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A national seminar on the creative economy exploring the role of arts in economic development
An Arts Council England & Arts Development UK Partnership
Date: Wednesday 20th June 2012, from 9.00 – 17.00
Venue: The Camden Centre, the Camden Centre, Euston Road, London WC1H 9AU
Cost:
Arts DevelopmentUKMembers: £95
Students & unemployed people: £50
Combined Officer and elected member/senior manager joint place: £140
Non-members: £135
Display area (including one delegate place): £150
This timely national seminar investigates the role that arts can play in economic development and the regeneration of communities in the current challenging economic climate.
Creative Economies will explore:
- the role of arts and culture as economic anchors and drivers in cultural regeneration
- how the wider business sector values and uses the role of arts and culture
- practical ways of measuring and capturing the economic value of the arts and culture
 These three integrated themes are designed to provide topical examples and case studies, suggest ways of understanding and communicatingdirectly with the business sector about the economic importance of arts and culture, suggest tools to provide evidence of impact and value.
The seminar is a partnership event between Arts Council England and Arts Development UK and is hosted by the London Borough of Camden.
Tom Fleming and Andrew Erskine’s paper for Arts Council England on ‘Supporting growth in the arts economy’ says “It is commonly acknowledged that the arts are the bedrock of the creative economy, making a considerable contribution to the nation’s prosperity and its international reputation.” The major shift to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) as the key vehicle for economic development offers the arts sector new opportunities; here we can share existing best practice in this field, in order to develop confidence and clarity in the language and mechanisms necessary to demonstrate the importance of arts and culture to the creative economy, and their value to the wider aims of economic development.
Speakers taking part include:
- Tom Fleming: Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy
- Andrea Stark: Arts Council England’s Area Executive Director East & South East
- Chris Gibbon: Senior Consultant at BOP Consulting
- Paul Bristow: Acting Director, Strategic Partnerships (ACE)
- Jennifer Mitchell: Managing Director of The Music Foundation
- Lyndsey Swift: Head of Partnerships at Visit England
- Mary-Alice Stack: Director of ArtCo Projects at ACE
- Tim Joss: Director of The Rayne Foundation
- Ruth Jarratt: Trustee of MeWe360
- Geoff Rowe: Director of Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival
- Christopher Maughan: Principal Lecturer Arts & Festivals Management at De Montfort University
- Jayne Knight: Arts Development Manager at Suffolk CC
- Mari Martin: County Arts Officer at Norfolk CC
- Patrick Hussey: Marketing & Digital Manager at Arts & Business
- Laura Sillars: Artistic Director of The Site Gallery
- Symon Easton: Deputy Director of Cultural Commissioning at Birmingham City Council
- Debbie Kermode: Deputy Director of The Ikon Gallery
- Roxie Curry: Arts Development Officer at Rochford District Council
- Lucia Masundire: Creative IndustriesAssistant at Leics CC
- Gail Schock: Arts Manager of Kent CC
A range of high profile national speakers will discuss current themes, including strategic commissioning and tailored cultural services for local communities. The seminar will also offer different models of best practice delivery through case studies, keynote presentations, breakout sessions anddiscussion forums. In this way it will scope the future landscape in which we will all operate. This programme is will be useful to officers and elected members involved in cultural service policy and practice and will offer a valuable opportunity to explore the wider cultural infrastructure and cross-cutting agendas.
We very much hope that you will be able to join us for an active and informative day spotlighting new and proven ways of supporting better cultural practice and delivery with communities in your own areas.
For a complete programme and a booking form for the event, click: Seminar Programme (opens in another page, and then click the link again). Click the link to download the brochure (pdf).
Arts Development UK is a professional association, with a membership drawn from local authorities and those working in the creative industries sector in England and Wales.
