Sport in the Arts: the Arts in Sport

The worlds of the arts and sport are commonly separated in academic study, research, professional practice and cultural policy, even though they both lie within the remit of a single department of Government (Department for Culture, Media and Sport). The proposed collaborative network will engage arts and sport practitioners and policy makers in dialogue with scholars and researchers to examine the potential benefits and arrive at a common declaration of principles and practice. We shall then invite a wide range of individuals and organisations to become signatories.

The objectives for this initiative are to:
a) examine critically the potential economic, social and cultural benefits from bringing together sport and the arts;
b) foster collaboration and new work between researchers working in the fields of sport and the arts, across different disciplines, in part also to begin to address a significant gap in existing research studies in this field;
c) draw together academics, policy makers, professionals and practitioners working in the fields of sport and the arts and contribute to a shared understanding of synergies and benefits of co-operation.

To that end the network will consider the propositions that:
a) links between the arts and sport can enhance strategies to increase participation in each and promote cultural citizenship. [The reason for such a proposal lies in part in the belief that sports projects can appeal to social groups with lower income and educational levels, who are often put off by the air of exclusivity and high 'cultural capital' requirements characterising traditional arts activities. Moreover, competition may be used as a tool for enhancing participation as part of cultural citizenship strategies. Equally the arts may play a part in changing the sporting experience and widening audiences for sport, by communicating alternative messages about what sport is and suggesting new ways of representing, critiquing and understanding sport activities.]
b) collaborations between sport and the arts can stimulate cultural experimentation, and be aesthetically innovative
c) arts-sports projects offer opportunities to overcome the mind-body duality, and can produce physical and mental health and well-being benefits, for instance as part of responses to problems generated by sedentary lifestyles, including the growing issue of obesity.

The network will run a series of three seminars (in Manchester, Bristol and Leeds) on themes suggested by current theoretical and policy concerns:
1. Participation and audiences
2. Aesthetics and representation
3. Well-being, social capital and cultural citizenship

A further theme, cutting across all our seminars, is how to redress the separation of the arts and sport at the level of national, regional and local policy-making. Arts and sports managers and policy-makers have different types of training, professional associations, qualifications, conferences and networks. Outcomes from the network's activities will contribute to both professional areas separately, but more importantly draw them closer. The need for this is emphasised by the cuts in public expenditure introduced as a result of austerity policies that are bringing about the need for integration and dialogue between these related but different professional worlds. We will therefore investigate the possibility of integrated forms of arts-sport skills development for both project managers and policy makers. We will also explore appropriate managerial ideas in the arts and apply them to sport, and vice versa.

Disseminated outputs from the network will include a website, social media communications, academic papers and a special issue of a journal. These will culminate in a Declaration to provide the first step towards a common arts-sport manifesto.

To reach beyond our academic colleagues we shall develop partnerships with the media to enhance the visibility of this area of research and practice and to disseminate the results of the network's activities. Some of this can be achieved through general media outlets, but for the most part the planned impacts will occur in what are currently the largely separate worlds of arts and sport policy and practice. So we recognise the need to do more than making material available for people to find on the project's own website and will secure these impacts by communicating similar messages in tailor-made ways through channels familiar to the respective communities of interest.
The project will help consolidate existing arts-sports collaboration practices, including Positive Futures programmes, Imovearts and other legacy projects emerging from the UK Cultural Olympiad. The Arts Councils of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Creative Scotland, and the UK's Sports Councils, will benefit by encouraging exchange, collaboration and policy integration. One of the envisaged outcomes is to show how joint policy might put arts/sport in a stronger position to address reduced levels of support for both the arts and sport within a range of delivery areas, including education.
There are educational benefits in the arts and sport working together (in practice, policy and research) to respond to the current de-prioritisation of both in the school curriculum, and to collaborate within the framework of projects aimed at 'hard to reach' social groups, such as Arts Council England's 'Creative People and Places', aimed at areas experiencing socio-economic deprivation and low participation in cultural activities, and Sport England initiatives like 'Doorstep' and 'Get on Track'.
Closer links between these organisations could also open up new funding opportunities and strengthen arts/sports bids aimed at, for example, the NHS and health policy organisations.
The project will encourage sports organisations to bring artists into their communities, and will advocate for public engagement and education programmes, following examples like Rugby League Cares' arts programme.
We shall use 'The Conversation' (www.theconversation.com/uk), the strategic partners of which include HEFCE, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Wellcome Trust and Nuffield Foundation, as a recognised way of making outputs from academic research available to a wider public. To maximise the number of communication channels used, the Steering Group will draft material for delegates to customise and disseminate through the channels they most commonly use themselves. We are also mindful that the collaboration between artists with a direct interest in sport (e.g. Jennifer Doyle, Brian Jurgen, Jason Minsky) and researchers can make research more visible and accessible, e.g. by making films or other artefacts inspired by sport and by exploring topics studied by academics. To speak more directly to individual artists we shall use the web and email networks of arts organisations like AXIS.
The Council for Higher Education in Art and Design will be involved in our project to disseminate the outcomes of our research and encourage innovative forms of research in different higher education institutions.
Armed with information from the seminar series we shall work with the Local Government Association, Arts Development UK and the Chartered Institute of Sport and Physical Activity (established links with Chris Cutforth, SHU, will facilitate this) to reach professionals in the field. Their various media will allow us to disseminate the benefits of shared learning about good practice and more integrated forms of policy and management for arts and sport services at local level (public and third sectors), particularly in a context of public spending cuts.
By raising the profile of arts-sport research we aim to create the conditions for future research projects in this field to be funded.