Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices
Lead Research Organisation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
Department Name: Faculty of Education
Abstract
This network bid builds on a series of meetings at which artists, members of publicly funded Arts institutions, and academics specialising in youth and community work, came together through a shared concern with the persistent inequality in arts participation in England and Wales.
Many marginalised groups especially those who also live in poverty are at risk of social isolation, substance misuse, self-harm and civic disengagement. Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years. Yet, research shows that it is marginalised groups who do not sustain their involvement or benefit from long-term experiences of Arts to enhance their lives. Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' The network set out to explore what more arts organisations and artists can achieve by attuning to the needs and knowledge of marginalised groups through a multidisciplinary lens.
Hitherto, debates about specific approaches to widening participation in the Arts have taken place within fields that have developed independently of each other. For example, the fields of youth and community work draw on arts-based practice to empower marginalised groups, and have developed skills for befriending and working with groups who find themselves on the periphery of society. However, while the Arts disciplines strive to democratise access to the Arts, yet consultations with participants who work in publicly funded Arts organisations, such as national theatres, museums, galleries and arts centres revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. Lectures on creative media courses in Further Education colleges often teach marginalised young people. While the disciplines of the Arts and the fields of community and youth work have developed independently of each other, there is enormous potential to share different perspectives to understand this complex problem which requires both critical debate and the inclusion of multiple viewpoints.
In response, we will create a network to facilitate boundary crossings between hitherto siloed fields that have different approaches and purposes in relation to the Arts. Through a series of regional multidisciplinary, multiagency BarCamp (N=5) style exchange spaces, stakeholders from Arts disciplines as well as those who work in publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. Two BarCamps will be hosted by a youth centre and a community centre enabling marginal groups to lead activities. Events will be designed to enable a multiplicity of perspectives through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. Collectively, we aim to develop new ways to imagine and understand how marginalisation takes place in often-imperceptible ways, and to forge new ways of working that draw on the strengths and creative resources of marginalised groups. A website will enable insights to be gathered incrementally across the BarCamp events and shared publicly. The long terms objective is to create guidance for Arts organisations who are grappling with the Culture White Paper's (CM 9218) expectation for the first time that all museums, theatres, galleries, opera houses or arts groups that receive government money "should reach out to everyone, regardless of their background". The challenge here is to develop new models for effective partnerships that can be adapted in specific local communities based on the values implied, rather than through performative acts such as counting numbers through the door.
Many marginalised groups especially those who also live in poverty are at risk of social isolation, substance misuse, self-harm and civic disengagement. Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years. Yet, research shows that it is marginalised groups who do not sustain their involvement or benefit from long-term experiences of Arts to enhance their lives. Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' The network set out to explore what more arts organisations and artists can achieve by attuning to the needs and knowledge of marginalised groups through a multidisciplinary lens.
Hitherto, debates about specific approaches to widening participation in the Arts have taken place within fields that have developed independently of each other. For example, the fields of youth and community work draw on arts-based practice to empower marginalised groups, and have developed skills for befriending and working with groups who find themselves on the periphery of society. However, while the Arts disciplines strive to democratise access to the Arts, yet consultations with participants who work in publicly funded Arts organisations, such as national theatres, museums, galleries and arts centres revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. Lectures on creative media courses in Further Education colleges often teach marginalised young people. While the disciplines of the Arts and the fields of community and youth work have developed independently of each other, there is enormous potential to share different perspectives to understand this complex problem which requires both critical debate and the inclusion of multiple viewpoints.
In response, we will create a network to facilitate boundary crossings between hitherto siloed fields that have different approaches and purposes in relation to the Arts. Through a series of regional multidisciplinary, multiagency BarCamp (N=5) style exchange spaces, stakeholders from Arts disciplines as well as those who work in publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. Two BarCamps will be hosted by a youth centre and a community centre enabling marginal groups to lead activities. Events will be designed to enable a multiplicity of perspectives through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. Collectively, we aim to develop new ways to imagine and understand how marginalisation takes place in often-imperceptible ways, and to forge new ways of working that draw on the strengths and creative resources of marginalised groups. A website will enable insights to be gathered incrementally across the BarCamp events and shared publicly. The long terms objective is to create guidance for Arts organisations who are grappling with the Culture White Paper's (CM 9218) expectation for the first time that all museums, theatres, galleries, opera houses or arts groups that receive government money "should reach out to everyone, regardless of their background". The challenge here is to develop new models for effective partnerships that can be adapted in specific local communities based on the values implied, rather than through performative acts such as counting numbers through the door.
Planned Impact
We have designed the network BarCamp exchange spaces to deliver the project objectives outlined in the Objectives section and maximise impact on both academic and non-academic users. The project will contribute to a 'Fair Society' by supporting the effective and equitable access to arts-based organisations, facilities and practices for groups who do not usually access these. Eventually the project (when the future plans to research new ways of working with marginal groups are complete ) will provide guidance to public arts organisations and artists on how to access and engage marginal groups in meaningful ways.
When it is complete, the project will address the need to prepare the future workforce, by suggesting how groups who do not usually consider employment in the arts sectors may be supported to consider future careers in the Arts and as entrepreneurs creating a more democratic, participatory society.
Users and beneficiaries of the research who are outside the academic research community (they can be individuals, specific organisations or groups/sectors):
- Policy-makers, governments (at local, regional, devolved, national, and/or trans-national levels);
- Arts Council for England, Arts Council for Wales, and other Art Councils in the UK and beyond;
- Public sector agencies or bodies, such as public arts institutions such as museums, theatres, art galleries, studios, dance organisations and opera houses;
Professional or practitioner groups
- Youth Workers and Community Education practitioners who work with arts-based methods and arts, and arts organisations;
- The third sector, including charities, museums and galleries, organisations, and individuals in the creative and performing arts;
- Museums, theatres, art galleries, studios, dance organisations and opera houses in the 5 regions will be networked with each other and youth and community workers in the region through the BarCamp meetings, mailing list and project website;
- Local communities or the wider public in general.
The network will create new connections between arts, Arts Institutions and Youth and Community workers, as well as Further Education lecturers on creative media courses in the five regions where the BarCamp meetings will take place: Manchester, London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. This will develop the capacity for inter-agency work that supports marginalised groups to benefit from the Arts.
(see Pathways to Impact attachment)
When it is complete, the project will address the need to prepare the future workforce, by suggesting how groups who do not usually consider employment in the arts sectors may be supported to consider future careers in the Arts and as entrepreneurs creating a more democratic, participatory society.
Users and beneficiaries of the research who are outside the academic research community (they can be individuals, specific organisations or groups/sectors):
- Policy-makers, governments (at local, regional, devolved, national, and/or trans-national levels);
- Arts Council for England, Arts Council for Wales, and other Art Councils in the UK and beyond;
- Public sector agencies or bodies, such as public arts institutions such as museums, theatres, art galleries, studios, dance organisations and opera houses;
Professional or practitioner groups
- Youth Workers and Community Education practitioners who work with arts-based methods and arts, and arts organisations;
- The third sector, including charities, museums and galleries, organisations, and individuals in the creative and performing arts;
- Museums, theatres, art galleries, studios, dance organisations and opera houses in the 5 regions will be networked with each other and youth and community workers in the region through the BarCamp meetings, mailing list and project website;
- Local communities or the wider public in general.
The network will create new connections between arts, Arts Institutions and Youth and Community workers, as well as Further Education lecturers on creative media courses in the five regions where the BarCamp meetings will take place: Manchester, London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. This will develop the capacity for inter-agency work that supports marginalised groups to benefit from the Arts.
