AAH Autumn 2010

ARTSATTHEHEARTCities ofCultureor cuts?

Workingfor localgovernmentartsandcreative industriesThenalgaoMagazineIssue 26Autumn2010

Inside:BoltonArts&Health seminarNickCapaldi onWales’ investment reviewACE’s newapproach topartnershipsDerrickAnderson:Managingperformance

‘The plates aren’t just shifting, they’re spinning too’. Pete Bryan, ourindefatigable administrator, summed up the current situation prettysuccinctly as we surveyed the latest announcement from theDepartment of Culture, Media and Sport about the abolishment of abatch of cultural bodies including the FilmCouncil and the Museums,Libraries andArchives Council.

We find ourselves facing two major difficulties. The first, theeconomic steps to reduce the deficit will probably see centralgovernment funding for the arts seriously reduced. But there’s thepotential double whammy for the arts that local government budgetsare also to be reduced. As Local Authorities are the other major funderof arts and culture, the impact could be critical.

That will of course have an impact on local government arts officersand few of us will escape the financial pain. Many councils are looking- yet again - at what they are required to do and what they would liketo do and making hard decisions. As we are only too aware, non-statutory services of all kinds will suffer. Most of us in public servicearen’t here for the financial rewards (gold plated pension anyone?) butfrom a sense of public service and of contributing to society. Thegrowing awareness that public service itself is being so fundamentallyquestioned adds to our unease.

But resilience and creative problem solving are prerequisites for thejob. We’ll need quickly to get a firm grip on the way our world ischanging and how to respond most positively but already ways aheadare emerging. Derrick Anderson, the Chief Executive at Lambeth is astaunch supporter of arts, culture and sports. In “ChangingThe Culture”(page12) Derrick argues that the sector must continue to improve itsapproach to evidencing culture’s impact.

As the landscape we have understood shifts around us, how wedevelop and improve our services becomes even more important.MartynAllison, picking up on the themes of our ‘Outside In’ seminarand report, gives us his view on the way ahead and the future ofcommissioning with a clear and helpful five point plan.The future ofthe National Indicator set looks doubtful – but local indicators couldwell be both more important and more relevant.AngelaWatson setsout the lessons learned from the NI11 data.

There’s still plenty to celebrate of course, and the City of Culturewinners, Derry-Londonderry have lots to shout about. As indeed didthe excellent presentations highlighted at the recent nalgaoArts andHealth Seminar, generously hosted by Bolton at Home, and reportedon here.

The concept ‘Big Society’ is still unclear, but if it’s about empoweringpeople and communities, the arts have a strong track record in doingjust that – asArts at the Heart so frequently demonstrates.

Knowledge is our best tool for surviving in this rapidly changingclimate, so do email nalgao and tell us what is happening and if youhave found ways of protecting your arts service that others can learnfrom.

Lorna BrownChair of nalgao

ContentsChair’s IntroductionSeismicTimes 2

nalgaoNews 3

CoverFeaturesACE:Targeting Future Partnerships 4ACW:Vibrant,Dynamic andDurable 6

BackToTheFuture? 8

Outside InSeminarChangingTheCulture 12Delivering Better for Less 14

Arts,HealthandWellbeingSeminarIntroduction 16TheArt of RaisingAspirations 17Big Society:Arts,Health andWellbeing 19

CoverStoryCities of Culture or cuts? 24Derry:CrackingTheCultural Code 25They also serve... 29

nalgaoCaseStudiesSevernUp 31GoingUnderground 33Special Delivery 36makedo&mend:Project Evaluation 38NewEngine Powers Powys 39Theatre? It’sOur Future! 40Up InTheAir 42

Editor: Paul KellyCultural FuturesTel: (w) 01202 363013

(h) 01202 385585Mobile: 07825 313838Email: [email protected]

Published by nalgaoTel: & Fax: 01269 824728Email: [email protected]

Editorial research time kindly provided by theArts University College at Bournemouth

Coverphoto:Youngpeople inDerry celebrate becoming the first British City of Culture

Seismictimes

02

“Resilienceandcreativeproblem

solving

areprerequisitesforthejob.”

ARTSATTHEHEART nalgaoMagazine Autumn 2010

nalgaonews

03 ARTSATTHEHEART nalgaoMagazine Autumn 2010

ImprovingCommunicationsnalgao's Communications Sub-Committee hasbeen hard at work reviewing ways ofimproving the organisation's communicationservices.The improvements will involve twoor three phases. First, following a discussionwithTrustees and a short survey andendorsement from the membership, nalgaohas decided to make Artsat theHeartmagazine a digital only publication from thisissue for both environmental and cost reasons.InitiallyArtsat theHeartwill be published as a PDFand a link emailed to members for downloading.Very shortly

though it is hoped to adopt a 'magazinereader' format which somecommercial magazines use.Phase two is to develop an improved

andmore flexible and navigable website.A brief for a new site has been developedand work is well advanced on developingit. nalgao expects to launch the newwebsite at the December Conference inBrighton. The newwebsite will lead tophase three which will involvestreamlining the weekly Ezine andreducing its bulk by carrying far morecontent on the website.

It is expected that these changes will improve the way that nalgaocommunicates with its members and the services it can offer them.

BuildingThe BigSocietyYou’ve probably heard about the Big Society. But what does it reallymean?The Conservative Party has produced an eight page policypaper outlining the philosophy and objectives of this initiative.Thespring 2011 issue of Arts at the Heart will carry a feature on this.

The PDF can be downloaded from:http://tiny.cc/fguji

StayingAliveArts & Business has commissioned the economist and mediaspecialist, Martin Smith, to research how the arts can cope whenthere is less funding about. Smith’s 24 page report “Arts funding in acooler climate”, was published in May.Whilst it doesn’t providedefinitive conclusions, it is a useful analysis of the landscape andcontains some thoughtful insights.

The PDF can be downloaded from: http://tiny.cc/jy8nc

nalgaoConferenceNalgao’s annual conference &AGMwill be held in Brighton on 6th & 7thDecember.The conference will be addressed by EdVaizey MP,Minister fortheArts and will explore the challenges, threats and the opportunities forlocal authority arts services and for those of us working in artsdevelopment in the economic and political climate we find ourselves in. Inparticular it will consider:•Working within the new landscape andmaking it work for you• Fighting for your corner, and•Going it alone

The conference will include a study tour of Brighton and breakout sessionson How to survive cutbacks and re-organisation, 2012 andmaking it workfor you, the Big Society and discussion sessions onCoping with Stress andLeadership &Continuing Professional Development.The conference was previously scheduled for Sunderland in mid-

October but this was prior to theGovernment’s Spending Reviewannouncement on 20October.This and member budget restraints has led nalgao to revise the

conference programme, condensing the event into two days necessitatingjust one overnight stay to reduce delegate costs.TheAGMwill take place on the evening of the first day.We are also

delighted to report that EdVaizey MP,Minister for Communication,Cultureand theCreative Industries will give a keynote address on 7th December.Other keynote speakers will include MartynAllison, Local GovernmentImprovement & Development , Jonathan Banks,Chief Executive, Ixia andAlex Homfray, Senior Consultant, BOPConsulting. Full details are availableon the nalgao website – www.nalgao.orgThe PDF can be downloaded from: http://tiny.cc/jy8nc

cover features


With national and local governmentbudgets under increasing pressure, it isclear that we are facing a difficult timefor public funding for the arts. In June,along with all DCMS funded bodies, theArts Council received a letter fromJeremy Hunt, Secretary of State forCulture, asking us to model for 25-30%cuts over four years.Though these cutsare not set in stone, the levels ofreductions being considered shows justhow tough this spending review will be.Cuts of this magnitude to the ArtsCouncil budget would mean significantchange, and we would be unable tofund many organisations in the way wehave to date.These cuts would bedoubly damaging if accompanied bysignificant reductions in funding fromlocal authorities.

In July, we wrote to all our fundedorganisations asking them to model fora minimum of a 10% reduction infunding in 2011-12.This approachallows 2011-12 to be a transitionalyear, as we move towards developing

and implementing our 10 year strategicframework for the arts which will bepublished in October.Our fundingdecisions between 2012-13 and 2014-15 will be guided by the priorities setout in the strategic framework, ourlong term goals for the arts, and thecurrent funding context.Wherepossible, we would welcome our localauthority partners taking the sameapproach to this transitional year.

Such a challenging time requires usto work in new ways with our partners,including those in local government.Local authorities play a crucial role insupporting the arts across the country,and we need to think carefully abouthow we can best work together as weadjust to a radically altered artslandscape.

In the coming months we will belooking to establish sustainablepartnerships with a number of localauthorities where there is evidence of,or strong potential for, a shared agendafor the arts.These will be places where

Severalweeks agoArtsCouncil England published the findings of ourAchievinggreatartforeveryone consultation.Thiswas amajor piece ofwork for uswhere,in order to develop,our 10 year strategic framework for the artswe consultedalmost 2,500 individuals and organisations involved in the arts in England. Oneof themain findings of the consultationwas the need to encourage greaterpartnership and collaborationwithin the arts sector.These partnerships includetheArtsCouncil itself, andwe have bold newplans on howwe can strengthenour linkswith local government.

TARGETINGFUTUREPARTNERSHIPSRichardRussell

BigDance inTrafalgar Square

cover features


the arts are seen as central to a community’swell being and prosperity and there is astrong synergy between our goals and localgovernment priorities. In particular we wantto develop partnerships in areas with acritical mass of arts infrastructure, and tosecure long term change in areas of limitedarts infrastructure and lower level of artsengagement.

Our partners in local government shouldsee this as a step change in our commitmentto working with them in a purposeful andmeaningful way.We will provide adviceabout the arts and arts funding to all localauthorities and will offer some programmes,such as Artsmark and Arts Award, across thewhole of England.

However, we will be increasingly focusingour resources in areas where we can buildstrong partnerships to achieve mutual goals.Arts Council funded arts organisations will becritical to making a success of theserelationships, developing a broader civic roleand demonstrating greater public value for

their work. In many ways, how artsorganisations operate is the very epitome ofthe Big Society, with organisations run on amixture of public, private and volunteersupport engaging people with theircommunities and enriching our experienceof life.We hope the targeted partnerships webuild will help us transform communitiesthrough shared action.

We know, in these tough financial times,that we need to demonstrate the impact ofour investment on people and communities.In July the first findings of the Culture andSport Evidence (CASE) research project werepublished.This project is a collaborationbetween the Arts Council and a number ofculture and sport organisations includingDCMS, Sport England and the MLA.Theresearch shows the impact that culture andsport have on health and wellbeing, and hascreated an evidence database that will giveresearchers and policymakers a betterunderstanding of what drives engagement,what impact it has, and how best we value it.

We hope this information will be useful tolocal authorities across the country, givingvaluable insight into how arts and culturecan contribute to their wider goals in areassuch as health and education.

Though it’s an uncertain time for thepublic sector, by adopting a strategic ten-year approach, the Arts Council, inpartnership with local government and thewider arts sector, is working to ensure weare in the best possible position to dealwith the challenges ahead.Our long termgoals will enable the long term action thearts need to be the best they can be,ensuring they remain at the heart ofsuccessful communities across thecountry. •RichardRussellDirector, Strategic PartnershipsArts Council England

Tel: 0845 300 6200Email: [email protected]

Both Photos:

More views of BigDance inTrafalgar Square

Photos by KoisMiah

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With the news full of increasingly grim stories of public funding cuts, youcould be forgiven for thinking that theArts Council ofWales’s InvestmentReview was simply more of the same. But it’s not. We started looking atour funding priorities nearly eighteen months ago. What a difference ayear makes.

We knew from the outset that arguing for increased public investmentin the arts would be challenging. So a key part of our strategy wasdemonstrating that we were using existing funds to best effect. Westarted by looking at the nearly 100 organisations that we provide revenuefunding to each year. We were becoming increasingly concerned that wewere spreading funds too thinly, depriving our most innovative andexciting organisations of the funds that they needed to thrive.Consultations with the arts sector confirmed that the majority agreed withour analysis. So we set ourselves a straightforward task: to look at how wemight support a network of organisations acrossWales, large and small,international and local, that are vibrant, dynamic and durable.Organisations whose work inspires, touches and engages us.

It sounds simple, but we knew it wouldn’t be easy. Focussing support ona smaller number of organisations would bring with it all the difficulty andcontroversy that a selective process entails. So we consulted widely abouthow we’d conduct the Review, and published regular information on ourprogress.

We invited 116 organisations to send us their business plans. We alsolooked more widely at how we use our funds, and what we’ve achieved.At the end of June we announced the results of our examination.Weidentified 71 organisations who will form our new portfolio of revenuefunded organisations. 32 organisations will no longer be revenue fundedafter March 2011, and we’ll be exploring other ways of helping them tocontinue where this is possible. We’ve put in place transition arrangementsand we’ll do what we can to secure the best possible outcome for thosefacing an uncertain future. A small number of organisations want tochallenge our decisions, and that’s fine. We have an appeals process andit’s an important to ensure that even the most disappointed artsorganisation feels that they’ve been treated fairly.

ArtsCouncil ofWalesChief Executive,NickCapaldi, looks back overthework leading up to the announcement of its Investment Review.

Vibrant,Dynamicand DURABLE

Actors at the newNationalTheatre ofWales

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So what now?As is becoming increasingly clear, nothing is guaranteedfor anyone. The economic outlook is grim. But this isn’t why we originallyundertook our Investment Review. It was never about cuts, it was aboutusing existing funds to best effect. However, at this point in time, we’veonly been able to identify who we want to work with. We can’t say, yet,howmuch they’ll get. We should know in December, which is when weexpect to know our future levels of funding from theAssemblyGovernment.

In the meantime, we won’t be sitting idly by. We’ll continue to presentthe case for the arts with vigour. And we’ll also be looking to see how wecan reduce our own costs, to re invest back into ‘front line’ arts activity.The public rightly demands that the institutions they finance are efficientand effective. And we’ll also be talking with our local authority colleagues,all of whom are facing their own funding challenges.

Local authorities inWales are significant providers and funders of artsactivity. We consulted with them at key points in the Investment Reviewprocess and this proved to be enormously helpful. Our conversations withlocal authority colleagues were, as one might expect, thoughtful,pragmatic and useful. In the majority of cases there was a clear alignmentof our respective priorities. But in a small number of instances we knowthat the decisions we finally took have disappointed key local authoritieswhose partnership we value. We’re clear about why we’ve taken thosedecisions, but there are bridges to be re built nonetheless.

We know that the arts within local authorities will be under the mostsevere pressure within recent memory. In theAutumn we’ll start firmingup our funding options for the new portfolio. This will require a furtherround of local authority conversations where we’ll be trying to focus on

the what, ultimately, we’re all trying to achieve – high quality arts for thewidest possible audience in English and inWelsh.

