I was in Sheffield on Friday for a meeting of the Community Media Association Arts Project steering group. We discussed the forthcoming programme of nine regional roadshows (starting in Ipswich on 6 October, see: http://arts.commedia.org.uk/cma/east-of-england-roadshow/) which will provide an opportunity for arts organisations, including voluntary arts groups, to meet community media groups from their area to look at how they might be able to work together.
Robin Simpson.
On Monday I was in London for a meeting at the Covent Garden offices of the Royal Shakespeare Company with Geraldine Collinge and Ian Wainwright of the RSC and Ian Flintoff, the founder of Shakespeare United. Shakespeare United is a project supported by the actors’ union Equity which started in 2004 with the intention of developing a massive Shakespeare celebration across the UK (see http://www.shakespeare2012.com). A particular focus of Shakespeare United is to take Shakespeare to places where there is currently no theatrical activity. We discussed possible links between Shakespeare United, the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival and Open Stages – the RSC/Voluntary Arts pro-am project. We identified a number of ways in which these programmes might support each other and agreed that they should naturally complement each other.
Robin Simpson.
On Thursday afternoon I was at Arts Council England head office in London for a meeting of the Amateur Arts Partnership Development Programme steering group. This was a special meeting to look in detail at three key areas. First, we considered a range of local volunteer ‘champion’ and ‘ambassador’ schemes and whether there was scope to join some of these up. We heard from Liz Cousins who is responsible for the ‘Community Learning Champions’ scheme established by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and discussed the idea of using this as a framework for the development of the Voluntary Arts England Voluntary Arts Ambassadors scheme. Secondly we looked at several initiatives to open up venues and spaces for local community activities, including work funded by BIS and the Communities & Local Government/DCMS empty shops scheme. Finally we compared a number of resources to help people to establish and/or run local self-organised groups, including the Voluntary Arts ‘Running Your Group’ material and advice developed by BIS for self-organised learning groups. In all three cases we identified some clear opportunities to address key needs of the amateur arts sector identified in the DCMS/Arts Council England ‘Our Creative Talent’ research by working in partnership with other Government departments and agencies.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: DIUS, education, England, politics, training, volarts
On Thursday I was back in London to take part in a consultation event at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as part of the Department’s ‘Skills for Sustainable growth’ consultation. This gave me a first chance to see John Hayes, the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, speak. He is a passionate and entertaining performer and seems genuinely enthusiastic about his responsibilities and the importance of learning in its broadest sense. It was great, in the context of a discussion about vocational skills, to hear the Minister stress that “adult and community learning is incredibly important and something the Secretary of State [Vince Cable] and I care about”. He also spoke about the need to make the “social and cultural case for skills” in terms of “the effect they have in communities”. We then broke into groups to discuss a number of key questions from the ‘Skills for Sustainable growth’ consultation paper. Coincidentally, the group I joined consisted almost entirely of third sector organisations and we had a useful discussion about the role of the third sector in skills development and I stressed the need to recognise that many people develop vocational skills through their participation in voluntary arts groups and other community activities, rather than through formal training. Following the completion of the consultation, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is considering producing a white paper on skills towards the end of this year.
Robin Simpson.
On Wednesday afternoon I met Nick Pontefract and Steve Darke from the Arts Team at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. We updated each other on a range of issues and discussed the role the voluntary arts sector might play in the ‘Big Society’ agenda in preparation for my meeting with the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, next month.
Robin Simpson.
I was in London on Wednesday where I took part in a consultation meeting organised by the NCVO Funding Commission. NCVO set up the commission in 2009 to look at concerns and uncertainties about funding for civil society organisations over the next 10 years. The commission is due to report in December 2010. This meeting brought together the Chief Executives of a range of national charities and specialist infrastructure organisations to consider the draft recommendations of the Funding Commission. Interestingly, while there was general support for most of the recommendations, many people said they were disappointed that the proposals were not more radical. There was a feeling that we should be trying to maximise the benefit provided by civil society organisations rather than trying to maximise income to civil society organisations. It was a fascinating discussion and a refreshing relief to be at a consultation event where the feedback from breakout groups was presented clearly and succinctly!
Robin Simpson.
On Monday and Tuesday I was in Brussels to take part in the Council of Europe’s CultureWatchEurope conference, ‘Culture and the Policies of Change’. The conference, which took place at the headquarters of the European Economic and Social Committee, was an impressive gathering of around 150 senior policy-makers, practitioners and researchers from across Europe to discuss the need for radical development of cultural policies in response to the current financial crisis, climate changing and changing global values. The keynote speaker was the American academic and Founder and President of Economic Trends Foundation, Jeremy Rifkin. He gave a provocative and highly entertaining presentation which warned that the human race is “sleepwalking to extinction” and stressed the need for culture to “rethink the human mission”. Rifkin anticipated the evolution of “homo empathicus” and the “empathic civilisation” and emphasised that “culture is a gift to share, not a possession to defend”. Other speakers included Gabriela Battaini-Dragoni, Director General of Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe, Jan Truszczyński, Director General for Education, Training, Culture and Youth of the European Commission and Stojan Pelko, State Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Slovenia. I took part in a small breakout group looking at participation, education and excellence. We had some extremely intellectually rigorous and interesting discussions about the need to join-up formal and informal education, the importance of adult amateur arts participation and the blurring boundaries between ‘artists’ and ‘audiences’. The conference was a good opportunity to hear from some of the leading cultural thinkers in Europe and a great chance for networking. There were quite a few delegates from the UK, including representatives of Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, the British Council and Mission, Models, Money. More details, copies of the speeches and video interviews at http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/cwe/conference10_en.asp
Robin Simpson.
On Thursday afternoon I was at the head office Arts Council England in London for the second meeting of the Arts Nation External Advisory Group. We heard updates on plans for the Arts Nation campaign, including pilot projects, commercial partnerships and branding. We then had a heated but really interesting and enjoyable debate about how best to award Arts Nation branding to organisations and events. We discussed three possibilities – a formal application process, a centrally ‘curated’ approach or an open, self-auditing scheme: it will be fascinating to see which finally wins out!
Robin Simpson.
Cultural Playing Field 