Cultural Playing Field

On 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.