Our website functions in a WordPress environment, which allows much more member involvement, especially if you sign up to the site to use the various user interfaces (at the top of the site page area, once you have enrolled). Being a member also allows you to contact members who are also signed in to the site at the same time as you,
The site is packed with all the latest news and information, but the real benefits come from registering. Just click the “Register” link in the Login area on the right-hand side to get started. A whole new range of networking opportunities become available on the user tool bar when you log in…. and there is also an induction pack for all new members. Your password and user name will be specific to you and is your choice. Please remember to use lower case letters when you enrol.
The site operates on different levels, depending on your status. Anyone can view the site, but to interact with it you will need to enrol. Some information (for instance the member directory, information on funding and certain parts of the CPD and Training pages and services) will be restricted to Arts Development UK members-only and for this, you will need to become a member of Arts Development UK. Why not join us today!
 In this critical time for local government, with budget cuts continuing to hit most services, it is imperative that we maintain our intelligence on the financial situation for arts services. We have been collecting financial data the last 6 years, but 2012/13 will see our members face major challenges that we need to document and record. We have already heard of intended closures ahead, and we need your help to document the current status of each authority as we head to the new financial year.
We also want to record your active partnerships and the contribution that arts make to the life of your communities. In this way we can work with our partners to demonstrate the worth of our sector and to advocate for future support.
It is most important that we achieve as complete a picture as possible of the challenges that you are facing. We also want to record success stories to give a balanced perspective of the year we are heading towards. We are therefore sending the survey to both member and non-member authorities.
We need you all to complete a questionnaire, which is available on Survey Monkey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ADukLAbudgetsurvey2012. We need accurate information from you so that Arts Development UK and other national bodies can continue to advocate for local arts delivery. Please try to answer every question, but if you can’t don’t worry – we’d rather have what you can answer than nothing at all. The survey will be open till Friday 4th May 2012, so if your budget settlement is not yet known, you will have time to report your answers in the new financial year – but please remember to do so. Many thanks for your support in this vital matter.
The AD:uk Skills and Knowledge Bank is now open for members to exchange skills, knowledge and experience. With nearly 400 corporate and individual members in place, our membership reflects a wealth of personal experience and knowledge that members can benefit from.
Like a bank, you can deposit skills that you would like to share and also borrow knowledge from other members who have lodged their interests with us. The Skills Bank will also earn you interest in the form of credits that you can use towards the AD:uk National Fellowship Programme, launched at our conference in October.
If you are interested in participating in shared and informal knowledge exchange (and please note that this is not a mentoring programme), please complete the following Survey Monkey questionnaire at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ADukSkillsBank
We are delighted to report that the AD:uk Annual Conference will be going to York this year. The conference takes place on 18th and 19th October and will take place at The York Barbican. The conference is in partnership with the City of York Council who are hosting this year as part of their 800th anniversary of York city status.
We are developing the programme for the conference and would be interested in receiving case studies that members may like to offer to present ant the event as part of our breakout sessions. We are particularly seeking presentations in the following areas:
- Governance
- The business side of creative industries and up-skilling
- New media and creative industries
- The Henly Review and Music Education Hubs, with 77 new hubs being supported
- Culture ‘hack’ days (i.e. taking them apart and reassembling: Eastern region have culture hack days and a cultural grid) considering creative people in the community
- The development of Arts Council England Bridge organisations
- Creative partnership progress and development
- LEPs: challenges from business sector, perhaps with a session from Business in the arts
- Arts, health and wellbeing, especially as LAs are now responsible for the health agenda and commissioning, and ACE are preparing to launch a co-commissioning fund for arts & wellbeing
- Arts in transition and change, to include mining the assets of people and projects and scenario planning
- Cultural commissioning and regulation
- Open studios
- Access to the arts: disability, youth access issues, perhaps using new technology
- Volunteering and amateur support
- Creative People and Places
If you would like to volunteer to present a session at the conference (and in return you get a free delegate place), please contact Pete Bryan, AD:uk Administrator and Conference organiser on artsdevuk@aol.com or contact Pete at 01269 824728.