Not all of the answers will be provided by the new portfolio oforganisations. So we’re proposing new funds to develop communitygenerated arts activity.There’ll be funds for commissioning, production andtouring, and we’re going to take a new approach to funding Festivalsthrough the Lottery. The centrepiece of our new strategy will be a moreemphatic commitment to arts and young people. The arts make anenormous difference to the lives of everyone, but especially young people.So we need to do whatever we can to broaden our approach,making surethat more children and young people inWales, wherever they live,whatever their circumstances, can participate in and enjoy a wider range ofarts activity. In all of these areas we’ll be consulting on future proposalsand the views of local authorities will be essential.

So that’s where we are. The period between now and December iscritical. We’ve acted today to keep the arts vibrant and strong fortomorrow, and we’ve got a strategy that we believe works. We’ve set outour stall. We’ve been bold, and we’ve made choices. Our task now is topersuade theWelshAssemblyGovernment of the tremendous benefitsthat the arts brings to the people ofWales. •NickCapaldiChief ExecutiveArtsCouncil ofWalesTel:08458734900Email: [email protected]

TheMissionGallery, Swansea


For those of you who joined the arts industry atsome point over the last 15 years, the pressuresand challenges the arts now face must seemdaunting, possibly bewildering and ratherthreatening. For those of us who have beenaround a little longer it seems in ways like it’s1979 all over again.

Even though some of the circumstances aredifferent, it’s worth reflecting on some of thethings that happened in the 1980s. That eradid not prove a particularly easy ride for thearts, but they survived and there were somecurious and even some beneficialdevelopments.

The 1974-79 LabourWilson/CallaghanGovernment was a very different animal to itsBlair/Brown equivalent. It had an increasingly

difficult relationship with its natural allies, theTrades Unions, which culminated in ‘theWinter of Discontent’ when public sectorworkers went on mass strike and rubbish piledup in the streets.

Britain’s economy was in a far worse statethan it is now. The country had had to resort toborrowing from the International MonetaryFund to stay solvent. Inflation averaged at15.7% - peaking at over 24%. And theGovernment seemed to spend much of its timeengaged in a grumpy public debate over thenature of society, chiefly with theTradesUnions.MargaretThatcher’s majority of 43 atthe 1979 general election was by no meanssubstantial. What she did with it was.

In its first two years theThatcher

government cut public spending and directtaxation and doubledVAT from 8% to 15%.It started to sell off state industries to theprivate sector and gave council tenants theright to buy. Growth was slow to come and ata cost. Unemployment rose from 1million toover 3 million. At one point people foundthemselves paying 15% interest on theirmortgages.

“I came to office,” said MargaretThatcher ina speech to the Small Business conference in1984,“with one deliberate intent: to changeBritain from a dependent to a self-reliantsociety - from a give-it-to-me, to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of asit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain”. 1 Thatcher andher finance ministers sought to move Britain

ArtsAtTheHeart Editor Paul Kellytakes a personal look back to the1980s and asks arewe going...

cultural context

BackToTheFuture?

PaulKelly

from what they saw as a dependency cultureto an enterprise culture, driven and defined bythe free market. Thatcherism, said herChancellor Nigel Lawson,“involves a mixture offree markets, financial discipline, firm controlover public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism,‘Victorian values’ (of the Samuel Smiles self-help variety), privatisation and a dash ofpopularism.” 2

TheThatcher philosophy had both and animpact on British communities, society andculture.Three years later, talking toWomen’sOwnmagazine,Thatcher famously said “thereis no such thing as society”. 3 Frequently takenout of context it possibly wasn’t precisely whatshe believed, but it set a political tone.

Interviewed in theGuardian two years ago,the writer Hanif Kureshi said that MargaretThatcher actively hated culture, as sherecognised that it was a form of dissent. 4

A culture of dissent spilled on the streets inthe early 1980s with riots in Bristol inApril1980 and more serious riots in Brixton andToxteth, Liverpool the following year.Thesesignalled intense and growing inner citytensions. With Minister of the EnvironmentMichael Heseltine’s help government fundsstarted to be channelled into regenerativemeasures some of which involved culture,mostnotably a series of International GardenFestivals starting in Liverpool in 1984 withsuccessors in Stoke,Glasgow,Gateshead andEbbwVale.

Growing unemployment,much of itaffecting the young, led to the establishment in1983 of the government’s EnterpriseAllowanceScheme (EAS) which provided a weeklypayment of £40 to an unemployed person whowished to set up a business and was willing toinvest a specified amount in it during its firstyear. A number of enterprising artists,

managers and arts groups, includingOasis record bossAlan McGee, used the EAS asa form of start up or grant funding and theEnterpriseAllowance not only got some youngpeople off the unemployment register butsowed the seeds of cultural entrepreneurship.

“The arts world must . . . accept the factthatGovernment policy . . . has decisively tiltedaway from the expansion of the public to theenlargement of the private sector.TheGovernment fully intends to honour its pledgeto maintain public support for the arts . . . butwe look to the private sphere to meet anyshortfall and to provide immediate meansof increase.”

No that’s not a quote from Jeremy Huntor EdVaizey, but Norman St John Stevas,MargaretThatcher’s first Minister for theArts,speaking in about 1980 and encouraging artsorganisations to seek alternative forms offunding. 5 But it has a familiar ring about it.

In the late 1980s underArts Minister RichardLuce, the government introduced theAmericanconcept of ‘Challenge Funding’managed byABSA - nowArts & Business.Challenge Fundingwas a sort of corporate version of EnterpriseAllowance. If your organisation could raise, say,£50,000 for something which would generateadditional income, you could apply for match

funding to complete anddeliver the project. It worked quite well, butwas a relatively short-lived scheme and wasnever built into wider cultural thinking.Thatcher’s impact on the arts, says ProfessorVictoriaAlexander, amounted to a dramaticshift in emphasis from the arts themselves -whether in the form of art world concerns withexcellence or policymakers’ concerns withaccess - to the prudent management of thearts.“The arts were now to be judged byeconomic yardsticks and were exhorted tothrow off the culture of dependency, pull uptheir socks, and look for additional fundingelsewhere.” 6

The result of cuts inArts Council grant in theearly 1980s and the encouragement ofcommercial thinking led to the rise of selling-focussed arts marketing as documented byGerri Morris. 7 It gave an enhanced role to theAssociation for Business Sponsorship in theArts(ABSA) - nowArts & Business - and are-positioning of the arts in policy terms. It alsoled to a dulling of artistic product.AsGerriMorris pithily put it, artistic directorscompletely gave up on their vision and justmake assumptions of what the audience wouldrespond to,“and it always seemed to be NoelCoward.” 8

“The arts are to tourism, what the sun is toSpain,” said the formerTimes Editor and 1980sArts Council Chair,William Rees-Mogg.WhatRees-Mogg was saying was to justify funding,the arts have to serve a wider public purpose.Given recent cultural debates, there is a deepirony in finding the origins of culturalinstrumentalism buried back in the 1980s. Isn’tthat what New Labour were accused ofinventing? Some have also claimed that in

Left:Norman St John Stevas

Right:Toxteth Riots, 1981

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“The artswere now tobe judged byeconomic yardsticksandwere exhorted tothrow off the cultureof dependency.”


the same era, the lack of public funding and aThatcherite entrepreneurial culture spurredon a group of art students who collectivelybecame known as theYoung BritishArtists andwho went on to fame and in some casesconsiderable fortune.

This brief and necessarily selective reviewindicates some broad themes.Whilst there aresimilarities today with 1979, there are alsosome significant differences. Jeremy Hunt, thenew Secretary of State for Culture and hisMinister for Culture,Communications andCreative Industries, EdVaizey took care andtime in the two years prior to this May’selection to court and reassure the arts world.There is, says David Cameron repeatedly, such athing as society. “We just don't think that it'sthe same thing as the state." Britain today is farfrom the economic or social position itoccupied in 1979. And the message from theConservatives from David Cameron down hasbeen broadly, ‘we like the arts’. For one, arts andculture now benefit from a significant annualrevenue flow from the National Lottery aninstitution for which we must give thanks andcredit to the Conervatives who enacted thelegislation and launched it in 1994.

But there are some deeper issues to grapplewith. The early 1980s were economicallydifficult. When recovery came by about 1985,the combination of wealth and ideology turnedthe citizen into the consumer.That has posed achallenge, in some parts of the country at least,to identity and community, one which DavidCameron’s “Big Society” is trying to re-balance.But at the same time, the CoalitionGovernment seems to be stripping thevoluntary sector bare. As PollyToynbeerecently wrote in theGuardian,“the £35bnvoluntary sector is 40% sustained by statesupport…so shrinking the state meansshrinking the charitable sector, too.” 9 The BigSociety seems set to be built on volunteeringand if economic recovery falters there shouldbe plenty of potential candidates. But whether

an ideology, which not a lot of people reallyunderstand, is going to help re-build localcommunities affected by public service andpossibly private sector cuts, remains to be seen.

All Governments take time to find their feet.What is happening now is the start of anexperiment which will take time to unfold, so

long as the current Coalition government lasts.What seems clear today is that, just as in 1979,we are at turning point. We have enjoyed 15years of a certain type of economic andcultural development and the certainty thatcomes from a particular political ideology andstyle. We now have to get used to somethingrather different.

Strangely, whilst the public sector optionsmay seem very stark - get seriously commercialor disappear - there may be a very viablemiddle ground through adopting the principlesof social entrepreneurship. It’s worth reading orre-visitingAndrewMawson’s ‘The SocialEntrepreneur: Making CommunitiesWork’. 10

"A government is defined,” saidactor/Director SamWest on Radio 4 recently,“by what it chooses to spend its money on". 11

In broader cultural terms, the issue ofArtsCouncil funding is, I would argue, a bit of a

sideshow. The real issue is how the governmentapproaches the public realm and welfare ingeneral and theThatcher years throw up someinteresting questions.

Howmuch will the government actuallyreduce or privatise the public services that wehave come to know and expect? What impactwill this have on the way that localcommunities function - or don’t? Will thepublic really accept all the changes that arebeing proposed especially when the real impli-cations around jobs and services become clear?

From an arts perspective the irony is that, onthe one hand local arts provision is often seenas an expendable periphery.On the other hand,artists and the arts are often one of the mosteffective ways of bringing bewildered or brokencommunities back together.And there may bea much greater need for that in future.•PaulKellyEmail:[email protected]

Paul Kelly startedhis career in theArts in 1978and is nowSenior Lecturer inArts and EventManagement at theArtsUniversityCollegeatBournemouth.

A longer versionof this essay canbe foundon thenalgaowebsite –www.nalgao.org

1 http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/1056172 QuotedHewison,R. (1997) Culture&Consensus p.2103 http://briandeer.com/social/thatcher-society.htm4 “Acceptable in the1980s”-TheGuardian11April 20095 Quoted inAlexanderV (2007) State Support ofArtists:The

Caseof theUnitedKingdom inaNewLabour EnvironmentandBeyond.

6 AlexanderV. (2007) State Support ofArtists:TheCaseof theUnitedKingdom inaNewLabour Environment andBeyond,University of Surrey

7 Keynote address to theArtsManagementAssociationconference2004.

8 ibid9 “The 'big society' is a big fat lie – just follow themoney”

TheGuardian,6August 201010 Atlantic Books (2008)11 YouandYours BBCRadio411August 2010

cultural context

ARTSATTHEHEART nalgaoMagazine Autumn 201010From the ‘Winter of Discontent’ to global financial centre

“Arts and culture nowbenefit from asignificant annualrevenue flow fromtheNational Lotteryan institution forwhichwemust givethanks and credit totheConservatives.”

outside inseminar


Paul Kelly, Editor

This seminar, now seems anotherworld away, staged indifferent political times.Attended by over 200 delegates,it looked at how the arts could benefit from theway thatLocalAuthoritieswere increasingly externallycommissioning local authority service contracts.

The keynote speeches byDerrickAnderson andMartynAllison highlighted the impending difficulties localauthoritieswere facing – regardless of possible politicalchanges. Local authoritieswere facing a‘financialTsunami’ said DerrickAnderson.AndMartynAllisonstressed the need for local authority cultural services todevelop performance targets and data to demonstratethe outcomes theywere achieving. We are pleased to beable to publish updated versions of their keynotespeeches in this issue ofArtsattheHeart.

OutsideInSeminarLondon, February 2010

outside in seminar


The cultural sector has achieved a great deal in recent years.Thesector has shown itself to be adept at responding toopportunitiespresented bywider developments.As a result, the profile of thesector has never beenhigher.However,despite laudable efforts bythe sector to take responsibility for its development needs, thisnew foundprofile has comeat a price.Questions have been raisedabout performance and its impact onoutcomes.Asweenter aperiod of unprecedentedpressure onpublic finances, theseweaknesses threaten to undermine the ability of the culturalsector to compete for scarce resources. Facedwith thesechallenges, the sectormust continue to address knownweaknesses aroundperformance and,at the same time,boldlypursue newopportunities presented by the political consensusthat is emerging around localismandnew formsof service delivery.

In many ways, the recent story of the cultural sector in modern timeshas been one of growing confidence and influence.As the 1990sprogressed the sector moved beyond energy sapping battles overcompulsory competitive tendering to position culture as a driver ofeconomic and social wellbeing.The introduction of the Local GovernmentAct 2000, which explicitly set out Local Authorities’ responsibilities in thisarea helped. But more importantly, the sector acted boldly to make spacefor itself at the top table, using the utilitarian arguments of the day.

Much as I admire the way the sector has pursued the opportunitiesthat have arisen, I also see that it has not been without its problems.Increased attention from beyond the sector highlighted longstandingweaknesses within. Lambeth was by no means alone in being criticised bytheAudit Commission for the way performance was managed within itscultural services. In many ways, the sector came to the ComprehensivePerformanceAssessment (CPA) game late in the day and, at times,seemed resistant to doing what needed to be done to meet the newrequirements of performance management.

When I addressed the nalgao conference in February, I told delegatesthat only a fool would try to predict the outcome of the general election.As it happened, the outcome was even less predictable than I hadimagined - the first coalition since the SecondWorldWar, bringingtogether Conservatives and Liberal Democrats for a term they hope willlast five years.

Five months later, I’m less surprised by the financial situation we findourselves in. In the hierarchy of priorities for the national government,local government ranks far lower than hospitals and schools or defence.Local government had already been asked to find an additional £1.1billion in savings this year when the government announced thecurtailment of the Building Schools for the Future programme.And thereis more pain to come, with the Comprehensive Spending Review expectedto spell out cuts in departmental spending of at least a third over the nextthree years.