(see Pathways to Impact attachment)
Organisations
- Manchester Metropolitan University (Lead Research Organisation)
- Federation for Detached Youth Work (Collaboration)
- Tate (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- 42nd Street (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- National Museum Wales (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Common Wealth Theatre Ltd (Collaboration)
- Arts Council England (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Common Wealth (Theatre) (Project Partner)
- UK Federation for Detached Youth Work (Project Partner)
Publications
Rowley H
(2022)
Editorial for SI - Critically exploring co-production
in Qualitative Research Journal
| Title | Creative Margins Network |
| Description | As part of the second Barcamp/Meeting hioste by 42nd Street, Manchester a young poet was Ella Otomewo to listen to our conversations throughout the day and respond in spoken word. She created the poem 'A Seat at the Table', which she read at the end of the meeting. A seat at the table By Ella Otomewo Are there enough seats at the table for me? Or am I going to have to awkwardly squeeze myself onto the corner again? Make myself smaller again, and more palatable? Not having an automatic seat at the table does not mean I expect you to feed me from a silver spoon. You can disrupt the table! Disrupt the heavy expectations sitting dusty next to the silverware. Where mouths have been force fed what to say. Don't ask me to be real and then get angry when I'm not your favourite version of myself. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. Like teaching to an open ear, or a pen in hand. Let's have a show of hands for anyone who's ever woken up knowing that their best idea yet is dissolving away with last night's dreams. Luckily for us there is ample time to redo our mistakes, and meet each other at the place where we have fallen down. Meet me where I think I've failed and I'll meet you where you start. Meet me at the heart of it. Meet me in trust and let me speak as if you weren't there, but as if I had invited you. I do invite you. I hope you keep inviting each other After the event one of the participants at the Manchester Meeting blogged for the Creative Margins website and wrote. 'In the Manchester event, the poet Ella Otomewo returned the sense of 'the margins' (as somewhere other, perhaps, as a place where we are not and need to go to) to us. It expresses well my hope for what may yet emerge from this network, my hope that, in the poet June Jordan's words, our lives will continue to declare these meetings open.' |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | After the event one of the participants at the Manchester Meeting blogged for the Creative Margins website and wrote. 'In the Manchester event, the poet Ella Otomewo returned the sense of 'the margins' (as somewhere other, perhaps, as a place where we are not and need to go to) to us. It expresses well my hope for what may yet emerge from this network, my hope that, in the poet June Jordan's words, our lives will continue to declare these meetings open.' The poem will close the Final Report ( in progress) , because it moved us all and captured so much of what we want to disseminate. The poem is on the Creative Margins website, as a sound recoding and video, and as a text |
| URL | http://www.creativemargins.net/2018/07/11/a-seat-at-the-table/ |
| Title | Creative Margins Scaptbook |
| Description | The Creative Margins Scrapbook is a novel way to present the findings from the Creative Margins meetings or barcamps. An 87 page written Final Report was compiled which documents all the events, discussions, presentations, slide shows and small group discussions from each of the five Meetings, in Bradford, Manchester, Brighton, Cardiff and London. Artists, one professional and three students artists were given a brief, to read the pages of the Final Report relating to one meeting and asked to represent the findings in art form - using their own style. The art form were to be collated to form a 'scrap book' account of the meetings. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | Everyone who has seen the Scrap Book has been very impressed. Physical copies have been given to Arts Council England, St Fagan's Museum in Cardiff, Tate London, Brighton Youth Club. The Scarp Book has been described as a beautiful impactful and original way to disseminate findings. |
| URL | http://creativemargins.net |
| Title | Creative Margins to teaching Resources |
| Description | Due to the methodologies and methods that I have been developing with Emma Renold across the Productive Margins; Regulation for Engagement and Creative Margins Network collaborations, I created a case study for AGENDA (see details below). We presented and performed out arts-based research methodology with dancer and choreographer Jen Angharad and visual artist Seth Oliver at the fourth Creative Margins Barcamp/Meeting 4: Key Theme - 'Time and Trust': working collaboratively and creatively with young people. November 5th 2018, in Cardiff, hosted by St Fagan's National Museum of History This new version of AGENDA will be launched on March 19th 2019, at the Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff at an event sponsored by Lynne Neagle AM. My case study involves enabling teachers to work with young people who have a 'melt down' or express uncontainable feelings. I describe how working carefully with paint and other art modalities and materials can enable young people to 'come back into the world and re-inhabit their bodies' Parts of the case study describes a melt down, and part describes a range of arts activities and how to use them. A snippet form the text is provided below. 'When a child has grown up with many adverse experience, the difficulties that they have lived within sometimes becomes traumatic. In schools a very simple event can re-trigger the extreme fear, anxiety or loss of control that is part of trauma. Sometime an outburst, or a melt down can occur and this can involve screaming, kicking, swearing and shouting. An outburst is like an explosion of energy.' Arts activity text... Materials We laid out a piece of watercolour paper, that is more absorbent than ordinary paper. Cover the desk with newspapers. We had different colours of crystal paint. Crystal paint is a powdered paint that created unpredictable and beautiful effects when water is splattered onto it. We chose Lee's favourite colour and sprinkled crystal paint onto the paperthe we took a paint brush, dipped it into water and spattered it across the paper. As the water met the crystal, an explosion of colour emerged. Lee' s attention was draw to the moving paint. As the crystals came in contact with water the paint swirled outward transforming from what seemed like a dark spot of powder into flowing eddies of colour. Lee seemed to be mesmerised by the beauty of the effects and asked if he could have a go. AGENDA: A Practitioner Guide to Making Positive Relationships Matter with Children. Agenda Created case study for NEU/NUT web-based version of AGENDA (PI E. Renold) resource site, to support teachers and educators to raise awareness on a range of healthy relationship education issues (e.g. gender equality, consent, body image, LGBTQ rights etc.) by using engaging and creative methods (e.g. from visual art and drama to online petitions and youth groups). What is AGENDA? In November 2015 AGENDA: A Young People's Guide for Making Positive Relationships Matter was launched in Wales. This is a free online toolkit developed with young people, for young people. AGENDA has equality, diversity, children's rights and social justice at its heart, and supports young people's rights to safely and creatively speak out and engage as active citizens on issues that matter to them, including: addressing gender discrimination; consent; LGBTQ+ rights; bullying; street harassment; sexual exploitation; relationship violence. AGENDA includes a wide range of activities and resources, and links to further information. The guide has been designed so that 11-18 year olds, supported by their teachers or youth workers, can explore the issues they are interested in at their own pace. It also showcases the different ways in which other young people have raised awareness of how gender-based and sexual violence impact upon their lives and the lives of others. What is an AGENDA case study? Central to the future AGENDA website is a section dedicated to inspiring others by sharing a story of how different groups of children and young people have been getting creative in raising awareness on AGENDA related topic areas in innovative ways. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | AGENDA was part of Prof Emma Renold's recent ESRC Impact award. The resources are on line for all teachers and educators and receive international recognition. Teachers access the resources via websites such as the NSPCC site and there are thousands of hits. https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/2016/agenda-young-people-s-guide-making-positive-relationships-matter/ |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/supporting-children-in-making-positive-relationships-mattercefnogi-pl... |
| Title | Poem by young spoken word artist Ella Otomewo, 'A Seat at the Table' - created by listening to discussions, particpating in inetractive activities and composing at Creative Margins, Manchester, 42nd St Youth Centre 05/06/18 |
| Description | A seat at the table By Ella Otomewo Are there enough seats at the table for me? Or am I going to have to awkwardly squeeze myself onto the corner again? Make myself smaller again, and more palatable? Not having an automatic seat at the table does not mean I expect you to feed me from a silver spoon. You can disrupt the table! Disrupt the heavy expectations sitting dusty next to the silverware. Where mouths have been force fed what to say. Don't ask me to be real and then get angry when I'm not your favourite version of myself. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. Like teaching to an open ear, or a pen in hand. Let's have a show of hands for anyone who's ever woken up knowing that their best idea yet is dissolving away with last night's dreams. Luckily for us there is ample time to redo our mistakes, and meet each other at the place where we have fallen down. Meet me where I think I've failed and I'll meet you where you start. Meet me at the heart of it. Meet me in trust and let me speak as if you weren't there, but as if I had invited you. I do invite you. I hope you keep inviting each other Manchester Meeting at 42nd Street, 05/06/2018 |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | It amplified the voice of young people at the Manchester Creative Margins meeting, yet the poem's influence reaches further. It figures in the Final Report and we can see the effects of the poem in the way participants at many meetings have paid attention to young people, checked their stereotypes and recognised the need to start from young people's concerns when planing arts projects. Many participants have said they will now co-create arts projects with young people, rather than dreaming up projects and then seeking marginalised young people to participant as an afterthought. A copy of the poem is on page 2 of the Draft Final Report which is on the Creative Margins website (creativemargins.net under documents, scroll down on the home page to Documents) and in the Creative Margins Scrap Book (see home page of creativemagins.net website - scroll down on Home Page to see the Scrap Book) |
| URL | http://www.creativemargins.net/creativemarginsfinalreportdraft08march2020copy/ |
| Description | Executive Summary 'Class: the elephant in the room' Meeting 1, June 26th 2018, Bradford 1) Class Effort Working class actors have to exert more effort than middle class actors to get auditions and when in auditions are expected to reveal themselves as working class through 'heroic' stories, such as, of being brought up on housing estates with little money, so perpetuating the stereotype of a working class person as male, low income and white. 2) Class Complexity The stereotype of working class people given above belies the complexity and variety of experiences. Low-income family backgrounds are entangled with gender, race, ethnicity, 'dis'-ability, place and access to a range of cultural experiences. 3) Class Hierarchy The increasing professionalisation of acting, including credentials such as where a person trained and number of qualifications is privileging middle class actors who are treated as having a 'natural' right to elite institutions, and creates barriers for working class actors, who are expected to 'reveal' and are seen as 'other', 'exotic' and 'inferior'. 4) Class Patronage The enterprise of widening access to elite arts institution may be flawed as it assumes everyone wants to be middle class and middle aged, and assumes there is something missing that middle class culture can give to marginalise groups. 5) Class Support Elite arts institution still reply on youth workers to access marginalised groups, and to provide the extra resources required to support people with reassurance, food, travel and time, to get to art institutions. The hidden work of youth workers is given low status and has been virtually wiped out due to austerity. 6) Invisible classed art forms The elite nature of the acting profession is masking alternative, progressive genres and grass roots arts activities that are part of working class traditions. Radical theatre, places based theatre and genres such as Grime that mix technology, music and other [social] media as well as craft-based arts are not recognised cultural forms and are invisible to elites. 7) Class and Desire Some groups do not want to spend their money on elitist performances; they choose to spend their money elsewhere. 8) What is good art? Good art happens in many places both outside and inside elite institutions. Arts Institutions need to reflect the make-up of the population in which 60 percentage are working class. Good art or quality art is something that everyone holds dear, even if we never agree on what exactly 'good' is. 'Co-production, collaboration and the re-balance of power' Meeting 2, 5th July 2018, Manchester 1) Start with Youth People The practice of elite Arts Institutions designing projects, and once funded, asking youth centres to 'supply' marginalise groups, needs to stop. Art projects should be co-produced with young people starting with their needs, concerns and interests. 2) The Role of Adults If, as an adult artist, you find young people do not want to do activities in your art project, ask yourself: What is my organisation's ethos? Does the project match the ethos? Have I designed the project with community partners? 3) Young People as Creative Agent Recognise that marginalised young people will not do projects they do not find meaningful. Artists can listen to what emerges and use that as material. 