On Friday I was at the Backstage Centre in Purfleet in Essex to meet the Chief Executive of Creative & Cultural Skills, Pauline Tambling. We discussed the new Voluntary Arts Strategic Plan 2014-17 and looked at areas in which Voluntary Arts and CC Skills might be able to collaborate. We talked about the potential for the two organisations to support each other’s work in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We also looked at potential links between the new Voluntary Arts development officer posts in England and CC Skills.
Robin Simpson.
On Thursday I was in London to meet Nick Ewbank and David Powell. Nick is running a project in Kent and East Sussex funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Cultural Value project. We talked about the Cultural Value Project, Arts Council England’s Cultural Commissioning Programme and Creative People and Places. We also discussed the work Voluntary Arts England will be undertaking in Kent as part of our Spirit of 2012 project and how we might be able to work together with Nick.
Robin Simpson.
On Wednesday I was at the British Library in London to hear the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Maria Miller, deliver a speech about cultural value. Maria Miller asserted the value of culture, citing a range of examples in which culture moves and inspires us, provoking an emotional response. She quoted Steve Jobs who said “technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.” The Secretary of State said culture weaves “a spell that lifts you way beyond the hum-drum of normal life” and suggested that we are increasingly defining ourselves by our cultural experiences and interests. She defended her 2013 speech at the British Museum in which she said she was wrongly thought to have said the only justification for supporting the arts is its value to the economy but stressed that this approach had achieved a good spending review settlement for DCMS. I managed to ask the Secretary of State to consider the importance, in articulating the value of culture, of better understanding the links and interdependencies between those aspects of culture that are publicly funded and the 10 million people who take regularly part in local voluntary creative cultural activity across the country. She replied with praise of for the involvement of such a wide variety of groups. She said the role of volunteering is important because it gives us ownership and “ultimately culture isn’t something that is presented by Government … it’s something that we all own. And I think that involvement of individuals is absolutely critical.” You can read maria miller’s full speech at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/culture-secretary-maria-miller-keynote-arts-and-culture-speech
Robin Simpson.
On Tuesday I took part in a telephone meeting with Angus McCabe at the Third Sector Research Centre (University of Birmingham) and Jane Milling at the University of Exeter. Angus and Jane, together with Hamish Fyfe (University of South Wales) have been awarded funding by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Cultural Value Project to run an Expert Workshop looking on ‘Amateur Arts and Voluntary Arts’. We discussed the proposed details of the workshop, agreed a list of people to invite and looked at how best to ensure that the role of amateur and voluntary arts is recognised in the final overall report from the Cultural Value Project.
Robin Simpson.
On Friday I was in London to meet Jo Broadwood from People United to talk about a research project she is developing with colleagues at the Centre for the Study of Group Processes at Kent University. The idea is to apply the model developed by People United in its report on ‘Arts and Kindness’ to some specific arts activities. We talked about how Voluntary Arts might be able to help promote this research.
Robin Simpson.
On Thursday afternoon I met Ruth Churchill Dower and Michelle Render from Early Arts, in Huddersfield. Early Arts is the national network for early childhood educators who believe in nurturing their children’s creative potential. Early Arts produces creative teaching materials which are directly relevant to the ways in which young children learn. We had a wide-ranging conversation, comparing notes on our attempts to generate income from information resources, considering the potential for local voluntary arts groups to support arts activity in nurseries and discussing the new Voluntary Arts Strategic Plan. We agreed to explore a number of ways in which our two organisations might be able to support each other’s work.
Robin Simpson.
Rachel Perry is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Sheffield who is working on a PhD on ‘Management and artistic direction in contemporary British theatre’. In particular she is exploring initiatives in which professionals and amateurs work collaboratively to create unique theatrical events. On Thursday I met Rachel in Huddersfield where she interviewed me about the development of our RSC Open Stages projects.
Robin Simpson.
On Tuesday evening I was at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Hoxton Square for a reception to celebrate the work of the Foundation. The Foundation’s UK Director, Andrew Barnett, explained to an audience of policymakers, funders and organisations that have been supported by Gulbenkian, that the visit to Brazil in 2010 (which Andrew and I participated in) had showed him that the old argument about art either being excellent or having social outcomes was false. He announced that performing arts that are participatory and have a social impact, will be one of three new themes for Gulbenkian’s UK funding. The Foundation will invest in exchanges and will be inviting expressions of interest from large and small organisations to drive artistic creation of the highest quality with social outcomes.
Robin Simpson.
On Tuesday afternoon I was at the offices of Making Music in London to meet Barbara Eifler, Making Music Executive Director. We discussed the new Voluntary Arts Strategic Plan and looked in detail at each our three high level strategies, identifying ways in which Making Music might be able to support Voluntary Arts. We also talked about the Creative People and Places programme, the Cultural Campaigning Network and the Cultural Commissioning Programme.
Robin Simpson.
Cultural Playing Field 