 Arts Council England is looking at plans to cut 150 jobs, equivalent to a quarter of its workforce, in its attempt to halve its administration costs by 2015, according to the Stage last week. The government ordered the arts council to cut its administrative costs by 50% in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review and these must be in place by 2015. Plans also look at the changing the way ACE works regionally, reducing representation across 9 regions to 5 regions plus the national organisation, and reducing the executive board from 9 members to 5. Before any of this happens, there will be a consultation, but the Stage reports that redundancies are expected to be announced in November and the new structure in July.
Click here for more.
 Norwich has been named as UNESCO City of Literature. It’s the 6th city to be awarded the title and first in England, joining the ranks of Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin and Reykjavik. Click here for more.
Arts Council England has announced the nationwide network of 122 music education hubs that will play a key role in ensuring that every child has the opportunity to experience a high quality music education. £171 million of funding will support the network of hubs between August 2012 and March 2015. The awards have been made following publication of The National Plan for Music Education aimed at creating and furthering music education opportunities for 5-18 year olds. The new music education hubs will see a significant shift in the way music education has been delivered to date, both in and out of school. Organisations, including schools, professional music organisations, higher and further education institutions and other Arts Council funded organisations working in a local area will be coming together to create joined up music education provision for children and young people.
The aim of this work is to ensure that every child aged 5-18 has the opportunity to sing and learn a musical instrument, to progress to the next level, and play with other children as part of an ensemble or choir. The 122 new hubs will provide significantly improved opportunities for all young people to benefit from high quality musical experiences regardless of where they live. For more information about Music Hubs, click: Read more about music education hubs.
Taking place across the UK and Republic of Ireland, Voluntary Arts Week is a chance for amateur arts and crafts groups to show off their activities and encourage others to join them. From 12 – 20 May 2012, Voluntary Arts are asking everyone to display something in their window that celebrates the art or craft form they love, as part of the ‘What’s in your Window?’ campaign. It could be a painting, piece of knitting, instrument, photo of them singing – or just a simple sketch. Picture how great it would look – houses across the country, libraries, community centres, offices and shops, all with arts and crafts in their window for one special week!
Arts and crafts groups could contact their local community centre, library or shop to see if they can display work in their window. We’re also encouraging groups to think outside of the box during Voluntary Arts Week, by putting on an event to encourage others to join them. They could:
· run a taster session for new people to have a go
· hold an open rehearsal to show what they’re up to
· take their art/craft form out into the public domain (shopping centre, bus station etc).
Anyone wanting to take part should visit www.voluntaryartsweek.org where they can find tips and advice, download publicity to help them promote their event and list their event online.
Voluntary Arts Week is run by Voluntary Arts, the development agency for amateur arts and crafts in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The first Voluntary Arts Week was held in Scotland in 2011, and is now being rolled out across the whole of Britain and Ireland. Voluntary Arts Week has been granted the Inspire mark by the London 2012 Inspire programme. For more information, please visit www.voluntaryartsweek.org or email: info@voluntaryartsweek.org.
 This week I thought I’d start with the Institute of Economic Affairs proposal to close the DCMS, and more specifically about their use of the ‘cost per visit’ argument to suggest that the market rather than the public purse should be footing the bill. The politics of that position, although interesting, are not what I’m going to focus on: what really interests me here is the use of statistics, and the numbers that are, and aren’t used.
Cost per visit is a relatively simple calculation, if you have both visitor numbers and total expenditure; and, as DCMS clients, either directly or through one of the arms length bodies, these figures for the organisations listed will be in the public domain. Cost per visit tells you something about what is going on, but not terribly much. Before we can use it to help us make decisions, there are lots of other numbers we might want to take into consideration, but these can be much harder to calculate.