Faced with these challenges, what must the culture sector do tosafeguard its future?

With the formation of the coalition government we now know thatComprehensiveAreaAssessment (CAA) is no more and, in the future,

ChangingThe Culture

DerrickAnderson

DerrickAnderson

outside in seminar


we can expect to see less emphasis placed oncentralised inspection. However, the sectormust continue to improve its approach toevidencing culture’s impact.The demise of CAAdoes not mean we should abandon sector-ledefforts to build the sector’s capacity aroundmanaging performance and developing arobust evidence base.The work of Regionalnetworks such as the LondonCulturalImprovement Programme and, earlier this year,the IDeA’s London conference, has confirmedthat strategic commissioning will shape thesector’s future.

Although initially caught out by therequirements of the CPA inspection regime, itmust also be acknowledged that the sector hastaken responsibility for its own improvement.With the help of MartynAllison at the IDeAand others, the LondonCultural ImprovementProgramme have worked hard to developleadership capacity and develop more robustevidence of culture’s impact on wideroutcomes. I am particularly pleased thisimprovement activity is recognised as servingthe sector’s own best interests, and is notsimply a response to external chastisement.

Throughout the past decade culture hasbeen subject to considerable attention.Positively, the importance of culture tocommunities and individuals has becomemorewidely recognised than before, and newopportunities for the sector to work moreclosely with colleagues both inside and outside

of local authorities have been achieved. Suchopportunities though have presentedchallenges and questions over impact haveexposed sector-wide weaknesses.

Until now, fortunately, the cultural sector hasresponded positively, taking advantage ofBeacon and Pathfinder programmes,making acommitment to self-improvement and activelyseeking ways to engage with colleagues outsidethe sector.

Nowmore than ever, in these times of fiscalausterity, we need to be able to prove ourworth.With likely cuts to be announced ofaround 40% to the Department for Culture,Media and Sport, the sector needs to diversifyits approach to funding even more.We can nolonger rely solely on commissioning fromGovernment and Local Authorities but mustlook increasingly to the private sector – we didit in the 1990s and, though doubly difficult inthe current financial climate, we can do itagain!

The cultural sector is almost back on theright track.With continued commitment andthe willingness to embrace the challenges thatlie ahead, this positive progression will surelysee us through these troubling times.•DerrickAndersonCBEChief ExecutiveLambethBoroughCouncilTel:02079262134Email:[email protected]

DrDerrickAndersonCBE

DerrickAnderson,CBE, is theChiefExecutive of LambethCouncil andstarted in post on 1March 2006. Hewas previouslyChief Executive of theCity ofWolverhamptonCouncil for10 years.

Hewas selected as a LocalGovernmentNetwork UK representative for SouthAfrica/UK Shoulder to ShoulderInitiative. Hewas awarded aCBE forservices to local government in January2003 and holds honorary doctoratesfrom Staffordshire University for workon social inclusion and cultural policyand from BirminghamUniversity.With akeen interest in sports and the arts,Derrick’s outside interests includeworkingwith aid and developmentagencies in SouthernAfrica and theCaribbean.Withmany years of publicservice Derrick has spoken bothnationally and internationally atconferences and events on localgovernment and community issues.

DrDerrickAndersonCBE

TheOutside InReport DerrickAnderson addresses the delegates

outside in seminar


Thestorysofar…Cultural services’ seven year improvementjourney - often described as the sectorneeding to catch up with other publicservices - stands on the threshold of a newdirection of travel created by anunprecedented period of financial restraint inpublic expenditure coupled with somefundamental shifts in national and localgovernment relationships, a greaterdevolution of responsibility to people andcommunities and significant changes inpolicy.This will require a new enthusiasmand passion to increase productivity and realleadership will be required to square thecircle of delivering better for less.

The challenge ahead is huge and it willbe very easy for the sector to revert to“victim mode” and complain about not beingvalued and being the first to suffer cuts.It will be equally tempting to simplycampaign for protection through greaterstatutory recognition a campaign that will bedoomed to failure from the outset.We havehowever some huge opportunities to buildon our success and continue to position thesector at the heart of this new world. By theend of the next spending review period thesector could be 25% smaller in financialterms but not necessarily in activityterms and the 75% that remains must bebetter valued and perform better if it isto survive.

PositioningCulture and sport services are now wellpositioned in the strategic planning of about athird of single tier councils and betterpositioned in most.The contribution theseservices can make to peoples lives includinghealth improvement, the improvement inindependent living for older people, inimproving life and educational outcomes forchildren and young people, in supporting theeconomy and in improving community safetyand cohesion is valued but we still lack thereal evidence to make our case.

PerformanceThe sector has been on a trajectory ofimprovement as measured by theComprehensive Performance Assessment(CPA) and Comprehensive Area Assessment(CAA) and at the end of the CPA it was nolonger the poorest performing service area.However when measured using the NationalPerformance Indicators only adultparticipation in sport and active recreationhas increased whilst adult participation in arts,libraries and museums has fallen back.Performance also remains patchy acrosscouncils and in different services.

ImprovementThe improvement project has been aremarkable process of sector collaborationwith numerous organisations working to a

common goal and strategy, “A Passion forExcellence”.Yet despite this the sector remainsincredibly fragmented with numerousorganisations competing for influence withcontinuing declining resources and capacity todo so.

AnewpoliticalandfinancialcontextThe election marks a moment of step changein the context in which we all work.Themoment when the “plates moved”. Historytells us that the sector traditionally has beenpoor at responding to change and tends towait until the dust has settled beforeresponding.This time we must avoid this andalthough there are risks in trying to guess thefuture these need to be judged against therisks of doing nothing until everything is clear.Our strategy must be to help shape the futureand not wait until it is shaped for us.

What does this mean for the sector and theimprovement project?

Less resourcesLess resource will be the biggest driver ofchange for the next few years.The culture andsport sector will always be seen by some asthe non essential and the first candidate forbudget cuts.A sector that is 25% smallerfinancially is a likely outcome but this neednot be a 25% reduction in activity. (See boxon page 15 for possible impacts).

MartynAllison

DELIVERINGBETTERFOR LESS

outside in seminar


LocalismThe second key driver for change will be thereduction in national drivers of reform andimprovement and the promotion of localaccountability for service delivery andimprovement.This is coupled with a desire to“roll back or replace the state” giving moreresponsibility to individuals and communitiesunder the concept of “the Big Society” coupledwith more reliance on professionals to innovateand respond to customer and useraccountability rather than being driven bynational targets.There is a strong desire toremove“the middlemen” orQuangos that sitbetween central government and those whodeliver and receive services at the frontline.Although councils are seen to be importantplayers in this new architecture there is also adesire to devolve beyond councils direct toschools,GPs, hospitals, business andcommunities themselves.Whatever theoutcome councils will still remain the biggestproviders and enablers of culture and sportservices to communities.

In terms of the sector thismeans:

• Less national policy and advocacy for thesector fromCentral Government and NonDepartmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) andmuch more reliance on local leadership.

• Potentially less national and regional funding,capacity and support from the NDPBs

although changes proposed to Lottery fundingwill generate increased resource streams.

• An opportunity to help the voluntary andcommunity sectors play an even greater rolein the provision of culture and sport

Sector led improvementThese drivers underpin further changes to thepublic service delivery and improvementarchitecture.We have already seen the demisenationally of Public ServiceAgreements and theComprehensiveAreaAssessment with apromise of less regulation and inspection.Therehas been no mention yet of the future of LocalAreaAgreements or National PerformanceIndicators although changes and further cullingof indicators is expected.

Concepts of local partnerships led bycouncils are likely to remain with an evengreater emphasis on joining up servicedelivery and removing overlap and duplicationthrough place based budgeting with thecontinuing focus on improving outcomes forlocal people and communities with localinformation being used to promote greatertransparency and accountability to local peopleon performance.

The focus on efficiency and new serviceprovider arrangements will mean that theconcept of commissioning services willcontinue as the key process for matchingneeds, resources and procurement. Local servicecommissioning through local accountable

bodies based on single need assessments andintegrated service delivery will be an ambition.(Seeboxabove forwhat culture needs todo)

So how do we respond to these newchallenges? My suggested five point planinvolves:

1. Stimulating and sharing innovation.

2.Helping develop and establish new providermodels particularly using the private sector,social enterprise and the community andvoluntary sectors that are transformational.

3.Working very differently with a greaterreliance on councils themselves and localgeographical improvement networks andprofessional bodies driving improvement.

4.Helping build capacity in the third sector andhelping councils build that capacity locally.

5.Continuing to work collaboratively tomaximise the capacity available to supportcouncils improve.•

MartynAllisonNationalAdvisorCulture andSportLocalGovernment Improvement&Development (formally IDeA)Tel:02072966880Email: [email protected]

LessResources

For the sector thismeans:• Reducing costs and increasingproductivity

• Increasing income by actually increasingusage and levels of participation

• Developing new approaches tophilanthropy and sponsorship

• Considering alternative deliveryarrangements including private sectorproviders, developing more socialenterprises, directly devolving servicedelivery to the voluntary and communitysector

• Developing more collaborative deliverymodels that share assets, share supportservices and share management

•Working more collaboratively acrosstraditional administrative boundariesincluding improved two tier working

• Responding to the commissioningopportunities particularly in the health,adult social care and children’s serviceareas

LessResources

WhatTheSectorNeeds

• Even greater focus on local leadership toposition services alongside local needsand priorities

• Continued efforts to provide theevidence of the sector’s contribution tooutcomes and ameans of measuringperformance and value for money locally

• The pooling of resources into place orarea budgets

• An even greater reliance on self andsector led improvement

WhatTheSectorNeeds

arts,health&wellbeingseminar


Paul Kelly

nalgaoArts,Health&Wellbeing SeminarBOLTON, 20 JULY 2010

FunnyThingtheGuitar

I was born and raised on one of th

e

toughest councilestates in Newca

stle and

faced a future devoid of prospects

. Crime

was rife, opportunities were low and the

arts were not something that many

people did.One Christmas mymot

her

(single parent family) bought me a

very

cheap classic guitar- not wanting

to offend

her, and realisingit was a gift we c

ould

barely afford, I began to practice, o

r at

least to pretend to practice.As a d

irect

consequence,mysocial circles chan

ged,

my aspirations and confidence dev

eloped

and slowly I began to see a world

outside

of the council estate.This lead me

to

studymusic, takeup song writing,

learn

piano and spendmy working life

advocating the benefits of arts

participation.Mypeers from childhood,

many are now in prison or worse - funny

thing the guitar.

PaulDevlin

Art,BalanceandCuriosityTo have a healthy well-being you need tohave a good balance between work andhome. You need to carry out some formof physical activity and eat a healthy diet.It is important not just to look after yourphysical health but you also need to lookafter your mental health.You need to carry out activities that willchallenge your curiosity. Some of theseactivities may include going to the theatreto watch a drama or read a good book inwhich you need to concentrate on tofollow the tale. One that makes youcurious in a way that you have to carry onreading and cannot put down.

Anon.

There is a small irony, is there not, in staging a seminar on arts, health andwell-being, just as the arts and local authority sectors are facing one of the biggestthreats in their post-war history. This seminar, generously supported by Bolton atHome, looked specifically at how the arts and health sectors could work togetherand at examples of good practice. Yet the keynote speeches by Jon Lord,ChiefExecutive of Bolton at Home andClive Parkinson,Director ofArts and Health alsodwelled on ideological issues and the bigger picture and these form the substanceof ArtsattheHeart’s report back from the seminar. Both are well worth reading.

During the course of the day,Gail Helme , Fazila Dipoti and Hannah Schühle-Lewisput together a “Book in Eight Minutes” documenting some of the thoughts and views ofthe 120 seminar participants. The Book, they explain, has been designed as aconference tool which has the benefit of allowing the silent ones who do not speak outto have a voice, and to some extent diminishes the importance of platform speakers.Spontaneity brings surprise and new initiatives to the table.At Bolton, two typistsproduced 4,300 words from 19 people who wrote for 16 minutes.The full report will beplaced on the nalgao website, but here are two short extracts to whet your appetite:

arts, health&wellbeing seminar

17

Whywould an organisationwhose primary role is tomanage and repair 18,000Council homes in the NorthWest of England invest around £400,000 in the arts eachyear?Whywould it keep doing it for thirteen years?

The answer is pretty straightforward. Bolton at Home is notjust a housing company, we have a clear belief in working withpeople, either as individuals or in communities, to raiseaspirations, choices and opportunities – and nothing beats artfor doing this.

That is why we were very happy to host the recent nalgaoseminar on arts and health and welcomed agencies, artists andlocal authorities to look at great examples from around thecountry (and Bolton!) of artists and communities usingdifferent media to improve peoples’ wellbeing.

Our “percent for art” scheme started in 1997 as apartnership between what was then the housing departmentand the arts unit, both in Bolton Council. Basically, this was abringing together of resources and willingness to take risks forresults on one side, and networks and relationships on theother. It worked; Bolton at Home is now theArms LengthHousingOrganisation (ALMO) that has evolved from the localauthority housing department and we employ four arts officersand commission significant numbers of local and developingartists to work with local communities on a wide rangeof art projects.We are currently looking at becominga wholly independent housing provider and theoffer to tenants includes engagement in the artsalongside other mainstream housing services.

Bolton has a good reputation for partnershipand the strong relationship between Bolton atHome, Bolton Council and other housingassociations has meant that the politicalsupport and resources have developed andbecome even stronger over the years. It isthese partnerships and on-goingnetworking that ensure we continue tomove the arts forward both within theorganisation and with residents.

So how do we use the arts?OurArtsOfficers work with groups,communities and interestedindividuals to develop projects thatseek to challenge perceptions,create opportunity, provide fun


The Art of RaisingAspirations

Bolton atHomewere key supporters of theArts,Health&Wellbeing seminar

Jon Lord,Chief Executive, Bolton atHome

Jon Lord



and open people’s eyes to their skills and potential. This can be throughany art media, where the process is as important as the output, but wherethe outcome is pride, new ambition and an increased level of self orcollective realisation.

Writing or telling stories, acting out personal drama and experience,dancing at the age of 90, children designing posters, marching in torchlightparades, inter-generational groups designing collages, expressing traumaand feelings through image or film and neighbours coming together tosing - all these and more make the arts in Bolton special, and they takeplace in some of the most deprived communities in the UK.

As a housing company we constantly strive to improve our houses sothat, to the residents, they can become homes they are proud to live in.Housing is a fundamental building block to a good quality of life. It isabout safety, shelter, warmth; a place where we communicate with familyand friends.

