. In particular we were looking at ways to expand opportunities for young people to become involved in arts and culture.
Robin Simpson.
On Monday afternoon I met Kevin Garrod, the National Partnerships Manager for Safe Network – the National Voluntary and Community Sector Safeguarding Unit (in England). Safe Network is a partnership between Children England and the NSPCC which provides information, toolkits, learning materials, training and an enquiry service to help voluntary and community sector organisations keep children safe. On 18 November they will be launching the ‘Safe Network Standards’ – an online interactive assessment for organisations. We talked about how Voluntary Arts might work more closely with Safe Network to provide information and advice on child protection and related issues to the voluntary arts sector.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: ace, arts, DCMS, drama, funding, olympics, politics, UK, volarts, youth
On his appointment as Brazilian Minister of Culture in 2004, the legendary musician Gilberto Gil launched a programme known as Cultura Viva – Living Culture. Gil’s Secretary of Culture, Celio Turino, developed a system called ‘Pontos de Cultura’ – Cultural Points: Gil described Cultural Points as “sharp interventions into the depths of urban and rural Brazil that aim to awaken, stimulate, and project what is characteristic and most positive in communities in marginalised societies”. The aim was to build a programme based on “what already exists and works legitimately within the community… local bodies, organisations and mechanisms that can be strengthened, improved and continuously evaluated.” Gil said “I’m not talking about giving people fish, nor about teaching people how to fish. I am talking about enabling the ‘fishing’ that has been going on for a long time, especially in areas prone to social vulnerability”. There are now more than 2,500 Cultural Points, each receiving around £48,000 to develop activities according to what it needs and wants to do, usually a continuation of existing practices, in some cases never previously remunerated. Approximately 10% of the funds must go towards the purchase of multimedia equipment that is supported by free software provided by the Ministry. The idea of building on existing community cultural activity rather than always starting something brand new and offering funding with little stipulation about how it should be used, trusting that the groups selected as Cultural Points will use it in a way that will create a positive social impact, fascinated me.
I was very excited to be offered the chance to visit Brazil to learn more about Pontos de Cultura as part of ‘Points of Contact’ – an exchange programme between the UK and Brazil organised by People’s Palace Projects (and funded by the British Council, Arts Council England and the Brazilian Government). A dozen British arts organisations have been twinned with Brazilian Cultural Points with the UK representatives visiting their Brazilian colleagues in March and return visits to the UK happening in July. I was invited to join a small group of policymakers and funders to visit Brazil during the initial exchange visits. Our group included Mick Elliott, Director of Culture at DCMS, together with senior representatives of Arts Council England, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Liverpool City Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation as well as two Clore Fellows. It was great for Voluntary Arts to be included in this company – not least for the opportunity to network with the other members of the group.
- Sao Paulo
Our visit started in Sau Paulo – the fourth largest city in the world with a population of 20 million people. We were taken to see a range of cultural facilities and organisations and took part in a formal seminar with the Secretaries of Culture for the State and the City of Sao Paulo.
Ministry of Culture, Rio de Janeiro
We then flew to Rio de Janeiro where we took part in a debate in the old Ministry of Culture building with representatives of the federal and municipal governments. We also visited several Cultural Points, including the Spectaculu school of theatre, acting, costume design, illumination, and carpentry. Spectaculu is located in the docks area near to the bus station – deliberately neutral and accessible territory in order to attract young people from several rival favelas. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BR&v=ErcukMXRYgs
- Spectaculu
On Wednesday we visited three of Rio’s favelas to see the work of AfroReggae – an amazing organisation which is using culture to bring hope to some of Brazil’s poorest and most violent communities – literally saving lives. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5_DnxeEkts
AfroReggae drummers in the Vigário Geral favela, Rio de Janeiro
From Rio we flew to the North East of Brazil to the city of Fortaleza to join the Teia (literally ‘the web’) – the biennial festival of the Pontos de Cultura. Representatives of most of Brazil’s 2500 Cultural Points had travelled from across this vast country for a week of celebration, performances, demonstrations and discussions. It was wonderful to wander around the Dragão do Mar complex, stumbling upon an amazing diversity of cultures and activities. I had been particularly hoping to hear some forró (“the hip-swiveling, dancefloor-filling, rural party music of Brazil’s northeastern states”) in its natural habitat – and I wasn’t disappointed. It was also great to see such a mass of voluntary artists celebrating the cultural activities developed in their own communities. The Teia is a unique event but if you could imagine transplanting The Gathering or the National Eisteddfod to somewhere just south of the equator you wouldn’t be too far off!
