Just the right medicine • arts on prescription in Pendle

Taking to the streets • Quest – outdoor arts in practice

Election special • anyone seen a good arts policy?

Community theatre • a search for identity

www.e–mailout.co.uk

March/April/May 2010mailoutarts work with people

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3mailoutnews views ideas events people

REGULARSLetter from the editor 3Your Mailout 4Surf’s up 4Calipso 5Ear to the ground 6Artman 11Courses conferences and events 33Funding 35

COLUMNSTalking through the arts 5John Pick’s political reflectionsThe five minute poet 11Alison White on having her braces fittedReview 32 Nicky Puttick revues Expressive Arts ActivityClipout 37PR – get yourself out there in partnershipwith Full Square

FEATURESArts on prescription in Pendle 12Leroy Philbrook tells us moreDe-coding best practice in arts and health 14Mike White and Mary Robson summarisethe research

Quest – outdoor arts in practice 16Bev Adams from Faceless sums up a recentnational event

POLITICS – A MAILOUT FOCUSI believe in motherhood and apple pie 18Robert Howell sifts through the policiesahead of the general electionThe Mailout readers manifesto 21What you’d like to seeClaim and shame 23Baseless Fabric Theatre Company take asideways look at MP expensesCity of culture? You’re having a laugh 23Ian McMillan on Barnsley’s ambitionUp for arts 24Voluntary Arts England’s reflections on theLearning Revolution white paperPolitics and content in outdoor arts 26Bev Adams draws together colleaguesviews

Community theatre and a search for identity 28John Somers on creating theatre fromcommunity storiesBreckland Film Festival 30Samantha Dawson on Film in rural Norfolk.Festivals 2010 31Lyndsey Wilson dusts off her wellies andgets ready for the festival season

This will be one of the longest election campaignsin British history. The result has not been thisunsure since 1992 when John Major scraped backin at the expense of Kinnock. It was the Sun that‘done it’ apparently. mailout’s influence andsubscriber base is a tad smaller than that of theSun but we’re still planning to tell the politicalparties what you’d like them to do.

Winston Churchill said ‘Democracy is the worstform of government apart from all the other’swe’ve tried’. In the UK we have a system of partypolitics rather than government by referendum,(though some parties selectively call for themwhen it suits). This means that we have to vote fora basket of policies. What do we do if we like aparty’s thoughts on health but don’t trust them onforeign policy? We’re convinced that theireducation policies are right for our children but we

wouldn’t trust them in charge of the pursestrings? Difficult! There are people who are onlyinterested in punishing MPs for their pastmisdemeanours with receipts and won’t even lookat the policies. Traditionally the left can becategorised as favouring the use of arts in socialpolicy – helping to empower the masses. The rightcan be equally generous but from a placating‘Bread and Circuses’ point of view. We can’t votefor the arts in isolation but we can tell the partieswhat we’d like them to put in their manifestos.Read some of your thoughts on Page 21 and let ushave any more by the end of March. A great big barof chocolate to anyone who spots anything to dowith participatory arts in any political manifestopublished this election.

Vote with your conscience and lobby whoever winsfor the policies you believe in. a

Contents

Letter from the editors

March/April/May 2010mailoutPO Box 665, ChesterfieldDerbyshire S40 9GYtel: 07876 743678admin@e-mailout.co.ukwww.e-mailout.co.ukSUBSCRIPTIONSOne year (four issues including p&p)individuals £20voluntary & not-for-profit £27public sector/commercial organisations £38discounts for multiplesCheques payable to MailoutADVERTISING RATESVol/not-for profit organisations:full page £230, 1/2 page £150, 1/4 page £90Commercial/corporate/statutory:full page: £350, 1/2 page £230, 1/4 page £15010% discount on series of threeinsertsWeb advertising by arrangementBooking deadline 14 May 2010MAILOUT IS:Published by Mailout Trust LimitedEditors: Rob Howell & Sue RobinsonContributing Editor: Lyndsey WilsonFunding editor: Julian Dunne-mailout editor: Jules CadieAdministration: Ruth CoeDesigner: Richard Honey, dg3Printer: Creative Copy ‘n’ ColourContributions deadline 7 May 2010COVER:Main photo – Photo ©Amanda CrowtherThumbnail – Beat Herder festival. © Lyndsey Wilson

mailout is the national magazinefor people developing participationin the arts. The mailout Trust aimsto promote and advance thepractice, understanding and profileof high-quality participatory arts inthe UK.ISSN 0959 0013The mailout Trust Ltd is a CompanyLtd by Guarantee. Registered inEngland No. 5252801 Mill Barn, Clowne Road,Barlborough S43 4EN

The Mailout website ALERTMailout has changed its web addressto www.e-mailout.co.uk You can also contact us via our blogand on Facebook and twitter:

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How to contributeThis is your magazine and relies onyour contributions to exist. We loveto hear from you. For next issue wewant to hear about yourenvironmental projects and fromthose people for whom theparticipatory arts have made asignificant difference to their lives.> Write us an article> Tell us about your campaign issue> Write a letter> Comment on a past issue> Send us a news item> Suggest a topic for clipout> Draw us a cartoon> Suggest an interviewee a

editor@e-mailout.co.uk

The Journal of Arts and Communitiesseeks to provide a criticalexamination of the practices knownas community or participatory artsand is planning a special Nordic issue.Nordic countries – here Denmark,Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden– are often taken to have features incommon. These include orientationand priorities of policy and practice. ACall for Contributions is extended toartists, researchers and informedcommentators to explore and shareideas and knowledge. A PDF withfurther details is also temporarilyavailable atwww.robinsonhowell.co.uk. Click on Projects and scroll down tofind mailout.

A new format for Mailout?In the last issue, trustees of mailoutreflected on its effectiveness againsta background of change. We askedyou for your thoughts on ourproposals for change. Thank you foryour replies and ideas. We havelistened to you but won’t be givingaway too much here right now.

We asked:Currently, in what areas do you thinkMailout offers a useful service to you?A number of people found thefollowing most useful: > A broad spread of news andinformation about the sector

> Details of projects

> Information about courses,

conferences, events> Funding and opportunities > Followed by: opinions anddiscussion topics, guidance notesand useful contacts

Amongst the improvements you said: > Bigger images exclude smaller> More examples of good practice inhealth work

> More projects from other countries> More opportunities for readers toco-create

> Would like to see greater diversity,range of culture, ages, abilities andcultures

Mailout is the voice of contributionsfrom its readers. If you can help uswith any of the above, please, get intouch! We would love to hear aboutyour stories, and happily publishimages and examples of goodpractice.

You also said:“Magazine is always useful,informative and inspiring. Please dokeep is as a paper based publication sothat it doesn’t get lost in theelectronic overload”“Like black and white, simple format”“Funding info good”“I like the direction of the magazine,and can’t see it needs any areas toimprove. I’m happy as long as itcontinues to feature relevant and upto date material”

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YOUR MAILOUT

Mailout and you

Surf’s upwww.aandb.org.ukwww.a-m-a.org.ukwww.artscampaign.org.ukwww.ashsak.comwww.awardsforall.org.uk/englandwww.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_reaching_communitieswww.bmag.org.uk www.bridgehousetrust.org.ukwww.cartwheelarts.org.ukwww.communityfoundations.org.uk/finding_uk_community_ foundationswww.conwyfeast.co.ukwww.culture24.org.uk/museumsatnightwww.curiousminds.orgwww.dacontrust.co.ukwww.eisteddfod.org.ukwww.facelessco.com

www.funnywonders.org.ukwww.gumtree.comwww.hackney.gov.uk/cm-museumwww.hebdenbridgeartsfestival.co.ukwww.hlf.org.uk/InYourAreawww.hollowayartsfestival.co.ukwww.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/14269000www.jg-projects.co.ukwww.jobdunne.comwww.johnlyonscharity.org.ukwww.llangollen2010.co.ukwww.londonwordfestival.comwww.lsc.gov.uk/regions/SouthWest/esfwww.lutonartsfestival.orgwww.moremusic.org.ukwww.nlff.co.ukwww.nnfestival.org.ukwww.participationinthearts.net

www.peel-park.lancsngfl.ac.ukwww.pendlelife.co.uk/roundabout/opencms/pendle_leisure_trustwww.robinsonhowell.co.ukwww.sthughsfoundation.co.ukwww.strawberry-fair.org.ukwww.talevalleycommunitytheatre.orgwww.thelbt.orgwww.thepetercruddasfoundation.orgwww.touchlocal.comwww.tudortrust.org.ukwww.uk.virginmoneygiving.com/givingwww.ukyoungartists.co.uk/content/biennale-2009www.upforarts.co.uk.www.veoliatrust.orgwww.waterfordhealingarts.comwww.womad.org/festivals/charlton-park

We’ve listed heresome of the webaddresses listed in

this issue of mailout. Why not have a

random surf. You mayfind something youotherwise wouldn’thave thought of.

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TALKING THROUGH THE ARTS

Does it matter what politicians saytheir ‘arts policies’ will be ingovernment?

After all, virtually every greatflowering of the arts, from AncientAthens to the Renaissance, hasoccurred without the aid of ‘artspolicies’. (Indeed, until the end of thenineteenth century the word ‘policy’meant ‘trickery’ or ‘deceit’, and couldnot possibly have been applied to thearts.)

Yet in the twentieth century, in spiteof the overwhelming evidence thatsignificant social change alwaysfollows on significant technical andeconomic changes, rather than as aresult of state action, we allowedourselves to be persuaded that, foranything significant to occur, it mustbe planned for and initiated bymeans of a Government ‘policy’. Inthe 1900s UK governments triedthree times to give radical new‘policy’ directions to the arts. Eachattempt has ended in failure.

The first was Jennie Lee’s 1965 WhitePaper. Full of pieties about statesupport, for the arts, it was renderedstillborn by the very forces it soughtto harness – the simultaneousemergence in the commercial sectorof the Beatles, the cinema’s NewWave, and the fashions of CarnabyStreet.

Second was the ‘New Realism’ ofThatcher, wishing to transform theUK arts scene so that it more closelyresembled Corporate America. Beforethat all imploded a new kind oftotalitarian arts bureaucracy tookroot in the UK, one powered by crudeeconomic ideology rather than byany real understanding of thediversity and significance of theliving arts.

The third policy shift was the 1997creation of the ‘cultural industries’ byNew Labour. The arts became aninstrument of state propaganda, tobe valued for their ‘outcomes’ –either because they contributed tosome notional economic growth, orbecause they (supposedly) led to theachievement of nebulous socialgoals. The only real ‘outcome’ wasthat the swelling arts bureaucracybecame more impervious to thenature of the arts.

That fantasy now lies shattered, as‘Broken Britain’ struggles to emergefrom the depths of recession. But theunderlying reason for its collapse isthe growth of the new Digital Media,on which, in the last six months, theUK spent £60billion – about twicewhat, only ten years ago, wasreckoned to be the annual spendingin the whole of the CulturalIndustries. No need to look at thenumber of times each second we

Google, film events of our lives,download music on our ipods, blog ortext our friends, to know that this isan unprecedented technical changewhich radically changes the way welive together, transforms our creativelives and underpins everything we doin the arts. And Governments cannotcontrol or direct it.

The Chinese government may try toban Google, as South Africa tried toban television, and the USSR oncetried to ban transistor radios, butultimately the new technology willbreak through any controllingmechanism erected by the state. Itenables us to communicate as neverbefore. If we use it imaginatively itwill fund and empower all kinds ofartists and arts organisations. Not fora century have politicians’ ‘artspolicies’ been of such littleimportance. a

John Pick’s most recent book is ‘TheAesthetic Contract’ (Buffalo StateUniversity, USA, 2009)’

“in spite of theoverwhelmingevidence thatsignificant socialchange alwaysfollows onsignificanttechnical andeconomicchanges, ratherthan as a result ofstate action, weallowed ourselvesto be persuadedthat, for anythingsignificant tooccur, it must beplanned for andinitiated bymeans of aGovernment‘policy’.”

Political dynamism

ARTS COUNCIL ALLOWS CLOSURE OF ANOTHERDISABILITY ARTS ORGANISATIONKaleido Arts, a regional agency run byDeaf and disabled artists, will close onMarch 31st 2010. Kaleido Arts, theregional agency supporting Deaf anddisabled artists in the South West, wasshocked to find out that Arts CouncilSouth West are cutting their fundingcompletely from the end of March2010. As a result the Kaleido Arts Boardhas taken the difficult decision to closethe office.

Kaleido Arts is the latest in a long listof organisations run by disabled peo-ple to have its funding cut by the ArtsCouncil. London Disability Arts Forum,the National Disability Arts Forum, theWest Midlands Disability Arts Forumand the East Midlands Disability ArtsForum all closed in the recent past.Arts Council England South West willbe allocating the budget themselvesinstead. Given the likelihood of cuts to

the Arts Council budget in future, thetargeted funding could end up beingcut altogether.

Kaleido has been the only Arts CouncilEngland South West funded regionaldevelopment agency run by a Boardmade up of 85% Deaf and disabledpeople. Half of the staff team are dis-abled. Kaleido Arts argue that it is aretrograde step if the Arts Council,rather than Deaf or disabled artists,make the final decisions about howthe funding for supporting Deaf anddisabled artists and audiences is used.

Kaleido Arts are asking artists and thegeneral public to express concernabout this decision. a

For more information: E: info@kaleidoarts.orgW: www.kaleidoarts.org

First Lightfunding foryoung scriptwritersYoung film makers aged 16–25 fromProject Ability will get the chance torealise four original scripts, thanks toan award of £9,440 from First Light.

The four diverse films include a surrealdrama about a journey, an animationabout a wizard and his adventures, aspoof documentary on Robert Smithand a fictional drama about a naiveperson trying to do good but getting itwrong.

The project allows the young filmmakers to experience the whole filmmaking process from start to finish –developing ideas, shooting, editingand promoting the finished films.These will be shown on the big screenand submitted to film festivals.a

For more information:Alex Wilde, Create Manager T: 0141 552 2822 E: create@project-ability.co.ukW: www.firstlightonline.co.uk/funding

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Lava Rocks and Galaxy by Richard Bizley

Dad by James Lake

>>INSPIRE AND THE YOUNG COMPOSERS’COMPETITION 2010Young musicians aged between 12 and 18 are being invited toenter the BBC Proms Young Composers’ Competition, whichis now in its 12th year. The competition will give the winners aBBC commission and see their work performed by profession-al musicians. Last year’s winners wrote pieces for the LastNight of the Proms, although details of the 2010 commissionshave yet to be announced.

Entries to the competition will be judged by a panel of com-posers from a variety of musical fields, and composers haveuntil 28 May to submit their entries.

The BBC is also calling for young composers to sign up for itsComposer Labs, which aim to give young talent across the UKthe opportunity to explore new ways of composing and get ataste of what it means to be a composer in the 21st century.The Composer Labs take place in Birmingham, Cardiff,Glasgow, London, Manchester and Truro between 7 Februaryand 11 April. For the first time, an online version of a ComposerLab will also be made available from April. This will includefootage from the various Labs, recommendations and tips.a

For more information W: www.bbc.co.uk/proms

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>>Making somenoiseAs part of the Young Leaders pro-gramme, participants from music pro-grammes in Staffordshire and StokeOn Trent have been sharing their skillsand experiences to other buddingmusicians. Not only did the YoungLeaders develop life skills whilst partic-ipating in the scheme, but they alsogained a Silver Arts Award.

The Young Leaders were invited totake part in Youth Music’s nationalannual campaign, ‘Youth Music Week’.They joined thirty young people fromtwo other West Midlands based YouthMusic Action Zones to write and per-form a song in one day. The song,‘Music Is Power’ celebrated the posi-tive power of music to change livesand has since received significantpress interest, in particular fromKerrang Radio.

Listen to their song on the Make SomeNoise website: www.make-some-noise.com/downloads/YouthMusicWeek09.mp3

Make Some Noise’s vision is toenhance the lives of children andyoung people in Staffordshire andStoke-on-Trent by introducing highquality opportunities to make music.Make Some Noise believes musicinspires young people, and for many isalso a catalyst for positive change.They explore innovative approachesthat work towards better access tomusic for young people.a

For more information contact Tim Sharp T: 01785 278 274 E: info@make-some-noise.com

Between now and 14 April Arts CouncilEngland are consulting artists, artsorganisations and other key stake-holders on future priorities for the arts.They will be asking about our under-standing of the current landscape ofthe arts and the areas that need devel-oping in the next ten years.

They will then combine what theylearned from the consultation withtheir own research to finalise theirthinking, which will be published laterthis year. This framework will be a keytool to ensure the best environmentfor creativity to flourish and for deliv-

ering the mission of great art foreveryone.

They are inviting everyone working inor interested in the arts to take part –artists, arts organisations and part-ners, commercial, amateur and volun-tary arts organisations. They also wantto hear from audiences.

The consultation will be conductedonline, through events, writtenresponses and research commissions.a

The majority of participants will beencouraged to take part online at:W: www.artscouncil.org.uk/consultation

ILLUMINATING HADRIAN’S WALLHundreds of people from across thecountry and overseas will be able totake part in one of the most spectacu-lar events planned in Britain during2010. 500 people will help to create aline of light from one side of Britain tothe other, along the length ofHadrian’s Wall, on 13 March 2010.