We believe the arts are also an essential building block of life quality, tocreate and develop new skills and confidence, to challenge others andperceptions are important to us as human beings and this become evenmore important if you have had fewer life chances, educationalopportunities, poor health or mental health issues. Yet it is these peoplewho are often pushed furthest away from art in our culture. It is also thesepeople who prove they are incredibly and often movingly creative whenworking with an artist to express their frustrations, experiences and joysthrough words/music/drama/ pictures. The nalgao seminar certainlyshowcased examples of this from a range of places very well.

It is the experience of seeing a group of homeless men performing adrama and seeing the transformation of their view of themselves and eachother that moves; the multi-visual display expressingAsian women’sexperience of domestic abuse that brings tears to the eyes, and the feelingof pleasure in seeing people who had never spoken to their neighboursthen standing with those same neighbours singing their hearts out. That iswhy the arts are important to local communities and it is the directrelationship we have as a housing provider with those communities that

makes Bolton at Home a good facilitator for the arts.Using art as a tool for engagement as well as a creative process is a key

part of regeneration. As a housing company, along with our usual partners,we can focus on physical regeneration but have learned in the past thatyou also need the tools that can develop people as well. This can bethrough volunteering opportunities, supporting social enterprise, providingwork experience and apprenticeships or simply supporting family fun daysor other social activity. Our contribution through arts activity is absolutelykey to this commitment to people who live on our estates and has led tonumerous individuals finding skills and choices they did not know theyhad. That can trigger a regeneration in an area that is lasting andsustainable.

It saddens me that local authorities and other public bodies have beenso slow at realising the power of genuine community based art. It is also adisappointment that other housing providers don’t put substantialresources into activities that liberate, challenge and develop residents. Wehave found that unless an organisation invests in its own capacity, and thatof its partners and local community, the best that can be achieved are‘one-offs’ which, although good in their own right, do not createsustainability and deliver for communities in terms of helping themstrengthen.

Bolton at Home is going to carry on, do even more, get a broader rangeof staff involved (as it also liberates them) as well as customers. We willtake risks, no doubt be criticised as ‘money wasters’ and, critically, backinitiatives with hard cash. We will measure what we do and its impactthrough longitudinal study as that is the only way to assess success in thisarea. The development of our residents, communities, local artists and thestaff within the organisation are results that outweigh any costs. It is alsoan emotional journey and one that other agencies working in deprivedcommunities should go on.•JonLordChief ExecutiveBoltonatHomeTel: (01204) 335100Email: [email protected]

Right: Jon Lord at theArts,Health&Wellbeing Seminar

Below:KearsleyYouth Brass Band– supported by

Bolton atHome



Planning for the nalgao seminar onArts,Health andWellbeingwas easy; just standthere and illustrate all those exemplararts/health projects around the UK, butthen the day before the event,DavidCameron announced his Big Society plans inLiverpool, and on the back of the NHSWhitePaper, changes to the voluntary sector andthe coalition government’s determinationthat the public should pay for the crimes ofthe bankers and the allegedmismanagement of the previousgovernment;my agenda seemed somehow,more difficult to pull off with any credibility.

In truth, I’d planned to discuss Big Societyanyway, but with a distinctly proactive focus,because I believe with passion, that the artsand culture have a blindingly obvious place inthriving communities. So this was an

opportunity, to explore how the arts might becentral to this emerging agenda.

For me the arts/health agenda is way biggerthan any conversation about putting prettysticking plasters on infected wounds, ourinterest is firmly rooted in public health andinequalities across society. But judging by theprevalence of millionaires in the currentcabinet, (‘…of the 29 Ministers entitled toattendCabinet meetings, 23 have assets andinvestments estimated to be worth more than£1 million’) I’m not quite sure what thegovernment understands by inequalities.

TransformationWe’re all aware of the disparities in affluentsocieties and how the inequality gap haswidened under the market triumphalism of thelast three decades.The arts might just enable us

Clive Parkinson

Big Society:Arts, Health &Wellbeing

Clive Parkinson contemplates

Big Society on BrokenHill



to shift the way we address inequalities acrossthe board from a deficits model to an assetsmodel.What we need to do, is refocus on theuntapped wealth of our arts and cultural assetsas part of a collective enquiry.

Whilst the government is saying ‘we need anambitious strategy to prevent ill-health whichharnesses innovative techniques to help peopletake responsibility for their own health', thereis ample evidence of the reach and impact ofthe arts, both instrumentally and intrinsically.

For me, a useful place to start is with someresearch we completed at ManchesterMetropolitan University a few years ago.Aspart of our on-going partnership withArtsCouncil England, NorthWest and theDepartment of Health, NorthWest, weundertook the Invest to Save:Arts in Healthproject to better understand how the artsimpact on individuals and communities acrossthe NorthWest region.

Using a range of measurement tools andappreciative enquiry, we worked with six robustarts/health organisations to gather somethingof this impact. (Details of all these tools canbefoundonourwebsitewww.artsforhealth.org).Andyes, we found significant reductions in stress,anxiety, depression and other symptoms of ill-health, but the really interesting part of ourresearch focused on what it was about thesecreative and cultural activities that enhancedhealth and well-being. In other words, it didn’tjust focus on illness and morbidity, but ondevelopment and transformation.

UnexpectedAnswersPeople found that as a result of participation inarts activities they were more able to cope withlife situations and have more choices. For thosepeople coping with anxiety and depression,engagement with the arts resulted insignificant reduction in symptoms along withimprovements in confidence,motivation, andwell being. These were importantdevelopments that strengthened a person’scapacity to cope with situations in their lives orto change them.Moreover, transformationalchange was seen to occur not in response toinformation or advice, but where people aremotivated and perhaps inspired to want tochange for themselves.An individual is then ina better ‘place’ or ‘state’ to look at cause andconsider change from amore connected andbalanced perspective.

These elements of wellbeing are significantto this Big Society agenda, becausemarginalised people who take part in theseinspirational projects are more connected,moreactive and critically, more able to engage withlife beyond the boundaries of illness. If theGovernment genuinely wants to engage withdiverse communities across the UK and not justthe articulate middle classes, grass-rootscultural engagement like this will offer genuine

opportunities for dialogue; but if you askquestions, you must be prepared forunexpected answers.

The Invest to Save research ties into workcoming out of the new economics foundation(nef) and their FiveWays toWell-being, whichreviews the most up-to-date evidence,suggesting that building the following fiveactions into our day-to-day lives is importantfor well-being.

nef describe the importance of 1. connectingwith the people around us and how 2. investingtime in building these relationships will enrichour lives.They illustrate how being active anddiscovering the importance of physical activitythat we enjoy, clearly enhances health andwell-being and they go on to 3. encouragecuriosity through taking notice of theextraordinary things in our day-to-day lives,urging us to be more aware of the world

Pre

Subscale

Scores

Autonomy

66

64

62

60

58

56

54

52

50

EnvironmentalMastery Personal Growth

Positive Relationshipswith Others Purpose in Life Self Acceptance

Aspart of the Invest to Save research, theRyff’s ScaleOf PsychologicalWell-being showsus that engagement in the arts contributes to a

rangeofwell-being factors.

Post

Ken in the allotmentat BlueSCI

Wellbeing Subscales Pre and Post Scores



around us and what we are feeling, andlearning to reflect on this.Crucially they 4.emphasize the importance of learning andtaking on new challenges, to improve self-confidence. Finally 5. nef stresses theimportance of giving and seeing ourselves inrelationship to the wider community; being apart of civic society.

PoliticsoftheCommonGoodA part of me can’t help feeling a little

nervous, as it seems we’re being toldsomething blindingly obvious, particularly whenmany of our target populations may experienceresistance and apathy in relation to the all thestrategies and initiatives pitched at them. Thishas led to what has been described as a‘poverty of aspiration’where many people havelittle motivation, desire or opportunity to aspireto anything beyond current circumstances orhealth status. So these FiveWays toWell-beingmight be obvious to those of us involved inarts/health, but like the five a-day approach tohealthy eating, it’s a useful vehicle for widerunderstanding.

nef acknowledge there is little medicalevidence examining measures anddeterminants of well-being. But they do notethat more recent studies have begun to look atthe effectiveness of specific interventions onthe promotion of well-being. Just looking atthese themes around social relationships,activity, awareness, learning, and giving; onecan quite clearly see the role of arts andculture.

The recent Demos report, ‘Civic Streets:TheBig Society inAction’, explores how thegovernment needs to ensure that itsinvestment in communities is attached to, andreflective of, the long-term nature ofcommunity regeneration.The report illustratesthat democracy works, when communitiesestablish a plan of action and consult the widercommunity, but that too often the attitudesand approaches of primary care trusts, localauthorities and other state actors get in theway of communities.

This Demos report makes clear that peoplefeel a positive change but cannot prove it andsuggests that there has to be real, swiftprogress in this area to enable communities tounderstand the scale of their deprivation and tomeasure the success in tackling it.

In his Reith Lectures for the BBC in 2009Michael Sandel, Harvard Professor ofGovernment, echoes this theme and invites usto think of ourselves, less as consumers andmore as citizens, and argues for ‘politics of thecommon good’where commodities ofcommunity, solidarity and trust are notcommodities that deplete with use, like ourfinite environmental or economic resources,but are more like muscles, that grow strongerwith exercise.

The late Brazilian cultural activist AugustoBoal might teach us a thing or two about thisthrough his revolutionary approach to the arts,and not explicitly focused on health, butpassionate about equity. In his seminal book,Theatre of theOppressed, Boal argued thatmainstream theatre was an instrument ofruling-class control, aimed at sedating theaudience. But Boal also showed how thedramatic arts could be used as a weapon,turning the spectator into an actor, theoppressed into revolutionaries.

CognitiveLossReducesInhibitionOrganisations like Cardboard Citizens that

have empowered homeless people through thearts, have clearly learnt a great deal from thephilosophy of Boal and illustrate that the artsand cultural agenda can offer so much more todemocracy and civic engagement than thegovernment is aware of. However, our windowof opportunity to persuade them of this valuemay be short-lived and we should bang thisdrum as loudly as possible right now.

However, the poverty of aspiration I alludedto earlier isn’t just about health and socialchoices, but cultural ones too.Many of thecommunities we aspire to work withinstinctively feel that the arts aren’t relevant tothem, and there are still great divisionsbetween what is seen as high and popular art.

I’d like to think that our agenda on one handmight be about the instrumental benefits ofthe arts, but equally be about their intrinsicvalue.

There are some powerful examples out theretoo.The reach of Banksy in Bristol last year washuge with the Bristol Museum having seen thehighest number of visitors it had ever achievedmatching the museum’s annual turnover in justtwelve weeks.Voluntary donations were inexcess of £45,000 – nearly four times theannual amount.The museum employed anextra 30 temporary members of staff. But,more than that, the effect of people cominginto the city brought an extra £15 million intothe local economy.

In their drive to attract new audiences,galleries and museums are having quite animpact on people who are normally excludedby ill-health and isolation. I read an articlerecently in theGuardian about the trauma ofcaring for someone with dementia and theimpact it has on the family, and with ourgrowing aging population and increase in thisdisease, it’s a real concern for the future.

The work that the Museum of ModernArt inNewYork (MoMA) has been undertaking, hasbeen based largely on the thinking and researchof Professor GeneCohen and the artist/writerAnne Basting who don’t particularly focus onmemory, but the fact that the resulting

Banksy image– from street to high art



impact of cognitive loss reduces inhibition inpeople affected by the disease.This in turn, hasa profound effect on individuals’ creativepotential through imagination, which it’ssuggested, can thrive.This is an interestinghypothesis, born out by the remarkable work atMoMA and an area of current research we’redeveloping atArts for Health.Quite simply,educators in the gallery, introduce people to20thCentury and contemporary art in a waythat works in the moment and engages peopledeeply in their own creative potential.The impacton individuals and carers is potent and astounding.

So both Bristol museum andMoMA are reallyengaging with diverse audiences, one illustratinga strong economic and popular relevance, theother a significant impact on wellbeing.

Leading up to the recent change ingovernment, we’ve had an amazing few years inarts and health, with a Department of Healthnational prospectus, a debate on arts and healthin the House of Lords championed by LordHowarth and subsequent questions in theHouse of Commons and public commitmentfromAlan Johnson when he was Secretary ofState for Health.There are two newinternational arts/health journals and in MikeWhite’s exploration ofArts Development inCommunity Health, the first coherent accountof this field of enquiry.The continued lobbyingof Breakthrough:Arts in Mental Health ensuresthat this work remains politically connected,active and representative of real voices, andwhilst we lost the National Network forArtsand Health in 2007, there has been a drive andcommitment amongst regional partners todevelop aNational Forum forArts andHealth

where the thriving regional and sub-regionalnetworks link into a national network of networks.

This is a model that’s being explored by theLondonArts and Health Forum at the moment.The Department of HealthWorkingGroup forArts and Health established by Harry Caytonand until recently led by Professor LouisAppleby, is I imagine, awaiting direction fromministers, and as Secretary of State for Health,Andrew Lansley describes it, a new PublicHealth Service that will be part of a “movementwhich not only transforms the way we deliverpublic health, but also revolutionises the waywe think about it”.

As the National Campaign for theArts andArts and Business collaborate through theCulture Forum to lobby government, thepressure will be onTim Joss, (chair) Guy Eadesand Damian Hebron as three of the twenty sixcultural members with interests in the healthand well-being sectors, to make a strong casefor the arts, and not only as a concern for theDCMS, but for inter-departmental collaboration,cross-party support and wider public awareness.

GivingPeopleaRealVoiceIn theGuardian,PollyToynbee recently asked,

“what is the ‘big society’ if not arts foreveryone?” It is easy to see how one or twoglobal exemplars have shared similarities, andthere are of course,many,manymore. Disabilityin theArts/Disadvantage in theArts, inWesternAustralia (DADAA); the Bromley by BowCentreinTower Hamlets and BlueSCI inTrafford allhave some key characteristics in common.Theyall have incredible leadership, are deeplyengaged at the heart of the communities they

serve, illustrate entrepreneurial zeal andphilanthropy. the arts are central to theiragenda; they market themselves skilfully,nurture diverse partnerships and have visionbeyond stasis.

Whilst the voluntary sector has an importantrole to play there’s a danger that thegovernment will suck the life out of it and useits successes as a justification for reducinginvestments in the professional arts sector.

I started by suggesting that the arts have aplace in this Big Society agenda and I believethis with conviction. But I also believe that theessence of what the arts are about, isn’t aboutpacifying people and enabling them to engagein a purely benign and soporific activity. It’sabout giving people a real voice, and thechallenge to government, local authorities andhealth commissioners, will be to listen, supportand respond to communal civic voice.