4) A Synthesis of Need and Art Work with what young people bring to a event, and share skills and techniques to expand, express and transform what is given into something more. Working with the techniques and forms of a genre, such as rap or dance, lends legitimacy to the process and can be transformative. 5) Stay with the Trouble When young people raise difficult, taboo and 'illegal' issues, stay with the 'trouble'. Do not push it away. The 'trouble' gives urgency. Art forms can diffract 'trouble' through aesthetic forms creating artefacts, sounds, visuals and movement that can be widely shared. Art acknowledges rather than suppresses the 'trouble'. 6) The Many Purposes of Art There are many reasons for making art. The curtail point is to discuss the purpose with young people so they know at the beginning the parameters in which they can work. Negotiate and communicate the reason for the art and what the end point will be. 7) Ethics of Art Practices Be clear about roles in a multi-agency project - the young people, the adults, the artists. Know where the boundaries lie, articulate these and make sure everyone knows what happens if boundaries are crossed. Who manages risk? Who is responsible for the duty of care? Stay true to what you are good at and know your limits. 8) Arts Spaces for Feeling Normal Some, socially engaged art projects, such as the Men's Room, are the only places some people feel 'normal; where they don't have to pretend to be getting better, or feel guilty about costing other people money. Art can create alternative spaces. 9) Aesthetics versus Process Everyone wants to create quality art. The artist's aesthetic standards can come into conflict with young people's forms of expression and a balance has to be struck. What is the point of creating a sell-out performance if young people are 'abandoned' at the end, or feel compromised? There is always a 'come-down'. The legacy of a performance needs to be thought about. 'It's a kind of action-research loop'. 10) Sharing Power Power dynamic exist in all art processes. We need to recognise there are different ways of communicating. Young people tend to be oriented towards technology and virtual communicative networks. Adults tend not to be good at communicating in the virtual world. We have to create pathways into employment for young people who participate in arts projects. Aesthetic considerations are in tension with fluctuating power dynamics in art projects. Who befits in the end? 'The Politics of Space' Meeting 3, October 12th 2018, Brighton Youth Centre 1) The Politics of Space When we watched people recovering from alcohol addiction perform the opening play, 'Washing up' we did not see addicts, we saw actors. This is the 'The Politics of Space' 2) Art as Collective Support The actors (recovering addicts) spoke about the need to create a safe space for each other. Having experienced so many non-safe spaces in life, they described how the art, for example, the need to turn up to rehearsal and their collective understanding and respect for each other enabled them to build a space of ontological safely. This space was not imposed from the outside. The drama club they have created provides on-going commitment to each other, a supporting, collective structure and this is how the art is helping them to get better. 3) Space re-frames a person Young people identified as a knife carrying gang member in one space can lose that stigmatising identity by being in a more accepting space, such as a youth club. 4) Physical space: Physical space such as the building the Brighton Youth Club occupies enables activities that extend young people a sense of belonging, trust and autonomy. Older centres, such as Brighton Youth Centre, were often vibrant spaces yet most have lost their buildings and with them many of the valued practices of youth work. Spaces are essential in enabling long-term, enduring relationships to be created relations that sustain people and enable them to make changes in their own loves - on their own terms. 5) Time and space: In youth work there is often a high level of paperwork and this invades space to think, meet and slow down. The paperwork takes time and we underestimate how long it takes but also the possibility of different speeds and moments of engagement; sometimes fast can be good as new opportunities are seized, and new relationships established, at a point of crisis, for example. There is also a need for head space; time to think and be in a space and to recognise and possibly resist the control and intensification of labour. 6) Money and space: 'What is our wealth?' Many young people and youth workers and artists have several different jobs. There is a privilege in being able to choose work that you believe in. Since artists need studio spaces, the alliance between arts and youth work could be renewed on this basis. 7) Spaces of surveillance Many youth clubs have become to a great extent a space of austerity and surveillance. Youth work is being reduced to 'interventions' that can supposedly 'fix the problem' and this removes the freedom young people need to be who they want to be, and to find ways of acting that enable them to feel valued and safe. While much detached youth work took place on the street, the street too is no longer, in any way, a free space. 8) Youth work traditions Across the five meetings, youth workers and their voices were very marginal, except in Brighton. When people take about engaging young people through art there is considerable amnesia about youth work traditions and practices. In BYC we were reminded of these, including: the significance of partnerships and linking learning to action; the need to act with integrity, that is, with honesty and openness; to seek involvement in ways, which enhance participation, belonging and agency; fairness in access to opportunities and creating cultures not rules and pursuing social justice. Others are: continuity of presence; a principle of creativity (about building not repairing); of questioning in an open way and of networks. 'Youth work is like modern dance, improvisatory.but is also a well rehearsed and intentional practice'. 9) Youth work practices are disappearing Youth work practices, that have been developed across time through a long engagement with young people, is relatively invisible knowledge. This knowledge is the praxis of how to reach and create relationships with vulnerable groups. This knowledge-praxis is often unrecognised by professionals in other institutions. It is hidden knowledge that is in danger of disappearing. 10) Creators not consumers Youth workers spoke about the principle of young people as creators not consumers; about the time needed for relationship, the principle of voluntary relationship and the freedom to walk away. 11) Hard to access services There are no hard to reach young people: there are many hard to access services. This is the basis of detached youth work and practices at Brighton Youth Club. As one young person said, 'You can access services but still not get the help you need'. 12) People don't know what art is One young person said, people don't know what art is.. when you say 'art' they think of school and drawing apples. But when you do pop up (art) in their neighbourhood, they haven't got any choice but to see it. 13) You didn't not box me in Young people spoke eloquently about the impact of open and longstanding relationships with youth work projects and arts projects that were continuing to have effects on their lives. They spoke directly to the youth workers who were there with gratitude. They said, 'you didn't box me in', 'your let me take my own time'. 'Time and Trust' Meeting 4, November 5th 2018, St Fagan's National Museum of History, Cardiff 1) Blurring the boundaries between art and research The performance-film at the beginning of the day blurred boundaries between art, research and activism and for many these created some disquiet. It created a provocative introduction to the day's theme, 'how to give enough time to develop trusting and sustaining relationships with marginalised young people that do not exploit them either for the aims of funded art project or a research grant? 2) Its Time for a Different Approach With more poverty and greater austerity, we can no longer use short-term art projects; they need to be tied to institutions that can sustain relationships over the long term. But how to do this? 3) A two way approach The St Fagan's approach is to recognised that the learning is two way and that to work effectively with all group in society involves a great deal of listening, learning and adapting to other people's expertise and knowledge. 4) Maybe something mobile? Do art institutions such as St Fagan's need to move beyond its physical boundaries and location? Its spirit goes somewhere else perhaps, even if we could just have a mobile van to reach a boarder diversity of people? Could we have a bridge that goes from the Museum (in Cardiff) to the valleys? 5) Designing a space is important How you design the building is important. We need to consult young people from the very beginning in terms of how the space looks, who it's for, how it's run. It took time, to create the relationships and trust. Yet, once it was established, artist could work with young people there, yet, on their terms. This is how Forsythia Youth Club was created. (The new visitors centre at St Fagan's was designed through extensive public consultation) 6) The need for connections Finding youths on the streets, this is important outreach work, but you need 'connectors', the people who know how to point you to young people with whom you can then work and it's a real problem that we're losing these connectors. You can't just go out and hope to stumble across young people. We need connection with families in communities. The cutting of Communities First funding has meant that the people who should be reaching out to young people, through the 'door openers' who know the movers and shakers in the neighbourhoods are no longer there. We need the infrastructure to sustain and take advantage of anyone who's going to do outreach on the streets. 7) Being clear about the constraints at the start of a project It is important that the young people understand the constraints of the project from the start, and it was important that the academics could deliver what they promised. 8) Barriers to trust Economics, place, space, time, not feeling you are able to help. Trust and consent were also raised as important. Young people may not trust the museum because they may feel that they are being used for tokenism or box ticking, rather than being valued as an individual. Museum must recognise young people's goals and interests, and start from them. 9) Building trust over time Trust was also built up between the young people and the facilitator from years of spending time with the group before a specific project was undertaken. It is about getting involved with communities. It is also about recognising that young people become parents and that the relationships they have to organisations in the places where they live matter. Arts play a role in forging inter-generational connections, by providing activities that everyone can get involved with. 10) Care over what can and cannot be shared Care - which things people told you that you could and couldn't share was very important, which is why artifacts (art objects, such as films) can be used, rather than personal accounts to communicate issues publically. The notion of the 'dartefact' was an important tool in allowing things to be shared in a far more powerful way than through a survey, for example. 11) The continuing value of physical challenges Adventure and a physical challenge can draw young people in, especially those who may not have been interested in the more traditional physical activities of sport or drama in school. Even with many constraints due to risk analysis we can still undertake adventures outdoors. 12) The role of universities and art institutions in creating enduring safe spaces Work with disabled people in Aberystwyth was mentioned as an example of persuading one university to provide a permanent space to work in. How the place functions - is very important - it must feel safe and welcoming, particularly to people with specific needs. We need open arts spaces where young people can do music, drama, etc. owned by young people, for them to do creative activity; somewhere to 'hang out'. 13 Creating networks The idea of a platform or a network that allows you to speak to other organisations was suggested. It was mentioned that 'Communities First' tried to be that initially, before becoming something else. It was noted that there is a network for youth circuses, and the 'RAW Fest' for young people, but in general, that type of network is lacking. 14 Choice is showing respect When engaging with communities if you're showing respect at the very earliest point, you can enable choice. You could say, we've got five different artists here that might want to work with you; do you want to talk to them? Which ones do you like? Who do you feel comfortable with? 15 Ownership Enable young people to feel they own what they create 16 Time and duration of a project Young people have busy, fast-paced and dynamic lives, which stand in contrast to the slower pace of museum programming. There is a danger that young people will become disinterested in a project if they see that the project itself is not moving along. In order to maintain a sense of progression and achievement, thus keeping momentum and keeping young people engaged the project should be split into many smaller, diverse tasks. Include some smaller, one-day events, for example. 17 Out dated Museums and art galleries can feel out dated to young people are digitally-savvy and globally connected, and do not necessarily trust the traditional narratives presented by sites such as Amgueddfa Cymru. 18 Progression to meaningful jobs There is a fine line between gaining experience and young people's work becoming a labour of hope with no chance of progression. Young people need to progress into tangentially related projects that are rewarding to both parties, and lead to employment. 19) Advocacy for community partners Not all community organisations have the confidence to say, we are equal partners to elite institutions and establish art organisations. Someone needs to advocate for them and broker relationships in unequal power dynamics. Meeting 5, Clash of Cultures - collaboration to true partnership London, November 28th 2018, Tate Gallery 1) Just being in the space Kareem Parkins-Brown, a young poet performed his works before some of the pictures in the gallery space at Tate, London. When Kareem finish his energetic and powerful reading, a boy (also black) spontaneous shouted out 'Thanks you've made be feel I can belong here in a way I've never felt before!' 2) Hand over Should we hand over all elite institutions to marginal groups? 3) Where do personal politics start and stop? There is a need for both arts and youth workers to review their own professional motivations for equality and social justice, asking where does personal politics stop and start in your work? 4) Cultures of Collaboration Youth work and the arts could be natural allies if the youth sector were able to better understand the gallery space and the arts sector could better engage with youth work practice. 5) Partnerships that privilege process There are benefits in engaging artists in partnership work with youth work if it focuses on process rather than product, ideas rather than medium and quality of experience rather than assessing impact. 6) Trust the workers to work differently A cultural shift in organisations is called for. Workers need to be 'trusted' to work differently. 7) Sharing the lived experience of those artists work with Lived experience in relation to employing artists from the local area, acknowledgment of young people's cultural funds of knowledge and the lived experiences they bring with them. In this way, we are recognising the power of young people as a group - their collective power, as a way of recognising difference. 8) Exploring alternative economies We need to recognised that there are similar principals of community development held by both socially-engaged arts practice and detached youth work and that by exploring 'alternative economies' differing models might emerge which would make partnerships more sustainable. These models would be based around redistributing the wealth among the population and sharing resources, rather than expecting more from government funding. |