Each of the volunteer ‘Illuminators’will be part of a small team responsi-ble for lighting one of the 500 individ-ual points of light that will be placedat 250 metre intervals along the routeof the 84 mile long Hadrian’s Wall PathNational Trail.

The first of the lights will be illuminat-ed at Segedunum Roman Fort atWallsend in the North East of England.Each of the other lights will then be litin sequence by the Illuminators, withthe line of light reaching Bowness-on-Solway on the Cumbrian coast aboutan hour later.

Carol Bell, Head of ProgrammeDevelopment for culture10 atNewcastle Gateshead Initiative, said,“Our ambition is to involve as manypeople as possible in this event whichcelebrates our fantastic landscape, andwe encourage audiences to help shapethe cultural offer of the region, activelytaking part in our festivals and eventsby ‘doing, not just viewing’.”

For those keen to watch, two freeevents will take place, one atSegedunum in Wallsend where theline of light will start and the other atCarlisle in Cumbria, to welcome thelight into the North West. A very limit-ed number of tickets will be madeavailable for the stewarded viewingpoints along the route and must bepre-booked. a

For more information visit W: www.illuminatinghadrianswall.com

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The UnitedKingdom in songBefore Christmas, Today guest editorRobert Wyatt asked people who sangin amateur choirs around the UK tosend the sound of their song to theToday programme.

They were inundated with music –from requiems to carols and folksongs. From Mousehole to Aberdeenyou can hear the sound of GreatBritain’s choirs by clicking the icons onthe interactive map. a

Submissions are now closed but tovisit and hear a little more go to:W: www.news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8436000/8436192.stm

FUTURE PRIORITIES FOR THE ARTS

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Take part in a bespoke salsa, ballroomor line dance to help raise funds forMarie Curie Nurses.

This March, Marie Curie Cancer Care iscalling on dance groups to hold a spon-sored salsa, ballroom or line dance tohelp fund nursing care for terminally illpeople at the end of their lives.

Top dancers have choreographed thethree separate routines for this year’sDaffodil Dance – Maggie Gallagher hascreated the line dancing steps, AnsellChezan has designed the salsa routine,and Jason Parkinson has written theballroom steps.

Anton Du Beke, from the BBC’s StrictlyCome Dancing, is encouraging every-one to get their dancing shoes on.

Dancing groups can join in with theDaffodil Dance any time during March2010, as part of Marie Curie CancerCare’s annual Great Daffodil Appeal.Each group that registers will receivethe steps for their chosen dance style, afree fundraising pack including hintsand tips on how to make their event asuccess, and daffodil pin badges. a

To register your Daffodil Dance, pleasevisit W: www.mariecurie.org.uk/daffodildance or call T: 0845 601 3107.

Charnwood Arts’ Big Knitting Groupinvites you to contribute to EveryPocket Tells A Story a new exhibition atLoughborough’s Charnwood Museum,which will explore the history and thefuture of the pocket.

The pocket has always been a personaland a private place to store preciousitems. It is the subject of nurseryrhymes and common expressions.Traditionally pockets were tied toclothing and made from linen or – ifyou were wealthy – silk. They hid pre-cious things and personal items andwere the targets of pickpockets.

Today pockets are usually integral toclothing. What do you keep in yourpocket? We carry around phones, i-pods and other precious personalitems but what do the pockets look likethat contain these modern day items?

We invite you to make your own pock-ets and send them to us to be includedin the exhibition. Your pockets shouldbe inventive, humorous and individualand must include a piece of writinginside. This story will be reproduced asthe label for your pocket. Please notethat the pocket should not include anyother contents.

Pockets must be no larger than A6 size(150mm x 105mm), although we willallow you some leeway with this if, forexample, your pocket has detailattached to it. Please be inventive anduse recycled or reused materials wherepossible. We encourage you to knit,stitch or use felt for your Pockets butany medium is welcomed. All Pocketswe receive will be displayed in theexhibition alongside their Stories.

We are looking to sell all the pocketsduring the exhibition to raise moneyfor further Big Knitting Group projects.If you do not want your pocket to besold, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your entry.

Please send your Pockets to JemmaBagley at Charnwood Arts, 31 GranbyStreet, Loughborough LE11 3DU by 31March for exhibition in May and June.a

For more information, please contactJemma T: 01509 821035 E: jemmab@charnwood-arts.org.ukFurther ‘Pocket’ inspiration can befound on the Victoria And AlbertMuseum web-site www.vam.ac.uk

Do the Daffodil DanceCHARNWOODARTS IS PICKINGPOCKETS …

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Artist Jilly Morris has moved to remote Highgreen,Tarset, Northumberland from Bristol city centrefor a year to take up the post of Artist in Residencein the Community for arts charity VARC. She isembracing the hospitality of local people and thewildness of the moorland landscape.

Daily walks are part of a self-imposed routine.They provide opportunities to meet people, andbecome a way of viewing and immersing herselfin the environment; the walking has developedinto a starting point for a year long project.

“Walking seems to be my complete joy at themoment and I continue to write my walking diaryafter every walk. Incredibly I even like walking inthe rain. I am currently thinking of ideas for art-works that include walking somehow. I ambecoming interested on the historic tracts thatsurround this area; a road/path is a record of thosewho have gone before and to follow them is to fol-low people who are no longer there. Shepherdswould have to walk miles to take herds of sheepto market along drove roads; dead bodies would

have to be carried to burial sites along corpseroads. There is a fascinating history underneathour feet!” Jilly Morris

Each day, on returning from her walk, Jilly is mak-ing a series of parallel drawings both abstract andnarrative which she hopes will capture moments,the changing conditions of the textural landscapethrough the seasons and her experience of eachwalk. She is also recording the data on these jour-neys with a pedometer.

As well as drawing, Jilly Morris works with a vari-ety of media to make three-dimensional and reliefpieces including porcelain, thread, nails, graphite,wire and enamel.

Workshops and projects with local people and vis-iting groups are a small but important part of theresidency. a

For more information T: 01434 240822. E: janet@varc.org.uk

Read Jilly’s blog at:W: www.varc.org.uk/artists-blog

Walking into art>>

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DASH: OUTSIDE IN

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Outside IN is commissioning newwork from three of the UK’s leadingDisabled Artists for inclusion in threemainstream galleries in the WestMidlands and Welsh Borders from2010 to 2011.

The disability inclusive project OutsideIN has been designed and is coordinat-ed by rural Disability Arts organisation,DASH in partnership with Oriel DaviesWales, The New Art Gallery Walsalland Wolverhampton Art Gallery tocommission original Disability Artacross the region for inclusion in theirprogrammes in 2010 and 2011.

The primary objective of Outside IN isto increase the number of Disabledand Deaf artists working in partner-ship with mainstream galleries and toraise the profile of Disability Art andartists locally, regionally and nationally.

Sean Burns will be in residence at TheNew Art Gallery Walsall for six weeksspread over the next 16 months inthree blocks of two weeks. Sean will beexploring issues of Mental Health inhis commission at Walsall New ArtGallery.

Sean will be working with and linkingwith, the diverse community inWalsall, the Gallery itself, DASH andwith Mental Health groups. Sean alsoplans to be working with the ConcreteHippo Appreciation Society in Walsall.

In partnership with Oriel DaviesGallery, Newtown, Wales, KatherineAraniello and Aaron Williamson will

produce ‘Camp DAG’: a 3-day-longHoliday Camp for disabled people onthe shores of the River Severn. Thework will be a public performance of afictional Holiday Camp. As the campwill be entirely fictional, the ‘campers’will be other artists (up to 12) invited tothe Camp by the Disabled Avant-Garde. ‘Camp DAG’ will thus offer avisual conundrum: a highly visible hol-iday camp by disabled people who aremore usually hidden away by society.In addition, candid cameras will cap-ture the action and interview partici-pants for their reactions and the finalfilm will follow the style of ‘utopian’1960s holiday home movies.

Noëmi Lakmaier will create an objectbased installation at WolverhamptonArt Gallery, using the gallery’s own col-lection as its starting point: chairs,stools, armchairs, sofas, etc – depictedwithin artworks from the collection, inpaintings, photographs or sculpturalpieces. Noemi will make a selection ofobjects, akin to the furniture they arebased on, yet changed and manipulat-ed in such a way that their originalfunction is put into question. Duringthe exhibition of the objects she willinsert her body into the work byattempting to use the objects as furni-ture. Visitors will be encouraged to dothe same. The audience’s and Noemi’sown active engagement with the fur-niture-like objects acts as catalyst tothe work.a

W: www.dasharts.org

Tees Valley Arts is celebrating after being awardeda grant of £75,000 over three years to support itswork as an arts development agency.

Middlesborough based TVA is an organisationwhich champions participation in high qualityarts and stimulating creative activities as a tool forimproving the quality of life and learning for indi-viduals and communities. TVA works in education:designing and delivering stimulating pro-grammes for able students, for disengaged learn-ers, for excluded or at risk pupils, and to deliver thescience curriculum and environmental learningand awareness in unexpected and enjoyable ways.TVA works in diversity and inclusion: using the artsto support and empower people who face life’schallenges. TVA works to bring people togetherwith mutual respect and celebration.

They also work to support artists, creatives andmakers in the Tees Valley and contribute to thedevelopment and strengthening of local creativeindustries.

Rowena Sommerville, Director of Tees Valley Artscommented: “we are very grateful for the contin-ued support of the Northern Rock Foundation aswell as our other regular funders Arts CouncilEngland, the five Boroughs of the Tees Valley, andthe Baring Foundation.”

TVA has over 27 years experience of managing anddelivering high quality creative projects in andaround the North East of England since beingestablished in 1982 as Cleveland Arts. a

For further information T: 01642 264651. E: info@teesvalleyarts.org.uk W: www.teesvalleyarts.org.uk

Tees Valley Arts awarded major grantfrom the Northern Rock Foundation

Now and ThenThe Liverpool based theatre for socialchange company Collective Encounters,is working on a collaborative projectNow and Then with PSS, a nationalcommunity health and social careprovider. Over a six-month period Nowand Then will allow people living withdementia, and those who provide careand support service for people withdementia, to work with a professionaltheatre director.

Now and Then will create a perform-ance, which explores the differentstages of the dementia journey, thechoices to those with dementia, andthe people and systems encounteredalong the way, This performance willthen tour to a range of venues, per-forming to national audiences includ-ing PSS’s own Dementia Conferenceand the National Pensioner Parliamentin Blackpool 2010. a

For more information, or to partici-pate in Now and Then, contact AnnaMaxwell T: 0151 291 3887 E: anna@collective-encounters.org.ukW: www.collective-encounters.org.ukW: www.pss.org.uk

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COMMUNITY RADIOPROMOTES TV SWITCHOVERCommunity Radio station Preston FM– run by community arts organisationPrescap – has been working with com-munity radio stations across the NorthWest to help communities with thebig digital TV switchover.

The Digital Switchover Help Scheme –part of the BBC – engaged Prescap toraise awareness of the help availablefor older and disabled people strug-gling to switch to digital TV. 19 stationsfrom Cumbria to Cheshire broadcastCommunity Service Announcements,interviews and reports about the HelpScheme during the Granada regiondigital switchover in November andDecember 2009 – as well as featuringaudio, text and visual content on theirwebsites.

Over 300 volunteers working withincommunity radio stations broughttheir creative flair to a total of almost15 thousand on-air “spots” broadcastover the eight week project. Contentincluded Urdu, Hungarian and fiveother community languages – as wellas English – targeted at the friendsand family of those eligible for helpwith switchover, as well as older anddisabled people themselves.Volunteers also got involved in otherswitchover–related activities organ-ised by the stations as well as by theBBC, Digital UK and other agenciesinvolved in the switchover.

The involvement of community radioin supporting the Help Scheme had asignificant impact in ensuring that eli-

gible people were aware of, and ableto take advantage of, the assistanceavailable to them to switch to digitalTV. Feedback from listeners was strong– and participating stations receivedgood response rates from listenersduring the project requesting moreinformation on the scheme. The proj-ect was particularly successful inreaching minority communities notwell served by mainstream radio.

The collaboration between participat-ing stations (many of them very small,volunteer–led organisations); the HelpScheme; and other agencies involvedin the switchover was a positive expe-rience for all involved. Communityradio stations were able to achievemore by working together than theywould have done individually; and theimpact evidenced by the project willencourage more joint working in thefuture. The Help Scheme wasimpressed by the quality and profes-sionalism of the project delivered bythe Community Radio sector – it wasgratifying to see the both sides’ com-mon goal of social gain work togetherso well.

Learning gained from the project hasbeen passed on to the CommunityMedia Association (the nationalumbrella body for community radioand television) to assist with potentialfuture community radio involvementas switchover comes to other areas ofthe UK. It is hoped that futureswitchover regions will benefit from theexperiences of the Granada project.a

Community Music East (CME) will be opening the newly refurbished CommunityWorkshop in Norwich for music and multimedia activities in early 2010.

Children and adults can sign up for guitar, ukulele, singing, digital photography,music technology courses and more.

A lack of funding forced Norwich Community Workshop Trust to close its doors inDecember 2008. The old Victorian school on Music House Lane, originally ownedby the Diocese, had provided a venue for the trust’s projects and training and is amuch loved landmark in the area.

Clara Gauntlett from CME says: “We’re delighted to be able to open theCommunity Workshop to the public once more. It’s a beautiful building, full ofcharacter, and will be an inspiring venue for our music and multimedia work-shops.”

“We’ve given the building a lick of paint, restored the parquet floors and madesome internal alterations and improvements. Noisier workshops, such as rockschools will continue at our King Street site, just around the corner.”a

To book a place on a CME course T: 01603 628367 W: www.cme.org.uk.

Community Workshop re-opens to the public

Sew your own:Growing skills andconfidence, connectingcommunities and re-working fashionWomen of St Helens will have theopportunity to take part in an innova-tive 6 week course working with recy-cled fashion. ‘Sew Your Own’ is afledgling social enterprise founded byAlly Burr that aims to encourage peo-ple from all walks of life to recycle oldclothing and fabrics into somethingnew and exciting.

The Sew Your Own workshops willinclude opportunities to learn basichand and machine sewing skills, tipson how to customise clothing, as wellas how to make bags, cushions andaccessories.

Course tutor Ally Burr explains how“participants will be encouraged toturn unloved items of clothing andfabric into something new and excit-ing”.

The programme aims to nurture thecreative energies and natural talentsof local people by turning their handto making something sparkly and newfrom something old and tired.

This free course is funded by IdeasTap– a creative network for emerging artstalent with support from theWellbeing Project – a health and well-being social enterprise based in Haltonand St Helens. The Wellbeing Projectwas set up in 2005 in Halton and StHelens to provide a range of commu-nity based activities for everyone whowould like to improve their mentalwellbeing.a

For more information contact PaulaGamester at the Wellbeing Project T: 01744 26444 E: paulagamester@hotmail.com W: www.wellbeingproject.co.uk

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Image courtesy of vismedia

mailout poetry11

FIVE MINUTE POET

Artman

If a tree falls in a forest, does it makea noise? It’s a philosophical question,of course, because how can we knowif there is a deafening crash unlesswe are there to hear it, which leadsme to think there’s something of theartist about that tree, demanding thelending of an ear to unleash thepotential in its final dramatic act.

After all, where does participation inart start and end? Even after thepainting has been painted, it stillneeds an audience to make meaningof the paint strokes. Consumption ofart – sculpture, installation, music,dance or any other art form – soundsa deceptively passive act. Responsesto art in all its guises are ultimatelyactively processed in our most privateplace, our minds.

Take reading a novel; it’s such aprivate act, though, in the main, itcan be done in the most public ofplaces without risk of arrest. Ittransports us from the commuterjourney into an unfolding fictionalworld. We translate the arbitraryshapes of the words on the page andlift them into scenes in our heads asreal as dreams and we each have thefreedom to choose the look of ourprivate heroes and heroines.

The Child as Fallen Light

Bracing My Dancing TeethKicking cancans like the Follies’ first rehearsal,out of line, each one keeping your own time,your choreography was not appreciated by me,and more importantly, the dentistwho turned his spotlight on you, angling its beamwith his mirrored disc, all the better to see you with, your little reflections of acrobatic flips,no wonder I kept you behind tight lips.

Little troupe, there were audition casualties: for two of you, brace yourselves girls, it was curtains. There was talk of wires, pliers,of tension and the need to pull together. Your oddly cocked heels now captivein callipers that reshuffled your dentine souls, throbbed with rhythms of enamel thumping homelike refugees through slow yielding bone.

Musical statues, caught in the act, coupled,on train tracks, you rehearsed a military two-step,became formation dancers, arms linked, in time, like a West End chorus line, assemblingfor the grand finale. Sold out.Forgive this scold who bridled you,and the man who rummaged at your roots,so I can smile when a camera is produced.©Alison White

The Five MinutePoet is AlisonWhite, Writer, Poet,Playwright. Makefriends with her onFacebook – The FiveMinute Poet.

The Five Minute Poet

Reading doesn’t make me feel like aconsumer, it makes me feel like aparticipator.

With this in mind, I’d like you todance with me. Well, in truth, I’d likeyou to dance with my teeth as theymake their journey from crooked tostraight via the aid of a fixed brace.Lift the words from the page and letthe surreal film of my dancing teethrun in your head. And I really don’tmind whether you paint the dentist aswolfish, fiendish or just plain dish!a

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12FEATURE

In the shadow of Pendle Hill there isa new arts and health schemehelping local people improve theirmental health and wellbeing. Arts onPrescription, delivered by PendleLeisure Trust is not only clearlyimproving participants’ confidencebut has gained national recognition,being showcased at FolkestoneUniversity on the 23 March 2010.