- The Teia, Fortaleza
I had a brilliant time in Brazil but the real value of the trip will be in what happens next. As we prepare for the return visit by the Brazilians in July our policymakers group will be meeting to discuss whether the Pontos de Cultura system might provide models we could adopt in the UK. I think I left Brazil with more questions than answers and some scepticism about the replicability of the scheme – though it is obviously producing fantastic results in Brazil. But I do feel inspired to continue the debate and I think we have the beginnings of a strong alliance with the other UK organisations in the group which may produce some exciting results for the voluntary arts sector.
I am incredibly grateful to Mick Elliott for the chance to be part of the policymakers group and to everyone at People’s Palace Projects for organising such a truly wonderful experience. Particular thanks must go to the amazing Paul Heritage – the inspiration and driving force behind ‘Points of Contact’.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: England, funding, Northern Ireland, olympics, Scotland, UK, volarts, youth
On Tuesday afternoon I met Phil Chamberlain, Director of Strategy & External Relations at the Legacy Trust UK. We talked about the eclectic range of regional and national projects that have been funded by the Legacy Trust and the challenge they face in trying to get people to understand that all these projects are a direct result of London hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Legacy Trust is keen to break down the perceptions that London 2012 is only about London and only about sport. We discussed the possible links between the Legacy Trust’s ‘Somewhere To’ youth campaign (which aims to open up spaces for a range of activities for 16 – 25 year olds) and both the Voluntary Arts Ireland Young Arts Creative Co-operatives project and The Learning Revolution ‘open spaces’ scheme. We also talked about the Voluntary Arts Scotland Make a Splash! Project, which is funded by the Legacy Trust as part of its Scottish project. And we discussed the Trust’s Community Celebrations grant fund, the deadline for applications to which has just passed. It was a very encouraging meeting and we identified a number of ways in which we might be able to work together in the future, including the possibility that the Legacy Trust might be able to provide us with evidence of the impact of arts participation from the evaluation of some of its funded projects.
Robin Simpson.
I was at Symphony Hall in Birmingham on Monday for the launch of the National Association of Youth Theatres ‘Excellence and Inclusion Scheme’ (EIS). EIS is two self assessment toolkits for youth theatres created by Professor Jonothan Neelands and Juliet Raysnford through a two-year collaborative and consultative process. NAYT Chief Executive, Jill Adamson, claims they are “without doubt the most useful documents ever to have been produced specifically for the youth theatre sector”. She said “the EIS allows us to take huge steps towards achieving our goal of providing high quality, inclusive accessible youth theatre for ALL young people, regardless of where they choose to access the provision”. NAYT has created 12 new partnerships, starting in April, with 9 regional theatres and 3 national training providers who will be collaborating with NAYT to bring about regular regional activity and supporting networks. Helping to launch the EIS scheme on Monday, Royal Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Michael Boyd said “I learned my trade in you theatre: I learned to be brave and to realise concretely the social value of theatre … When a young person is facing the contradiction between being ‘me’ and the grim necessity of fitting in, theatre is a genius at solving that paradox.”
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: ace, arts, DCMS, education, England, volarts, youth
On Wednesday I was in Birmingham to take part in the first meeting of the West Midlands Cultural Offer Hub. The Hub pulls together local authorities, arts organisations and others from across the West Midlands to look at how the Government’s 5-hours-a-week cultural offer to young people might best be delivered in the region. Maria Howes, a freelance consultant who has been appointed as the regional co-ordinator for the cultural offer, is working on a delivery plan to build on the experience of the current ‘Find Your Talent’ pathfinder schemes and extend the cultural offer to young people throughout the West Midlands. Anne Bamford from Culture, Creativity and Education explained that the cultural offer needed to include a balance between ‘making and creating’ (which could happen anywhere) and ‘going to’ (experiencing cultural activity within a social/cultural space). She said that reading a novel in your bedroom would not count as part of the cultural offer but joining a reading group would. I was pleased to get a very strong agreement from the members of the Hub that, for the cultural offer to be really effective, it needs to involve local adult amateur arts groups – both to provide realistic, recognisable role models and to encourage progression to continuing cultural engagement into adulthood.
Robin Simpson.