As part of the Invest to Save research that Imentioned earlier, we not only gathered dataaround the impact of the arts throughquestionnaires, but also through extensiveindividual and group interviews.This provided arich source of data to unpick and as part of theprocess of understanding transformation,autonomy, environmental mastery and theother components of well-being, we recruitedartists, writers and filmmakers to help us makesense of these stories.

Writer DavidGaffney and illustrator DavidBailey worked with some of the words of Stan(not his real name), who had experiencedchronic depression for over 40 years, buthad found a way out of it through participationin the Start in Salford arts project. Stan



described his experience of depression as likehaving a lighthouse strapped to his head 24hours a day. And the beam of thislighthouse burned into him, focusing this coldwhite light on all his problems; hisunemployment, his failed relationships, his lackof work.This all-absorbing depression blindedhim to anything other than his ill-health.

However, he described how when he wasdeeply engaged in the arts, when he waschallenged and pushed to succeed in this newexperience that was way beyond his comfortzone, something significant happened; thebeam of the light-house shifted, and for a time,possibilities of new opportunities wereilluminated. He no longer looked inwards, buttowards the potential and possibilities of thewider world.

This is key to my understanding of how thearts are clearly central to this bigger societyand always have been.The ‘space’ or ‘flow state’that Stan describes so lyrically, offers a realopportunity to practice being well, and fromthat connected place, be in the position tomake changes and grow.

Whilst it would be reassuring for the sectorto have a mandate from the government topursue this agenda, the army of artists andhealth practitioners that are out there and arein fact already embedded in communities,galleries and health settings, will shrug theirshoulders and carry on regardless.

I know artists who would loath to be‘mainstreamed’ and positively relish thechallenge of having a government to poke andquestion.Throughout history art has been apowerful vehicle for voicing both outrage andvision.This arts and health movement caninfluence the Big Society debate and bring theGovernment to account, because health andwell-being are surely less about prescribing andmore about being fully engaged and inspired tomake changes.•CliveParkinsonDirectorArts forHealthwww.artsforhealth.org

A longer versionof this articlewith full referencescanbe foundon thenalgaowebsite.

23

‘The bloke from Salford has a lighthouse on a long stalkthat dangles in front of his face.The rotating lamp isstuck, so it shines into his eyes continually.He lookslike an angler-fish at the bottomof the sea…’

David Gaffney

Depression:a lighthouse in your face.

Illustration byDavid Bailey

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It’s strange but true; all three citieswhichhavewon campaigns to beUK culturecapitals, lie atwhatmight conceivably becalled theCeltic fringes of British life. FirstGlasgow in 1990, then Liverpool in 2008 andnowDerry-Londonderrywhich has beenawarded the inaugural title of BritishCity ofCulture for 2013. These three cities are all, indifferentways, border territory, on themargins, and eachwith‘more respectable’competition an easy car drive away.

WhetherGlasgow, Liverpool and Derry’srespective mix of history and positioning havebeen reflected in their bids, or whether it hascreated conditions ripe for culturally-ledregeneration,we’ll leave for the academics todebate. But it must make comfortable middle-English city candidates weep periodic tears offrustration.

TheCity of Culture scheme was proposed lessthan two years ago by Phil Redmond,Chair ofLiverpool 2008. Launched by the thenCulture

SecretaryAndy Burnham, it now seems from adifferent cultural age. Changing political andfinancial values have altered the landscape thescheme sits in. But no government money isattached, so it may fit well with the new ethos.

From a LocalGovernment perspective theCity of Culture scheme keeps culture high onthe local political agenda at a time of worryingfinancial cuts. It is heartening that the threecities that made the shortlist but not the prize -Birmingham, Sheffield and Norwich - havepledged to implement some of their proposedCity of Culture programmes. Their plans areoutlined on page 30 and Arts at theHeartwillfollow these up in future issues.

It took both time and a succession of crisesbefore Liverpool 2008 was an assured success.Its achievements were significant - 7,000Events, 1 Million hotel beds sold, 15millionvisits to a cultural event or attraction and£800m Economic benefit to the LiverpoolCity Region.

It goes without saying that all fourshortlisted candidates for the new British Cityof Culture deserved to win. That the winningbid went to the smallest and most peripheralcandidate sends out some interesting messagesand also creates several challenges. The City ofCulture scheme ought to help keep culture highon the local government radar. But thatdepends what remains of local governmentcultural leadership and services after thisAutumn’s spending round, how bad theshellshock is and how long it lasts.

InOlympic terms 2013 will be a post-coitalyear, especially in Britain. That may be anopportunity but it may also be a challenge.Derry needs to create a successful year foritself. But if it can also re-kindle the culturalflame in UK cities across the water then,curiously a city that has experienced thedifficulties of sectarian division could play animportant role in raising and unifying culturalaspirations in Britain. •

CITIESOFCULTUREORCUTS?Paul Kelly

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If youwere looking for a template to helpyou re-evaluate the arts and culturalprogrammes at a time of immense change,then you could doworse than read Derry-Londonderry’s bid forCity ofCulture. The112 page documentmakes a coherent casefor the city, is well structuredwith clearobjectives andwell articulated plans. Onewould expect no less.

And yet, historically, this has been a citywracked by incident and division, clearlyevident in the dualism of the city’s name, andalso affected by tragedy. “The opportunity tobecome the first ever UKCity of Culture in2013” says the bid at the outset,“and thejourney we have undertaken so far, have

unlocked a compellingset of historical, economic and politicalresonances that draw out what is special aboutthis place and differentiates our proposal fromall others.”

2013 marks the 400th anniversary of thePlantation of Ulster and the construction ofDerry-Londonderry’s historic city walls by, itshould be added, the City of London and theLondonGuilds. But whilst this is an hugehistorical convenience, the essence of Derry-Londonderry’s bid is about looking forward andespecially building on the peace andreconciliation opportunities offered byNorthern Ireland peace process and theGoodFridayAgreement.

Like everygood bid, Derry-Londonderry’sproposal has a motherhood and apple pievision, in this case to provide cultural access forall, confidently and creatively and to connectDerry with the wider world. The third largestcity in the island of Ireland, with a population of107,000, Derry has largely unrecognisedinternational links. Having developed as a portand commercial centre for the NorthWest ofIreland, it became the primary transit point forthe massive emigration to NorthAmericaduring the 1800’s. More recently, ProjectKelvin, a 30 billion Euro cable project, will

CrackingtheCulturalCode

Paul Kelly

City of Culture brings Derry-Londonderry in from the margins

Derry Carnival

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give the City and IrelandWest unrivalled digitalconnections to the UK, Europe and NorthAmerica. Derry-Londonderry believes it can bethe Digital Cultural Champion for the UK andits plans reflect its international vision.

Three layers lie underneath Derry-Londonderry’s overarching vision, layers whichmake its bid credible and coherent. The first is ahard-nosed appraisal of the city’s strengths andweaknesses with an associated set of baselinesfromwhich tomeasure improvements.Weaknesses include health and educationinequalities, high levels of unemployment, lowvisitor numbers, the lack of high quality visitorattractions that reflect the city’s unique historyand a disengaged community that is notconnected to the wider world.

These issues are the instrumental planksupon which Derry is hoping to build anattractive, forward looking city that people willwant to visit. The Derry-Londonderry bididentifies five step changes it is seeking tomake, with associated major interventions andoutput indicators, that address each of thestrategic weaknesses.

The risk in this hard-edged approach is thatyou produce a bid that is logical, instrumental,and deliverable but one which says little about

culture and which lacks a creativity, poetry andpersonality. The end sections of the Derry-Londonderry bid document are crammed withtourism development graphs and the necessaryfinancial information.

But amidst the advocacy and inevitableconviction-politics, Derry-Londonderry’s bid hasmanaged to find that vital creative voice. Ithits you from the bid’s front cover whichquotes a highly apposite extract from local boySeamus Heaney’s play ‘The Cure atTroy’ –adapted from Sophocles. And the poetrycontinues inside with the detail of someintriguing creative ideas.

As if to emulate the dualism in the city’sname and the cultural dualism in the balancebetween intrinsic and the instrumental, thereare two clear delivery paths in the Derry-Londonderry bid. The first, as we have outlined,comes from a hard-edged analysis of the city’sstrengths and weaknesses and an instrumentalstep-change programme. But the morecreative and poetic route starts with the vision,translates it into the objective of ‘Cracking theCultural Code’ and seeks to achieve thisthrough four programme components.

What is this ‘Cultural Code’? Is it unique toDerry-Londonderry and why does it needcracking? Many cities in the UK haveundertaken physical regeneration programmesover the past 20 years. Some have also hadsocial and cultural programmes attached.

Fireworks over the Foyle A viewover the city

Echo echo,dance inDerry

“Amidst the advocacy and inevitableconviction-politics,Derry-Londonderry’s bidhasmanaged to find a vital creative voice.”

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But given that culture, even if it’s just expressedin shopping or drinking, is a central and integralpart of people’s lives, it’s been disappointinghowmany times culture has been marginalisedor trivialised in the regeneration process andhowmany opportunities have been missed.

What makes Derry-Londonderry’s bidcompelling is that combination of regenerationopportunity and the desire to include culture atthe heart of the regeneration process. So forDerry-Londonderry, ‘Cracking the Cultural Code’is based on the principles of the city’sregeneration plan and has four key componentsunder which the 2013 programme and eventswill be delivered. (seeboxanddiagram fordetails) And the detailed programme elementswhich will articulate the four cultural

programme components will contribute to theinstrumental step changes that the city hastargeted.

Derry-Londonderry has lined up some keyplayers and exciting partners to deliver qualityprogrammes. Sir Ken Robinson has beenworking with the city on the creative educationprogramme and will continue to do so. SeamusHeaney will judge the ‘DisobeyGravity’ digitalpoetry competition. The historic relationshipwith the City of London will be celebratedthrough partnerships with some or all of theBarbican Centre,The London SymphonyOrchestra, the City of London Festival,TheRoundhouse, LIFT and others.

All of this will build on and strengthenindigenous creative activities. Derry-

Londonderry has a rich framework of festivals,spanning jazz, drama, comedy and filmamongst others.City of Culture status willenhance these and develop new opportunitiestoo.

To strengthen Derry’s cultural infrastructure,to symbolically heal its divisions and to createvital visitor attractions, the city plans to turnthe former military Ebrington ParadeGround,which is bigger thanTrafalgar Square, into amajor space for anything from outdoor marketsto rock concerts for up to 15,000 people.Atotal of 14 buildings of historic andarchitectural note on the Ebrington site will beretained for re-development and the remainingstructures will be demolished. Ebrington’sunderlying focus will be on the interaction

Derry:Awalled city that nowwelcomes theworld

Tradition Diversity Spectacle

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of visual and material culture and reformationof identity, in past, present and future tenses.This physical provision will connect thedynamics of contemporary art practice andinquiry alongside an in-depth exploration ofmaritime narratives in a newmuseum.

The bid’s capital cost for the culturalregeneration programme estimated at £11million and the revenue cost of a five year Cityof Culture programme is put at £22.7 million ofwhich Derry City Council is projecting toprovide a modest £14.9 million – two thirds ofthe cost.

Bids like this are also a chance to remind theworld and celebrate local talent that has ‘madegood’. In Derry-Londonderry’s case their bidhas the support of Nobel Laureates SeamusHeaney and John Hume, playwright Brian Frielwho taught in Derry, locally born actors JamesNesbitt and Liam Neeson, locally born singersDana,Cara Dillon and Fergal Sharkey singer oflate John Peel’s favourite single, ‘Teenage Kicks’and now Head of UKmusic. The bid is alsosupported by a host of Irish cultural luminariesfrom North and South of the border.

All the four shortlisted cities made crediblebids to be the first British City of Culture in2013. Yet of the four there is a sort of

symmetry about the Derry-Londonderry bid.Every good bid of this type needs a rationale, aprogramme and a legacy. The Derry-Londonderry bid is a bit like a sandwich. All theprogrammemeat in the middle will becomeapparent between now and the end of 2013.But the supporting bread of their sandwich –the vision and legacy is highly poetic, drawn inpart from Seamus Heaney’s ‘The Cure atTroy’

Derry-Londonderry’scontext

Derry-Londonderry today is a place on the cuspof change.

A place of hope, optimism, determination,enquiry, history and joy.

Derry-Londonderry’s legacy

Sohope for a great sea-changeon the far sideof revenge.Believe that a further shoreis reachable fromhere.Believe inmiracles

and cures andhealingwells.

From:‘TheCureatTroy’–SeamusHeaney

Wewish the city fair winds in its excitingjourney and will be reporting on developmentsin future issues ofArts at the Heart. •PaulKellyEditor,Arts at theHeartEmail:[email protected]

Derry-Londonderry’s bid document canbedownloaded from:http://tiny.cc/n789x

DERRY-LONDONDERRY’SCITYOFCULTUREPROGRAMME ELEMENTS

UnlockingCreativityWill act as a stimulus to createprogrammes that will provide uniquelearning experiences, inspire oureducational curriculum and unleash thetalents of our people connecting them tothe wider world.

CreativeConnectionsWill engage communities in innovativeand ingenious ways giving them a voice,often for the first time.This componentwill showcase our creative talents andthose of others through a variety ofcontemporary music, dance. theatre, artsand performance that will link our diverseand often divergent cultures inprogrammes of exploration throughCelebration and Inquiry.

DigitalDialogueWill maximise the creative opportunitiesprovided by the Kelvin transatlantic linkand the massive local optical fibreconnectivity it provides making Derry-Londonderry one of the best connectedCities in the world.This provides asignificant opportunity for creativeexploration, play and distribution of newideas.

CreatingaNewStoryAs a cultural melting pot we recognisethat our cultural and political traditionsapproach the past from divergent placesand that the truth itself can be lost intranslation.This “sum of unreliable parts”ultimately leaves us with some prejudicialthinking and we plan to use our CulturalProgramme to define a new narrativethrough purposeful culture-led inquirywhich will allow for alternative views andideas to be absorbed and considered.

The culture of division

Gateway toDerry and the future

Birmingham,Norwich and Sheffieldhave all pledged to runCity ofCulture programmes in 2013.Here are some selected highlightsfrom their visions and programme.

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BirminghamBirmingham’s bid was based around threethemes, packed full of opportunities forengagement and participation.

GreatInternationalCityoftheFutureCelebrating the world class skills of Birminghampeople, companies and facilities andacknowledging Birmingham’s industrial heritageand showcase as the city’s future in a changingeconomy.

NextGenerationBirmingham is the youngest city in Europe andthere will be a whole programme of activitydesigned, led and curated by Birmingham’syoung people. Birmingham has created a groupof children, young people and their familiesfrom across the city to develop thisprogramme.

CultureonYourDoorstepUKCity of Culture is as much about activities inlocal neighbourhoods as it is about the bigcelebrations in the city centre.There are somevery talented people in your local communityand the bid aims to engage them in activities.