In 2005 Pendle was chosen toparticipate in a ground breakingresearch project by ManchesterMetropolitan University, (“Invest andSave”). Pendle Leisure Trust thendelivered a series of art classes withthe effects on participants’ wellbeinganalysed by researchers at theuniversity. The research found thatparticipants felt happier, empoweredand more confident after engaging inthis arts initiative, as reported inmailout March 2006 (“The Arts AreGood For You”). This research was abreath of fresh air, confirming whatmost artists and readers of thismagazine already knew. This was thebeginning of Arts on Prescription inPendle.

On the back of the positive results of“Invest and Save” Pendle Leisure Trustmanaged to gain funding throughthe Target Wellbeing programme runby Groundworks North West. MaggieMoody, Portfolio Manager – Target:Wellbeing, explained “Target:Wellbeing is a portfolio of over 90projects that aim to help peopleacross the North West live happierand healthier lives. The portfolio isfunded through the BIG LotteryFund’s wellbeing strand and focuseson increasing levels of physicalactivity, improving nutrition andhealthy eating patterns, andimproving mental well being.”Groundworks engaged NHS EastLancashire to be the portfolio holderfor all the projects in the Burnley andPendle area, with Arts on Prescriptionas one of 23 projects. Arts onPrescription is also funded by PendleLeisure Trust and Nelson and ColneCollege with the latter supplying thelocal artists for the project.

Arts onprescriptionin Pendle

“Arts on Prescriptionhelped me rememberthat I am a person andnot just a mummy”

“Perfect for meetingpeople with similarproblems, a brilliantcourse, really helped”

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FEATURE

This is an exciting development forArts on Prescription and a wellneeded positive focus on Pendle andPennine Lancashire. Jeni Keiller said“It really does change people’s lives. I am very excited about going toFolkestone and sharing with themsome of the positive work we havebeen doing in Pendle.” Lesley Elmes,Mental Health Section Leader atNelson and Colne College, added:“There is a need for programmessuch as Arts on Prescription becausethere is substantial evidence that artand all types of learning have apositive impact on mental health,well-being and help buildconfidence.”

The success of Arts on Prescriptionhas been proven in both informalfeedback as well as through reliablewellbeing surveys. It is hoped thatsimilar schemes can replicate thissuccess in other parts of the country,helping some of the more vulnerablemembers of society. a

This funding, and working inpartnership with the college enabledPendle Leisure Trust to launch Arts onPrescription in Pendle on the 27 June2008.

“This course reallyhelped me to tacklemy depression headon and built up myself confidence fromnothing to sky high”

The four year Arts on Prescriptionprogramme is in the middle of itssecond year and has delivered anumber of positive outcomes. In yearone, for example, the projectdelivered 5 courses with 47beneficiaries, with the followingresults:

> 86% of participants felt that thecourses gave them a sense ofincreased wellbeing.

> 100% had an improved score(relating to self esteem andwellbeing) according to theWarwick Edinburgh WellbeingScale (WEMWBS)

> 100% had increased self efficacy(according to self evaluationquestionnaires)

> Almost 50% felt that the projecthad helped them to meet newpeople, feel part of theircommunity and have more controlover their lives.

The greatest challenge faced by theprogramme has been attendanceand retention due to the nature ofparticipants’ illnesses. Two solutionswere used to try to mitigate these

issues. Firstly, an ongoing enrolmentprocedure was established, meaningthat participants could start thecourse when they were ready tostart. Secondly, the course work wasbased on themed individual projects,meaning that if a participant misseda week any anxieties about catchingup with work were minimised.

Recently, Arts on Prescription wasrecognised nationally when TheSidney De Haan Research Centre forArts and Health invited Arts onPrescription to take part in its 2010Seminar Series at the UniversityCentre Folkestone.

On 23 March Jeni Keiller, one of thelocal artists delivering the project,and the project co-ordinator willtravel down to Folkestone to presenta two hour interactive seminar aboutthe success of the Pendleprogramme.

“When you are onyour own … It’s nice tohave some thing tolook forward to in theweek”

“For me Arts onPrescription meansbeing able to find afew hours to get into acreative space andunwind stress free,learning newtechniques andmaking new friends”

Arts on Prescription Case Study Any names and identifying details have been changed toprotect confidentiality.

John Smith is able to express his feelings afterattending Arts on Prescription. John’s SituationJohn has Aspergers and is in his mid 20’s. He is sufferingfrom low confidence and feels that he is unable toexpress his feelings, even to those close to him. He isseeing a therapist every fortnight. He used to enjoywriting but as of late feels no motivation to writebecause the only audience for his writing is himself. Heis generally feeling un-happy.

Intervention: Arts on PrescriptionJohn attended an Arts on Prescription creative writingclass for 18 weeks. As part of this class he wasencouraged to write in class and at home. The class wasdelivered by a professional artist and participants wereencouraged but not pressurised to read their work tothe class.

The Impact of Arts on PrescriptionJohn has started writing again. He feels motivated towrite and has also developed the confidence to sharehis writing with the artist leading the course, histherapist, and his mother. He has started using hiswriting to express his feelings and emotions, which hefelt he could not speak about. His general demeanourhas changed to one of confidence and happiness. Thissharing of his feelings has been a significantbreakthrough as previously he was unable to talkabout many of the aspects of his life that wereeffecting his wellbeing.

For furtherinformation oradvice onestablishing asimilar programmeplease contactLeroy Philbrook,Arts DevelopmentManger for PendleLeisure Trust. E: Leroy.philbrook@pendleleisuretrust.co.uk

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The ‘arts in health’ field is frequentlyasked to define examples of bestpractice. The pioneering nature ofthis work makes it a learning processfor all involved, and it is from a multi-sector dialogue that thecharacteristics of good practice maybe best determined.

As practitioners themselves mayacknowledge, however, some adversecharacteristics of practice need to beimproved or eradicated. Lessonslearned from both success andfailure have informed the impetus inrecent years to scale up the work andestablish whole system programmesfor the delivery of arts in health, theirtarget areas determined by humangeography or specific health issues,

rather than just being focused onlocal projects in isolation.

We need first to understand thecomplexities involved in producingmodels of good practice. The medicaleducationalist Colin Coles hasproduced a tablei that sets out thetension between a medical model ofhealth and a social/artistic one whichis based on the learning systemsguru Donald Schon’s view of practiceas artistry.ii Coles’ table seems highlyrelevant to articulating a code ofpractice for artists working inhealthcare settings and he contrastsscientific rigour and artistry set outbelow:

Resolving the tension between theleft and right columns is helpful notonly for determining good practicebut also for its evaluation. Butachieving measurable performanceby adherence to protocols has to bebalanced by recognition that bestpractice is also shaped by reflexiveand experiential learning.

Efforts to date to produce a code ofpractice for arts in health havetended to be almost entirely directedat the artist, supplementing therequirements for a boldly competentarts practitioner with a whole raft ofextra responsibilities relating togovernance, research skills andpartnership management that haveto be adopted. These areresponsibilities rather that should beshared by project partners, with asupport structure in place thatenables the artists to concentrate onengagement with participants anddelivery of the project, while allowingtheir input on the health and well-being aspects of the project to becontributed and valued.

Recognising these difficulties,Ireland’s Waterford Healing Arts Trustand the Health Service Executive forCork together identified a need forsupport for artists who wish todevelop their practice in healthcaresettings (including relevantvoluntary/community groupsettings) and for healthcareprofessionals wishing to engage withartists and art projects. So in 2008–09 they commissioned us to produceguidelines for good practice forparticipatory arts in health caresettings. These guidelines can nowbe downloaded fromwww.waterfordhealingarts.com andfeedback on them is invited untilOctober 2010.

De-coding bestpractice in arts

in healthMike White is a Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Medical Humanities atDurham University and Mary Robson is its associate arts and education researcher.

By Mike White andMary Robson

Technical/rational Professional artistry

Practice is concerned with certainty Uncertainty is endemic

Complexity must be reduced Complexity is inevitable

Factual knowledge is required Some things remain unknowable

Protocols should drive practice Judgment is central to practice

Quality is measurable Quality lies within each professional

Services are to be delivered Care can only be realised

Performance management isessential

Professional self regulation isneeded

Regulatory mechanisms are required Development achieves high quality

Staff training is needed Professional education is required

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FEATURE

The guidelines were developedthrough a process of consultationwith a representative group of overfifty practising artists and healthprofessionals in Ireland and withother members of the UK arts andhealth sector in general. We wantedour consultative method tocomplement the processes of thework as perceived by practitioners.We recognised that the practice ofarts in health is not so much a singleprofessional role but a skillspartnership of people who cometogether in their distinctive roles toengage the public in creativeactivities that aim to improve healthand well-being. The term‘practitioner’ is here not to beunderstood as exclusively an artist;rather it can be anyone who has aprofessional role in the preparation,delivery and evaluation of the work.The term ‘participant’ can refer to apatient, client, service user, staffmember, carer, or indeed any personin a community taking part in an artsin health project.

We felt we could not produce a set ofbinding rules of conduct formembers of a distinct profession;rather the guidelines should be astatement on good professionalpractice and personal conduct fordeveloping participatory arts inhealthcare. Our consultationsidentified a core commitment to fivekey factors that should be commonto all practitioners in this field:

1. Putting participants first2. A responsive approach3. Upholding values 4. Feedback and evaluation 5. Good management and

governance

The guidelines were then structuredaround these five headings, eachcommencing with a keynote pointthat aims to express the essence ofgood practice in participatory arts inhealth. For example, the secondheading, titled ‘A responsiveapproach’, sets the keynote as:

The practitioner always attempts todraw out the creative potential ofparticipants, challenging andmotivating them whilst exercisingprofessional judgement on thereasonable expectations from theactivity.

It continues with the followingpoints:

> Practitioners propose the visionand structure for the arts activitybut maintain an open mind forcollaborative, friendly working thatrespects the experience, skills,advice and contribution of others.

> The arts activity evolves out ofdialogue and engagementbetween practitioner andparticipants and is developed, sofar as is practicable, as acommunal interest in which everyparticipant’s voice is heard andacknowledged.

> Practitioners aim to keep an overallfocus on health and well beingwhile ensuring that the activityabides with the aims and purposesagreed with fellow practitionersand/or participants.

> The approach to the arts activity isappropriate to the setting andpractitioners try to create acongenial and secure space inwhich participants can work andrelate comfortably with each other.

In the absence of a professional bodyable to require compliance with acode of practice, it was felt there wasa need for clearly defined roles andboundaries at the outset of a project.The difficult question was raised asto whether practitioners should bevalidated and registered, in the waythat arts therapists are. There wasalso the issue of how to decide if andwhen a practitioner is capable andeligible to work under the guidelines.These are complex training issues,but in the first instance it was feltmany organisations needed to besupplemented with information onrecruiting and managing artists inthe first place.

Good practice is not about justknowing the ground rules of aparticipatory arts intervention in ahealthcare setting; qualityproduction and emotionalengagement are also actively soughtthrough the activity. Self awarenessis always needed, and the workshould try to have support andsupervision in a reflective practiceframework.

The field of arts in health drawspractitioners from many disciplines.An interdisciplinary approach toeffective networking and partnershipcan open up learning opportunitiesfor both arts and health workers thatare directly linked into practice.

As well as artists, there are medicalstaff and health workers, educators,individuals, local authority personnel,voluntary sector workers who can allbe involved. Relatively few haveknowledge or experience ofprofessional supervision or othersupport mechanisms as part of theirworking lives. All come acrosschallenging and demandingscenarios in their working lives.Individual and group supervision canprove a boon to an emergent fieldsuch as participatory arts in health.Often project partners work togetherfor a short time, sometimes inchallenging circumstances. Thelearning points of the experience canbe captured in planned, regularfacilitated sessions that are guidedby techniques of reflective practice.They contribute to the developmentand evaluation of the project – forexample, through openly contractingthe partnership at the outset andcourse correction throughout theprocess. Whilst artists have beenoffered training in businesstechniques, few have the opportunityto access and afford personalmanagement training. Short coursesthat look at achieving goals, avoidingburn-out, managing conflictingpriorities and balancing personal andprofessional commitments could beoffered at a subsidised rate as part ofa training and supervisionprogramme.

It is important to recognise this isstill a pioneering field of work, andwe would advise that it is prematureto consider formalising theguidelines into a code of practice as astep towards validating andregistering artists who can work inhealthcare settings. This will excludefar more talent than it includes, willunnecessarily medicalise the activity,and will confuse the distinctpractices of artists working inhealthcare settings and artstherapists. The governance ofparticipatory arts in health is a jointresponsibility predicated on inter-disciplinary partnership to deliver thework. If the arts in health practitioneris seen as a collective rather than anindividual, the collaborative workingbetween people from differentbackgrounds relieves the burden onthe artists to deliver the wholeproject.a

More information: www.dur.ac.uk/cmh

i Coles C. Where is thewisdom? Professionaleducation and therealisation of healthcare.Oxford UniversityPress. 2005.

ii Schon D. TheReflective Practitioner.New York, Basic Books.1983.

FEATURE

Questoutdoor arts in practice

“Quest – Outdoor Arts in Practice” was a 2 dayconference, initiated by Arts Council England,Yorkshire, held in June 2009 on the site of theBradford Mela in West Yorkshire. Delivered byFaceless, working in close association withPromenade Promotions, Swamp Circus and BradfordMela, the Quest conference aimed to stimulatecritical debate about the genres of outdoorperformance practice (Circus, Street Arts and Carnival)as a response to the Arts Council’s OutdoorPerformance Strategy – New Landscapes and as a linkto Elemental – a regional series of Arts Council andLocal Authority discussions.Bev Adams, Artistic Director, Faceless, has compiledthis summary report.

The event space on the BradfordMela site was divided into a series ofthemed tents: In the Impulse tent,John Fox and Hilary Westlakesupplied creative provocation. InMechanics, Ali Pretty (Kinetika) andLeila Jancovich (co-founder ofCircelation) explored thepracticalities of making outdoor artprojects. In Think Tank, Mike Lister(co-founder Avanti Display) and AliceBayliss (Lecturer at University ofLeeds) provided engaging theoreticaldebate whilst in the Emergence tentTony Lidington (PromenadePromotions) explored the small scaleand emergent work whilst RichardSobey (IOU) and Bev Adams(Faceless) facilitated debate aboutproviding space and time to creatework.

74 people, varying in age anddiscipline, attended the conference,of which 54 were practitioners. Theconference brought eminentpractitioners, academics, students,policy makers and emerging artiststogether under canvas to discuss, seework, participate in workshops,network and socialise.

Leila Jancovich (co-founder ofCircelation and Senior Lecturer andLeeds Metropolitan University) talkedabout Circelation – a professionaldevelopment programme for circusartists and directors which set out toencourage circus directors to startthinking beyond the 10 minuteperformance slot. Having identifiedthat a circus performer’s life is asolitary one, Circelation grew out of aneed for artists to network, view eachothers’ work and exchange artisticpractice.

Those attending Circelation eventsover the years listed benefits such asimprovement in performance/qualityof work and an increase in thegeneration of new work throughopportunities for training,networking and cross-fertilisation.

Provide Space and Time for Creativityand Play Richard Sobey (IOU) and Bev Adams(Faceless) facilitated a joint sessionabout providing time and space forprofessionals and communities toexplore outdoor work. The sessionwas based on IOU’s experience of

their project Space, Time, Tools andAdvice. The project providesopportunities for emergent artscompanies and practitioners todevelop ideas at IOU’s Studio with asmall budget, mentoring and advice,calling upon IOU’s wealth ofexperience in both the art andbusiness side of producing creativeprojects. Faceless’ Conference of theBirds project, on the other hand, hasa predominantly community focus. Inthis project, the company outreachesinto a community space to providespace and time for that communityto explore outdoor arts through afive day rehearsal process with thecompany, culminating in a highquality public performance on daysix.

The discussion groups that ensuedon this topic concluded thatproviding additional space and timefor creativity with or without thedemands of a production couldimprove skills, provide inspiration andopportunities for collaboration whilstextending opportunities for risktaking and exploration of alternativeinfluences. The results could

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“PerformanceEncounters have

four mainfeatures:

Incongruity – withthe event and the

environment;Generosity – with

the audience;Improvisation –

working with theaudience on theunexpected and

accepting this andfinally; Playfulness

– enthusing theaudience with asense of play.”

Photo © Soundwave

FEATURE

engender more mature work,stronger relationships betweenartists and communities, thusempowering and inspiring people tofind new ways and models ofworking. The perceived value of suchspace and time projects to theOutdoor Arts sector included:accumulative quality; new, moreconsidered ideas; innovation andgrowth as well as the creation ofnew partnerships and greaterunderstanding of contexts.

“When we activate playfulness, therules of engagement are flexible, andthese performance encounters can‘jolt’ us.” Alice Bayliss, Lecturer inApplied Theatre (Educational,Community and InterventionistContexts) University of Leeds.Beyond Text is Alice Bayliss’ AHRCfunded research initiative looking atperformance in a festival context. Shedoes this practically by creatingPerformance Encounters – relationallive performances emerging fromunexpected places (i.e. at a festival anencounter could emerge from thecampsite, or the toilets; the showerblock). Such encounters areinteractive, co-authored, very mobileperformances between actors andaudience. They do not conform, thereis no fixed performance space; nowarning and may start as a viral, tinyseed which would gathermomentum and become part of thecrowd. Performance Encounters havefour main features: Incongruity –with the event and the environment;Generosity – with the audience;Improvisation – working with theaudience on the unexpected andaccepting this and finally; Playfulness– enthusing the audience with asense of play. It is heartening for theOutdoor Arts Sector to have Arts andHumanities Council funding foracademic research into the art form.

