Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, England, Europe, volarts, volunteering, Wales
On Monday and Tuesday I was in Budapest, Hungary, with Laraine and Daniel for the final conference of our EU Culture Guides project. Culture Guides was a two-year project that started in October 2013 under the Grundtvig strand of the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme. Six partners from five countries aimed to investigate the possibility of a European framework to recruit, train and manage volunteers to act as mentors or guides to introduce and help marginalised social groups to participate in local art and culture activities, either as audience members or as active participants. Voluntary Arts ran pilot Culture Guides schemes in four locations – St Helens and Swale & Medway in England, and Torfaen and Wrexham in Wales.
Dora Duro, Chair of the Hungarian Parliament Committee on Culture
The conference was opened by Dora Duro, Chair of the Hungarian Parliament Committee on Culture. I chaired the first panel session in which the six partner organisations summarised how the project had worked in each of the participating countries. The conference included a range of group sessions in which we looked at the learning from the Culture Guide pilots and shared our experiences of working with different socially marginalised end-users. There were also practical participatory sessions in which we learned some circus skills and Hungarian folk songs. The Keynote speech was given by Professor Sandor Striker from ELTE, the University of National Excellence in Hungary, who spoke about ‘Art and culture policies for the socially marginalised’. We also had a presentation from Dr Cees van den Bos, from the Netherlands, comparing volunteering in different countries. The conference brought together partner organisations, volunteers, other cultural organisations, civil society and volunteering organisations from across Europe. It was a really enjoyable couple of days and a nice way to bring this excellent project to an end.
For more details please see Daniel’s excellent Culture Guides Handbook at: http://www.cultureguides.eu/outcome-and-results/guidelines-for-the-european-handbook/
Robin Simpson.
On Wednesday I was at Christiansborg, the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, to give a keynote speech in the Amatørkultur conference. This one-day event, organised by AKKS (the Danish equivalent of Voluntary Arts) and DATS (the Danish amateur theatre association) aimed to encourage the development of a new national cultural policy for the amateur arts in Denmark. I was one of three foreign speakers (the others being from Belgium and Norway) invited to open the conference. We addressed an audience of around 100 local and national politicians, civil servants and representatives of amateur arts organisations in the splendid Faellessalen room at Christiansborg. I spoke about the gradual moves towards re-integrating the amateur arts into national cultural policy in England that we have seen over the past ten years. I talked about our work on the Participation Manifesto, the Our Creative Talent research, our development of the Up for Arts model, the RSC Open Stages project, Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme and the current opportunities presented by the BBC Get Creative campaign.
The Amatørkultur conference in the Faellessalen room at Christiansborg, Copenhagen
The second conference session involved a panel of people with responsibility for culture within five local authorities from across Denmark. The panel included a mixture of officers and elected councillors. Among the opinions expressed were the thoughts that “the amateur arts is about enthusiasm – don’t think of it as a means to achieve something else, such as health” and “culture is seen as for the elite: the amateur arts can help transform this”.
Danish Culture Minister, Marianne Jelved, Michael Aastrup Jensen, Troels Ravn and Alex Ahrendsten at the Amatørkultur conference, Christiansborg, Copenhagen
The final session of the day was a discussion between the Danish Culture Minister, Marianne Jelved, and the culture spokespersons from most of the other national political parties. The Minister spoke about the use of lottery funding in Denmark, bemoaning the fact that, over the years, politicians have decided that lottery funding should be used to support the running costs of cultural institutions so there is now only 10% of this funding left for more experimental activity. She said “a national strategy has to inspire not restrict” and suggested that there is a lot of artistic talent in Denmark that is not developed. Marianne Jelved finished by saying “when you talk about the meaning of life, talk about arts. Art has a special language.”
Robin Simpson, Chief Executive of Voluntary Arts, with the Danish Culture Minister, Marianne Jelved at the Amatørkultur conference, at Christiansborg, Copenhagen
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, England, Europe, localauthorities, UK, volarts, volunteering, Wales
Culture Guides logo
On Wednesday I joined Daniel, Laraine and Janina in Birmingham for part of our two-day Culture Guides event. Culture Guides is our EU Grundtvig partnership project, which is engaging volunteers as “culture guides” in six European countries – to reach out and strengthen the access for social and cultural marginalised groups to arts and culture as a gateway to personal development and social inclusion. It is based on the concept of “cultural sustainability” meaning that active citizenship, social inclusion and cultural cohesion will be promoted by “citizens help citizens” in a civil society context. In the UK, Voluntary Arts is working in four areas to recruit and develop volunteer Culture Guides – Wrexham and Torfaen in Wales, and St Helens and Faversham in England. This week volunteers and representatives of our partner organisations from Wrexham and St Helens joined us in Birmingham to learn more about the project and to start to explore the details of how the volunteer Culture Guides will work in practice in each location. You can see more details of the Culture Guides project at http://www.cultureguides.eu/ and there is a Facebook group for the UK part of the project at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/533636160091364/?fref=ts
Robin Simpson.
On Wednesday I chaired a meeting of the Cultural Campaigning Network. This is a forum for national organisations involved in campaigning on cultural issues which allows us to share our advocacy plans and identify opportunities for collaboration. This week we discussed the Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation funding decisions. We also heard updates on the National Campaign for the Arts ‘ 50p for Culture’ campaign (http://www.50pforculture.org/), ‘My Theatre Matters’ (http://www.mytheatrematters.com/), and Making Music’s work to secure the future of Leicester Music Library (http://www.makingmusic.org.uk/our-work/news/news/leicester-music-library-making-music). I spoke about our plans for a joint Voluntary Arts/Arts Development UK initiative to explore new models to sustain and develop local cultural infrastructure. We then had a presentation from Luca Bergamo and Clymene Christoforou about the Culture Action Europe annual conference which will take place in Newcastle-Gateshead from 9 – 11 October 2014 – the first time the conference will have been held in the UK – see: http://www.cvan.org.uk/news/2014/6/26/the-culture-action-europe-annual-conference-to-be-held-in-newcastle-gateshead. We also had a presentation, from Joseph Young of AIR Council, on the ‘Paying Artists’ campaign, developed by a-n (The Artists Information Company), which is seeking to highlight and challenge the fact that visual artists in the UK are regularly expected to develop and exhibit their work without a fee – see: http://www.payingartists.org.uk/.