At the centre of celebrations in 2013,Birminghamwill be the opening of the newLibrary of Birmingham, the largest public sectorcultural project in Britain. In addition, there willbe a brand newAutumn Festival and a specialexhibition of the extraordinaryAnglo SaxonHoard at the BirminghamMuseum andArtGallery along with ‘A City in the Making’, agroundbreaking new history gallery which willtell the story of Birmingham and its people.

TheyAlsoServe

Clockwise fromleft:

Birmingham’s culturemap,

BirminghamHeritage:Steel

Pulse,Terry Jones a Python

gets passionate

CityofCulture:ShortlistedCities

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SheffieldSheffield’s bid was about the people,communities, businesses and organisations inthe city creating,making and participating inthe 2013 programme. Sheffield already has asuperb track record for delivering major eventsand boasts the largest theatres complexoutside of London.The ‘Made in Sheffield’brand is globally recognised and its central rolein the bid makes a perfect platform for the cityand the region to accelerate the selling of thecity’s contemporary image and wider tourismoffer.

Sheffield will celebrate the 100th anniversaryof the invention of stainless steel in 2013 andwill sit at the heart of the most digitallyconnected region in the UK. Sheffield’s bididentified 13 reasons why it should be Britain’sfirst City of Culture including:

• Its international music track record• Its digital connectivity and 5 internationalairports within an hour of the city

• Its talent• Its creative and cultural industries• Its festivals• Its green credentials

The Sheffield programmewould/willinclude:• Every child in the city being involved in musicin 2013

•The UK’s largest children’s festival• A world creative forum•AmajorAndyWarhol and Jeff Koonsexhibition•A celebration of Stainless Steel• Exporting elements of Sheffield’s culturalprogramme to London and Paris by train

• A twinning programme with planet Mars -thanks to a Roger McGough poem - chieflyimplemented through light and soundspectaculars. •

NorwichThe key aim in Norwich’s bid was to exploreand celebrate everyone’s potential to engagewith, describe and change our world for thebetter.We will make Norwich a crucible forexperiment, play and debate about how to livecreatively and sustainably in the 21st Century.

Norwich has announced that some of thecreative ideas that were included in the bid willstill happen in the run-up to and during 2013as follows:

• To mark the start of the year of the UKCity of

Culture we will release 2,013 paper lanternsinto the skies each containing the hopes andwishes of a Norwich resident – a Norfolk &Norwich Festival event.

• A ‘Festival of Britten’ with the Britten Sinfoniaand NorwichTheatre Royal to celebrateBenjamin Britten’s centenary in 2013.

• Hundreds of young people will take part in avolunteer-led mass literacy project based oncreative writing, led by theWriters’CentreNorwich.

• A 1,000-strong choir will perform at NorwichCity’s Carrow Road stadium in a masscommunity event.

• A new consortium that will bring togethercommunity-focused organisations such asTheGarage, Future Projects and Norfolk &Norwich CommunityArts (NORCA) todevelop the arts by bidding for funding.

Topright:Graffiti art from

Sheffield-based KidAcne

Bottomright: Fargate Street

Life People

NorwichCastle

nalgaocasestudies


Can local authorities afford to subsidise thearts in these difficult economic times? Ispromoting amajor cultural project anopportunity?Or is it an unaffordable cost,something best deferred until the publicspending squeeze eases? The Severn Project2009, promoted in summer 2009 byGloucestershireCountyCouncil inpartnership with ShropshireCountyCouncil,Gloucestershire DistrictCouncils and awiderange of arts partners, engagedwell over10,000 people and provides an interestingcase study.

This major scale project was some threeyears in the making. In 2007, I was approachedby my counterpart in Shropshire, SueGoodwin.

WouldGloucestershire like to partnerShropshire and ten other local authorities alongthe length of the River Severn in a celebratoryoutdoor arts performance project, which aimedto use the arts to interpret the Severn? Thepartnership offer sounded attractive - anopportunity to be part of something biggerthan we could achieve on our own, and toshare the fundraising.

A very small Gloucestershire pilot projectfollowed that summer. But it was enough toconvince us of the potential of the project toengageGloucestershire people’s passion fortheir place, and for the mighty river which iskey to the county’s identity.

By this time,Arts Council England (our

principal fundraising target) had introduced aceiling of £100,000 on regional Lottery fundingapplications, and it was clear that we wouldneed to fundraise for theGloucestershire(SouthWest) project separately from ourWestMidlands partners. Developing the SevernProject was a steep learning curve. Neither I norGloucestershire County Council had a history orexperience of devising and promoting outdoorperformances. The work needed fitting into abusy day job with a wide range of otherresponsibilities. It also required championingwithin a sceptical Council climate.

I owe a tribute here to our artistic directors,Desperate Men theatre company, and to themany arts agencies and partner County Council

Severn Up:AnOpportunityoraCost toGloucestershire?HelenOwen

The Severn Project:A newdawn for artists

nalgao case studies


cultural services who formed our multi-agencypartnership, which brought the project tofruition. Arts Council SouthWest awarded usNational Lottery funding worth £72,000 byChristmas 2008 – definitely the best Christmaspresent ever – and, with the appointment ofDeborah Harrison as our project manager andmarketeer, we were off on a very tight scheduleto plan, rehearse and deliver the project by June2009. The project took the innovative form ofcommissioning a major new work by anationally renowned writer,AliceOswald, andusing her extraordinary poem for voices,A“Sleepwalk on the Severn”, as the centrepieceof our artistic programme. Sleepwalk wasadapted into a number of performances andinterpretations through music, dance, streettheatre, visual arts and heritage.

Six community choirs learnt andperformed a challenging, jazzy song cycleby Pete Rosser, directly inspired by thepoem. Musician Eddie Parker ledworkshops in five small primaryschools, who relished this rareopportunity

for curriculumenrichment.GloucestershireArchivescommissioned afamily-friendlyroadshow from actorJohn Bassett,dramatizing the River’shistory and heritage,which was enjoyed by 900people. GloucestershireDance commissioned a newdance piece, danced by professionaland young dancers, beautifullyintegrated by our choreographer Marie-LouiseFlexen. TaurusVoice theatre company toured aproduction of Sleepwalk to fifteen village hallsand other venues. Libraries themed theirsummer reading challenge around wateryquests. Adult Education commissioned localcharityArt Shape to deliver creative workshopsto disadvantaged families.

The centrepiece of the project were our twofree outdoor arts festivals atTewkesbury andLydney in June 2009, which together attractedan audience of 10,000 people, and from whichwe received fantastically positive feedback.

Wire-walker Lindsey Kwabana provided a hair-raising climax to theTewkesbury event bycrossing the river on a tightrope, partially re-enacting the true story of one Harry Kingscotewho drowned in the river.

So, to return to the question posed at thestart of this article, was Severn Project anopportunity for Gloucestershire, or anindulgence?

Project outcomes (listedopposite)wereproduced by an independent evaluationundertaken by the University of theWest ofEngland,Countryside andCommunity ResearchInstitute, and available on request. Even better,

we have a 10 minute DVD film of the projectwith interview footage of artists, participantsand audiences at.Overall the results stronglysuggest that we created an opportunity nota cost.•HelenOwenArtsDevelopmentOfficerGloucestershireCountyCouncilTel.01452544049Email.helen.owen@gloucestershire.gov.uk

TheSevernProjectOutcomes

•We fundraised a total of £115,000inward investment intoGloucestershire through this project,forminimalCountyCouncil outlay.

•Wedeliveredanambitiouscommunityeducationprogrammewhichreached1,259participants,leavingalastinglegacyofskills.Thispublicparticipationwasattheheartoftheproject.

•Our two festivals had a significantimpact in raising community andlandscape awareness in the hosttowns, and helped to boost the localeconomies by bringing people andbusiness intoTewkesbury and Lydney.

•Our18principalartistsandcompaniesbenefitedfromsignificantcreativeandprofessionaldevelopmentopportunities,gainingexposureandformingnewnetworksandpartnerships.

•Ourmulti-agency,multi-artistpartnership offered a case study ofcross-service, cross-authority working,although it also presented challenges.

•TheSevernProjectgainedInspirebrandingaspartofthenationalCulturalOlympiad,significantlyraisingGloucestershire’sculturalprofileandinitiatingourengagementwithLondon2012.

• As project leader, I, HelenOwen,wonBBCWest’s award asCulturalOlympiadChampion last year.

Crossingwithoutdrowning


nalgao case studies

Public art is usually perceived, by the public at least, to involvetangible and usually permanent works of art – often sculptural innature. But as the thinking about this type of work and theopportunities have evolved, so has its form.TheCombe Down StonesMines (CDSM) PublicArt Project owes little to traditional notions ofpublic art. If it had followed tradition,most of it might not be visibleto the public gaze. By breaking new ground (almost literally) it hasprobably been themost successful public art project that Bath andNorth East Somerset (BANES)Council has been involved in. And partof its success has lain in how it has engaged an anxious and scepticalpublic,whose lives have both been directly affected by the cause ofthe public art project, and enhanced by its outcomes.

TheProjectBackgroundCombe Down (part of theWorld Heritage Site of Bath) is a beautifulhistoric village, associated since Roman times with stone mining andwhere Bath stone was extracted to build theGeorgian city of Bath.Stabilisation of the derelict mines was necessary to counteract years ofextensive mining that by the 1900s had left the village in a dangerous

position, with over 600 houses above the failing mines. Starting in the mid-1990s, a £166mmajor civil engineering project was instigated to infill themines void. By the end of 2009, the 25 hectares of very shallow limestonemine had been filled with approximately 591,000 cubic metres of foamedconcrete, the largest project of its kind in the world.

The CDSM public art project, funded by the Homes andCommunitiesAgency (HCA, formerly English Partnerships), was conceived in 2007 tomark the successful stabilisation of the mines, celebrating their social andnatural histories, the tradition of work there, and the village and itsresidents. The stabilisation project was overseen by BANES’ developmentand major projects department with specialist project management sub-contractors, and arts development was approached at an early stage toassist in developing ideas for public art.

Consultants Frances Lord and SteveGeliot were appointed in May 2008to manage and deliver a public art scheme within a £250,000 budget.Thestabilisation project had been extremely disruptive for residents, who hadlived for many years in real fear that their homes could collapse. When thepublic art project was proposed, the stabilisation was still in progress andthere was understandable concern from some residents at resources

NevilleGabie - five of the ‘joiner’photographs produced duringNevilleGabie’s residency at CombeDown village,2008/9©NevilleGabie

Going Underground:Combe Down Stone Mines Public Art ProjectAnnCullis

nalgao case studies


being spent on non-essential activity whenpeople’s homes were still at risk. Experience incommunity consultation was therefore anessential part of the project managers’ brief,and Steve and Frances were appointed becauseof their track record and sensitive approach.

Artistselection,consultationandcommissioningprocessA steering group was set up to guide the overallstrategic direction of the public art project andits legacy. Ideas developed by the consultantswere circulated for comment to the LegacyGroup, and were then presented at severalpublic consultation meetings. Of the elevenproject ideas initially presented, six were fullydeveloped and costed within the budget.

A sub-group, which included residentsrepresenting a number of interest groups and

societies in the village, interviewed the artistsbased on the consultants’ shortlists. The needfor meaningful involvement by different groupsmeant that the shortlisted artists were facedwith an interview panel of fourteen people,including residents,Council officers, electedmembers, a senior manager from HCA, andothers.Whilst such a large panel was unusualfor a public art project, it worked extremelywell and the contributions of everyone involvedwere thoughtful and pertinent.

Right from the start residents wanted to beinvolved. Heated debates about how the publicart budget should be spent and what sort ofwork should be commissioned were a featureof early meetings. However, as the appointedartists became known in the village and theirenthusiasm for the place became apparent,trust and confidence grew. ‘Meet the artist’sessions held at the church, pub, rugby club andInformation Centre provided informalopportunities to promote the project and aforum to discuss ideas and present designproposals.

CommissionedworksThe budget of £250,000 allocated by HCA tothe project enabled the Council to commissionsome significant work which is detailed onpage 35.

Upon completion of the artsworks, a finalevent in September 2009,“CELEBRATE!”,

marked the ‘saving’ of the village in fine style.This event included performances of thecommissioned poetry, pageant,music, film, andan underground fly-through experience createdusing 3D laserscan data. Over 2,000 peopleattended andCombe Down residentAlanThomas designed the label for the ‘OoliteAle’(sold to raise funds for an interpretation centrein the village) - just one of the elementsdemonstrating the considerable talent andenergy to be found in this unique village.

The Combe Down Stone Mines project hashelped build relations with local people, calmtheir anxieties and leave a legacy about anextraordinary underground area which helpedcreate ourWorld Heritage city. •AnnCullisArtsDevelopmentManagerBath&North East SomersetCouncilTel:01225396455Email:[email protected]

Thanks to Frances Lord for contributing to thisarticle.

For further informationabout the stabilisationproject:http://tiny.cc/6sig9

Awebsitewithmoredetails about theprojectandofferingon-linepurchaseswill go livein 2011.

ChrisTipping - ChrisTipping’s ‘1479plates’ installation shownat theOctagon,Bath,2009 ©Kevin Fern CELEBRATEevent - September 2009.©VikMartin

PoetryPicnic - held at CombeDownPrimary School, June

2009©Frances Lord

Photography:NevilleGabieNeville was appointed to record theunderground mines experience before thetunnels were filled with foamed concrete.Aconcertina leaflet of 19 ‘joiner’ imageshighlights some of the photographs from hisresidency, as do three large-scale light boxes tobe installed in locations around the village.Neville described the extraordinary world thatwas just beneath peoples’ houses and gardens:

“The first time I went underground one ofthe miners told me you could hear the soundof cars and lawnmowers just above our heads.He said you could even smell the fresh cutgrass, which might have been an exaggeration.But what was extraordinary is the extremedifference between the domesticity of thesmall Bath village above and the heavyindustrial world below. […] In fact there wereparts of the mine where the physical distancebetween these two worlds was only six feet ofstone and earth.”

nalgao case studies


Music:PaulEnglishbyThe brief was for a composer to work closelywith the community - schools, young people,residents,miners - to create several short piecesof original music. Musicians and singers wholived or worked in the village were recruited ona voluntary basis, eventually numbering over80. The participants worked alongside a smallgroup of professional musicians for six months,leading to a recording and performance of‘Fireworks’ at the final CELEBRATE! event.‘Fireworks’ was based on the four elements,with 'Fire', 'Stone', 'Song' and 'Waterways',referring to the mining and engineering historyof Combe Down.