“Keep holding on to the ritual of pureart”, John Fox Founder and ArtisticDirector of Welfare State 1968–2006and Director (with Sue Gill) of DeadGood GuidesAnother ARHC fellow and eminentpractitioner of more than 40 years,John Fox, inspired the conferencewith his talk “A New Role for theArtist”. Here John talked almostentirely about inspiration and thetrue function of art, noting that oftenart gets lost in the rollercoaster offunding. John urged artists to conveya total human experience and reflectthe world around them.

As we emerge from the InformationAge, he feels that people have losttraditional, practical skills and it is theartist who keeps skills alive whilstlooking for new ways to make artconnect in a world of austerity. Artshould not be about fixed solutionsand needs to be present throughoutsociety. With Dead Good Guides,jointly run by John with his wife, artis used as a vehicle to connect peoplein the main rituals of life, e.g.Weddings, Namings and Funerals.

How does the art form touch,influence and affect change in thelives of others?Hilary Westlake, considered quality,inspiration, engagement and riskunder the umbrella question of whyare we doing the work in theoutdoors in the first place?

Her group concluded that work inthe outdoors changes the way wesee our cities and familiar spaces aswell as challenging the way we thinkabout social issues. Outdoor spacesexcite performers and provideopportunities to subvert realitywhilst enabling access for audienceswho would not normally see art.

The group also agreed that qualityhas a direct correlation to audienceinvolvement and that performanceneeds to touch the audience andengage them on both a cerebral andemotional level. Live performancehas the ability to create a powerfulshort term influence. High qualitywork is work which engages,challenges perceptions and providesthe audience with tools to think. Thegroup felt that participatoryexperiences added to theengagement mix, with activeparticipation helping to make anaudience more complicit andaccepting of challenging work.

On the question of risk, the group feltthat funding and health and safetyconstraints can create limits and theabsence of politics in street arts is areflection of society. Artists feel thatthere is little encouragement frombookers/funders for challengingcontent.

How do we create work of emotionaland dramatic depth in anentertainment driven market?On the theme of challenging content,Mike Lister used one of his recentprojects, a collaborative work at theInfecting the City Festival in SouthAfrica, as an example of how street

arts productions can embracepolitical content and can containemotional and dramatic depth.Infecting the City is a privatelyfunded festival which, in 2009,commissioned a series oftransnational collaborations to createoutdoor works that made a creativeresponse to xenophobic violence inthe country in 2008.

Mike’s presentation and discussionled to one of the key action pointsbeyond Quest and the inspiration fora future follow up conference in 2010.

Other key areas of interest for furtherexploration resulting from the QuestConference included a call for moreopportunities for practitioners tohave the time and space to createtogether without the usual deadlinesand the need for more publishedwritten articles on Outdoor Artspractice. In addition, as a result of theconference cabaret, emerging artistscalled for further opportunities toshow new work/work to peers forcritique.

A follow up to the Quest Conference,dealing with the topic of Politics,emotional and dramatic depth inOutdoor Arts practice is to be held inYorkshire in the Autumn of 2010. Forfurther details please contact BevAdams, Artistic Director, Faceless byemail at bev@facelessco.com. Todownload a copy of the full QuestConference report, go towww.facelessco.com.a

Bev Adams is a director and outdoorperformer, a fellow of the RoyalSociety for the Engagement in theArts and a committee member of theNational Association of Street Artists.Please note the Quest Conference isnot connected to the South West’sCultural Olympiad programme of thesame name.

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“… quality has adirect correlationto audienceinvolvement andthat performanceneeds to touch theaudience andengage them onboth a cerebraland emotionallevel. Liveperformance hasthe ability tocreate a powerfulshort terminfluence. Highquality work iswork whichengages,challengesperceptions andprovides theaudience withtools to think.”

Photo © Soundwave

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FEATURE

Rob Howell trawls through the policies of the UK’s political partiesin an attempt to find anything on participatory arts. As the GeneralElection looms, what do we need to know and, politically speaking,what will a post election participatory arts landscape look like?

I believe inmotherhood and

apple pieThere are some words and phrasesthat we hear politicians utter a lot,‘Hard Working Families’ (I hate thatone, Ed), ‘Aspirations’ and ‘Choice’.Choice is an interesting one in thiscontext as there really isn’t a lot of itavailable when looking at the artsand cultural policies.

Labour, Conservatives and the LibDems all say that the arts areimportant in themselves and notmerely for their instrumental uses;excellence is more important thanbox ticking and that the Britishfunding model of private and publicsources is really good and to be kept.

This article is more about trying towork out what the consequences ofthe forthcoming General Election willhave on the work that we do. We’renot trying to comment on thepolicies but rather work out what weneed to know.

We are looking here at micro politics.What the broadly centralist politicsof Britain thinks about arts andculture. This is more about nuancethan ideology. In the past it was onlyreally worth considering the policiesof the Labour and the Conservativeparties. As we go to print, howeverthe polls seem to be suggesting ahung parliament. Who knows whowill be sitting in the Culture seat inthe next cabinet? To this end we’vetried to take a look at the policies ofthe other parties who may end upbringing votes to a coalitiongovernment.

This is not easy. Some of the smallerparties, either have no culturalpolicies or are ashamed to admitthem.

When Gordon Brown announces theelection date, (widely predicted to beMay 6th), everyone will be in a rushto publish manifestos telling us howgreat they are, until then someparties are keeping their powder dry.We’ve provided links to those partieswho are standing nationallyincluding those in Wales, Scotlandand Northern Ireland.

Even when the manifestos arepublished it is sometimes hard tofind arts and culture. It is hard tobelieve that to some it is just notimportant! Manifestos don’t havemuch detail. In the interests ofequality, in doing this research I wasforced to look at the policies of theBNP. (I had to lie down and cleansemy computer afterwards). In their2009 council election manifesto theyhad a section on arts and culture andthere was one, (only one) that I feelable to repeat here:

“We believe that Councils shouldprovide more support to localmuseums and historic buildings aswell as to the encouragement oflocal arts and crafts and thepromotion of local festivals”All very ‘nice’ but doesn’t really sayvery much does it?

I shall leave the BNP there. It is highlyunlikely, even if they do manage toget an MP that they would beinvolved in any coalition after theelection.

The Liberal Democrats have made myjob here the easiest by publishingtheir proposals for the arts in amanifesto called “The Power ofCreativity”. The document calls forcreativity and culture to be

celebrated, and to be seen asimportant in their own right, aspowerful drivers of our nationalidentity, global standing andaffluence. The Liberal Democratsbelieve the status of the arts andcreativity should be raised acrosssociety and government. The policyproposals have come from DonFoster, (Shadow Culture Media andSport) and claim to set out his visionof how to support the arts andculture and celebrate creativity in thiscountry.

The introduction praises the arts,suggesting that “the creativeindustries are seen by many toprovide our best route out ofrecession” and that “in five yearstime it is likely that the creativeindustries in the UK will be asimportant to our economy as thefinancial services industries havebeen over the past fifteen years.” It calls for “nurture, support andrespect from government”, and asksthat the status of the arts be raised.

The paper includes proposals to:> Place greater emphasis onsupporting excellence andrecognising achievement in thearts, so that they are no longer seenas an after-thought or added extra

> Introduce a cabinet committee oncreativity responsible for securingcross-departmental support andincreased levels of joint working, sothat creative industries contributeto wider policy objectives

> Ensure that Arts Council England(ACE) finances risk and innovationas well as establishedorganisations

> Work with ACE to improve thedistribution of funding and the

“in five years timeit is likely that thecreative industriesin the UK will beas important toour economy asthe financialservices industrieshave been over thepast fifteen years.”Liberal Democrats

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reach of the arts in the regions andcities outside London

> Encourage local authorities tomaintain their commitment to thearts and culture and to use culturalprojects to achieve wider policygoals

> Encourage local councils to useculture to rehabilitate offendersand raise aspirations of the sociallyexcluded.

> Embed culture and creativity as akey part of every child’s education,both freeing up more time in thecurriculum for pupils to take partin creative subjects and bringingcreative teaching practices intosubjects across the educationalspectrum

Foster explained that “this set ofpolicies demonstrates ourcommitment to the arts and creativeindustries and our belief in theircentral importance in our society”,adding that “the future we want is acountry fulfilling its creativepotential.”The Power of Creativity can bedownloaded from:www.libdems.org.uk

On the Conservative Partywebsitethere is a video of Jeremy Hunt, theShadow Secretary of State for CultureMedia and Sport. In which hedescribes the DCMS as beingresponsible for “… quality of life –things that really matter but notusually things related to things thathappen in the workplace” It’s a bitworrying that a man in his positionseems to be unaware of the value ofthe Creative Industries.

Clearly someone in his team hasthought about it but I think they’reconfusing us with BT; “We will alsohelp to rebuild our broken economyby working with the creative

industries to ensure the majority ofthe population have access to thenext generation high speedbroadband within five years” (Anymailout readers got any cable?)

They do recognise that “Culture,media and sport are all vital for ourquality of life, as well as being hugegenerators of wealth and prosperityfor our economy.”

They are still very proud of thenational lottery which John Major setup following the last recession toregenerate the construction industry.They want to stop the governmentgetting it’s greedy mitts on it though“(Labour)have continually raidedLottery funds for other governmentprojects– and we would return theLottery to its original purpose. Ourreforms would put an end to anyfurther government interference andensure a greater share of Lotteryfunding goes to the arts, sport andheritage, allowing them to prosperand thrive.”

The Conservative Party claim to be“committed to fostering anenvironment in which sport, the arts,and the creative industries canflourish, and in which people cantake control of the most enjoyableaspects of their lives.”

Outside of Hunt’s portfolio the Toriesare proposing an increased role forvoluntary organisations and charitiesin fixing social problems – especiallyat a local level.

Michael Gove, shadowing education,is planning a “ Return of Conservativevalues and discipline”. He wants toshift “the balance of power in theclassroom back in favour of theteacher”. He wants an end to softersubjects like dance and media

studies. He also dislikes the current“movement away from subjectdisciplines and towards cross-cutting,thematic, multi-disciplinary learning”(Shares in a slate quarry anyone? Ed)

The conservatives are promising newpolicies on the arts and music foryoung people to be announced.www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Culture_Media_and_Sport.aspx

Labour has been in charge for thepast thirteen years and as far as wecan tell don’t plan a radical departurefrom current policy if they’rereturned to power. Ben Bradshawcurrently fights the corner for CultureMedia and Sport in the cabinet.

Labour believes that “… sport, thearts and culture play an integral partin enhancing the quality of life foreveryone, and uplifting communitywell-being, as well as making asignificant contribution to Britain’seconomy.” (No I’m not repeatingmyself. The do all say the samething – Ed)

They don’t seem able to explain theirpolicies without telling us whatthey’ve ‘achieved’ so there’s notmuch that is new. The difference isthat they talk of participation andvolunteers in a way the Conservativesdon’t.

They also seem to have a morerealistic idea for solving the issuesaround high speed broadband. Theybelieve in an “Active industrial policyto ensure we make the most of thedigital revolution, and in making thenecessary investment in our digitalinfrastructure now.” (Now, thisminute? Oh you mean after thegeneral election).

“[the Conservativesare] committed tofostering anenvironment inwhich sport, thearts, and thecreative industriescan flourish, andin which peoplecan take control ofthe most enjoyableaspects of theirlives.”Conservatives

The three main party arts andculture spokespersons. Left to right:Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw MP,Secretary of State for Culture,Media & Sport.Don Foster MP, ShadowCulture SecretaryJeremy Hunt MP, ShadowCulture Secretary

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They want to “… open up the arts andculture to as many people aspossible, building on the Find YourTalent and free theatre schemes, aswell as free museums and galleries.”We’re clearly stuck with the “Findyour Talent” title for a bit longer andthere’s no mention of CreativePartnerships.

Whilst we’re on schools, Labour wantto develop the idea of them beingsocial hubs in the community and anew raft of commitments around theFair Access to Professions Panelwhich will include access to arts andcreative industries. They will set up anetwork of “Arts Explorers” schemesfor 5 to 11 year olds which will provideearly access to a variety of arts andcultural activities. Unlike the Toriesthey want scale up the “soft skills”. www.labour.org.uk/culture-media-sport-policy

The Green Party are looking to wintheir first Westminster seat with alleyes on Brighton.

Their published literature on arts andcultural policy is a bit thin. Theybelieve that “Culture and sport aretwo important elements throughwhich social identity and a sense ofcommunity can be promoted in largesocial groups such as communitiesrather than those, which are formedby personal relationships.” A bit longwinded but I see what they’regetting at. They also see that “Therise of new media at the beginningof the 21st Century can be seen as apublic expression of a need for betteraccess and improved participation.”(Some would feel the opposite to bethe case –Ed)

“Green policies should look todemocratise access to culture, media,and sporting activities, ensuring thatindividuals are not left out becauseof age, gender, social, ethnic,economic or geographical factors.”(Not sure that that’s just a greenpolicy but….)

Arthur Scargill’s Socialist LabourParty believes that “Everyone by rightshould be able to take part in andexperience music, dance, drama andthe visual arts including painting andsculpture. Observing and/orparticipating in all art forms enrichesour own lives, our understanding ofone another and thus of our society.”(Interesting that painting andsculpture has been singled out)

I have failed to find anything relatingto arts and culture from the RespectParty or the Socialist Party.

The Monster Raving Loony Partyhave lots of policies but nothingrelated directly to culture. I didhowever like this one: “All socks to besold in packs of 3 as a precautionagainst losing one.”

Culture is devolved in Wales, Scotlandand Northern Ireland so any statedcultural policies of nationalist orNorthern Ireland parties don’t relateto the UK as a whole or England.Plaid Cymru are surprisingly quietabout arts and culture for a nation sosteeped in it. They support the armslength principle. The SNP are similarlyreticent though they publiclyrecognise the value of arts andculture to the economy.a

NORTHERN IRELANDNelson McCausland, the currentMinister of Culture, Arts andLeisure in the devolvedgovernment represents the DUPthough it is very hard to findwhat he or the party really standfor. He is keen that NorthernIreland is known for qualityarchitecture.

Sinn Féinwant to see an allIreland approach to the arts andbelieves that Community Artsprovide individual developmentand community empowermentand should be given a specialdesignation within arts andculture policy and budgetedaccordingly. Sinn Fein are unlikelyto be asked to prop up a UKcoalition as they decline to takeup their seats at Westminster.

“Everyone has talents, and artsand culture plays a veryimportant role in ensuringindividuals can realise their innateabilities. Developing thoseopportunities lies at the heart ofUlster Unionist (party) policy.”

The most up to date informationthat I can find for the SDLP camein a 2005 manifesto. Their goalsincluded increased funding forthe Arts Council to ensure paritywith England, Scotland and Walesand developing a cross-departmental strategy linking allrelevant agencies in thedevelopment and promotion ofcommunity arts.

The Alliance Party’smost recentpaper, though comprehensive,was written in 2001

“[Labour believe inan] Activeindustrial policy toensure we makethe most of thedigital revolution,and in making thenecessaryinvestment in ourdigitalinfrastructurenow.” Labour

The Alliance party (Northern Ireland)www.allianceparty.orgThe British National Party www.bnp.org.ukThe Conservative Party www.conservatives.comThe Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland)www.dup.org.ukThe Green Party of England & Waleswww.greenparty.org.ukThe Labour party www.labour.org.ukThe Liberal Democratic Party www.libdems.org.ukThe Monster Raving Loony Party www.omrlp.comPlaid Cymru (Wales) www.plaidcymru.orgThe Progressive Unionist Party, (Northern Ireland)www.pup-ni.org.uk

The Respect Party www.therespectparty.netThe Scottish Green Party (Scotland)www.scottishgreens.org.ukThe Social Democratic and Labour Party (NorthernIreland) www.sdlp.ieSinn Féin www.sinnfein.ieThe Scottish Nationalist Party (Scotland) www.snp.orgThe Socialist Party www.socialistparty.org.ukThe Socialist Labour Party www.socialist-labour-party.org.ukThe UK Independence Party www.ukip.orgThe Ulster Unionist Party (Northern Ireland)www.uup.org

Political parties web sites

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The mailout

Readers’Manifesto

As this issue of mailout goes to print we’re waitingfor Gordon Brown to announce a General Election.Speculation is that May 6th has been marked up inhis diary for us all to wander down to the nearestprimary school and exercise our right to democracy.

There are lots of different issues to consider in thiselection: the economy, foreign policy, MP expensesetc. etc. but what does the future hold forparticipatory arts? Whichever party, or combinationof parties, forms the next government the nextChancellor of the Exchequer is going to be cuttingand cutting hard. Some areas will fare worse thanothers as the government prioritise what isexpendable.

We at mailout are not naive enough to think thatMessers Brown, Cameron and Clegg are spendingsleepless nights worrying about the plight of

participatory arts or even that it will be at theforefront of electors minds as they ponder whereto place their cross. Parties will, however need tohave a policy.