We might want to add in the value of the benefit from those individual visits: a student working towards a qualification is motivated to work harder and achieve a better grade; a designer is inspired to produce a bestselling new range; or someone just feels happier as a result of the experience. We might want to think about the value of maintaining the institutions, the value of the skills and knowledge held within them to the economy, and the costs of having to build them up again if they were lost. And although it might not be my preferred way of measuring, it is also possible to quantify these values, put them into monetary terms and make that economically based decision making more ‘accurate’. In other words, if our sector and it’s need for a place within national government is to be understood purely in economic terms, can it at least be understood within the full context of its economic value, as one of the most successful economic sectors in the country, drawing on our remarkable cultural wealth?
That brings me back full circle to the DCMS, and it’s role in generating the very numbers that are being used against it. Because we have the DCMS, we have the ability to collect the data, carry out the analyses, understand the wider impact of the arts, and have an increasing number of tools to help us make the more difficult judgements about what is and what is not, value for money. Whether we always agree with those analyses is beside the point, we need them to be done.
If you aren’t already using it, I would like to direct you to the very useful DCMS CASE programme as a very practical example of my point. It ranges from the very practical local profiles tool for arts and culture, which brings together a whole range of relevant data, and enables straight forward comparisons with other areas; through to papers exploring the drivers of engagement.
Jane Wilson
Chair of AD:uk
Tel: 01353 669022 Email: jane.wilson@adec.org.uk
AD:uk are seeking a corporate sponsor with a truly great deal. The £1,000 annual package includes:
- A stand at the Arts Development UK National Conference 2012, taking place in York on 18th & 19th October 2012, to include one delegate place (valued at £450).
- Accreditation as a sponsor on all promotional materials for the National Conference
- Reciprocal membership of AD:uk, with Corporate membership currently valued at £170, starting on 1st April 2012.
- A weekly AD:uk ezine section to be drafted by the sponsor. The ezine has a current weekly circulation of over 1,000 organisational contacts. Copy date of each Monday at 12.00noon for a text-only service, (as we cannot accept images or logos in the current format) (valued at £50 per week).
We are also interested in offering half or quarter year sponsorship packages.
If you would like to find out more about our sponsorship opportunities, or know of an organisation that may be interested, please get in touch with Pete Bryan, AD:uk Administrator on tel: 01269 824728 or email: artsdevuk@aol.com.
When: 12 to 20 May 2012
From 12 – 20 May, Voluntary Arts Week will celebrate the wide range of amateur arts and craft activity taking place across the UK and Republic of Ireland – and encourage more people to join in. Voluntary Arts Week is the perfect time for you, your members and supporters to celebrate and get more people involved in your creative activity. There are several ways to take part:
- Run a special event during the week to encourage more people to join you in your activities. Whether you offer a free taster session so people can ‘have a go’ and see what you do, hold a ‘bring a friend’ night, run an event/exhibition in a local library or café or perform in a public place, it’s up to you. Have a look on the Voluntary Arts Week website for more ideas and advice. You can also list your event and download posters to help publicise what you’re up to – www.voluntaryartsweek.org. If you already have an event, regular meet up or workshop happening during Voluntary Arts Week you can advertise this too. Send details to info@voluntaryartsweek.org.
- Be part of the ‘What’s in your Window?’ campaign: From 12 to 20 May 2012, VAN are asking individuals, groups and organisations across the UK and Republic of Ireland to show off their creative talents in a range of windows across the country. People are often unaware of the creative activity happening in their area so they are encouraging groups/organisations to partner with local shops, libraries, cafes and community centres to showcase their work and let people know how they can get involved. Picture how great it would look – houses across the UK, public libraries, community centres, offices and shops – all with wonderful arts and crafts in their window for one special week. A free ‘What’s in your Window?’ poster is available on the Voluntary Arts Week website to go alongside your display. This can be downloaded and edited with Information about what you do and can be used to invite people to your next meet up/event. Visit http://www.theloveofit.org/voluntaryartsweek/?page_id=52 for more information.
Follow @ADukSouthEast on twitter for the latest news in your area. The more the merrier so make sure you tell all your friends about us.
We’d also love to hear from you so feel free to contact us with your comments and suggestions about all things Arts Development.
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