Sculpture:ChrisTippingThe ‘1479 plates’ project is a 9mx5mmap of788 bone china dinner plates which exploresthe relationship between present dayengineering and mining technology, stonemines heritage, natural history, and two 18thcentury entrepreneurs: RalphAllen, who ownedmuch of the mined land at Combe Down, andJosiahWedgwood. The piece combinedlayering of digital data from engineeringdrawings, bat routes andOrdnance Surveymaps, with hand-drawn elements such as leeksrepresenting theWelsh miners, flora and faunaof significance to Combe Down, andarchaeological finds. The work was created incollaboration withAutonomatic the 3D DigitalResearch Cluster at University College Falmouthand was manufactured by Digital CeramicSystems of Staffordshire. Chris also workedwith RalphAllen Primary School where thechildren made 400 individual ceramic figures ofminers, glazed and fired.

The second part of the ‘1479 plates’ projectwas the gifting of a plate to 615 householdsaffected by the stabilisation works. There wasmuch pride among residents fortunate enoughto receive a coveted ‘1479’ plate – one smallpart of the map representing their individualproperty and the mining underworld beneath it.The ‘1479 plates’ bone china map willeventually form a large-scale permanentinstallation in Combe Down village.Oh, and ifyou’re wondering why 1479 plates, the numbercomes from adding the number of plates it wasphysically possible to intall in the space (788)to the number of households affected (691).

Poetry:AndyCroftAndy worked closely with Combe DownPrimary and RalphAllen secondary school overa six month period. The publication ‘Time inthe Shape of a Mine: Poems fromCombeDown’ brings together 18 poems by children,six poems byCombe Down residents, four byminers, and two byAndy, including the epicpoem‘TheWork of Giants’. ‘Combe Down:TheHole Story, a historical pageant’ written byAndy and performed byCombe Down primaryand secondary pupils with one professionalactor, tells the story of the village from theRomans through to the 21st century.

Film:SimonWhittakerSimon, a film-maker based in the village, wascommissioned to document the public artproject. His film ‘Unfinished Nature’ followsthe commissioned artists over seven months,above and below ground, as they work with thecommunity. The film includes footage of themines, coverage of the artists' fact-findingvisits, interviews with the artists, extracts fromthe CELEBRATE! event, and the work ofOxfordArchaeology.

Sculpture:AlecPeeverWork by stone carver and letter cutter AlecPeever is due to be installed later in 2010.Small carved sculptural works in Bath stone,with poetry byAndyCroft, will be placed in andaround a new wall as part of the reinstatementof Firs Field in the centre of the village.

CombeDown –The Creative Content

Detail of ChrisTipping’s ‘1479plates’ installation©Kevin Fern

nalgao case studies


The interests of the able bodied are sooften so clearly articulated that it is easyto overlook the needs and potential ofyoung people with special needs. The artscan be both a great way of communicatingwith young people with special needs butalso a valuable way for them to expresstheir feelings and ideas.

Staffordshire Arts and Museum Servicewanted to explore how we could reach suchyoung people, so we worked with threecommunity special schools in theStaffordshire area to develop some models ofgood practice. We decided to usemultisensory arts and the results were, to saythe least, exciting.

As a starting point, we used tactilesculptures by the Somerset-based sculptorJan Niedojadlo which were already housed inthe County Council Collection. Jan ispassionate about the environment and inopening up ways of enabling us tounderstand ourselves and our place in theworld and has exhibited all over Europe. Hissculptures are designed to encouragestimulation through touch, smell and soundand are constructed from a variety ofmaterials, including foam, rubber and felt.They incorporate sensory elements such as,sound, vibrations and smell.The sculptureswere installed within the schools for thechildren to explore and interact with.

Alongside the sculptures, each school hada series of creative workshops led by threeartists, Julie Edwards, Gizella KWarburton andRachael Lines using a variety of multisensoryapproaches. Jan’s work acted as an initialcatalyst, exciting and intriguing the children,and then through using movement, textiles,printmaking, collage, colour mixing, clay andplaster the three artists challenged andengaged the children in creating their ownwork. In total 192 pupils took part over thecourse of the workshops.

Julie Edwards of Planet Arts worked withHednesfordValley High School. Herworkshops encouraged the students to createclay and plaster blocks embedded withorganic and man-made materials. Julie said,“One of the key staff loved the cause andeffect of the process - they loved the sensoryqualities of all the materials, and the controlthe students had.”The workshops were sosuccessful that staff are now in the process ofcreating a sculpture trail in the grounds, usingthe pieces created during the workshops.

Gizella KWarburton worked withSpringfield Community Special School anddevised a series of creative activities based onthe idea of fruit as abstract, tactile, sensoryobjects. Students worked with a wide rangeof materials to investigate combinations ofcolours and textures in response to thetheme. During the sessions, one TeachingAssistant noted, “One student in particularwas more vocal than I’d ever seen before!”

Rachael Lines of Frontline dance workedwithWightwick Manor School.Wightwickhad never had an artist work with thembefore, and were excited by this opportunityto develop new ways of working. Through acombination of dance, movement and

TracieMeredith

SpringfieldCommunity Schoolworkshop

nalgao case studies


sensory exploration, Rachael enabled all thestudents to participate and staff wereimpressed with the results, commenting, “Itcreated focus for those who normallystruggle”.

Whatwe learnedWe learned that although many SpecialSchools have multisensory resources, thebenefits of the artist facilitated workshopswere invaluable.Teachers were witnessingoutcomes that had not happened before (seeresponses in the box below).

Staff were pleasantly surprised to observesome children sharing and supporting oneanother having not demonstrated suchbehaviour before.One student surprised staffby staying for the whole session which was abig achievement for him.They were alsopleased to see unexpected team work andsharing between some students,demonstrating behavioural qualitiespreviously unseen.

Staff were impressed by the high quality ofengagement that an artist could achieve withthe students and the wide range of positivebehaviour demonstrated by the students,particularly where they had not previously

experienced an artist working in their settingbefore.

Building for the futureThe three projects have enabled us todevelop a simple and practical set ofresources for introducing creativemultisensory arts activities to specialeducational needs schools, communitygroups and Individuals.

This resource ‘pack’ entitled ‘EXPLORE’consists of 2 parts;

• A fun and user friendly guide with anoverview of each case study includingadvice on how to recreate the activities,planning and reflection advice and guidanceon commissioning artists to run workshopsin your own setting.

• A web resource with more activities todownload, further information on thesculptures and details of how to obtain theguide and sculptures free of charge.

Explore is full of lively images of the childrentaking part and the work they produced. It

includes tactile qualities with interactive andinteresting elements which make it more funto use individually or as part of a group.

The resource pack also offers advice oncommissioning artists to facilitate workshops,how to ‘do it yourself’ and provides a list ofuseful websites and contacts, and suggestedreading material on the subject ofmultisensory creative activities.

We aim to carry out further workshops inthe public domain to publicise the resourceand the benefits of multisensory arts.We willbe looking at further evaluation by triallingand testing the resource with various groups.

The project was monitored and evaluatedthroughout and recorded as part of the livecase studies which are outlined within theresource pack. •TracieMeredithArts & Project LiaisonOfficerStaffordshire Arts &Museum ServiceTel: 01785 278571Email: [email protected]

Staffordshire Arts &Museum Service’sMultisensory resource pack can be viewedhere:www.staffordshire.gov.uk/explore

WhattheStaffandStudentsthought

“I likeddoingdancing. I likedmakingtheshapes.Dancingmademefeelhappy.”Wightwick student

“It created focus for thosewhonormally struggle.”Wightwick staff

“Thechildrenhaveaskedus tobuymoreplaster tocontinuetheactivityonce Juliehasgone.”Hednesford staff

“Eventhe lessablemembersof thegrouptookpart intheirownways,andthesessionswerevery looseandfree,withdifferent levelsofactivitiesonoffer.”Springfield staff

“Thechildrenwerebeing fantasticallycreativeandtherewasareallypositiveatmosphere in theroom,whethertheywerequietlyabsorbed,orexcitedlyanimated.”Gizella K.Warburton

“Hewasmorevocal than I’dever seenhimbefore.”Springfield staff

“I learnedyoucaneatyourartwork!”Wightwick student

“TheChildrenwereconfident tomovetoobserveandparticipate indifferentactivities indifferentpartsof theroom.Childrenwere lifting,reaching,winding,unravelling,teasing,rubbing,stamping,usingallbodyparts in theirexplorations.” Gizella K.Warburton

“

”

HednesfordValleyworkshop

Artwork fromSpringfieldCommunitySchoolworkshop Pupil at HednesfordValley

Lessonsfrommakedo&mend

PartnershipworkingProjects are most successful when partnersfully understand and trust EFA’s work. Pilotprojects and taster workshops are invaluablein enabling this.

ProjectManagementEvery project has to have a project managersupporting the lead artist, to enable theartist to focus on artistic content anddelivery.

PlanningEvery project has to have a structure fromthe outset, which is adhered to, but whichbalances the need for flexibility whereverpossible.This process needs to be veryrigorous identifying what is feasible andpossible for a project within its timeframesand resources.

Time neededEvery project needs time built in for research,evaluation and project reports and archivingas tasks. Each project plan must establishclear blocks of time dedicated in advance tothese specific tasks.

AccessibilityProjects need to ensure that venues used areas accessible as possible for all participants.In situations such as makedo&mend where aspecific venue has to be used then EFAneeds to develop creative solutions to allowparticipants and others to view the work.

nalgao case studies


makedo&mend:PROJECT EVALUATIONDebraCoates-Reynolds& FelicityHall

Two years ago Epping ForestArts wrote anarticle forArtsattheHeartmagazine aboutourmakedo&mend project. Whenwestarted to planmakedo&mendwe had noideawewere ahead of the times, and yet, inmanyways I thinkwewere as our interest ineconomy fashion seems to strike a chordwith the utilitarian climatewe are now in!

makedo&mend was a multi-disciplinary artsproject delivered by Epping ForestArts, theArtsService provided by Epping Forest Council, from2008 to 2009.This multi-disciplinary artsproject was inspired by the ethos of post warmake do and mend.

The two years of activity culminated in anexhibition at Epping Forest District Museum inWalthamAbbey, and a programme of publicworkshops including an introduction to fashionillustration, a Big Draw event, jive, lindy hop andswing dance, and how to get by onmakedo&mend. Duplicates of exhibition boardsfeaturing images and text from the projectwere also installed in the wheelchair accessibleWalthamAbbey Library, next to the museum.The final event in the session was a matineescreening of Brief Encounter inWalthamAbbey’s art nouveauTown Hall, complete withperiod costumes, tea and cake.

The project was delivered in partnership withLondonCollege of Fashion, Leonard CheshireDisability, Essex Council IntegratedYouthService, Epping Forest District Museum andvarious artists including the Jiving LindyHoppers and DJ Danny Fresh.

ObjectivesWhat we sought to do was to build linksbetween different groups, and individuals and

inspire them to create new and original workby recycling and remaking. We also wanted topresent the work of all the participantsprofessionally, and to contextualise it within thehistorical framework which inspired the project.

Developing partnerships was anotherimportant objective.We wanted to attract newmuseum audiences and by transforming themuseum gallery using second hand/recycledmaterials we were able to develop the conceptof making do and mending.

In addition we wanted to develop widerrelationships with partners and community andcultural groups to help meet our council’scorporate objectives, including working withEssex County Council’sTeamAround theSchool,Child andCommunity (TASCC) totarget socially excluded young people

Through all of this we aimed to deliver acomprehensive and high quality artsprogramme to meet community well beingobjectives including provision of culturalactivity at a local level.

TheProgrammeWeworked with five partners within theEpping Forest District which included daycentres, youth clubs and a residential home forthe disabled, as well as the LondonCollege ofFashion, and local artists.

The programme included designing andmaking clothes, lindyhop workshops,reminiscence sessions, film and choreographysessions and sound workshops.

Nearly 130 people of all ages took part inthe workshop sessions and the resultingexhibition was seen by 2,000 people.

WhatWeLearntAny project like this is a dynamic activity. Evenwell developed plans, and ours were, needadjusting as things developed. We learnedsome useful lessons from this project (see boxon right) which will feed into future projects weundertake.

Overall though makedo&mend was a greatproject which brought the past to life for youngpeople, brought memories alive for the olderparticipants and brought generations together.And as we said at the start, it seems to haveanticipated the times we’re now in. •

DebraCoates-ReynoldsAssistantArtsOfficerEpping ForestArtsTel:01992564558Email: [email protected]

FelicityHallArtsOfficerEpping ForestArtsTel: 01992564553Email: [email protected]

Bringing back 1940s style

nalgao case studies


Artists and performers in Powys are currently benefiting fromtheir very own equivalent ofGoogle, through a pioneering newinitiative from theCountyCouncil'sArts Development Servicesupported by theArtsCouncil ofWales.

arts-engine is a new, searchable online directory of Powys artists andperformers and has been developed in response to an evident need toassist the many cultural and creative industry practitioners based in thecounty to promote their work to new audiences via the internet.Theultimate aim is to include every professional or semi-professional artistand performer, across all arts disciplines, in the county.

Powys is the largest county inWales covering over 5,000 squarekilometers but with a population of only around 130,000. Whilst ruralisolation is an issue here, the region has, over decades, attracted a wealthof professional artist practitioners and creatives who are working, oftenremotely, across a wide range of disciplines. arts-engine will be the key formany to unlocking their talents, both for the benefit of local communitiesand by showcasing their products and services effectively to the world,which will enhance their own economic and professional success.Connectivity to the market place is so vital for small creative businessesand arts-engine is contributing to servicing this essential global link.

The website is free to members and users and is being promotedvigorously to the private, public, voluntary, community and businesssectors, both within Powys and further intoWales and the rest of the UK,linking artists with potential newmarkets and audiences for their work.

Members of arts-engine each have their own profile page which canhost up to thirty high quality images of their work,movie and sound filesas well as information about their work, qualifications, exhibitions orevents, contact details and links to their own websites.Over 320practitioners have registered in just over twelve months and many arereporting having made new contacts which have led to professionalopportunities.

The resource can be used by galleries, collectors, school and communitygroups, businesses and other artists to locate people, products and services,this in turn increase sales and employment.Crucially, arts-engine also putsartists in touch with one another and stimulates collaboration.