To this end we asked our readers and theparticipatory arts community one simple question:What single policy, related to participation in thearts, would you like to see in the manifestos leadingup to the general election?

There is still time for you to add to the list via themailout Facebook Page. We will forward allsuggestions received by the end of March to TheLabour Party, The Conservative Party, The LiberalDemocratic Party, The Green Party, UKIP, TheSocialist Party, The Socialist Labour Party, Respect,The SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Northern Irish Parties.

This party will realistically invest inorganisations that function (on theground and at the chalk face) withvoluntary support and outside thepublic sector to enable them todevelop into sustainable socialenterprises. Recognition that thepresent reliance on the VoluntarySector to deliver services needs to besupported by actual money and notmore organisations that helporganisations that helporganisations.Chris Agnew, Funny Wonders,www.funnywonders.org.uk

This Party believes in: compulsoryspace for visual art in all areas; freestudio space for visual artists, eg.empty shops used by artists;communal print studios subsidisedby councils and free exhibitionvenues for artists, with little or noselection criteria.ArtCo, The LevelBest Art Cafe,www.dacontrust.co.uk

This Party believes in more fundingfor small scale young people ledprojects with simple fundingapplications.Cany Ash, Ash Sakula Architects,www.ashsak.com

This party will develop a rationalearound funding all the arts.Resources and finances are the majorbarriers to accessing andparticipating in the Arts. Riaz Begam, Youth Worker, Blackburnwith Darwen Borough Council

In the Palazzo Publico in Siena is apiece of art work the depicts theeffects of Good Government and BadGovernment. Effeti delBuongovernmento depicts peopledancing in the street and beinghappy and healthy. This partybelieves that an evolved and civilizedculture needs participation in thearts at all levels to survive let alone tothrive.Jude Bird, Creative Producer

This party believes that a life withoutthe arts and great culturalexperiences is limited – we learnfrom enjoying and debating art andculture. At present everyone does nothave equal access to the wealth ofculture that Britain has to offer. Wewould like to see more support forchildren and families to have accessto a range of cultural activity. CCE’sresearch has demonstrated thatparents want to enhance their levelof engagement with arts and cultureand what we need is a way to ensurethat this can happen in practice.Paul Collard, Chief Executive, CCE,www.creativitycultureeducation.org

This party pledges to remove thepointless bureaucracy that results inus all in the participatory arts sectordoing the following rather thancreating art and changing lives:> filling in forms;> acting in the interests of fundersnot our users;

> counting statistics not workingwith people;

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> fitting our activities to meetfunders targets;

> ticking boxes not transforminglives;

> dealing with repressive contractspecifications and targets;

> engaging in time consumingcompetition for contracts;

> battling through top downhierarchies to get someone tomake a decision;

> completing mechanistic anduncritical quality assurancesystems;

> being straight jacketed byprescriptive and uniform practices

The hypocrisy of ‘accountability forpublic money’ by bureaucrats whowaste millions of pounds of publicmoney in imposing pointlessburdensome wasteful measuringsystems has got to be stopped. Letshave accountability but rememberthe mantra: LESS IS MORENoel Dunne, Creative Producer,www.jobdunne.com

This party believes that the artsshould be a statutory function ofgovernment on a par with educationand taken seriously, rather thanbeing a constant ‘easy target’ forfunding cuts in hard times.Jacqueline Greaves, JG Projects,www.jg-projects.co.uk

This party will develop a strategythat will lead to focussed investmentin developing the capacity of culturalorganisations to respond effectivelyto the growing commissioningculture. The IDeA have started theball rolling with their excellentreport, “Creating Better Outcomes forChildren and Young People byimproving the Commissioning ofCultural Services”www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/14269000The Arts Council is putting together aplan to support these developmentsbut a strong lead needs to come

from government to ensure that thecultural sector are best positioned tocontribute to better outcomes forchildren and young people throughincreased involvement incommissioning.Chris May, Curious Minds,www.curiousminds.org

This party believes that theproportion of funding that isfocussed on participation in the artsshould be radically increased at theexpense of the cultural institutionsthat create high art for the elite few.Pete Moser, More Music inMorecambe, www.moremusic.org.uk

This party will bring participation inthe arts to the national attention as apriority and commit additional fundsto the Arts Council that are ringfenced specifically to increaseparticipation and not just attendance Leroy Philbrook, Pendle Leisure Trust,www.pendlelife.co.uk/roundabout/opencms/pendle_leisure_trust

This party believes that GrossNational Happiness is a betterindicator of a country’s truewellbeing than Gross DomesticProduct. With this in mind, arts andcreativity are central to our plans fora better society. The amount spent onparticipatory creative activity is anindicator as to how civilised we are asa society. We believe people shouldbe able to participate in, and enjoythe arts for their own intrinsic value.We value and look forward toreceiving videos, postcards, books,cartoons, films, plays, songs whichtells us wonderful stories of peoplehaving an enjoyable time and feelinggreat about themselves. We have nointerest in statisticsSue Robinson, Robinson HowellPartnership and Co-Editor of Mailout,www.robinsonhowell.co.uk

This Party believes that broadcastersmust provide a significant anddefined percentage of arts coverageRussell Tennant, Arts DevelopmentOfficer, Lancashire County Council

This party believes that the value ofthe participatory arts in promotingsocial inclusion has been widelyrecognised but this has not led tosustained funding allowing the truepotential of the work to be achieved.We will cease to develop hit and runfunding such as the WorkingNeighbourhoods Fund, InspiringCommunities and Extended Schools,where humongous amounts ofmoney are thrown at a particularproblem for 15 – 18 months, and thenpromptly cut off. Instead thereshould be a more consistent processwhich can genuinely build capacity,working with the participatory artssector rather than holding periodicfeeding frenzies.Rick Walker, Cartwheel Arts,www.cartwheelarts.org.uk

The best education systems havecreativity at their heart. Creativityand creative thinking is not onlygood for the soul it is theunderpinning force to transformthinking and lives. Creativity is aboutquestioning and making connectionsand then finding solutions together.Our futures are dependent uponyoung people who have the ability toreason, imagine and challengethemselves. Innovative solutions arewhat our workforce will need fortheir futures and the country as awhole. Risk taking and developingimagination develops the wholeperson and facilitates self confidenceand independent learning. Creativityisn’t about vague practice and artsand music – it is about improvingskills, performance and standards. Judith Williams, Peel Park PrimarySchool, (School of Creativity),www.peel-park.lancsngfl.ac.uk

Other arts manifestosIn the last issue of mailout we featured the Manifesto forparticipation in the Arts and Crafts. Developed by representativesfrom national organisations, with the support of Governmentdepartments and Arts Council England the manifesto exists toprovide the means of pulling participatory organisations andgroups together, to work coherently towards a shared goal. Fromtheir research, almost all groups have an interest in increasing anddiversifying participation and this manifesto has been devised tomobilise the widest possible constituency of arts organisationsthrough a representative coalition.www.participationinthearts.net

The National Campaign for the Arts have also developed andpublished a manifesto for the arts. Their vision is of a UnitedKingdom where the lives of all citizens are enhanced by theexperience of excellent cultural and artistic activities, where artisticendeavour and achievement are highly prized and where thecreative potential of every man, woman and child is realised. They have also developed an excellent General election advocacytoolkit describing ways to contact your prospective candidates andhow to engage them in the arts debate. Both documents can bedownloaded from:www.artscampaign.org.ukThe manifesto also has a Facebook page – search for arts manifestoon Facebook and it comes top of the list.

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With Barnsley in the running for theprized accolade of becoming theinaugural UK City of Culture in 2013,poet, broadcaster and comedian IanMcMillan ponders the chances of agritty northern market town becomingthe culture capital of the UK.

I was watching Match of the Daysometime in the early months of2008; Manchester United wereplaying Liverpool, and over the soundof the commentator you could hearthe unmistakeable noise ofthousands of Man U fans chanting‘City of Culture ? You’re having alaugh!’ towards the mass ranks atthe Liverpool end.

I guess that many people would havehad the same reaction when theyheard that Barnsley was in therunning for City of Culture 2013,because they don’t look beyond theflat-capped whippet-toting muffler-wearing cliché. If ever Barnsley isfeatured on the aforementionedMatch of the Day, you can’t move forBBC producers searching for apithead or a couple of old blokes whoare about to release a basket full ofpigeons into the dark Northern sky.It’s lazy thinking, I guess: the kind oflazy thinking that will always consignBarnsley to some sort of rustyculture-free wilderness.

When I met the people who wereputting Barnsley’s City of Culture bidover an espresso in the cafe at thegorgeously renovated Civic Theatre,we were almost absurdly confidentabout our chances. Maybe it was thestrength of the espresso, perhaps itwas a kind of innate Barnsleyoptimism or a feeling that maybe,just maybe, the underdog can comeout on top. There’s plenty of culturein Barnsley, of course, partly due toBarnsley’s long history of collectivism

and community-based activity. Thereare choirs, and brass bands, as you’dexpect; it may be more surprising tolearn that there are contemporarydance groups, enterprising small artgalleries, fashion designers, singer-songwriters and poets all over theborough, making Barnsley theirhome and often using Barnsley as abasis for their work because this areais an area struggling with change.This is an attempt to redefine itself atthe start of a new decade by lookingto the future through the prism ofthe lessons learned from a harsh andunforgiving history. Take the LampLight project, for example; aredefining of the old pit shafts withhigh powered beams of light in thenight sky; a striking metaphor of lightout of darkness and an upturning ofexpectations of what the visual post-industrial landscape can be. Andwhat better conditions, what bettercatalyst for a growth anddissemination of culture? Europe justbefore the First World War, anybody?America at the end of themonochrome 1950’s?

So now we’ve put a marker down;we’re on a kind of long shortlist and,to continue the football theme Ibegan with, we’re like a non-leagueteam up against a Premier Leaguebunch in the third round of the FACup. But we all know what canhappen in the FA Cup: didn’t humbleold Barnsley get to the semi-final acouple of years ago? Just watch usprogress through the rounds. City ofCulture? See you in 2013. And theespressos are on me!a

© Ian McMillan

For further details contact James Brunt, Arts Development Officer, Barnsley CouncilT: 01226 773512E: jamesbrunt@barnsley.gov.uk

Claim and Shame –a new politicalcomedyKeeping with Political debate, wethought you might be interested toknow about a recent productionpremiered by a company calledBaseless Fabric Theatre Company.

“I know, I know, you’re a serious andidealistic person, that’s why you’re inpolitics, and this expenses systemdoesn’t seem quite right to you. Am Iright?”

Just before Christmas, in a smalltheatre with big ideas was a boldnew performance called Claim andShame, a new comedy based on theMP expenses scandal.

Newly elected Labour MP Meg Jonesfinds herself in the front line of theexpenses scandal, while her husbandDoug falls for a classic newspaperhoney trap. Their lives and theirmarriage disintegrate before therelentlessly cruel headlines. But wasit all their fault – or are theyconvenient scapegoats for muchbigger fraudsters?

The play exposes the ruthlesscalculating of those in power, and thepressures of a life lived under thescrutiny of the press and public.

This collaboration between directorJoanna Turner and playwright FrancisBeckett presented as a work-in-progress to some very receptiveaudiences.

“The run we did at Theatre 503 wentreally well and we had some greatfeed back. We are now starting tolook into to organising a full run ofthe play.”

The Claim and Shame productionteam hope to find funding for theplay from various new writing funds,the Arts Council and politicalorganisations that may donate todevelop a production, preferably atan established new writing venuelike Theatre 503 or the Finborough.

“We are looking to make the playpredominantly about the expensesscandal, however we wish to makethis a theme that indicates the largerissue that parliament and its MPsface today, and how this is changingthe way the public perceive politicsand how the politicians do theirjobs.”aFor more information: E: baselessfabrictheatre@yahoo.co.uk

CITY OF CULTURE? YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH!

Stop PressSorry Barnsleydidn’t make it butas they saythemselves, “Thisis not the end ofthe dream. Thebid has been asuccessfulexercise increativity,imagination andcelebration.” The shortlistedcities are:(London) Derry,Birmingham,Sheffield andNorwich.

FEATURE

In March 2009 the governmentproduced the Learning Revolutionwhite paper, which described a newvision for informal adult learning inthe 21st century and the stepsneeded to be taken in order forlearning to grow and flourish.

The paper examines thegovernment’s ambition for informaladult learning to be readily accessedand widely available to everyone. Itlooks towards ensuring that inspiringopportunities are made available toeveryone, in every community, buthighlights those who find thesetypes of opportunity more difficult toaccess than others. The LearningRevolution paper places emphasis onthe depth of activities which fallunder the banner of informallearning:

It could be a dance class at a churchhall, a book group at a local library,cookery skills learnt in a communitycentre, a guided visit to a naturereserve or stately home, researchingthe National Gallery collection on-line,writing a Wikipedia entry or takingpart in a volunteer project to recordthe living history of a particularcommunity… They may not call iteducation, but this informal adultlearning makes a huge contribution tothe well-being of the nation.

Learning Revolution White Paper

The white paper outlines howinformal adult learning bring largebenefits for individuals and theircommunities as it promotesincreased social interaction, raisescultural awareness and contributesto health and well being throughelevating confidence, social skills andenjoyment. In addition, informallearning can be seen as an importantstepping stone towards furtherlearning, qualifications andemployment.

According to Our Creative Talent: thevoluntary and amateur arts inEngland, commissioned by theDepartment for Culture Media andSport and Arts Council England in2008, there are currently in excess of49,000 voluntary or amateur art andcraft groups in England, accountingfor an estimated one fifth of all artsengagement. These groups play avital part in offering over 9 millionpeople the opportunity to regularlyparticipate in the arts and crafts.They help to unlock potential,eradicate apathy and build strong,happy, independent and fulfilledindividuals and communities.

Voluntary Arts England advocate forincreased resources to voluntary andamateur arts and crafts participationand raises awareness of thecontribution that arts participationmakes to the well-being ofcommunities, social inclusion,lifelong learning, active citizenshipand volunteering.

The £20million Learning RevolutionTransformation Fund, launched byGovernment to offer grants for morethan 213 innovative informal adultlearning projects in England, willbring to life The Learning Revolutionwhite paper.

The projects, many spearheaded bypartnerships between public, privateand third sector organisations, willhelp improve mental health, physicalwell-being, active citizenship andcommunity cohesion, as well asproviding a stepping stone towardsfurther learning, qualifications andemployment for many people.

Up For Arts is one such project thatreceived funding from the LearningRevolution Transformation Fund. It’s aground breaking legacy projectwhich encourages, supports andprofiles grassroots participation in

art and craft forms across the wholeof Merseyside. Delivered by VoluntaryArts England in collaboration withBBC Radio Merseyside; it aims toincrease interest and participation ininformal learning using self-organised voluntary arts groups asthe lever for transformation.

So why Liverpool? The project aims tobuild on the legacy of the Capital ofCulture ‘08 and aims to strengthencurrent creative opportunities withindisadvantaged communities acrossMerseyside. The Department forCulture Media and Sport’s researchOur Creative Talent (2008) showsthat in Liverpool there are 354formally constituted voluntary artsand crafts groups and that accountsfor 43,225 individual members. Withthe population of Liverpool totalling435,500, if the Up For Arts projectinvolves just 2% of the nonparticipating population ofMerseyside through its activities itwill reach 7844 participants within 6months.

The new exciting project is creatingwaves around Merseyside leaving atrail of paint brushes, crayons, wool,instruments and paper in its wake.

How does it work? Over the coming months, Up For Artswill be hosting a series of open artsparticipation events which will takeplace in numerous locations acrossMerseyside. The events which will bepublicised on BBC Radio Merseysideaiming to enthuse and motivateinvolvement in arts and crafts, givingindividuals hands-on experience in awhole host of activities, develop theirskills and help them find localopportunities to continueparticipation. The project aims toraise the profile of voluntary arts andcrafts both on and off air and turnthose passive listeners into active‘doers’.

Up for artshmailout informal learning

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“According to OurCreative Talent:

the voluntary andamateur arts in

England,commissioned bythe Department

for Culture Mediaand Sport and ArtsCouncil England in

2008, there arecurrently in excess

of 49,000voluntary or

amateur art andcraft groups in

England,accounting for an

estimated onefifth of all artsengagement.”

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Up For Arts has a number of layersbut with five main areas of focus; onair radio programming, showcasesand events utilising the BBC RadioMerseyside space, helpline support,online information and guidance,and outreach events which will beheld in local community venues.

On air, the project is promotedthrough radio features, slots, bulletinsand promos. Furthermore, the‘What’s On’ features include artsbulletins, weekly arts ‘spotlights’which feature local groups that arekeen to open their doors to newmembers or tell their arts and craftstories. So far, there have been greatfeatures on the Wirral Pipe band,Merseyside Guild of Weavers, NorthEnd Writers, Purlesque (a knitting andcrochet group based at the Bluecoat)and Ray Jones a master craftsmanwho specialises in wood turning.