Robin Simpson.
From Sunday to Wednesday I was in Utrecht in the Netherlands for the Art-Age Conference. Art-Age is our European Union Grundtvig Lifelong Learning Programme partnership project looking at arts-based learning and active ageing. The partnership includes six organisations from five countries (Denmark, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovenia), including national amateur arts representative organisations, alongside others providing expertise in the field of learning and culture in a civil society context.
Delegates at the Art-Age Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands
This week’s conference was the culmination of the two-year project and brought together around 45 delegates, including groups of older arts participants from each of the five countries. The UK representatives were members of the 3rd Thought Arts Collective from London (who have been working with Maxine Webster and Peter Avery at 1st Framework). They performed an interactive theatre piece during the conference and have now been invited to perform it at the Löftdalens Folk High School in Sweden.
Professor Evert Bisschop Boele speaking at the Art-Age Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands
The conference included fascinating keynote speeches from two Dutch academics. Professor Jeroen Lutters, spoke about ‘The essence of civilisation: on the value of aesthetic learning by arts participation’ and Professor Evert Bisschop Boele gave a presentation titled ‘Learning by elderly people: a contextual and biographical view on how elderly people learn in music and its consequences for arts participation’. But the most interesting parts of the conference were the group discussions which brought together elderly people from across Europe to look at why they take part in creative cultural activity, what learning results from their participation and how we might make a better case for support of arts-based learning for older people. These discussions were dynamic, thought-provoking and extremely enjoyable.
Breakout group discussion at the Art-Age Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands
The conference was very well organised by our Dutch colleagues at Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst (LKCA) and I think it was a very succesful conclusion to the Art-Age project.
Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst (LKCA), Utrecht, Netherlands
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: England, Europe, volarts, volunteering, Wales
On Monday and Tuesday I was at BBC Radio Merseyside in Liverpool where we hosted the latest meeting of partners in our European Grundtvig project, Culture Guides. Daniel, Laraine, Helen Jones and I were joined by colleagues from Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary and Slovenia. It was very interesting to compare the contrasting approaches to developing the pilot volunteer programmes in each country. In the UK we are planning pilots in four locations – two in Wales and two in England where one of the areas will be Merseyside. We took the opportunity this week to show our partners how Culture Guides will build on our Up for Arts project in Liverpool, linking to the BBC local radio station and the existing ‘A Team’ volunteers. Helen gave our European guests a tour of the radio station and a presentation about Up for Arts. She also arranged a guided tour of Liverpool which was a big hit with our visitors. Two of our partners even ended up on the airwaves talking about their experience of visiting Liverpool. You can hear the pieces Helen recorded with Bente from Denmark and Matjaz from Slovenia at: https://soundcloud.com/voluntary-arts/bente-and-matjaz-are-up-for
Robin Simpson.
Last Tuesday afternoon I was at the British Library in London for the launch of Creative Europe. Creative Europe is the single EU funding programme for the culture and creative sectors for 2014-20. It merges three existing EU funding programmes and represents a 9% increase in funding, with €450 million available for culture and €800 million for film over the next 6 years. We heard from a number of speakers including Amanda Nevill, Chief Executive of the British Film Institute, Graham Sheffield, Director of Arts at the British Council, Sarah Healey, the new Director General of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Culture and Michel Magnier, Director of Culture and Creativity at the European Commission.
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.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: ageing, arts, education, Europe, research, volarts
I was in Cardiff on Monday and Tuesday for the latest meeting of partners in our Art-Age European project. Art-Age aims to provide and put into practice new methods and approaches to document, validate and profile the qualities and outcome of amateur and voluntary culture for active ageing. It is funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme’s Grundtvig Learning Partnership – a framework for practical co-operation activities between organisations working in the field of adult learning in the broadest sense – formal, non-formal or informal. The Grundtvig Learning Partnership aims to broaden the participation of smaller organisations wishing to include European cooperation in their education activities. Art-Age involves six partner organisations from five European countries (Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Slovenia and the UK). Since the last partners’ meeting each organisation has been consulting groups of older people about their experiences of learning through arts participation. In the UK Voluntary Arts enlisted the help of Maxine Webster of First Framework in order to work with the Third Thought drama and arts collective. Daniel did a wonderful job of organising the Cardiff meeting which took place at Craft in the Bay, opposite the Wales Millennium Centre. On Monday we had a presentation from Emma Robinson from Age Cmyru about the Gwanwyn Festival – a month long national festival held across Wales in May celebrating creativity in older age. Gwanwyn involves about 9,000 participants a year, see: http://www.gwanwyn.org.uk. On Monday evening we gave our European colleagues the experience of a traditional Welsh Christmas dinner. For most people the highlight of our two day meeting was us happening upon a carol service in Llandaff Cathedral – a spectacular setting in which the Cathedral Choir sounded splendid. The Art-Age project will conclude with a conference in Utrecht in April 2014. For more details of the Art-Age project, see: http://www.theloveofit.org/art-age/
Robin Simpson.
Cultural Playing Field 