royal exchange man chester partnerships and collaboration - seminar notes - 2 august 2011

8/4/2019 Royal Exchange Man Chester Partnerships and Collaboration - Seminar Notes - 2 August 2011

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What value could a regional agency add to your work with

children and young people?

Audit, information and advocacy:

y One voice

y Add weight ± raise awareness

y Raising the profile of arts and cultural learning

y

Lobby the government to keep creativity on the curriculumy Marketing work in a way that ensures the buy-in of teachers

y Coordination of marketing / promotion to schools and young people

Quality and excellence, CPD and networking:

y Help us to meet people we otherwise wouldn¶t, with space to create newpartnerships

y Regional database of contact details for experienced creative's ± details of

what they have done, with whom, etc.

y Advice and support through networks ± collective wisdom

y Peer review of policy development ± the low down

y Opportunities to connect more widely with practice within the sector

y Sharing learning and expertise

y Share evaluation and learning so we¶re not all reinventing the wheel

y Common evaluation tools and methods to assess impacts across the board

y Find a unified way of measuring the impact / value of arts on young people ±

tracking through the years

Connecting sectors, making new links:

y Spot / broker working partnerships

Coherence ± common practice, language and vision:

y Coherence across: the region; art forms; different kinds of organisations ±

NPOs, private sector, etc.

y Oversee a more joined-up approach, with the potential to develop wider

progression routesy Vision

y Identify the gaps in current delivery and help us to fill them

y Joint funding bids / coordination

y Share physical resources ± create pool of cameras, instruments, etc. for

projects across the sector

y Facilitate shared venue spaces for activities to happen

Offering a critical eye, inspiring change:

y Advise

y Lead and challenge discussions

Sharing and debate event: ¶Thriving Together:

Partnership and Collaboration·, Royal ExchangeTheatre (Manchester), 2 August 2011



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How would a fantastic bridge organisation operate?

y We have useful information and expertise, which we widely share

y Accessible

y We genuinely listen, consider and respond

y We work broadly with a range of partners

y We promise only what we believe we can deliver

Themed table discussions: What is our ideal future when it

comes to ¶partnership and collaboration·? What skills and

resources do we already have? How can we work together

to achieve our goal?

What skills and resources do we have already?y We offer a range of opportunities for young people

y Pathways and signposting

y Providing pathways to professionalism

y We can be inclusive ± access for all children and young peopley Evaluation

y Advocacy

y Developing case studies and rigorous evidence about the impact of the work

we undertake

y We are strong because we are here today involved in conversation ± thatshows a strong, inspired sector

y We are good at talking, listening and understanding

y Collaborating / Sharing

y Sharing information and ideas. Creating an infrastructure for that to take

place within.

y Encouraging talking to each other

y

We have interesting partnerships with academic partners, for research andskills development

y Respectful of organisations¶ unique selling points and areas of specialism

y Self deprecation

y We are flexible

y We are resilient

y We share the same ideals ± talking to young people, reflective, learning andcollaborating.

y We are hard working so we can achieve our aims and support children and

young people



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y We are great at being creative and innovative ± we are experts in problem

solvingy We inspire young people to seek brighter futures

y We have energy and commitment

y We believe in what we do

y We are consistent in our work and focus

y We are innovative and forward thinking as a sector

How can we wotk together to achieve our ideal future?

y Check out other models of sharing - such as COOL or LARC in Liverpool

y There are already a strong network of forums for collaboration ± geographical

and within art forms and target groups. But can we join these separate

conversations together?y We already have groups of similar organisations that meet regular to share

practice and develop the offer across our provision

y Share resources

y Act as a collective voice

y We are an ideas generation and we need to encourage that more

y We do and should provide creative and exciting activities

y We need to develop opportunities for young people to be leaders

y We should be consulting with children and young people

y Ownership - lots of youth±led projects

y We have lots of young people-focused venues and organisations ± but not

enough

y We should be engaging our communities y Reaching the µhard to reach¶ - increasing participation

y We build partnerships with schools ± problem solving alongside those

schools, where collaboration can be difficult because of the setting

We must do this...

y Lobby the government for cultural offers to young people

y Establish a common evaluation framework to build evidence for lobbying

y Create new evaluation processes/formats

y A new set of values to measure success and impact

y Create communication pathways

y LISTEN and respond to demandy Consult with users - find the gaps

y Engage in peer evaluation

y Be open with our assets / resources / intelligence

y Preserve existing brokerage systems

y We must not undermine already e ffective arts in schools services

y Map what¶s there, what the quality is and how effectively it responds to

changing context

We¶d like to do this...