BBC Radio Merseyside has always beenproud of its position as the communitystation for the people of theMerseyside and Cheshire and we’redelighted with the partnership withUp for Arts. I’m sure our listeners willbenefit hugely by coming along to theevents and joining in the activities; it’sa true legacy of Liverpool’s status asCapital of Culture in 2008 on a grassroots level so everyone can join in.Mick Ord, Managing Editor, BBC Radio Merseyside

The project has fantastic supportfrom the A-team, a group ofvolunteers housed at BBC RadioMerseyside, who run the ‘arts andcrafts helpline’ (0151 794 0984). Thepublic are encouraged to call in withtheir enquiries and queries and theteam will sign post opportunities intheir area. They are currently workingaway, gathering together all theinformation about arts and craftsacross the whole of Merseyside, from

animation to acting, brass bands toballroom dancing, film making tofolk dancing, photography to pottery,wood turning to writing and everynook and cranny in between, therewill be a plethora of opportunities topoint callers to.

Up For Arts, like many of the projectsfunded through the LearningRevolution Transformation Fund,harness partnerships with a varietyof organisations. This Merseysideproject has support from The MediaTrust, People’s Voices Media andLiverpool City Council all of whom areenabling the project to reach a widerrange of participants and utilisingtheir large networks of support,resources and knowledge.

Up for Arts showcase eventThe weekend of 30th/31st Januarysaw a showcase event for the Up ForArts Project. The fun filled two dayevent compromised of free drop inarts and crafts activities andworkshops for adults and also actedas a celebration of creativityhappening across Merseyside.

Over 800 people came through thedoors and got involved in a variety offantastic hands on workshops; woodturning, crochet, weaving, felting,drawing, painting, ceramics andpaper origami making. There was amanned information point whereanyone could get more informationon any of the activities taking placeon the day, as well as further arts andcrafts activities happening aroundMerseyside.

I heard about your workshops onRadio Merseyside, I talked my husbandBob into coming with me. We had ago of Origami making a bird withAnthony, being pensioners we neededa lot of help, he had a lot of patiencewith us, we enjoyed it, I was sorry wedid not have more time to have a go

at something else. I wouldrecommend it to anyone that islooking for a new hobby.Mavis Iddon, Participant at Up ForArts showcase event

Plans for future events are well underway, and will all get peopleparticipating, making and doing!Voluntary Arts England will capturethe results of the project and willshare its findings.a

In the mean time, you can join thearts and crafts revolution by visitingW: www.upforarts.co.uk.

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Street Arts has its roots in Commedia,which some historians claimdeveloped as a response to thepolitical and economic crisis of theItalian Renaissance (16th Century).Political satire in outdoor theatre wasfurther developed in the Punch andJudy puppet shows of the 19thcentury though the depiction of theoutrageous struggle of Mr Punchwith family life, law and order andthe devil. The protest happenings of1960’s developed into the TacticalFrivolity of the Solidarity movementin the 1980’s Poland and the morerecent anti-capitalist protests at G8summits. In 21st century Britain,buskers have to be licensed,protesters need permission and thepay masters of many professionalstreet performers are localauthorities.

What opportunities are there forstreet artists to create contentious,inciting and thought provokingwork?Local Authorities are by naturepolitical organisations striving tomeet a host of political objectives–such as NI11 engagement in the artstargets, regularity impactassessments, community cohesionagendas. On the up side, Street Artsdelivers well against these agendasand street artists benefit from the

paid work they glean from tickingthese boxes. On the down side, streetartists are often used as quick fixpacifiers for disenfranchisedcommunities and their work is used(often without credit) to provide thepretty picture in the promotion of UKtowns as destinations.

Has the time come for street artiststo challenge the status quo? Shouldwe try and steer the agenda awayfrom the delivery of targets to thecreation of work that challengesperceptions and stimulates newways of thinking?

Ned Evans, from Creature Feature,recalls a number of occasions thatshe has been asked by clients to“leave out the message” in her streetperformance about the plight of themountain gorilla. The reason being …“Audiences just want to beentertained”.

Whilst many presenters areparticularly attuned to the need toprovide spectacle shows reachingaudiences of thousands in the run upto the Olympics, not many streetartists/companies are proposingwork of “intellectual rigor”, yet thereis a desire from UK promoters andproducers to see more work of thisnature.

How does spectacle engage theaudience emotionally andintellectually? High quality street spectacle is oftenabout inviting the audience to take afresh look at their surroundings.Imprints left by ephemeral largescale street arts works on theaudience minds’ eye oftenpermanently changes theirperceptions of that place.

Back to the smaller scale, PaschaleStraiton talked about her up andcoming project based on Punch andJudy, one the outcomes of which is tofacilitate the audience/general publicto write letters to the government.The letters are posted. When asked ifthe company censored/vetted theseletters she replied that the publicwhere normally polite in theirrequests as they were mindful ofwho they were writing to.

Public space is increasingly privatised,controlled and licensed and workingin the public realms brings with it anumber of restrictions andlimitations. In order to make impactand draw focus away from thegeneral hubbub of the public space,practitioners tend to work in broadbrush strokes, using archetypes andsimplistic storylines. Complexnarrative and dialogue is not always

Politics and

Bev Adams, ArtisticDirector of Faceless givesus her take on theimportance of street artsas a forum for politicaldebate. Bev is a directorand outdoor performer,a fellow of the RoyalSociety for theEngagement in the Artsand a committeemember of the NationalAssociation of StreetArtists.

“Has the time comefor street artists to

challenge the statusquo? Should we try

and steer theagenda away from

the delivery oftargets to the

creation of workthat challengesperceptions andstimulates new

ways of thinking?”

Illustration by John Welding

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FEATURE

effective in the street and narrativedoes not necessarily need to be thedriver of the message. The emotivevisual image can speak a thousandwords and have great impact.

Who is out there and do they reallywant to hear your views?With theatre (indoors or out) weshould be creating a space wherechange is possible and where peopleare able to listen, but moreimportantly, where people feel ableand invited to engage.

What is the language ofengagement? Tapping into universals helps – food,shelter, the human element. TheFaceless Company have, for the pastthree years, been working onperforming a complex spiritual epicjourney in the street. Based on a 13thcentury Sufi poem, Conference of theBirds is an epic journey of a group ofbirds in search of enlightenment andself-fulfillment. Like many otherstreet arts companies Faceless usesbroad brush strokes. Bird charactersare metaphors for human archetypesand the use of mask andexaggerated costume helps thecompany to deliver easilyrecognisable characters that havedramatic depth and the ability todisplay deep emotion. The narrative is

distilled to physical action,complimented where necessary witha few lines of narration. What makesthe Faceless project unique is thatthe show is re-rehearsed for a weekprior to each performance withmembers of the community as theprotagonists. The company of threeprofessionals – an actor, a directorand a technician all take a back seatto facilitate the communities’ input.This empowerment of thecommunity to perform for their peersmakes each performance unique andstrengthens the meaning andrelevance of the message.

So what do we have to get politicalabout? With a loss of faith in our politicaland economic systems and fear thatour social structures seem to be indecline, is it the role of the performerto present an argument or a politicalstandpoint?

Being political does not mean beingpolemical. Telling people what youwant to say (especially if they don’twant to hear it) could be seen asbeing the politics of oppressionwhilst provoking people to thinkabout subjects they would ratheravoid is an important role of theartist in society. Politics as content inperformance is problematic and,

more often than not, such showspreach to the converted. Those showsthat are successful in helping us tochange the way we perceive theworld often do so through theirpresentation of the human conditionand social interaction. Thedevelopment of empathy for theplight of an individual is a deeplypolitical act and opening an honestand generous line of communicationwith the audience on a particularsubject creates the possibility fordialogue and development of ideasbeyond the life span of theperformance.

In response to the lack of meaningfulpolitical, economic and moralstructures in the 21st century Britain, I think is time to get political … in asocially engaging way!a

Bev Adams, Artistic Director, Facelesswww.facelessco.comComposed from discussions withtheatre practitioners and street artistsat two recent events held in January2010, namely Improbable Theatre’sDevoted and Disgruntled 5 in Londonas well as PifPaf and ImpossibleTheatre’s For the Love of It inSlaithwaite, West Yorkshire.

content in outdoor arts“Politics as contentin performance isproblematic and,more often thannot, such showspreach to theconverted. Thoseshows that aresuccessful inhelping us tochange the waywe perceive theworld often do sothrough theirpresentation of thehuman conditionand socialinteraction.”

Photo © Amanda Crowther

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According to the 2008 reportChanging UK: the way we live now,social isolation moves inexorably tocreate fragmentation in ourcommunities. The report reveals thatthe South West of England where Ilive has the highest levels of ‘anomie’(a sense of ‘not belonging’) of anyEnglish region after London.Individuals appear to be withdrawinginto self and family and there isevidence that communal activity isdecreasing whilst isolated, individualaction increases.

Many people I meet seem to have noobvious need for contact with thecommunity. They have moved to rural

Devon and their cars, relatively highincomes, ease of communication –mobile phones, the internet etc –insulates them from communitydependence. They could be picked upand dropped anywhere and,apparently, function as self-dependent units.

But if community is to flourish, someform of interdependence must exist.In rural Devon, the days ofagricultural co-operation have longgone. Work previously conducted bymany hands is now achieved by oneworker and huge mechanisedimplements. One great loss in currentrural communities is the knowledge

of community stories. They were amajor part of the ‘social glue’ whichbinds individuals together. Residentswithout access to these, oftenapparently inconsequential stories,therefore lack a ‘sense of place’, aquality which is best achievedthrough absorbing the layeredmeanings accreted through centuriesof, often oral, storytelling and sharedexperience.

Community Theatre, a concept andresultant activity of the 60s, aims toanimate communities to makeoriginal theatre which springs fromthe community’s seminal stories .Ann Jellicoe and the Colway TheatreTrust subsequently blazed the waywith a number of exciting WestCountry community plays but,generally, those communities, andsimilar ones nationally apparentlyhave returned to the round of farcesand pantomimes so loved by theamateur theatre world. My adventurebegan when I was asked by a parishcouncillor, Alf Boom, if I would makea theatrical event to celebrate thenew millennium. The result was‘Parson Terry’s Dinner’, a promenadeproduction which happened in sevendifferent locations in Payhemburyvillage, East Devon. A millenniumbook of community stories had beenpublished and I selected seven ofthose which had dramatic potential.Each scene took place in the locationwhere the original event happened.The audience gathered in the villagecentre just before the start of theplay; there it was divided into sevenequal groups, the groups beinglimited to nineteen to allow each toenter the smallest space, the house

a search foridentity

CommunitytheatreJohn Somers is a freelance

theatre worker andacademic. He works

extensively in the UK andinternationally and is

currently an HonoraryFellow for University

of Exeter.

Photo © John Somers

“Many people Imeet seem to haveno obvious needfor contact withthe community.

They have movedto rural Devon and

their cars,relatively high

incomes, ease ofcommunication –mobile phones, the

internet etc –insulates them

from communitydependence.”

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FEATURE

kitchen. Each group was led by astoryteller to visit the seven scenes inan order different from the other sixgroups, thus ensuring that only onegroup was present at each scene atany one time. On the journeybetween scenes the storytellersrelated additional stories about thevillage. Individual scenes lastedaround ten minutes and the finaletwenty. As all audience groupswitnessed all scenes, the actorsperformed each scene seven times anight.

The scenes comprised of a selectionof events through history such as, thedragging of the Parson from thepulpit as Cromwellian soldiersobjected to the Parson’s support forthe Royalist cause, an inspection ofthe school children by a visitinginspector who tests the children ontheir basic subject skills, the arrival ofthree child evacuees from Londonwho were sent to the countryside toavoid Second World War Germanbombing, a drunken argument, thearrival of the first car to the village,the unveiling of the Parish WarMemorial to commemorate the deadof the First World War, 1914-1918.

The finale comprised a speciallywritten song sung by a 14 year-oldgirl who symbolically, through thegift of a parchment declaration, givesthe future of the Parish to theyoungest children of the community.She also gives to them the stories wehave performed and urges them tolive many more in the future.

The play was a success bothartistically and in generating socialcapital. The community seemed tofeel ‘good about itself’ in being ableto come together in such an effortwhich attracted admiration from

other communities and theatreprofessionals.

Tale Valley Community Theatre wasestablished and further originalprojects followed: a cabaret involvinglocal talent in 2001 and in 2002 apantomime involving charactersfrom eight different traditional pantostories.

2003 brought ‘The Living at Hurford’an Interactive Theatre programmewritten by me which dealt withissues in farming following the 2002Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak. Inthis production the story ended at acrisis point and audience memberswere invited to reflect on how thingshad reached this state and, aftertalking to the people in the story, toadvise them on how they might takepositive routes forward. Thisproduction toured to The TacchiMorris Arts Centre, Taunton and tothe Phoenix Arts Centre, Exeter.

In 2004, a series of theatre skillsworkshops was held, coveringaspects of music, writing, directing,set design, technical and marketing.Many good things followed,including a new community playwritten by first-time playwright RoseWatts. Her promenade play‘Foresight’ focussed on the real crashof a German Junkers 88 bomber inthe Tale Valley on 1941. Extensiveresearch was conducted andverbatim accounts of the crash werecollected. Relatives of one of theGerman airmen (all were killed in theincident and are buried in an Exetercemetery) attended a performancewhich happened in a marquee nearthe spot where one of the airmen fell.At the end of the performance, theSpirit of the River Tale led theaudience from the marquee to thespot where the Germans fell and as

Photo © Andrew Cowan

the son of the farmer who found thebody told the story, a real 2WWaircraft flew over head trailing smokeand disappearing in the directionwhere the real bomber crashed.

Since then, a series of workshopsresulted in 18 New Talking Heads, 15minute monologues which wereperformed locally, toured and madeinto filmic versions in a studiofollowing storyboarding by first-timecommunity artists. We alsoperformed a locally writtenadaptation of Wind in the Willows ina stand of redwoods, with Toadactually boating on the River Tale.Currently we are planning a VerbatimTheatre production with materialfrom forty interviews with peopleinvolved in agriculture and a sitespecific production in a 15th centuryhouse.

We make use of the local dormantskills – the storyboard artist lives inthe village and works for major filmcompanies and many of the props forWind in the Willows were painted bya local man who worked with JoanLittlewood. East Devon DistrictCouncil is open to the idea ofintroducing cultural animateurs inlocal communities so let’s hope theapproaches described here can betaken up more widely.a

J.W.Somers@ex.ac.ukFurther material about Tale ValleyCommunity Theatre can be found atwww.taleval–leycommunitytheatre.org

“The emphasis inall of this ismaking theatre inthe communitynot taking theatreinto thecommunity.”

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Breckland Film Festival wasestablished to raise the profile andincrease the use of the Village Screenservice managed by Creative ArtsEast in Breckland. With very fewgroups showing film screenings intheir village halls or communitycentres, and with only one cinema ina very rural district, the festival wasset up to kick start the use of VillageScreen.

Breckland Council proposed the ideaof hosting a film festival and fundedthis to ensure there was no financialrisk to the voluntary promoter’sgroups in their first screening.

Working in partnership with CreativeArts East, Breckland Council recruitedtwelve groups to attend anintroductory session and they foundout what work was involved inbecoming a voluntary promotergroup. Following the projectionisttraining, five new voluntary promotergroups and two existing groupscommitted to the Breckland FilmFestival.

Breckland Council’s CommunityDevelopment Officer produced ahandbook for groups, givingguidance on licensing, health andsafety, how to publicise the filmscreening and raise additional fundsfor a village hall or community group.

Some voluntary promoter groupswere concerned about the size oftheir village hall or communityvenue. Creative Arts East provided atrial session for each group to set upand try the equipment in their venue,which then allows volunteers toconsider the lay out of the seating,

accounting for walkways andconsidering the maximum capacity.The projectionist training allowedgroups to set up the equipment withthe trainer and this provided anopportunity for groups to ask anyquestions.

We certainly learned that there is ademand from residents in Brecklandto watch films on a big screen andsupport community events. CreativeArts East and Breckland Councildecided on an international theme offilms, to broaden the genre of filmson offer, other than mainstreamblockbusters. Groups supported thisand selected some unusual andunheard of films such as Skin andDean Spanley, as well as classics likeThe King and I, La Vie En Rose, andblockbuster hit Slumdog Millionaire.

The opening screening was a sell outand with such interest in the rest ofthe festival, we are expecting it to bea great success, with groupscontinuing to host film screeningsbeyond the film festival.

Generating a lot of positive press, thefilm festival achieved coverage inlocal and regional press and featuredon both BBC Look East and BBC RadioNorfolk which was a great result forthis collaborative venture betweenCreative Arts East and BrecklandCouncil.

Breckland Council Executive Memberfor Communities, Theresa Hewettexplained:

“Breckland is a very rural district somany residents have to travel a longway to enjoy a film, and some are notable to do so. By recruiting andtraining local promoters, we nowhave a band of skilled, confident andmotivated volunteers who willcontinue to book films and organiseshowings in their local town orvillage after the Festival”.