More than ever, when funding for the arts is diminishing, it is essential thatartists get serious about promoting their work resourcefully. By supportingthem to create a strong and connected web presence we hope to increasetheir individual and collective profile in a cost effective way.Many artistsliving in rural areas experience difficulties in accessing vital networking andpromotional opportunities; arts-engine is intended to help address thisprofessional barrier. It's also a pioneering initiative, as the first resource ofits kind in the UK. Arts-engine also acts as a useful database and networktool for an arts development service, being particularly effective indisseminating valuable information to the sector. Now that it has beendeveloped, it would be beneficial to roll it out nation wide across thecountry to further strengthen and enlarge the network of British artsprofessionals.” •LucyBevanArtsDevelopmentOfficerPowysCountyCouncilTel:01597827564Email: [email protected]

Lucy Bevan

“This facility puts Powys ahead ofthe game,not just inWales butacross the UK. By generating newcontacts for the county’s creativepractitioners, arts-engine helps topromote small businesses, andenables them to succeed here andto contribute tangibly to theeconomic regeneration agenda.”

GwynGwillim, Portfolio Holder forArts &Culture, PowysCountyCouncil

TheBenefitstoArtistsBlue MacAskill is an artist who has recently moved to Powys andshe comments:

“Ineededtolocateagroupofcollaboratorstotakepart inanewproject.arts-enginemadeitsimpletocontactandarrangemeetingswith30artists,sculptors,musicians,actorsandplaywrights Ihadnevermetbefore inPowys.Oneofthemlivesaroundthecornerfromme,but if itwasn’t forarts-enginewemayneverhavemet!”

NEWENGINEPOWERSPOWYS

www.arts-engine.org.uk

nalgao case studies


ThecontextThe development of theThamesGateway isone of the largest construction anddevelopment projects in Britain if not Europe.New housing developments might solvephysical problems by giving people affordablehomes. But how does one create a sense ofcommunity identity and solidarity in a newarea without any real history? And what arethe implications for young people of growingup in the area?Although close to London, thenew developments within theThamesGatewayrun the risk of isolation usually associated withrural areas.

A UnitaryAuthority with a population of150,000,Thurrock sits on the North side of theThames estuary. Its most prominent culturalfeature is either 18 miles of waterfront orTheLakeside Shopping Centre, depending on youroutlook.

A young and growing area,Thurrock also hasa number of issues in common with developingUrbanCentres. My challenge as,CurriculumDevelopment Manager 14-19 atThurrockCouncil, was about finding new and excitingways to re-engage young people in learning.

When I met Stuart Mullins,CEO andCreativeDirector ofTheatre Is... in Norfolk, he introducedme to an initiative he was working on called“It’sOurTheatre” (IOT).

My experiences as a teacher had shown thatbeing part of a performance, either behind thescenes or on the stage, inspired and motivatedyoung people. It focused their efforts andenergies in a creative and positive direction.

The original pilot of “It’sOurTheatre” (IOT)took place in Norfolk as part of a majorgovernment initiative to deepen theengagement of young people in theatre. IOTNorfolk was one of just nine national projectsdeveloping unique and innovative ways ofengaging burgeoning young professionals of thefuture.The question was: could it work in amore urban setting such asThurrock?

Thurrock has a number of young people whocould be described as isolated, disadvantaged,at risk, unengaged or uninspired. Stuart and Ispent 18 months convincing partners,fundraising, researching and trialling the projectinThurrock schools.The trials were a form ofconsultation asking young people not onlywhat art forms excited them, but also howthey would like to build a cultural offer for thepeople ofThurrock. Stuart’s vision was a boldand exciting one,my experiences so far endorseevery word of that vision. Since September2009 IOTThurrock has tapped into and built anenvironment of aspiration amongst thoseyoung people who are in need of an alternativepath. (IOT has a clear objective to provide analternative path for any young person agedbetween 14-19, who is not in education,employment or training (NEET), or identified aspre-NEET.

TheprocessIt’s OurTheatre projects are led by youngprofessional Hip Hop practitioners from the hiphop collectiveThrowdown UK who areinspirational role models for our youngparticipants.The workshops cover rap,music,singing, hip hop dance, breakdance, beatboxing,performance skills and graffiti. Participants areable to learn new skills or improve on

TerryHammond

Theatre?It’sOurFuture!

Right:Theatremakes them jump

for joy. Photo by Karen Bethell

Below:ThamesGateway area

nalgao case studies


existing ones. These skills-based workshopslead to Slam Night talent contests.A SlamNight forms a regular series of finalperformances from groups of young peoplewhomake up the ItsOurTheatre programme.

InThurrock, a series of recruitmentroadshows attracted 440 applicants. Fromthese, 144 young people were then selected totake part in initial workshop weeks held inOctober 2009. Applications were receivedfrom a range of groups including students atschools and colleges, as well as youngoffenders, and those registered withConnexions. Each week three groups ofworkshops concluded with a slam night. Thewhole workshop process culminated in aThurrock-wide slam night inGrays at theThamesideTheatre

Following these workshops and slam nights,we held auditions.This led to a group of 20young people being chosen to make up the“It’sOurTheatre:Thurrock EventsTeam”.As“Frontline”, this team then put on the first oftheir ownThurrock Slam nights in May thisyear. 13 to 19 year olds performed along withinvited counterparts from Norfolk andHertfordshire to showcaseThurrock’s risingtalent. Nearly 2,000 young people saw the IOTRoadshow.The day ended with a groupperformance where everyone took a turn toshow the skills gained. It was refreshing andexciting to witness the way in which youngpeople supported and celebrated every

contribution.There are a lot of projects whichseek to engage young people but there issomething different about It’sOurTheatre’.Somehow in the space of just four evenings theyoung people and the artists become acommunity, one which does not end on nightfour but carries on into the future

The role of Stuart Mullins andTheatre Is inthis has been crucial.Theatre Is… empoweryoung people to develop and take ownership oftheir local arts infrastructure. It develops theirskills in dance,music and performance, andencourages young people to lead and producetheir own cultural events

EngagingYoungPeopleSunny Bull, a 15 year old fromChaffordHundred School inThurrock and long termactive member of the It’sOurTheatreThurrockEvents team raved about the programmesaying, ‘‘I know personally inOctober I wouldnot have got on stage and done what I’d doneand that’s thanks to the roadshows and theevents team. Everyone’s bonded so well, we’reone family.We’ve learnt to jam with eachother. I knowmy behaviour’s got better aswell!’’

ThewayforwardThe success of our partnership withTheatre Is…reflects the quality of its team. Jonathan Meth,Executive Director ofTheatre Is, maintainsregular contact and ensures that the project isgoing in the right direction forThurrock.Withthis level of communication and partnership Ilook forward to an ongoing relationship withTheatre Is…Thurrock which is becoming thehome of the National Skills Academy forCreative andCultural Skills.The RoyalOperaHouse is building a production park, to housemuch of its back-stage development work, atPurfleet.The 14-19Capital programme is

developing a creative space on a school siteand obtaining a performing skills lorry to allowaccess to creative and media skills across theBorough.Are we being successful?The answeris a resoundingYES.Over 90% of young peopleon our Engagement Programmes progress tocollege or jobs with training.We have reducedNEET and exceeded the stretch targets set inour Local AreaAgreement. It’sOurTheatre isone of the reasons we are succeeding, it has aspecial ingredient, and as the team atTheatre Islikes to remind us they are here to stay

For Stuart Mullins andTheatre Is, the projectinThurrock has only just begun.The youngpeople he is working with are now beingtrained to become young entrepreneurs,developing their own social enterprise andworking to engage other young peoplethroughoutThurrock.They are making a newtheatre piece called 10Years FromNowwhichopened as a project in development with ascratch performance at theThamesideTheatrein March 2010 and will later this year tour thearea encouraging young people to think ofThurrock as a place to build their lives, a placein which they can have a say in their ownfuture .

Some will achieve anArtsAward, some willgo on to take the Creative and Media Diploma,and some will be trained in the performing arts.Somemay do none of these and just becomegreat social entrepreneurs and professionalartists of the future.And to cap it all, along withour partners atThe Hat factory in Luton, It’s ourTheatre:Thurrock has just been invited by theEast of England office in Brussels to perform aspart of theOpen Days European Social Fundweek of meetings and debates inOctober. •TerryHammond14-19CurriculumDevelopmentManagerThurrockCouncilTel:01375413796.E-mail: [email protected]

Moredetails ofTheatre Is... canbe foundatwww.theatreis.org/site/

10Years FromNowPhoto byMelissa Page

Frontline Slam.Photo byM.Corley

10Years FromNow.Photo byMelissa Page

nalgao case studies


A national indicator for the arts is a good thing.

That was the view of the debating panel at a

conference in London on 11 February 2010,

Increasing engagement in the arts –what’s

working;where next?, sponsored byArts

Council England and the Museums, Libraries

andArchives Council.As ChrisVesey, Principal of

Central Bedfordshire College and Board

Member of Central BedfordshireTogether, put it:

“It means there is no hiding place, especially

where there are stretch targets with money

attached to them.The obligation to measure

engagement in the arts is a huge benefit. It

means local authorities are looking at what

they do, how they do it and how to join things

up.”This idea was taken up by Mike Hoskin,Chair

of the nalgao NI11TaskGroup andArts

Development Manager for Dorset County

Council. Referring to an inspirational

presentation on Barnsley’s experience given by

Helen Ball, Head of Culture andCreative

Industries, earlier in the day he said:“That was a

defining moment in how NI11 has

fundamentally changed how a council works.

Behind all the activity is a real level of learning

about how organisations need to change and

work in partnership. It’s about organisational

change.”Philip Mind, Senior Policy Consultant for the

Local GovernmentAssociation, reminded

delegates of the policy context for NI11.“As a

result of local area agreements and

performance indicators, public services are

thinking more about what they are doing in a

place and this is leading to better partnerships

and joint working.We now have a more

transparent understanding of performance and

variations in performance, which brings a

sharper focus on improvement.”His view

UpInThe AirWhenthe last government published

the single set of national indicators

back in 2007 it shone a torch on the

arts in every local authority in

England. It introduced anational

indicator formeasuring adult

attendances andparticipation in the

arts (NI11) and a consistent

methodology for capturing the data.

For thefirst time robustfigures on the

performance of every local authority

area on an important aspect of the arts

were to be published and compared

over time.And formore than40places

improving performance againstNI11

has been apriority,with challenging

targets set in their LocalArea

Agreement (LAA).

Now that the future of theNational

Indicator Set is up in the air,what does

thismean formeasuring engagement

in the arts?

AngelaWatson

nalgao case studies


was that citizens increasingly define themselves

by the experiences they have, which, according

toTricia Kilsby, national lead for culture and

third/private sector at theAudit Commission,

the arts “play a huge role” in giving people.

MartynAllison, National Adviser Culture and

Sport for the Improvement and Development

Agency, described NI11 as an important part in

moving the sector from being “data poor” to

“data rich” as part of an overall improvement

journey.But panellists acknowledged that it’s still

early days.The data set is too new to tell us

much about changes in arts attendances and

participation. Philip Mind predicted that

maintaining the momentumwould become

more difficult in the current financial climate,

when“budgets for culture, leisure and sport will

be more constrained than the average.”More

determination will be needed than ever before:

“There is a need to be much closer and more

accountable to citizens, to work closer with the

voluntary sector and to link culture and sport

more closely to ‘intractable problems’ like

chronic illness and young people who are

disengaged.”ChrisVesey offered an insight into how this

could be achieved.“Partnerships are core to

making anything happen in a local community.

The arts need to find a link to the main

partners like health and education and work

their way into their operation.The challenge is

to get into the mind of the LSP and find a

patron within the LSP who will make the link

with everything the LSP is concerned with. It’s

about people and leadership and finding the

people who will make things happen.”

Mike Hoskin agreed.“It’s a long process, it

takes time to get the partnership right.We’ve

been working with our LSP for seven years.

Now how the cultural partnership works is

really embedded so it will withstand some of

the future challenges.”

Tricia Kilsby sees variations in the security of

culture and sport across the country.“Where

culture and sport are really connected to places

they are comparatively secure as they are seen

to be part of what is important and what is

wanted. But where the groundwork has not

been done and culture and sport is not

connected to what other partners want to

achieve, it’s really difficult.”

This is a picture MartynAllison recognised.

“Around a third of places understand the role of

culture and sport but in the other two thirds

the sector is largely invisible.Cultural services in

some are good at sucking in the resources but

others who are not where they should be may

lose out.There’s a middle ground of those who

have started and need support in moving

forward.”As it’s too early to really know what the data

is telling us, why is NI11 so important? Martyn

Allison again:“If we don’t have a way of

measuring accountability we won’t be valued.

But it is only an indicator – the questions it

poses are what’s important. If we whinge too

much about the indicator there will be plenty

of people ready to get rid of it. For the first time

the sector is being measured and we have to

work through the implications of what

accountability means.”

There was a strong message from delegates

thatArts Council England should continue to

pay for the data to be collected, no matter

what happens to the national indicator set.

Significantly increasing engagement takes time

and while Sport England has given a

commitment to extend theActive People

survey to collect the data, no such

commitment has so far been made by theArts

Council.1

Delegates also wanted more learning to be

shared beyond the places that have NI11 in

their LAA, particularly on how the indicator has

helped reposition the arts service within

councils. Making sure arts organisations are on

the same ‘campaign trail’ in a mature

partnership is important too.

But in debating where next for engagement

in the arts and NI11, delegates were reminded

what really makes things happen.As Philip

Mind put it,“performance indicators don’t bring

about improvement, people do”. People like

Gail Brown,Arts Manager for Kent County

Council, who gave an impassioned, rallying call:

“We have to make the case, we have to take

brilliant case studies to the DCMS, we have to

stand together. Now is the time to say ‘hurrah’

for culture’.” •AngelaWatson

Principal Partner

AngelaWatson&Associates

Tel:01827714733

Email:[email protected]

1 ArtsCouncil Englandhas since said that until the futureof

NI11 is known it is tooearly to assesswhether andhow

Active Peoplewill continue tobeused tomeasure arts

engagement at local authority level.TheArtsCouncil,

DCMSandother cultural agencies are currentlyworking

together to establish future researchpriorities and themost

effectivewayof generating thedata required, in the context

of available resources.

Copy deadline for the next issue is Monday 25October 2010.If you would like to write an article for the next issue,please talk to our Editor, Paul Kelly -Tel: 01202 385585 or email: [email protected]

If you would like information about nalgao, please contact:Pete Bryan, nalgaoAdministratorTel: 01269 824728 or email: [email protected]

www.nalgao.org

Derry dignitaries celebratewith edVaizey and Phil Redmond

nalgaoAnnualConference-Arts&“TheBigSociety”

6th& 7thDecember 2010The Hove Centre (HoveTown Hall),Norton Rd, Brighton & Hove BN3 4AH

The next issue ofArts at the Heart will be out in January 2011.

Full details fromwww.nalgao.orgoremail [email protected]

AAH Autumn 2010

Documents

arts service

major funderof arts

astaunch supporter of

local authorities

local government budgetsare

sense of public service

thedepartment of culture

local indicators couldwell