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y Share back office services - HR, procurement, utilities ...

y Be smarter with pots of funding - procurement - special purpose vehiclesand consortia to unlock funding

y Raise the bar for commissioners, so they demand more if they are non-

arts

y Facilitate partnerships to lead to joint working and accessing

commissioning opportunities

y Direct programming

y Annual gatherings to share practice experience and knowledge. Peer evaluation

y Drive dialogue ± achieve greater impact

y Demonstrate and communicate impact in a way that¶s not onerous

y Track young people across different orgs.

y

Get local right ± consistency on how brokerage happens ± a nuancedapproach

y Concentrate on quality as well as hours

Wouldn¶t it be great if...?

y We have an awards ceremony to celebrate our achievements as

organisations and young people

y We didn¶t have to scrabble for the same pot of money - applications open

to everyone

y Schools understood the process through which arts and culture happens

(e.g. not just parachuting us in as projects)

y There was less duplication and loss of knowledge, expertise and

experience.

y As a city region, there was an opportunity to draw and construct a map of what is out there for children and young people. Who is doing what and towhat level of quality?, sustained activity, etc. This is a timely opportunitywhich will only be available for the next year

y Bridging social capital ± connecting young people to others elsewhere to

encourage mobility and aspiration

What should Curious Minds be thinking about or doing as a

bridge organisation? What challenges are we likely to face

and how can we overcome them?� Persuading decision makers ± how are you going to do this?

y Establishing a shared vision and reasons for engaging

� Clarity in your key conversations with networks ± streamline these networks

and avoid duplication

y Mapping in a changing climate ±gather, aggregate and communicate ± avoid

duplication

� Find, map, bring together existing forums



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� Learning from (not duplicating) existing successes i.e. COOL , PANDA ± build

similar models that are appropriate to each other

y Strike a balance between the formal and non -formal offer � Get to know

USP resources within organisations and facilitate matchmaking

y Define clear routes in and through for children and young people

y Share tenders and grants across the sector and within it

y Regional quality commissioning framework

� Provide quality freelancers ± build new relationships

y Freelance networks ± Also to manage networks within networks

� Challenging people to raise the bar

� Peer evaluation ± sourcing critical friendships

y Signpost to provision

� Create a µculture vultures¶ peer support platform

� Open resources, including contacts ± for example, a list who was there at

certain events

y Ensure you are a partner and not just the quality police

y Make sure you are standing within the conversation not outside of it

� Need to ensure Curious Minds is diverse and not uniform

� Ensure we all have clarity of role and relationship

� Ensure you are courageous

� Accountability ± set clear guides on how arts and cultural organisations are

accountable to you and how you are accountable to arts and culturalorganisations

� Create a common and inclusive language for the arts and Arts ± a bilingualflow, e.g. argot which has long been recognised in prison settings

y Define what schools are looking for ± match to what we as arts organisations

are looking for

y Children and young people ± how do we talk about them, what do they want

to be called? Can¶t come across as patronising

� Approach young people as consumers and maptheir journeys

� Manage expectations ± we can¶t do any more for less but we can do less andbetter

� More events ± speed dating to help build relationships and share provision.

Curious Minds should be leading that collaboration

y Give us space within events to talk freely ± germinate partnerships

y How do we get the organisations that aren¶t here to engage?

� Don¶t be limited to existing networks ± make invitations clear



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y Take away the inward -facing mindset

y Will people travel to Clitheroe, etc.? But also not fair to ask Cumbrians to

travel to us. Split networks geographically, two events ± partnerships are

more likely to be more local

� Perception of Curious Minds role ± asking for input from us now, but risk of being seen to have favourites. How to let everyone know.

� Cross-regional mapping and audit

� Commissioning sense ± bringing partners outside the sector to the table toenable funding

y Making links into other interesting sectors ± sports, health, business

� Bring art to settings that wouldn¶t normally have the arts

y Build collaboration with non-arts partners- ± young people, voluntary sector,youth employment, education, commercial sector

� Brokering relationships for the benefits of children and young people ±

business, corporate social responsibility

� Look at creative industries, not just traditional art forms

y Similar networking events for young people ± forums that you can use asyour most important resource

� Raise awareness of arts, cultural and creative industries in all schools

Acrostics and Haikus

Y outh-led

O rganicU nderstanding

N eedsG enerating Funds

P rovision

E quality

O ptimisticP ro-activeL eaders

E volution

C reative

O utward Facing

L isteningL earning

A rts

B rokeringO riginal

R ealistic



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A ctive

T alkingE ducating

A spirationR esourceful

T ransparent

Appeal to people

Who don¶t care for art that much?

As well as converts

Invite everyone

New faces outside this room

Are also curiousFind and map learning

Partner, people, open-mindsBut do less better

royal exchange man chester partnerships and collaboration - seminar notes - 2 august 2011

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