Chris Garrod – Member of theVoluntary Promoting Group in GreatHockham, Breckland said:

“A huge thank you to both BrecklandCouncil and Creative Arts East for thechance to have the film night. Wewent back to the pub afterwards andthe whole place was buzzing withthe excitement of the event, whichseemed to go extraordinarily well.Now all we have to do is organise thenext film….”a

Samantha DawsonE: sam.dawson@breckland.gov.uk

Photos© Graham Corney

Rural filmfestival is a first forNorfolk

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FEATURE

HUDDERSFIELD LITERATURE FESTIVAL10–14 March With performances from Mundo Jazz,Ronald Arthur Dewhirst, a gloriouslysurreal and funny performance poet,singing and comedy from hostessPeggy Lee and compére MickHancock. W: www.thelbt.org

NORTHERN LIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL20-28 March Are you up for making mischief,crossing boundaries and acceptingchallenges? If so, Northern LightsFilm Festival 2010 is for you!Bringing the general public, filmbuffs and media industry togetherwith a range of risk-taking, rule-breaking, pioneering spirits from theworlds of advertising, film, game andscience, be prepared to laugh, cry orjust feel the emotion through a mixof events and film screenings.W: www.nlff.co.uk

GWLEDD CONWY FEAST 23–24 October Attracting international as well aslocal tourists, this festival showcaseslocally sourced products. The festivalhas a small performance area,livestock tent and a chance forchildren and adults to get engaged inlocal culture. When purchasing a wristband togain access to allocated tents thecastle then becomes free, this isexcellent for tourists. Locally brewedbeer and cider also on sale anddemonstrations are on throughoutthe weekend. W: www.conwyfeast.co.uk

LUTON FESTIVAL 29 April–3 MayLuton Arts Festival is a celebration ofall things artistic and cultural inLuton. It strives to bring together thework of students, local communitymembers, performers and nationaland international artists andshowcase it to the people of Luton.

The festival features live musicperformances and workshops,spoken word poetry events, artexhibitions and installations and liveart workshops, theatre and danceperformances. This is an event with astrong grass roots element that aimsto involve the whole community andcelebrate the cultural diversity ofLuton.W: www.lutonartsfestival.org

LONDON WORD FESTIVAL7 March – 1 AprilUnfolding across a myriad of venuesin the capital’s East End, the WordFestival is set to unravel the magic ofthe ‘word’ exploring everything fromblogs and Boggle, to poetic lyricismto lyric poetry.Previous musical relief for the eventhas included Dan Le Sac Vs ScroobiusPip, The Pan I Am and Saul Williams,so expect more aural wordsmithsthis time around. There will also betheatre, poetry, comedy andstorytelling.W: www.londonwordfestival.com

MALTON AND NORTON FOLKFESTIVAL IN NORTH YORKSHIRE19–20 March The first ever Malton and Norton FolkFestival in North Yorkshire will bebased around various venues in thetown. Festival goers will haveopportunities to participate in musicworkshops, dance classes as well asthe numerous concerts and showswithin the town.E: mnff@live.co.uk

NORFOLK AND NORWICH FESTIVAL7 May–22 May The Festival is back in town andvisitors can look forward to 16 headyMay days of world-class music,dance, theatre, circus, visual arts,outdoor spectaculars and children’sevents.E: info@nnfestival.org.ukW: www.nnfestival.org.uk

NATIONAL URDD EISTEDDFOD 31 May – 5 JuneThis is Wales’ cultural youth festival.Up to 100,000 visitors and 15,000competitors will be part of thisspectacular event which also has ahuge TV audience. With the best ofWales’ youngsters participating insong, recitation, drama, dance,composing, poetry, arts and craftscompetitions, and much, much more,Ceredigion will be a hive of activitythroughout this half term week. W: www.urdd.org

STRAWBERRY FAIR5 JuneNestled at the core of Cambridge,Strawberry Fair is a delightfulvolunteer-run festival that has beengoing since the early 1970s.Comprising samba bands, a filmfestival, and a vibrant arts area,there’s plenty to indulge, whilst kidsof all ages can enjoy the circus bigtop as well as story-telling andbouncy castles. The array of stages stretches fromWorld music to young musicians toAcoustica, and beyond. The fabulousBlaggers’ Stage is open for all sorts ofad hoc performances–if you dare!W: www.strawberry-fair.org.uk

HOLLOWAY ARTS FESTIVAL24 June–4 July Watch the website or contact theteam via email for more upcomingnews about this festival.E: info@hollowayartsfestival.co.ukW: www.hollowayartsfestival.co.uk

HEBDEN BRIDGE ARTS FESTIVAL26 June–11 JulyWatch the website or contact theteam via email for more upcomingnews about this festival.hbfestival@gmail.com www.hebdenbridgeartsfestival.co.uk

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Arts Festivals 2010Festival season is almost upon us and we thought we might introduce some highlights of the season forour readers. But before you start altering your annual leave to accommodate this fun filled events list, wethought we would mention that this is most definitely not a definitive list! Please feel free to add to it infuture editions of mailout, all contributions welcome.With thanks to Caroline Hinchliffe for additional research.

Beat Herder festival inYorkshire combines the best indance, dub, jungle, reggae andother wild beats with acreative ‘arts’ feel. Photo © Lyndsey Wilson

REVIEW

Expressive ArtsActivity Book by Suzanne Darley and Wende Heath(Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London,2008)Reviewed by Nicky Puttick of Arts forHealth Cornwall

‘We can bring art back to thepractise of healing.’

This practical book of ideas,inspirations and advice for runningcreative activity sessions with peopleexperiencing ill health (in thebroadest sense of the term) has beenintelligently and carefully collated ina way that is sensitive to the manydelicate issues that can arise as aresult of illness, yet remainsultimately life affirming throughout.

It soon becomes apparent whenreading the first chapter entitled‘why art?’ that the authors areentirely comfortable and experiencedwith the subjects explored in thebook, as they effortlessly guide thereader from Asklepios’ temple inancient Greece, where art andmedicine were completelyintertwined, to modern day ideasstemming from Jungian symbolismand exploring the many paradoxesthat ill health can create.

There is a strong sense that theseinsights are present in the wealth ofactivities that the book largelyconsists of, yet the activity ideas arepresented simply and in everydaylanguage – making them easy toapply to a range of settings. Theformat could admittedly be moreinspiring, since functionality aloneseems to have been the mainmotivation for the layout.

The sessions are aimed atpractitioners working in a range of

professions; from art therapists tofamily counsellors, and thetherapeutic undertones of theactivities are often very apparent.Setting the tone by which theactivities are presented to patients isemphasised as being key to thedepths which the activities willexplore, so they could potentially beadapted to non-therapeutic settings.

This is a common dilemma whenworking in the ‘arts for health’ field,with one of the premises of themovement being that creativity itselfis healing. The expressive therapiesmovement (which seems most inkeeping with this book’s ethos)seems to occupy the space betweenthis and the more traditional arttherapy model.

Being completely present with apatient is emphasised as the mostimportant quality to develop wheninitiating the suggested activities. Tobe a human being present with andreceptive to another human:

“You are not trying to do anything toanyone. You are not trying to fixthem, educate them (although youmight), analyse their art or makeanything in particular. Your presencecreates a “holding environment” thatenables patients to feel safe toexplore their inner world.”

Overall, I would definitelyrecommend the activities in thisbook to those who have theprofessional experience to dealpositively with some of the profoundand often challenging issues that areexplored. For those experiencing illhealth, these activities will giveinsight and meaning into theirsituations and could provide the keyto regaining wellbeing; perhaps adeeper wellbeing than they havepreviously known.

EXAMPLEACTIVITYPassages (page 162)Materials: > 12” x 18” sheet of white paper> Coloured pencils or pens> Cut – out images> Glue or Paste> Ephemera (small cut outs,

metallic paper, bits of paperribbon, etc.)

Begin the session with a guidedimagery exercise that includes“going through a door to a safe orcomfortable place.” Take the sheetof paper and fold the sides intothe centre. This creates a double-door “entryway”. Imagine a dooror gate and have the patient drawit on the front “closed” panels.Then open the door or gate anddraw or collage on the exposedpiece of paper what lies beyond.

VariationsThe four corners of the sheet canbe folded to the centre, which alsocreates an opening, but one whichis not a door or gateway. This is abit more abstract and playful.

For patients who are ready to workwith more difficult personalmaterial, the place beyond theclosed doors can be described aspain, or shadow material. It can belooked at, but the patient is able toclose the doors on it wheneverthey need. This is a simple way togive a patient control. In this caseit would be better not to use thedoorway metaphor in the guidedimagery, but instead to bring theactivity as something separatefrom the relaxation portion of thesession.

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“This is a commondilemma when

working in the ‘artsfor health’ field,with one of thepremises of the

movement beingthat creativity itself

is healing. The expressive

therapies movement(which seems mostin keeping with thisbook’s ethos) seemsto occupy the spacebetween this and

the more traditionalart therapy model.”

LLANGOLLEN INTERNATIONALEISTEDDFOD5 -11 July The Llangollen International MusicalEisteddfod is a six-day festival ofmusic, dance, and song that takesplace every year in the small Welshtown of Llangollen. It has beenrunning since 1947, and since 1987 theprestigious Choir of the Worldcompetition has determined the bestoverall choir of the event. In 2005Luciano Pavarotti added his name tothe competition in recognition of his

appreciation of the festival and itsinfluence on his career.W: www.llangollen2010.co.uk

WOMAD FESTIVAL 2010 23 – 25 JulyPromising another year of excitingartists and diverse musicians fromacross the globe, the 28th WOMADFestival will be one of the best familyevents in the UK this summer. W: www.womad.org/festivals/charlton-park

THE NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD OFWALES31 July–7 AugustThe National Eisteddfod of Wales isone of the great festivals of theworld, attracting over 160,000visitors every year. An eclecticmixture of culture, music, visual artsand all kinds of activities for peopleof all ages, there’s something foreveryone.W: www.eisteddfod.org.uk

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COURSES CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

HYBRID: ART AND SCIENCESYMPOSIUMDate: 20 March Location: Thackray Museum, Leeds.Cost: £20.00 (£15.00 concessions) perperson, this includes lunch andrefreshments.How does the space between artand science manifest itself?Speakers Siân Ede, Arts Director UKBranch Calouste GulbenkianFoundation and author of Art andScience and Strange and Charmed:science and the contemporary visualarts, Dr Mary Midgley, Philosopherand James Peto, Senior Curator ofthe Wellcome Collection provide aseries of talks addressing some ofthe ways in which artists andscientists are sharing similar values.With Chair Doug Sandle, CharteredPsychologist Consultant, curator andresearcher in art and visual culture.The conference corresponds withthe Hybrid series of exhibitions tobe held in Sheffield during February2010. For a booking form and more detailscontact Paul Digby E: pj.digby@ntlworld.com

NEURO–LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMINGTRAINING WITH PROPER JOBIntroduction to NLP and NLP StageTwo (Both stages deliveredtogether)Date: 12–15 April Time: 10am–4pmVenue: St. George’s Centre, Leeds Cost: £375During this two part workshop youwill be introduced to NLP in anengaging and interactiveprogramme. Whereas some NLPcourses take a more passive,intellectual approach, at PJ webelieve that the most effective wayto experience NLP is by doing it.That is why, on this workshop, youare invited to actively participate, sothat our learning is more deeplyintegrated both physically andemotionally.Information and registrationcontact Naomi Whitman E: naomi@properjob.org.uk

MUSIC AND SANTE EUROPEANTRAINING SESSIONS IN 2010: MUSICIN HEALTH SETTINGS:Date: 26–30 AprilLocation: ParisCost: £900Set up in partnership with the RoyalNorthern College of Music, this

course is open to any musicians andcovers actions with patients of allages and units. If you are involved in adulteducation, you can apply for aGrundtvig scholarship (through yourLifelong Learning ProgrammeNational Agency)For more information andregistration visit: W: www.musique–sante.org/europe/europeanTraining.html

MUSEUMS AT NIGHTDate: 14–16 May Location: Numerous sitesMuseums at Night is back in May –bigger than ever before. Night owlscan look forward to a weekend ofghostly goings on as museums andgalleries across the UK unlock theirdoors for the annual after-hourscelebrations.W: www.culture24.org.uk/museumsatnight for information.

UK YOUNG ARTISTS EVENTDate: Autumn 2010The first UK Young Artists event willtake place in the Autumn of 2010.Artists who are selected to take partin this event could also be selectedto represent the UK at the XVedition of the Biennale of YoungArtists from Europe and theMediterranean.Work should be new and can befrom any art form including visualarts, performing arts, literature,applied arts, film and fashion.Artists must be between 18 and 30and be a UK citizen or resident inthe UK for at least one year.To register your interest please visit:W:www.ukyoungartists.co.uk/content/biennale-2009

‘SUBSIDY JUNKIES?’ A DAY OFPRACTICAL SURVIVAL STRATEGIESFOR ARTS FUNDRAISINGDate: 26 March Venue: Kings Place, 90 York Way,London N1 9AGCost: £80 Arts and Business ArtsMembers, £150 non membersHow can the arts sector build andsustain income when faced withpublic spending cuts?This one day symposium bringstogether fundraising anddevelopment professionals workingin the arts and cultural sectors toexplore this changing landscape,learn practical survival strategies,

seek out opportunities and generatenew ideas to stay financiallyhealthy.This symposium is designed fordevelopment or fundraisingpractitioners working in the artsand cultural sectors.The day will include paneldiscussions looking at differentbusiness models in the arts andgetting boards engaged withfundraising along with interactiveworkshops on pitching to business,major gifts (“making the ask”) andthe importance of looking after yoursupporters (“donor care”).For more information visitW: www.aandb.org.uk

IF YOU DON’T ASK… Date: 15 April Venue: McGrigors Belfast, ArnottHouse, 12–16 Bridge Street, Belfast Cost: The Arts and Business masterclasses are free to arts members,thanks to funding from Arts Councilof Northern Ireland.A facilitated conversation betweentwo key figures from the arts andbusiness sectors. It will cover thebest ways to approach businessesfor support and also identify thepitfalls to be avoided at all costs.The master class is open to all ourarts members and would be ofparticular interest to artsfundraisers.Information and booking E: beverly.coomber@artsandbusiness.org.ukW: www.aandb.org.uk

COVER UP @ HACKNEY MUSEUMDate: 14 & 15 AprilTime: 2.00pm – 4.00pm Venue: Hackney MuseumSuitable for: All ages, drop-inEnjoy Hackney Museum’s “Behindthe Mask” exhibition then discoverhow homes and buildings might bemasked, hidden or camouflaged.Also find out more about where inthe world the museum’s manymasks have travelled from.W: www.hackney.gov.uk/cm-museum

OUR BACK YARDDate: 10 April – 4 JulyVenue: Community Gallery,Birmingham Museum and ArtGalleryCost: Admission FreeFour artists in residence basedwithin Birmingham have been

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working collaboratively withcommunities in Perry Barr,Erdington, Ladywood and Hodge Hillto encourage participation and tocreate projects and activities forresidents in the community. Theexhibition will include storytelling,film, photography, mosaic tapestriesand environmental art.W: www.bmag.org.ukT: 0121 303 2834

2010 DESIGN AND WINE LECTUREPROGRAMMENorth Lancashire Society ofArchitects in conjunction with theUniversity of Central Lancashireinvites you to attend the 2010Design and Wine lectureprogramme.

Revival in the SquareDate: 18 March Time: 8pmVenue: Foster Building, University ofCentral Lancashire, Preston Cost: £10/Lecture including buffetNick Corbett provides an insightinto how design strategies for newpublic spaces can transform ourcities. Giving guidance on how tobuild public spaces that will bringpeople together for a positive,shared experience of urban living. Contact John Gravell T: 01772 627346E: johngravell@talktalk.net

AUDIENCE FOCUS: A MASTER CLASSON BECOMING AN AUDIENCE-FOCUSED ORGANISATIONThis edition sees a series of coursespromoted by the Arts MarketingAssociation.Dates: 18 March (NICVA, Belfast ) 23 March (Watershed Media Centre,Bristol)Time: 10am–5pmCost: AMA Member rate: £133 + VAT,Non-member rate: £193 + VAT(Audience focus in Belfast is free toAudiences NI members.) How audience or visitor focused isyour organisation? Do the leaders ofyour organisation champion art andaudiences equally? Is your audiencedevelopment insight-driven? Thisworkshop asks these questions andmore to help you to take stock ofyour own audience andorganisational development.Develop clear insights into your ownorganisation’s strengths andweaknesses with regards to youraudience and organisationaldevelopment, work with colleaguesfrom across the arts sector on

strategies to overcome anyconstraining factors, leave withideas, insights and plans for youraudience and organisationaldevelopment.E: emma@a-m-a.co.uk.

DIGITAL CAMPAIGN PLANNING Plan, deliver and evaluate aneffective digital marketing campaignDates: 8 April (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds)15 April (Birmingham Conservatoire,Birmingham)21 April (The Women’s Library,London)27 April (Festival Theatre, Edinburgh)Time: 1.30pm to 5.30pmCost: Member rate: £75 + VAT, Non-member rate: £125 + VAT Digital marketing has become avaluable component of themarketing mix. You know what thetools are and you know how to usethem. This seminar will take you astep further and show you how toplan, deliver and evaluate aneffective digital marketingcampaign that suits yourorganisation.Learn how to select which digitaltools to use for which campaign,how to get started, the resourcesyou need, and how to measure thereach and effectiveness of yourcampaign.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE:DEVELOPING AN AUDIENCEINFORMATION STRATEGYDate: 6 May (Arts Council ofNorthern Ireland, Belfast)13 May (The Resource Centre, London)Time: 10am–5pmCost: AMA Member rate: £133 + VAT,Non-member rate: £193 + VATAudience focus in Belfast is free toAudiences NI members.) This workshop will provide you withthe skills and knowledge you needto put together an audienceinformation strategy for yourorganisation. Discover the differencethat a well planned informationstrategy can make to your ability tomeasure and improve the impact ofyour marketing campaigns – andfind out how to collect the rightinformation to inform yourmarketing and business plan and tobetter segment your audiences.E: emma@a-m-a.co.uk.W: www.a-m-a.co.uk

STRATEGIC STORYTELLING: PRESSAND PR CAMPAIGN STRATEGYDate: 2 June (St David’s Hall, Cardiff)8 June (City Halls, Glasgow)17 June (Royal Exchange Theatre,Manchester)24 June (The Women’s Library,London)Time: 10am to 5pmCost: AMA Member rate: £133 + VAT,Non-member rate: £193 + VAT We often begin our press effort bywriting a press release, releasing itand waiting with baited breath forcoverage … but nothing appears.Deflated, we return to the drawingboard and spend money onadvertising – why? The key tosuccessfully communicating yourstories and messages to the mediabegins with a well thought-throughpress campaign strategy.Those with a few years’ experienceof press or a press and marketingrole within an arts organisation whowould like to develop their skills tomake more effective use of theirtime when dealing with press andmedia work.Info and booking W: www.a-m-a.co.uk

AMA CONFERENCE 2010: PULLINGPOWER – THE SOCIAL MARKETINGREVOLUTION Date: 20 July–22 JulyVenue: The Royal Armouries Museumand Saviles Hall, LeedsCost: AMA members book and pay byend May 2010 – £399 + VATAMA members: book from 1st June2010 – £423 + VATNon AMA members: £497 + VATLatest thinking from business andmarketing leaders across all sectorsis indicating new developments inpublic behaviour. The 2010 AMAconference will explore how thesedevelopments have led to a movefrom marketing to (push marketing)to marketing with audiences (pullmarketing) and how our marketingtechniques and strategies will nowneed to adapt as a result of this. Booking E: emma@a-m-a.co.uk.For full information on all of theabove courses and conference visitW: www.a-m-a.org.uk

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FUNDING

Since November there have beensome changes at Awards For Alldesigned to make the applicationprocess more accessible. They haveintroduced a new guide which fullyexplains the application process andis useful when deciding whether toapply to Awards For All: W: www.awardsforall.org.uk/england

Recently the Big Give launched anonline service, through whichcharities can receive onlinedonations without paying fees orset up costs. The Big Give enablesyou to post a project on theirwebsite and it may then attract afunder. For more information go to: W: www.thebiggive.org.uk

A similar scheme to the one abovehas been launched by Virgin – VirginMoney Giving. This scheme chargesa one–off charge of £100 + VAT setup charge and 2% of any donations.Take a look for yourself at:W: www.uk.virginmoneygiving.com/givingVirgin Money Giving Ltd, PO Box 160,Norwich, NR4 6FS. E: theteam@virginmoneygiving.com T: 08456 10 10 45

The Tudor Trust recently publishednew guidelines. They want tosupport organisations and peoplewho know what difference theywant to make and have the energyand vision to make it happen. Theyare more likely to fund groups withan annual turnover of less than £1million. They aim to make around350 grants a year but receivethousands of applications, hence,the two-stage application process.Full guidelines including exceptionsare available on their website:W: www.tudortrust.org.uk The Tudor Trust, 7 Ladbroke Grove,London, W11 3BD. T: 020 7727 8522

The Veolia Trust is another of theselandfill tax trusts, primarilyintended to support community andenvironmental projects across theUK. A minimum of 20% of fundingneeds to be secured for project witha total cost exceeding £25,000. Forfurther information please go to: W: www.veoliatrust.org The Veoila Environmental Trust,Ruthdene, Station Road, Four Ashes,Wolverhampton, WV10 7DG. T: 01902 794 677 – They offer further

advice and help on the phone.F: 01902 794 646E: info@veoliatrust.org

In the North West the HeritageLottery Fund are raising the profileof ‘Generation Games’ – Engagingyoung people in Heritage and thatmay be the case in other regions.Another scheme – Your Heritageprovides grants of £3,000 to£50,000 to encourage all the rest ofus to connect with our individualand collective pasts. For furtherinformation go to:W: www.hlf.org.uk/InYourAreaT: 020 7591 6000Fax: 020 7591 6271 Email: enquire@hlf.org.uk

There is a significant amount of ESF(European Social Fund) money beingspent on projects to achievesustainable economic growth andpromote social inclusion in Cornwalland the Isles of Scilly. Around £200 million will beavailable, some of this funding hasalready been allocated, andorganisations should contact theirlocal co-financing organisation. Tofind out everything go to: W: www.lsc.gov.uk/regions/SouthWest/esf LSC Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly,Penhaligon House, Green Street,Truro, TR1 1DZ. T: 01752 754 170

BIG Reaching Communities has anextra £20 million and the eligibilitycriteria have been relaxed. BIG wantto encourage the following changesto communities as a result of thefunding: > people having better chances inlife, including being able to getbetter access to training anddevelopment to improve their lifeskills

> strong communities, with moreactive citizens, working to tackletheir problems

> improved rural and urbanenvironments, able to access andenjoy healthier and more activepeople and communities.

Contact the national helpline foradvice: T: 0845 410 20 30E: general.enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk Lottery Funding Helpline T: 0845 275 00 00W: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_reaching_communities

The City Bridge Trust – London has arange of schemes with fairness,inclusion and independence at thecore of their work. There are noclosing dates for applications andfor further information contact: The City Bridge Trust, City of London,PO Box 270, Guildhall, London, EC2P 2EJ. General enquiries T: 020 7332 3710Improving Services for Older Peopleprogramme: T: 020 7332 3705 Minicom: 020 7332 3151Fax: 020 7332 3127E: citybridgetrust@cityoflondon.gov.uk W: www.bridgehousetrust.org.uk

Projects which benefit young peopleare considered by the Peter CruddasFoundation but they can onlydonate money to UK registeredcharities. They strongly recommendthat you read the notes beforecompleting the application form.Further information from: Stephen D Cox, FoundationAdministrator, Peter CruddasFoundation, 66 Prescot Street,London, E1 8HG. T: 0203 003 8360Fax: 0203 003 8580E: s.cox@pcfoundation.org.uk W: www.thepetercruddasfoundation.org

Comic Relief have lodged £5 millionwith Community Foundationsacross the UK to support localprojects which address a number ofissues including lack of confidence,low self esteem and increasecommunity cohesion. Details of alllocal Community Foundations canbe found at: W: www.communityfoundations.org.uk/finding_uk_community_foundationsAny problems contacting them tryRebecca Wood at CommunityFoundation Network:T: 020 7713 9326E: office@communityfoundations.org.uk

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Small grants of between £100 and£2,000 are awarded through the Co-operative Community Fund.Applications can be made online:W: www.co-ooperative.coop/membership/Community-Fund/onlineapplicationprocess

The Bernard Sunley CharitableFoundation aims to improve thequality of life particularly of those inneed. Grants range from £250,000down to less than £1,000. The Foundation publishes very briefguidelines, does not have anapplication form and asks you towrite to the Director giving detailsof your charity and its objectives,the need and purpose of yourproject, how much it will cost, thesize of grant requested and howmuch has already been raised.Include annual report and accountsand any other documentation youfeel will help your bid. Thecatchment area is England andWales.The Bernard Sunley CharitableFoundation, 20 Berkeley Square,London, W13 6LH. T: 020 7408 2198E: office@sunleyfoundation.com

The Gannett Foundation is thecharitable arm of Gannett Co Inc.,owner of Newsquest Media Groupone of the UK’s largest publishers.The Foundation provides funding tosupport local organisations in thearea where Newsquest operates inthe UK. Grants are between £1,000and £5,000 so check if Newsquestpublish your local paper on theNewsquest Media Group Website. E: foundation@gannett.com W: www.gannettfoundation.org

Some London Boroughs benefitfrom the John Lyon’s Charity andthe next deadline is Friday 23 July2010 for the Oct/Nov 2010 TrusteeMeeting – the year has gonealready! An information brochure setting outthe grant-giving guidelines anddetails of the application procedureis available from: The Grants Office, John Lyon’sCharity, 45 Pont Street, London, SW1x 0BD. T: 020 7591 3330Fax: 020 7591 3412E: info@johnlyonscharity.org.uk W: www.johnlyonscharity.org.uk

Unlimited Commissionswillcelebrate disability, arts, culture andsport as part of the CulturalOlympiad. Round One has alreadyhappened but the Round 2 deadlinefor applications is 1 October andsuccessful applicants will benotified on the 23 December.Further information E: unlimited@artscouncil.org.ukT: 0845 300 6200

The St Hugh’s Foundation hasreleased details of its new ArtsAwards programme starting thisyear, 2010.From its inception the Foundationhas encouraged and supported alarge number of new projectsproposed by both individual artspractitioners and by localauthorities and other artsorganisations. Many individualartists, performers and arts workershave benefitted from opportunitiesto develop their experience in waysthat have helped to change theirhorizons and expand their careers.

Unlike some public sources of artssupport, the St Hugh’s Foundation isable to consider innovativeproposals focusing on personaldevelopment in the arts, including,where appropriate, foreign traveland research.The new Arts Awards will be open toapplications from individuals andfrom groups or public organisations.The Foundation wants to invest indevelopmental creative projectsthat will evolve and grow over time.They should help to addressregional needs for innovation andchange in arts practice, policy ormanagement. Projects could bebetween £12,000 and £15,000spread over a period of up to threeyears. Completed applications must besubmitted by 3 May, but anyonethinking of applying shoulddownload the information from theFoundation’s website as early aspossible.W: www. sthughsfoundation.co.ukE: sthughscharity@tiscali.co.uk

In today’s cost cutting climate, manymarketing teams may find theirbudgets being cut dramatically andpaying for advertising space inmagazines and other media may nolonger be an option. (Though mailoutoffers a very cost effective option)

So now is a good time to considerusing PR to your advantage aseffective PR can help to raiseawareness of your business andultimately drive sales.

Listed below are some ideas toconsider to promote your productsand services using PR as the vehicle.

How can I develop PRstories?Press releases can be drafted aboutnew content and statistics, but also‘hooked’ on relevant calendar datessuch as Easter, Summer holidays,Christmas, as well as the huge rangeof National Days and Weeks that runthroughout the year. Be aware thatmagazines work about 3 months inadvance so you need to plan wellahead and be talking to them aboutChristmas stories, for example, inearly September.

Also look at ways you can promoteyour business to the local press. Localnewspapers and radio stations areoften crying out for stories to fill theirpages and airtime and you could beit. Make sure you tell them aboutanything you are doing. Become thelocal media’s friend and expert onyour area of expertise. If you haveorganised an event, even if it is justgoing along to the local primaryschool to give a talk on what you do,let them know. Phone the news deskand then follow up the call with apress release. Take photos and then ifthey don’t turn up, ring them againand email them the photos. Keep thepressure on and it will pay off!

How do I put together agood press release?The most important part of the pressrelease is the headline. It needs to bebold and interesting – and above allit needs to stand out from all theother press releases. Your best bet isto write it in the style of theheadlines of the publication you’retargeting. For example, if you wereselling a new nappy that was ecofriendly but disposable too, which ofthese press releases do you thinkwould get the best response:

New Eco-Disposable Nappy launchedOrGuilt-free disposable nappies offer areal alternative to cloth ones

Make sure you cover the ‘Five Ws’ inthe opening paragraph – Who, What,Where, When and Why. Put the dateat the top and start with a shortheading in bold. Include yourcompany logo and an image of theproduct or service you are promotingin your release – but make sure this islow resolution so the press release isa small file when you email it out.Also use simple, direct language andtry and use ‘people’ words wherepossible. Don’t be afraid to add aquote from yourself, or someone inyour company. It breaks up the proseand is a better way of expressing anopinion. When finished type –ENDS–

Always include your contact details,name, telephone number and emailaddress. If you are writing a releaseabout an event your are putting onand wish to invite the newspaper tosend a photographer, put this at theend of the release, after –ends– as a‘note to the editor’.

clipout>>mailout’s cut out and keep guide to good practice

CLIPOUT

Clipout is our regular cut out and keep guide to good practice and vitalcontacts. This issue looks at how can you get your message across and get

your name out there with the public and potential customers, clients,partners or funders? Here at mailout we largely rely on you to tell us whatyou’re up to. If you don’t tell us we can’t promote your story. In this issueJulie Wilson from Sore Thumb Marketing gives tips on cost effective PR.

Budget FriendlyMarketing and PR

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Is there any particular storyangle the press like andpick up on?Surveys always work well with themedia providing them with statisticsabout certain facts relating to yourbusiness. Surveys are alwaysrelatively inexpensive as you canemail your existing customer base asurvey for them to complete to giveyou the data to feed your releases.For example, if you are in the gardenindustry you could survey yourcustomers to find out how the creditcrunch is affecting their spendinghabits. Think about what informationwould make a good story such as arepeople growing their own fruit andvegetables now to save money? Then,you can issue the findings as a pressrelease e.g. “Credit Crunch givesallotments a boost – over 65% nowgrow own fruit and veg.”

What other ways can I driveawareness of my business?Use the internet to your advantage.In today’s virtual world you can helpimprove your visibility on the net bylinking to and from as many othersites as possible. There are loads offree business directories out there – ifyou search under free business listingin Google, you’ll find many of theselisted. Sites such aswww.gumtree.com offer completelyfree listings. Also try directories suchas www.touchlocal.com

Look at relevant forums and putpostings on them as appropriatewith a link to your website. You couldalso offer to write articles forcomplimentary businesses’ websitesand newsletters to get your websitename publicised for free. If you havedone any press releases, you couldadapt these and use them as thebasis of the articles – so no need toreinvent the wheel and create extrawork.

You can also often get theopportunity to ‘tell your story’ in oneof the e-newsletters that some of theforums issue – a good way to giveyourself some free PR. Also look outfor the awards that are run forbusinesses and products and getyourself and your productsnominated as if you win they providea great PR tool and are a fantasticway to get your business on the map!

What about other low costpromotional ideas?Competitions and reader offers are agood way of maximising editorialcoverage. They allow you a degree ofeditorial control, as you can ensure allyour key messages are included, andare much more cost effective thanadvertising. These provide you withthe opportunity of securing editorialcoverage for the cost of providingproducts for prizes. The reader offerscould be linked to questions whoseanswers are found on your website,to drive traffic and awareness of thesite’s content. It is also a good idea tooffer all the non-winners a chance toget a discount off their first purchaseif they make a purchase by aspecified date (this could be in theform of a coupon you could email tothem and they could print off).

The cost of prize required variesbetween titles so this needs to bediscussed as and when opportunitiesarise.

Is there anything else Ineed?One area where it’s a good idea toinclude a media centre area on yourwebsite which includes your latestpress releases and high resolutionimages that journalists candownload too.

If you haven’t got photography this ison are where it is a good idea toinvest a little money to ensure youhave good quality high resolutionproduct shots but also suitableimages to accompany any pressreleases you do. For example if youare issuing a release about a surveyhighlighting the effects of all thepackaging we throw away atChristmas, why not attach a photo ofa family surrounded by hundreds ofempty present boxes to show justhow much wasted packaging there isout there to get your point across.a

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Accompany your press release with striking good quality images that will capture attention

To purchase a copy of Issue 1 please email ruth@e-mailout.org for details on ways you can pay or send acheque for the amount plus £1.54 postage payable to Mailout: Mailout. PO Box 665, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S40 9GY www.e-mailout.co.uk

If you are a subscriber please write your reference number/organisation or postcode on the reverse of thecheque. Please specify delivery address. www.e-mailout.co.uk/journalorderform.rtf

Image ©Intellect

Journal of Arts and CommunitiesExclusive Offer for an individual copy of Issue 2!

£6.00 to Mailout Subscribers (plus postage)£12.00 for Non Subscribers (plus postage)

The Journal of Arts and Communities seeks to provide a critical examination of the practices known as community or participatory arts, encompassing work which incorporatesactive creative collaboration between artists and people in arange of communities of place and interest.

Dot to Dot (arts)

New JobsThe Trustees of Dot to Dot (Arts), an established anddynamic participatory arts project in Portsmouth, would liketo appoint 2 new members of staff:

Artistic Director and Administrative DirectorEach to work for 3 days per week at a salary of £26,000 p.a.pro rata (i.e. £15,600).

Working in close collaboration, it is hoped that these twopostholders will, with previous experience and creativity,enable Dot to Dot to develop and prosper.

For more information, please send an A4 SAE to:Jim MadgeAdministrator – Dot to DotWindhover Cottage, Brook Lane, WoodgreenFordingbridge, Hants SP6 2AZOr e-mail: jim.madge@btinternet.comStating which of the two posts you are interested in.

Please also visit our website: www.dottodot.org.uk for moreinformation about our work.

Closing date for applications: Thursday March 18th 2010Interviews to be held in the week beginning 29 March 2010

Please note that both posts will require a Criminal RecordsBureau Record check.

Dot to Dot 25.2.2010

make your ownrosette

The General Election is only a few weeks away.Time to stand up, stand out and be counted.

Whatever your party or campaigning allegiance, why not seize theopportunity presented by the heightened political atmosphere shortly toengulf us, and pin your colours to your chest. Courtesy of the Scottish Parliament, mailout if offering a free template withdetailed instructions on how to make your campaign rosette.Mailout has made its own rosettes from previous issues of the magazine.Let your imagination run riot … and send us a photo of your own uniquedesign and we’ll print a selection of the best in the next issue of the mag.

Download the template from http://tinyurl.com/cxdj2hEmail your (print quality) photos to editor@e-mailout.co.uk