| Exploitation Route | We have had three meetings since the award ended, planning Creative Margins part 2. This will be a grant application to the AHRC to take forward the findings by suggesting how partners can work more effectively together to create infrastructure to enable marginalised young people to access arts via institution that can act as anchor institutions, yet which can enable the best of youth work practice to be brought to outreach work. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://Creativemargins.com |
| Description | Impacts 1) Each meeting was advertised on Eventbrite and every meeting was over subscribed. We had to turn people away due to the capacity of venues. The meetings attracted mainly: arts partitions, arts outreach workers, arts groups and charities working with marginalised young people, community housing group members, students, arts council members, BCB radio, theatre group members, social activists, local council members, youth workers and some young people. 2) Discussions were very lively and at times passionate and urgent. We realised we had tapped onto a huge need and appetite to discuss how arts are to respond the persistent inequality in participation in England and Wales. Debates went far broader than 'how to enable those who do not participate in elite art activities' and troubled what is meant by art, whether art organisations should try 'to save', how outreach art activities can retrench problems by reproducing deficit models of some groups and the need to start with young people's interests, concerns and passions. 3) Public engagement and the need to discuss. We suspect discussions were so lively because we managed to created events that were open, flat, inclusive and welcoming, yet most importantly, we believe that by starting each meeting with an art experience enlivened participants and gave them permission to express their passions, interests and concerns opening and with animation. The energy levels in the venues stayed high all day and this is evidenced in the sheer amount of cross-agency and cross-disciplinary information gathered. A series of photographs demonstrating this level of engagement can be seen on the Creative Margins website, under the heading Blog (http://www.creativemargins.net/blog/) 4) Findings: We have an 87 page draft Final Report, which documents many of the large groups discussion and some yet not yet all of the smaller group discussions. At some venues we had excellent note takers and rapporteurs, at others we relied on audio recording and have put in many hours listening to the recordings and writing notes. Given that we had no money for transcription, the core team has undertaken much of this. The executive summary, in the Draft Final Report, is a good representation of the issue and theme that emerged across each meeting, we believe. The Final Report appear on then Creative Margins website (creativemargins/org.uk) under Documentation (http://www.creativemargins.net/creativemarginsfinalreportdraft08march2020copy/) The findings demonstrate the Impact of the Creative Margins network to generate cross-agency, cross disciplinary discussions that raised far more issues than we had anticipated and demonstrated an appetite by groups, publics, organisations, art practitioners and art education officers in established art institutions to understand how to reach, attune to and understand young people who do not access mainstream art organisations. What we found that many of the ways forward that emerged in group discussions mirror what has been good youth work practice in the past when we had well resourced youth services. It also became very apparent that the presence and knowledge of youth work as a field is in danger of disappearing, due to lack of investment, and yet the youth work field holds the knowledge, practices and ways of working that the art sector seems to be crying out for. The challenge is how to harness youth work practices in the changed landscape of the post (2014) All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPGAHW). 5) Innovating Creative Dissemination One of our proudest achievements is the Creative Margins Scrapbook. The Scrapbook is an art book that refracts findings from the five meetings through the lens of three young artists and one professional artist, to create a colourful, vibrant illustration of the findings. We gave the artists a brief to read the notes from a meeting and using their art style illustrate what they found to be the most salient or urgent points. We were bowled over by the way the young artist responded and what they created is a deeply affective, emotional response which raises the urgency of the issues emerging in groups discussions to a new level. The care and aesthetic quality of their work is a testament to what we all believe - the power of art to move! We have only just published the Scarp Book on the Creative margins website and will launch it with a massage to all the network participants. Scroll down on the home page to find the Creative Margins Scrap Book (http://www.creativemargins.net/) 6) Taking the Impacts forward: We have had three post network meetings in Manchester in May 2019, London at Tate in November 2019, and in Cardiff at St Fagan's in January 2020. These meetings testify to the enduring partnerships that have been established through the network, such as that between Brighton Youth Centre and Tate London, who are working together collaboratively to learn from each other. This partnership and others will form the basis for Creative Margins Part 2, which we are planning now and which will lead to an AHRC application in a few months. Update March 2022. We could not go ahead with the plans to apply for funding to enable the partnerships to develop as the basis for a new funding bid because Covid changed everything. However, we have been in contact with Brighton Youth Centre and Tate London, and they are working together base in the connections forged during the Creative Margins bid. We are using then model of way we organized the six workshops/bar camps to encourage thinking about co-production within Man Met. The team from Man Met edited a Spacial Issue, Critically Exploring Co-production for the Qualitative Research Journal Vol. 22(1) pp. 108-128 which drew on our team work and the work we did together during the Creative Margins network meetings. The Creative Margin's network work carries on influencing our thinking and research methodologies. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Brighton Youth Club and Tate, London |
| Organisation | Tate |
| Department | Tate Modern, London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The Creative Margins network meetings enabled members of the Brighton Youth Club including youth workers and young people to work with Mark Miller at Tate, London to discuss setting up an on-going relationship. The CM meetings enabled Tate to address on-going issues of how to work with marginalised young people in ways that are not tokenistic and short term. The Brighton Youth Club, and specifically Mike Roe who met Mark Miller at two network meetings, the final event and a subsequent meeting at Manchester Metropolitan University created plans for a long term partnership. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Brighton Youth Club and Tate modern created plans to enable Tate to become part of the annual Arts Festival run by Brighton Youth Club. This has been delayed by Covid-19, but was due to take place in the summer of 2020. Tate Modern started to plan an exhibition that would involve photographs of youth centres being exhibited in their galleries and for some artifacts to be exhibited in the Brighton Youth Centre. This would have been an experiment to understand what happened if a work of art is viewed in an elite arts institution in comparison to in a Youth center - we were interested in who would be attracted to these exhibitions, and how the art would be understood and recognised when framed in these two contrasting venues. This would have contributed to the Creative Margins follow on bid- also delayed due to Covid-19 |
| Impact | No delayed due to Covid-19 |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices |
| Organisation | 42nd Street |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices A new project aims to end the inequality in arts participation in England and Wales by helping artists and organisations engage marginalised groups. The Creative Margins network, funded by AHRC and supported by the Arts Council England, will meet five times in locations across England and Wales throughout 2018. Meetings will focus on topics including enterprise in the arts, trust, evaluation, and the use of space. Organisations including Tate, National Museum Wales, Common Wealth Theatre and the UK Federation for Detached Youth are all official project partners and meeting hosts, and part of the funding will be used for bursaries to enable local artists to attend. The network is run by Manchester Metropolitan University's Education and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and will provide an opportunity for academics to develop a more complex understanding of marginalisation, and as the basis for further research. It builds on Along with the network meetings organised with partners mentioned above, this project builds on Ivinson's work in ex-mining communities on south Wales, where she works with a range of artists to co-produce artworks with extremely marginalised young people (ESRC/AHRC Productive Margins project in the Connected Communities Programme http://www.productivemargins.ac.uk/projects/mapping-making-mobilising/ And Ivinson's work as Chair of the British Education Research Associations' Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy https://www.bera.ac.uk/project/bera-research-commissions/poverty-and-policy-advocacy Extract from press release Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices Earlier research by the Common Cause Foundation and Manchester Museum concluded that subtle changes to how arts organisations display their work or request donations could influence how welcoming they appear. "There are currently a narrow range of tools for 'measuring' impact," explained Gabrielle Ivinson, lead researcher on the project. "It would be great to discover new potential models of interaction, but our aim is to expose current conflicts and find small moves that arts organisations could make to make their arts organisation a little less intimidating." She continued: "When it is complete, the project will address the need to prepare the future workforce, by suggesting how groups who do not usually consider employment in the arts sectors may be supported to consider future careers in the arts and as entrepreneurs creating a more democratic, participatory society. "The project is important not just for academics and arts organisations - it will help policy-makers, governments at local, regional, devolved and national levels, and most importantly individuals who are at risk." Arts employees from publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres have revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. As part of the £24,203 project, arts employees will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. The network will meet in a series of BarCamp meetings throughout the year in Manchester, London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/creative-network-seeks-tackle-marginalisation-arts Background Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years (RSPH, 2013; Arts Council, 2014; Culture White Paper, 2016). While enormous strides have been taken towards making arts institutions accessible and welcoming to a range of maginalised groups (Brown and Higashi, 2015; Cook, 2009; Culture White Paper, 2016, p. 15; Jermyn, 2004; Kester, 2013; Sandell & Nightingale, 2012) there remain considerable challenges in widening access to some marginalised young people and adults (Edmunds, 2008; Hammonds & Bhandal, 2011; Ivinson 2012; Robinson and Gillies, 2012; Pahl, on-going). Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' Across the consultations, a further set of Key Questions emerged that will guide the critical debates in the BarCamp workshops: • What are the points of dissonance and convergence around understandings of arts-based participation and democracy held by Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and those who teach on FE creative arts courses? • How do arts-based practices link to the development of wider enterprise, the soft skills required for entrepreneurship and how are these recognised/accredited? • How do artists, practitioners in arts Institutions, youth and community workers negotiate the short-termism of funding in relation to the time frames needed to build trust? • How can the impact and evaluation agendas be reconciled with the needs of marginal groups? • What is understood as community cohesion and how do divergent practices such as festivals and youth workers' street work contribute? We propose the model of a BarCamp to structure the exchange spaces because we recognise the need to enable participants from very different disciplines and institutions to interact rather than only listen to presentations. Many of the participants involved in the consultations are part of wider programmes aimed at designing projects that actively work to include marginalised groups in civic society such as: the AHRC Connected Communities Programme (Angharad, Byrne, Ivinson). Our involvement in these programmes as community artists, and academics who work with artists, has led us to value co-production and partnership working and to recognise the importance of understanding the living knowledge, values and aesthetics of marginalised groups in non-judgemental ways (Facer and Enright, 2016). To allow for a multiplicity of perspectives the BarCamps will be designed to include processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. This is critical if we are to work together in meaner, keener times in ways that enable critical engagement with issues such as democracy and access to the Arts. Aim The aim is to share knowledge across the fields and disciplines of Art and youth/community and to critically debate how to widen participation in the Arts to address social inequality. Objectives 1. To create a network of local and cross national connections between groups and disciplines such as; Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and academics who teach creative arts courses, to share knowledge and explore differences; 2. To craft 5 BarCamps as non-elitist exchange spaces (through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating) to enable boundary crossing between disciplines; 3. To record and share the emerging debates and map divergent knowledge, expertise and knowhow between fields and disciplines through mind-maps, diagrams, notes and photographs that will be lodged on a web-space modelled on the Sense Lab (see details below); 4. To disseminate key findings to stakeholders through a Futures Planning Meeting, a web space, a summary report and academic papers, and create principles to design a research project to put the knowledge gained in the BarCamps into practice. Events: In January 2018 we met to design the structure of the BarCamp exchange spaces and construct lists of invitees by region to ensure a balance of Arts and youth/community participants. The five BarCamps will take place between May 2018 and March 2018. BarCamp1: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Arts-based Participation Manchester, 42nd Street Youth Centre hosted by Julie McCarthy, Horsfall & Jo Lane of Odd Arts and organised by Early Career Researchers Lara Trafi-Pratts and Harriet Rowley, Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Anna Bull University of Portsmouth BarCamp2: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Enterprise in the Arts London, Tate Gallery hosted by Nicky Simm & Mark Miller of Circuit, academic lead Yvonne Robinson LSBU, Early Career Researcher Frances Howard, University of Nottingham BarCamp3: Key Theme - Exploring Time and Trust in Art-Based Practices Cardiff, The National Museum of Wales, hosted by R. Bevis, with artistic leads Future's Collective choreographer Jen Angharad, Early Career Researcher Ellie Byrne, Cardiff University. BarCamp4: Key Theme - The Impact and Evaluation Agenda Meets Radical Practice Bradford, Common Wealth, hosted by artistic lead Evie Manning and Early Career Researcher Steph Brocken, University of Chester. With teenage girls and women from diverse backgrounds with roots in Algeria, Pakistan, Kashmir and Congolese communities. BarCamp5: Key Theme - Street Work Meets Festivals Brighton, Youth Centre, hosted by Chris Charles of the National Federation for Detached Youth Work, and Early Career Researcher Tania de St Croix, King's College London. Next steps planning meeting - Dissemination and Further Research Manchester, hosted by Arts Council England and MMU. http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/research/news-and-events/story/?id=7065 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Arts Council England's letter of support included the following" 'We therefore recognise the value of creating a network to share knowledge and methods across disciplines to better understand how to enable marginalised groups to benefit from arts facilities and practices. We value the opportunity to participate in the initial planning meeting and the Manchester based BarCamp. We will host the Next Steps Planning Meeting at our headquarters, The Hive in Manchester and look forward to contributing to discussions about further research and dissemination.' |
| Impact | Planning Workshop meeting, January 2018, at Manchester Metropolitan University. We planned the five BarCamps Meetings to be hosted in Manchester London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices |
| Organisation | Arts Council England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices A new project aims to end the inequality in arts participation in England and Wales by helping artists and organisations engage marginalised groups. The Creative Margins network, funded by AHRC and supported by the Arts Council England, will meet five times in locations across England and Wales throughout 2018. Meetings will focus on topics including enterprise in the arts, trust, evaluation, and the use of space. Organisations including Tate, National Museum Wales, Common Wealth Theatre and the UK Federation for Detached Youth are all official project partners and meeting hosts, and part of the funding will be used for bursaries to enable local artists to attend. The network is run by Manchester Metropolitan University's Education and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and will provide an opportunity for academics to develop a more complex understanding of marginalisation, and as the basis for further research. It builds on Along with the network meetings organised with partners mentioned above, this project builds on Ivinson's work in ex-mining communities on south Wales, where she works with a range of artists to co-produce artworks with extremely marginalised young people (ESRC/AHRC Productive Margins project in the Connected Communities Programme http://www.productivemargins.ac.uk/projects/mapping-making-mobilising/ And Ivinson's work as Chair of the British Education Research Associations' Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy https://www.bera.ac.uk/project/bera-research-commissions/poverty-and-policy-advocacy Extract from press release Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices Earlier research by the Common Cause Foundation and Manchester Museum concluded that subtle changes to how arts organisations display their work or request donations could influence how welcoming they appear. "There are currently a narrow range of tools for 'measuring' impact," explained Gabrielle Ivinson, lead researcher on the project. "It would be great to discover new potential models of interaction, but our aim is to expose current conflicts and find small moves that arts organisations could make to make their arts organisation a little less intimidating." She continued: "When it is complete, the project will address the need to prepare the future workforce, by suggesting how groups who do not usually consider employment in the arts sectors may be supported to consider future careers in the arts and as entrepreneurs creating a more democratic, participatory society. "The project is important not just for academics and arts organisations - it will help policy-makers, governments at local, regional, devolved and national levels, and most importantly individuals who are at risk." Arts employees from publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres have revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. As part of the £24,203 project, arts employees will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. The network will meet in a series of BarCamp meetings throughout the year in Manchester, London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/creative-network-seeks-tackle-marginalisation-arts Background Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years (RSPH, 2013; Arts Council, 2014; Culture White Paper, 2016). While enormous strides have been taken towards making arts institutions accessible and welcoming to a range of maginalised groups (Brown and Higashi, 2015; Cook, 2009; Culture White Paper, 2016, p. 15; Jermyn, 2004; Kester, 2013; Sandell & Nightingale, 2012) there remain considerable challenges in widening access to some marginalised young people and adults (Edmunds, 2008; Hammonds & Bhandal, 2011; Ivinson 2012; Robinson and Gillies, 2012; Pahl, on-going). Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' Across the consultations, a further set of Key Questions emerged that will guide the critical debates in the BarCamp workshops: • What are the points of dissonance and convergence around understandings of arts-based participation and democracy held by Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and those who teach on FE creative arts courses? • How do arts-based practices link to the development of wider enterprise, the soft skills required for entrepreneurship and how are these recognised/accredited? • How do artists, practitioners in arts Institutions, youth and community workers negotiate the short-termism of funding in relation to the time frames needed to build trust? • How can the impact and evaluation agendas be reconciled with the needs of marginal groups? • What is understood as community cohesion and how do divergent practices such as festivals and youth workers' street work contribute? We propose the model of a BarCamp to structure the exchange spaces because we recognise the need to enable participants from very different disciplines and institutions to interact rather than only listen to presentations. Many of the participants involved in the consultations are part of wider programmes aimed at designing projects that actively work to include marginalised groups in civic society such as: the AHRC Connected Communities Programme (Angharad, Byrne, Ivinson). Our involvement in these programmes as community artists, and academics who work with artists, has led us to value co-production and partnership working and to recognise the importance of understanding the living knowledge, values and aesthetics of marginalised groups in non-judgemental ways (Facer and Enright, 2016). To allow for a multiplicity of perspectives the BarCamps will be designed to include processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. This is critical if we are to work together in meaner, keener times in ways that enable critical engagement with issues such as democracy and access to the Arts. Aim The aim is to share knowledge across the fields and disciplines of Art and youth/community and to critically debate how to widen participation in the Arts to address social inequality. Objectives 1. To create a network of local and cross national connections between groups and disciplines such as; Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and academics who teach creative arts courses, to share knowledge and explore differences; 2. To craft 5 BarCamps as non-elitist exchange spaces (through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating) to enable boundary crossing between disciplines; 3. To record and share the emerging debates and map divergent knowledge, expertise and knowhow between fields and disciplines through mind-maps, diagrams, notes and photographs that will be lodged on a web-space modelled on the Sense Lab (see details below); 4. To disseminate key findings to stakeholders through a Futures Planning Meeting, a web space, a summary report and academic papers, and create principles to design a research project to put the knowledge gained in the BarCamps into practice. Events: In January 2018 we met to design the structure of the BarCamp exchange spaces and construct lists of invitees by region to ensure a balance of Arts and youth/community participants. The five BarCamps will take place between May 2018 and March 2018. BarCamp1: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Arts-based Participation Manchester, 42nd Street Youth Centre hosted by Julie McCarthy, Horsfall & Jo Lane of Odd Arts and organised by Early Career Researchers Lara Trafi-Pratts and Harriet Rowley, Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Anna Bull University of Portsmouth BarCamp2: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Enterprise in the Arts London, Tate Gallery hosted by Nicky Simm & Mark Miller of Circuit, academic lead Yvonne Robinson LSBU, Early Career Researcher Frances Howard, University of Nottingham BarCamp3: Key Theme - Exploring Time and Trust in Art-Based Practices Cardiff, The National Museum of Wales, hosted by R. Bevis, with artistic leads Future's Collective choreographer Jen Angharad, Early Career Researcher Ellie Byrne, Cardiff University. BarCamp4: Key Theme - The Impact and Evaluation Agenda Meets Radical Practice Bradford, Common Wealth, hosted by artistic lead Evie Manning and Early Career Researcher Steph Brocken, University of Chester. With teenage girls and women from diverse backgrounds with roots in Algeria, Pakistan, Kashmir and Congolese communities. BarCamp5: Key Theme - Street Work Meets Festivals Brighton, Youth Centre, hosted by Chris Charles of the National Federation for Detached Youth Work, and Early Career Researcher Tania de St Croix, King's College London. Next steps planning meeting - Dissemination and Further Research Manchester, hosted by Arts Council England and MMU. http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/research/news-and-events/story/?id=7065 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Arts Council England's letter of support included the following" 'We therefore recognise the value of creating a network to share knowledge and methods across disciplines to better understand how to enable marginalised groups to benefit from arts facilities and practices. We value the opportunity to participate in the initial planning meeting and the Manchester based BarCamp. We will host the Next Steps Planning Meeting at our headquarters, The Hive in Manchester and look forward to contributing to discussions about further research and dissemination.' |
| Impact | Planning Workshop meeting, January 2018, at Manchester Metropolitan University. We planned the five BarCamps Meetings to be hosted in Manchester London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices |
| Organisation | Common Wealth Theatre Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices A new project aims to end the inequality in arts participation in England and Wales by helping artists and organisations engage marginalised groups. The Creative Margins network, funded by AHRC and supported by the Arts Council England, will meet five times in locations across England and Wales throughout 2018. Meetings will focus on topics including enterprise in the arts, trust, evaluation, and the use of space. Organisations including Tate, National Museum Wales, Common Wealth Theatre and the UK Federation for Detached Youth are all official project partners and meeting hosts, and part of the funding will be used for bursaries to enable local artists to attend. The network is run by Manchester Metropolitan University's Education and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and will provide an opportunity for academics to develop a more complex understanding of marginalisation, and as the basis for further research. It builds on Along with the network meetings organised with partners mentioned above, this project builds on Ivinson's work in ex-mining communities on south Wales, where she works with a range of artists to co-produce artworks with extremely marginalised young people (ESRC/AHRC Productive Margins project in the Connected Communities Programme http://www.productivemargins.ac.uk/projects/mapping-making-mobilising/ And Ivinson's work as Chair of the British Education Research Associations' Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy https://www.bera.ac.uk/project/bera-research-commissions/poverty-and-policy-advocacy Extract from press release Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices Earlier research by the Common Cause Foundation and Manchester Museum concluded that subtle changes to how arts organisations display their work or request donations could influence how welcoming they appear. "There are currently a narrow range of tools for 'measuring' impact," explained Gabrielle Ivinson, lead researcher on the project. "It would be great to discover new potential models of interaction, but our aim is to expose current conflicts and find small moves that arts organisations could make to make their arts organisation a little less intimidating." She continued: "When it is complete, the project will address the need to prepare the future workforce, by suggesting how groups who do not usually consider employment in the arts sectors may be supported to consider future careers in the arts and as entrepreneurs creating a more democratic, participatory society. "The project is important not just for academics and arts organisations - it will help policy-makers, governments at local, regional, devolved and national levels, and most importantly individuals who are at risk." Arts employees from publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres have revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. As part of the £24,203 project, arts employees will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. The network will meet in a series of BarCamp meetings throughout the year in Manchester, London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/creative-network-seeks-tackle-marginalisation-arts Background Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years (RSPH, 2013; Arts Council, 2014; Culture White Paper, 2016). While enormous strides have been taken towards making arts institutions accessible and welcoming to a range of maginalised groups (Brown and Higashi, 2015; Cook, 2009; Culture White Paper, 2016, p. 15; Jermyn, 2004; Kester, 2013; Sandell & Nightingale, 2012) there remain considerable challenges in widening access to some marginalised young people and adults (Edmunds, 2008; Hammonds & Bhandal, 2011; Ivinson 2012; Robinson and Gillies, 2012; Pahl, on-going). Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' Across the consultations, a further set of Key Questions emerged that will guide the critical debates in the BarCamp workshops: • What are the points of dissonance and convergence around understandings of arts-based participation and democracy held by Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and those who teach on FE creative arts courses? • How do arts-based practices link to the development of wider enterprise, the soft skills required for entrepreneurship and how are these recognised/accredited? • How do artists, practitioners in arts Institutions, youth and community workers negotiate the short-termism of funding in relation to the time frames needed to build trust? • How can the impact and evaluation agendas be reconciled with the needs of marginal groups? • What is understood as community cohesion and how do divergent practices such as festivals and youth workers' street work contribute? We propose the model of a BarCamp to structure the exchange spaces because we recognise the need to enable participants from very different disciplines and institutions to interact rather than only listen to presentations. Many of the participants involved in the consultations are part of wider programmes aimed at designing projects that actively work to include marginalised groups in civic society such as: the AHRC Connected Communities Programme (Angharad, Byrne, Ivinson). Our involvement in these programmes as community artists, and academics who work with artists, has led us to value co-production and partnership working and to recognise the importance of understanding the living knowledge, values and aesthetics of marginalised groups in non-judgemental ways (Facer and Enright, 2016). To allow for a multiplicity of perspectives the BarCamps will be designed to include processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. This is critical if we are to work together in meaner, keener times in ways that enable critical engagement with issues such as democracy and access to the Arts. Aim The aim is to share knowledge across the fields and disciplines of Art and youth/community and to critically debate how to widen participation in the Arts to address social inequality. Objectives 1. To create a network of local and cross national connections between groups and disciplines such as; Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and academics who teach creative arts courses, to share knowledge and explore differences; 2. To craft 5 BarCamps as non-elitist exchange spaces (through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating) to enable boundary crossing between disciplines; 3. To record and share the emerging debates and map divergent knowledge, expertise and knowhow between fields and disciplines through mind-maps, diagrams, notes and photographs that will be lodged on a web-space modelled on the Sense Lab (see details below); 4. To disseminate key findings to stakeholders through a Futures Planning Meeting, a web space, a summary report and academic papers, and create principles to design a research project to put the knowledge gained in the BarCamps into practice. Events: In January 2018 we met to design the structure of the BarCamp exchange spaces and construct lists of invitees by region to ensure a balance of Arts and youth/community participants. The five BarCamps will take place between May 2018 and March 2018. BarCamp1: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Arts-based Participation Manchester, 42nd Street Youth Centre hosted by Julie McCarthy, Horsfall & Jo Lane of Odd Arts and organised by Early Career Researchers Lara Trafi-Pratts and Harriet Rowley, Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Anna Bull University of Portsmouth BarCamp2: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Enterprise in the Arts London, Tate Gallery hosted by Nicky Simm & Mark Miller of Circuit, academic lead Yvonne Robinson LSBU, Early Career Researcher Frances Howard, University of Nottingham BarCamp3: Key Theme - Exploring Time and Trust in Art-Based Practices Cardiff, The National Museum of Wales, hosted by R. Bevis, with artistic leads Future's Collective choreographer Jen Angharad, Early Career Researcher Ellie Byrne, Cardiff University. BarCamp4: Key Theme - The Impact and Evaluation Agenda Meets Radical Practice Bradford, Common Wealth, hosted by artistic lead Evie Manning and Early Career Researcher Steph Brocken, University of Chester. With teenage girls and women from diverse backgrounds with roots in Algeria, Pakistan, Kashmir and Congolese communities. BarCamp5: Key Theme - Street Work Meets Festivals Brighton, Youth Centre, hosted by Chris Charles of the National Federation for Detached Youth Work, and Early Career Researcher Tania de St Croix, King's College London. Next steps planning meeting - Dissemination and Further Research Manchester, hosted by Arts Council England and MMU. http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/research/news-and-events/story/?id=7065 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Arts Council England's letter of support included the following" 'We therefore recognise the value of creating a network to share knowledge and methods across disciplines to better understand how to enable marginalised groups to benefit from arts facilities and practices. We value the opportunity to participate in the initial planning meeting and the Manchester based BarCamp. We will host the Next Steps Planning Meeting at our headquarters, The Hive in Manchester and look forward to contributing to discussions about further research and dissemination.' |
| Impact | Planning Workshop meeting, January 2018, at Manchester Metropolitan University. We planned the five BarCamps Meetings to be hosted in Manchester London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices |
| Organisation | Federation for Detached Youth Work |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices A new project aims to end the inequality in arts participation in England and Wales by helping artists and organisations engage marginalised groups. The Creative Margins network, funded by AHRC and supported by the Arts Council England, will meet five times in locations across England and Wales throughout 2018. Meetings will focus on topics including enterprise in the arts, trust, evaluation, and the use of space. Organisations including Tate, National Museum Wales, Common Wealth Theatre and the UK Federation for Detached Youth are all official project partners and meeting hosts, and part of the funding will be used for bursaries to enable local artists to attend. The network is run by Manchester Metropolitan University's Education and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and will provide an opportunity for academics to develop a more complex understanding of marginalisation, and as the basis for further research. It builds on Along with the network meetings organised with partners mentioned above, this project builds on Ivinson's work in ex-mining communities on south Wales, where she works with a range of artists to co-produce artworks with extremely marginalised young people (ESRC/AHRC Productive Margins project in the Connected Communities Programme http://www.productivemargins.ac.uk/projects/mapping-making-mobilising/ And Ivinson's work as Chair of the British Education Research Associations' Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy https://www.bera.ac.uk/project/bera-research-commissions/poverty-and-policy-advocacy Extract from press release Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices Earlier research by the Common Cause Foundation and Manchester Museum concluded that subtle changes to how arts organisations display their work or request donations could influence how welcoming they appear. "There are currently a narrow range of tools for 'measuring' impact," explained Gabrielle Ivinson, lead researcher on the project. "It would be great to discover new potential models of interaction, but our aim is to expose current conflicts and find small moves that arts organisations could make to make their arts organisation a little less intimidating." She continued: "When it is complete, the project will address the need to prepare the future workforce, by suggesting how groups who do not usually consider employment in the arts sectors may be supported to consider future careers in the arts and as entrepreneurs creating a more democratic, participatory society. "The project is important not just for academics and arts organisations - it will help policy-makers, governments at local, regional, devolved and national levels, and most importantly individuals who are at risk." Arts employees from publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres have revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. As part of the £24,203 project, arts employees will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. The network will meet in a series of BarCamp meetings throughout the year in Manchester, London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/creative-network-seeks-tackle-marginalisation-arts Background Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years (RSPH, 2013; Arts Council, 2014; Culture White Paper, 2016). While enormous strides have been taken towards making arts institutions accessible and welcoming to a range of maginalised groups (Brown and Higashi, 2015; Cook, 2009; Culture White Paper, 2016, p. 15; Jermyn, 2004; Kester, 2013; Sandell & Nightingale, 2012) there remain considerable challenges in widening access to some marginalised young people and adults (Edmunds, 2008; Hammonds & Bhandal, 2011; Ivinson 2012; Robinson and Gillies, 2012; Pahl, on-going). Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' Across the consultations, a further set of Key Questions emerged that will guide the critical debates in the BarCamp workshops: • What are the points of dissonance and convergence around understandings of arts-based participation and democracy held by Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and those who teach on FE creative arts courses? • How do arts-based practices link to the development of wider enterprise, the soft skills required for entrepreneurship and how are these recognised/accredited? • How do artists, practitioners in arts Institutions, youth and community workers negotiate the short-termism of funding in relation to the time frames needed to build trust? • How can the impact and evaluation agendas be reconciled with the needs of marginal groups? • What is understood as community cohesion and how do divergent practices such as festivals and youth workers' street work contribute? We propose the model of a BarCamp to structure the exchange spaces because we recognise the need to enable participants from very different disciplines and institutions to interact rather than only listen to presentations. Many of the participants involved in the consultations are part of wider programmes aimed at designing projects that actively work to include marginalised groups in civic society such as: the AHRC Connected Communities Programme (Angharad, Byrne, Ivinson). Our involvement in these programmes as community artists, and academics who work with artists, has led us to value co-production and partnership working and to recognise the importance of understanding the living knowledge, values and aesthetics of marginalised groups in non-judgemental ways (Facer and Enright, 2016). To allow for a multiplicity of perspectives the BarCamps will be designed to include processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. This is critical if we are to work together in meaner, keener times in ways that enable critical engagement with issues such as democracy and access to the Arts. Aim The aim is to share knowledge across the fields and disciplines of Art and youth/community and to critically debate how to widen participation in the Arts to address social inequality. Objectives 1. To create a network of local and cross national connections between groups and disciplines such as; Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and academics who teach creative arts courses, to share knowledge and explore differences; 2. To craft 5 BarCamps as non-elitist exchange spaces (through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating) to enable boundary crossing between disciplines; 3. To record and share the emerging debates and map divergent knowledge, expertise and knowhow between fields and disciplines through mind-maps, diagrams, notes and photographs that will be lodged on a web-space modelled on the Sense Lab (see details below); 4. To disseminate key findings to stakeholders through a Futures Planning Meeting, a web space, a summary report and academic papers, and create principles to design a research project to put the knowledge gained in the BarCamps into practice. Events: In January 2018 we met to design the structure of the BarCamp exchange spaces and construct lists of invitees by region to ensure a balance of Arts and youth/community participants. The five BarCamps will take place between May 2018 and March 2018. BarCamp1: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Arts-based Participation Manchester, 42nd Street Youth Centre hosted by Julie McCarthy, Horsfall & Jo Lane of Odd Arts and organised by Early Career Researchers Lara Trafi-Pratts and Harriet Rowley, Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Anna Bull University of Portsmouth BarCamp2: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Enterprise in the Arts London, Tate Gallery hosted by Nicky Simm & Mark Miller of Circuit, academic lead Yvonne Robinson LSBU, Early Career Researcher Frances Howard, University of Nottingham BarCamp3: Key Theme - Exploring Time and Trust in Art-Based Practices Cardiff, The National Museum of Wales, hosted by R. Bevis, with artistic leads Future's Collective choreographer Jen Angharad, Early Career Researcher Ellie Byrne, Cardiff University. BarCamp4: Key Theme - The Impact and Evaluation Agenda Meets Radical Practice Bradford, Common Wealth, hosted by artistic lead Evie Manning and Early Career Researcher Steph Brocken, University of Chester. With teenage girls and women from diverse backgrounds with roots in Algeria, Pakistan, Kashmir and Congolese communities. BarCamp5: Key Theme - Street Work Meets Festivals Brighton, Youth Centre, hosted by Chris Charles of the National Federation for Detached Youth Work, and Early Career Researcher Tania de St Croix, King's College London. Next steps planning meeting - Dissemination and Further Research Manchester, hosted by Arts Council England and MMU. http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/research/news-and-events/story/?id=7065 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Arts Council England's letter of support included the following" 'We therefore recognise the value of creating a network to share knowledge and methods across disciplines to better understand how to enable marginalised groups to benefit from arts facilities and practices. We value the opportunity to participate in the initial planning meeting and the Manchester based BarCamp. We will host the Next Steps Planning Meeting at our headquarters, The Hive in Manchester and look forward to contributing to discussions about further research and dissemination.' |
| Impact | Planning Workshop meeting, January 2018, at Manchester Metropolitan University. We planned the five BarCamps Meetings to be hosted in Manchester London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices |
| Organisation | National Museum Wales |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices A new project aims to end the inequality in arts participation in England and Wales by helping artists and organisations engage marginalised groups. The Creative Margins network, funded by AHRC and supported by the Arts Council England, will meet five times in locations across England and Wales throughout 2018. Meetings will focus on topics including enterprise in the arts, trust, evaluation, and the use of space. Organisations including Tate, National Museum Wales, Common Wealth Theatre and the UK Federation for Detached Youth are all official project partners and meeting hosts, and part of the funding will be used for bursaries to enable local artists to attend. The network is run by Manchester Metropolitan University's Education and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and will provide an opportunity for academics to develop a more complex understanding of marginalisation, and as the basis for further research. It builds on Along with the network meetings organised with partners mentioned above, this project builds on Ivinson's work in ex-mining communities on south Wales, where she works with a range of artists to co-produce artworks with extremely marginalised young people (ESRC/AHRC Productive Margins project in the Connected Communities Programme http://www.productivemargins.ac.uk/projects/mapping-making-mobilising/ And Ivinson's work as Chair of the British Education Research Associations' Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy https://www.bera.ac.uk/project/bera-research-commissions/poverty-and-policy-advocacy Extract from press release Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices Earlier research by the Common Cause Foundation and Manchester Museum concluded that subtle changes to how arts organisations display their work or request donations could influence how welcoming they appear. "There are currently a narrow range of tools for 'measuring' impact," explained Gabrielle Ivinson, lead researcher on the project. "It would be great to discover new potential models of interaction, but our aim is to expose current conflicts and find small moves that arts organisations could make to make their arts organisation a little less intimidating." She continued: "When it is complete, the project will address the need to prepare the future workforce, by suggesting how groups who do not usually consider employment in the arts sectors may be supported to consider future careers in the arts and as entrepreneurs creating a more democratic, participatory society. "The project is important not just for academics and arts organisations - it will help policy-makers, governments at local, regional, devolved and national levels, and most importantly individuals who are at risk." Arts employees from publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres have revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. As part of the £24,203 project, arts employees will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. The network will meet in a series of BarCamp meetings throughout the year in Manchester, London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/creative-network-seeks-tackle-marginalisation-arts Background Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years (RSPH, 2013; Arts Council, 2014; Culture White Paper, 2016). While enormous strides have been taken towards making arts institutions accessible and welcoming to a range of maginalised groups (Brown and Higashi, 2015; Cook, 2009; Culture White Paper, 2016, p. 15; Jermyn, 2004; Kester, 2013; Sandell & Nightingale, 2012) there remain considerable challenges in widening access to some marginalised young people and adults (Edmunds, 2008; Hammonds & Bhandal, 2011; Ivinson 2012; Robinson and Gillies, 2012; Pahl, on-going). Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' Across the consultations, a further set of Key Questions emerged that will guide the critical debates in the BarCamp workshops: • What are the points of dissonance and convergence around understandings of arts-based participation and democracy held by Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and those who teach on FE creative arts courses? • How do arts-based practices link to the development of wider enterprise, the soft skills required for entrepreneurship and how are these recognised/accredited? • How do artists, practitioners in arts Institutions, youth and community workers negotiate the short-termism of funding in relation to the time frames needed to build trust? • How can the impact and evaluation agendas be reconciled with the needs of marginal groups? • What is understood as community cohesion and how do divergent practices such as festivals and youth workers' street work contribute? We propose the model of a BarCamp to structure the exchange spaces because we recognise the need to enable participants from very different disciplines and institutions to interact rather than only listen to presentations. Many of the participants involved in the consultations are part of wider programmes aimed at designing projects that actively work to include marginalised groups in civic society such as: the AHRC Connected Communities Programme (Angharad, Byrne, Ivinson). Our involvement in these programmes as community artists, and academics who work with artists, has led us to value co-production and partnership working and to recognise the importance of understanding the living knowledge, values and aesthetics of marginalised groups in non-judgemental ways (Facer and Enright, 2016). To allow for a multiplicity of perspectives the BarCamps will be designed to include processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. This is critical if we are to work together in meaner, keener times in ways that enable critical engagement with issues such as democracy and access to the Arts. Aim The aim is to share knowledge across the fields and disciplines of Art and youth/community and to critically debate how to widen participation in the Arts to address social inequality. Objectives 1. To create a network of local and cross national connections between groups and disciplines such as; Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and academics who teach creative arts courses, to share knowledge and explore differences; 2. To craft 5 BarCamps as non-elitist exchange spaces (through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating) to enable boundary crossing between disciplines; 3. To record and share the emerging debates and map divergent knowledge, expertise and knowhow between fields and disciplines through mind-maps, diagrams, notes and photographs that will be lodged on a web-space modelled on the Sense Lab (see details below); 4. To disseminate key findings to stakeholders through a Futures Planning Meeting, a web space, a summary report and academic papers, and create principles to design a research project to put the knowledge gained in the BarCamps into practice. Events: In January 2018 we met to design the structure of the BarCamp exchange spaces and construct lists of invitees by region to ensure a balance of Arts and youth/community participants. The five BarCamps will take place between May 2018 and March 2018. BarCamp1: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Arts-based Participation Manchester, 42nd Street Youth Centre hosted by Julie McCarthy, Horsfall & Jo Lane of Odd Arts and organised by Early Career Researchers Lara Trafi-Pratts and Harriet Rowley, Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Anna Bull University of Portsmouth BarCamp2: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Enterprise in the Arts London, Tate Gallery hosted by Nicky Simm & Mark Miller of Circuit, academic lead Yvonne Robinson LSBU, Early Career Researcher Frances Howard, University of Nottingham BarCamp3: Key Theme - Exploring Time and Trust in Art-Based Practices Cardiff, The National Museum of Wales, hosted by R. Bevis, with artistic leads Future's Collective choreographer Jen Angharad, Early Career Researcher Ellie Byrne, Cardiff University. BarCamp4: Key Theme - The Impact and Evaluation Agenda Meets Radical Practice Bradford, Common Wealth, hosted by artistic lead Evie Manning and Early Career Researcher Steph Brocken, University of Chester. With teenage girls and women from diverse backgrounds with roots in Algeria, Pakistan, Kashmir and Congolese communities. BarCamp5: Key Theme - Street Work Meets Festivals Brighton, Youth Centre, hosted by Chris Charles of the National Federation for Detached Youth Work, and Early Career Researcher Tania de St Croix, King's College London. Next steps planning meeting - Dissemination and Further Research Manchester, hosted by Arts Council England and MMU. http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/research/news-and-events/story/?id=7065 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Arts Council England's letter of support included the following" 'We therefore recognise the value of creating a network to share knowledge and methods across disciplines to better understand how to enable marginalised groups to benefit from arts facilities and practices. We value the opportunity to participate in the initial planning meeting and the Manchester based BarCamp. We will host the Next Steps Planning Meeting at our headquarters, The Hive in Manchester and look forward to contributing to discussions about further research and dissemination.' |
| Impact | Planning Workshop meeting, January 2018, at Manchester Metropolitan University. We planned the five BarCamps Meetings to be hosted in Manchester London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices |
| Organisation | Tate |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices A new project aims to end the inequality in arts participation in England and Wales by helping artists and organisations engage marginalised groups. The Creative Margins network, funded by AHRC and supported by the Arts Council England, will meet five times in locations across England and Wales throughout 2018. Meetings will focus on topics including enterprise in the arts, trust, evaluation, and the use of space. Organisations including Tate, National Museum Wales, Common Wealth Theatre and the UK Federation for Detached Youth are all official project partners and meeting hosts, and part of the funding will be used for bursaries to enable local artists to attend. The network is run by Manchester Metropolitan University's Education and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and will provide an opportunity for academics to develop a more complex understanding of marginalisation, and as the basis for further research. It builds on Along with the network meetings organised with partners mentioned above, this project builds on Ivinson's work in ex-mining communities on south Wales, where she works with a range of artists to co-produce artworks with extremely marginalised young people (ESRC/AHRC Productive Margins project in the Connected Communities Programme http://www.productivemargins.ac.uk/projects/mapping-making-mobilising/ And Ivinson's work as Chair of the British Education Research Associations' Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy https://www.bera.ac.uk/project/bera-research-commissions/poverty-and-policy-advocacy Extract from press release Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices Earlier research by the Common Cause Foundation and Manchester Museum concluded that subtle changes to how arts organisations display their work or request donations could influence how welcoming they appear. "There are currently a narrow range of tools for 'measuring' impact," explained Gabrielle Ivinson, lead researcher on the project. "It would be great to discover new potential models of interaction, but our aim is to expose current conflicts and find small moves that arts organisations could make to make their arts organisation a little less intimidating." She continued: "When it is complete, the project will address the need to prepare the future workforce, by suggesting how groups who do not usually consider employment in the arts sectors may be supported to consider future careers in the arts and as entrepreneurs creating a more democratic, participatory society. "The project is important not just for academics and arts organisations - it will help policy-makers, governments at local, regional, devolved and national levels, and most importantly individuals who are at risk." Arts employees from publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres have revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. As part of the £24,203 project, arts employees will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. The network will meet in a series of BarCamp meetings throughout the year in Manchester, London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/creative-network-seeks-tackle-marginalisation-arts Background Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years (RSPH, 2013; Arts Council, 2014; Culture White Paper, 2016). While enormous strides have been taken towards making arts institutions accessible and welcoming to a range of maginalised groups (Brown and Higashi, 2015; Cook, 2009; Culture White Paper, 2016, p. 15; Jermyn, 2004; Kester, 2013; Sandell & Nightingale, 2012) there remain considerable challenges in widening access to some marginalised young people and adults (Edmunds, 2008; Hammonds & Bhandal, 2011; Ivinson 2012; Robinson and Gillies, 2012; Pahl, on-going). Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' Across the consultations, a further set of Key Questions emerged that will guide the critical debates in the BarCamp workshops: • What are the points of dissonance and convergence around understandings of arts-based participation and democracy held by Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and those who teach on FE creative arts courses? • How do arts-based practices link to the development of wider enterprise, the soft skills required for entrepreneurship and how are these recognised/accredited? • How do artists, practitioners in arts Institutions, youth and community workers negotiate the short-termism of funding in relation to the time frames needed to build trust? • How can the impact and evaluation agendas be reconciled with the needs of marginal groups? • What is understood as community cohesion and how do divergent practices such as festivals and youth workers' street work contribute? We propose the model of a BarCamp to structure the exchange spaces because we recognise the need to enable participants from very different disciplines and institutions to interact rather than only listen to presentations. Many of the participants involved in the consultations are part of wider programmes aimed at designing projects that actively work to include marginalised groups in civic society such as: the AHRC Connected Communities Programme (Angharad, Byrne, Ivinson). Our involvement in these programmes as community artists, and academics who work with artists, has led us to value co-production and partnership working and to recognise the importance of understanding the living knowledge, values and aesthetics of marginalised groups in non-judgemental ways (Facer and Enright, 2016). To allow for a multiplicity of perspectives the BarCamps will be designed to include processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. This is critical if we are to work together in meaner, keener times in ways that enable critical engagement with issues such as democracy and access to the Arts. Aim The aim is to share knowledge across the fields and disciplines of Art and youth/community and to critically debate how to widen participation in the Arts to address social inequality. Objectives 1. To create a network of local and cross national connections between groups and disciplines such as; Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and academics who teach creative arts courses, to share knowledge and explore differences; 2. To craft 5 BarCamps as non-elitist exchange spaces (through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating) to enable boundary crossing between disciplines; 3. To record and share the emerging debates and map divergent knowledge, expertise and knowhow between fields and disciplines through mind-maps, diagrams, notes and photographs that will be lodged on a web-space modelled on the Sense Lab (see details below); 4. To disseminate key findings to stakeholders through a Futures Planning Meeting, a web space, a summary report and academic papers, and create principles to design a research project to put the knowledge gained in the BarCamps into practice. Events: In January 2018 we met to design the structure of the BarCamp exchange spaces and construct lists of invitees by region to ensure a balance of Arts and youth/community participants. The five BarCamps will take place between May 2018 and March 2018. BarCamp1: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Arts-based Participation Manchester, 42nd Street Youth Centre hosted by Julie McCarthy, Horsfall & Jo Lane of Odd Arts and organised by Early Career Researchers Lara Trafi-Pratts and Harriet Rowley, Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Anna Bull University of Portsmouth BarCamp2: Key Theme - Exploring Divergent Views of Enterprise in the Arts London, Tate Gallery hosted by Nicky Simm & Mark Miller of Circuit, academic lead Yvonne Robinson LSBU, Early Career Researcher Frances Howard, University of Nottingham BarCamp3: Key Theme - Exploring Time and Trust in Art-Based Practices Cardiff, The National Museum of Wales, hosted by R. Bevis, with artistic leads Future's Collective choreographer Jen Angharad, Early Career Researcher Ellie Byrne, Cardiff University. BarCamp4: Key Theme - The Impact and Evaluation Agenda Meets Radical Practice Bradford, Common Wealth, hosted by artistic lead Evie Manning and Early Career Researcher Steph Brocken, University of Chester. With teenage girls and women from diverse backgrounds with roots in Algeria, Pakistan, Kashmir and Congolese communities. BarCamp5: Key Theme - Street Work Meets Festivals Brighton, Youth Centre, hosted by Chris Charles of the National Federation for Detached Youth Work, and Early Career Researcher Tania de St Croix, King's College London. Next steps planning meeting - Dissemination and Further Research Manchester, hosted by Arts Council England and MMU. http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/research/news-and-events/story/?id=7065 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Arts Council England's letter of support included the following" 'We therefore recognise the value of creating a network to share knowledge and methods across disciplines to better understand how to enable marginalised groups to benefit from arts facilities and practices. We value the opportunity to participate in the initial planning meeting and the Manchester based BarCamp. We will host the Next Steps Planning Meeting at our headquarters, The Hive in Manchester and look forward to contributing to discussions about further research and dissemination.' |
| Impact | Planning Workshop meeting, January 2018, at Manchester Metropolitan University. We planned the five BarCamps Meetings to be hosted in Manchester London, Bradford, Brighton and Cardiff. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | BarCamp 4: Key Theme - 'Time and Trust': working collaboratively and creatively with young people. November 5th 2018, hosted by St Fagan's National Museum of History, Cardiff |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was the fourth of the five Creative Margins Barcamp/meetings BarCamp4: Key Theme - 'Time and Trust': working collaboratively and creatively with young people. November 5th 2018, in Cardiff, hosted by St Fagan's National Museum of History The day involved: • Life Support performance and film led by Future's Collective, visual artist Seth Oliver, choreographer Jen Angharad, and academics Emma Renold and Gabrielle Ivinson • Introduction to St Fagan's by Rhiannon Thomas, Learning Participation and Interpretation Manager at St Fagan's, • Group discussions - introductions and reaction to the presentation, and prompt question 'Barriers and facilitators to collaborative working with young people in relation to time and trust'. • Presentation by guest speaker Mike Pearson, a brief history of radical community theatre in Cardiff • Presentation 'Time and Trust: Youth Engagement at Museum Wales', by guest speakers, young volunteers, Josh Baurley, Jade Jenkins and Sara Younan. • Group discussions 'Designing new ways to work and collaborate across arts institutions and youth work, to support young people to benefit from arts - for the AHRC bid'. • Plenary The day started with a performance of Life Support by the Futures collective visual artist Seth Oliver and Choreographer Jen Angharad, with academics Emma Renold and Gabrielle Ivinson. The film and the research that led to the film Life Support had been created as part of the Productive Margins; Regulation for Engagement AHRC/ESRC project (PI M. Dermont). This was a new public showing of the film and the research. Following the presentation and film, participant worked in groups and here are some of the reaction sot the film and presentation. Started with a performance Life Line, The Futures Collective Reactions to the performance "The piece became quietly compelling the more I watched. My colleague described it as a piece of theatre, and I was frustrated because it wasn't theatre; it was however a beautiful way of presenting findings from an extraordinary piece of work. I became more and more drawn in by it. I've realised the greatest gift you can give is time, and unless you are able to invest time over and beyond the project I think you insult those you aim to engage with. Funders need to acknowledge this investment of time which can make a difference to peoples lives - the importance of time is what the piece highlighted for me. Austerity is not over and we are shying away from the fact that we might all be out of work. Investment from the council can go so much further when they invest in arts organisations. When you give an arts organisation a little bit of money, they can use it to lever more funds, for example through working with schools and community organisations that can put in some extra, and the impacts can be incredible and far reaching. It creates cross-fertilisation in the community, and it is preventive against other costly social problems. [Another member of the group then says: what R has just said is far more compelling than what we have just seen]. When young people are not supported and living in deprived communities, the components that enable people to become confident (i.e. home life).- if that is removed AND the second safety net of community resources is not there either, it leads to problems such as homelessness, drug use, crime etc. The arts can be the only form of support for some people, their only social contact, time to eat. You have to be realistic about the time it takes. People drop in and out. People are vulnerable and the smallest things can interrupt. Here are some snippets form other groups responding to the provocation - Discuss - Barriers and facilitators to collaborative working with young people in relation to time and trust (to contribute to knowledge on potential new ways of working). Group 1 'Finding youths on the streets, this is important outreach work, but you need 'connectors', the people who know how to point you to young people with whom you can then work and it's a real problem that we're losing these connectors. You can't just go out and hope to stumble across Young People.' 'Families are part of communities themselves, and we need connections so that the things we do are not alien invasions but resonate with peoples lives and to sit comfortably within them. The problems are that in schools the connections are very temporary and they tend to stay within the school. To get longer lasting connections is very difficult. But you have to make friendships with young people, not using them for a project.' 'When you do that the ten year old you worked with becomes the 25 year old that you're still in touch with. Sport brings people together but it's very gender sectioned, whereas arts activities are good for both genders. But it can't be confined to within the walls of the youth centre.' 'Negotiating the needs of funders makes it difficult as a youth worker to keep it as a close connectivity. Funders are always after the quick fix. When we had youth workers embedded in the community things were easier. Knowing the youth workers are invested in your family, that you grew up with, being authentically part of your life, means you can trust them, rather than being just a name on a list. ' 'It's important to avoid having labels pinned on young people as these create barriers. It's important to stay with young people and stick close to what they want to do. Don't try and fit them into your project. It's difficult with researchers who get funded to do particular programmes of research that are decided in advance. But vital to remain open to what the YP want to do.' How do you sustain and build relationships in an environment of short term funding? Most of the time, funding is only for new projects. Things can just start taking off and then it's pulled. Later in the discussion, the point was raised that sometimes in order to get funding, the projects have to have quite a specific, narrow focus, which was constraining when often projects with a more open-ended remit worked better. Mike Pearson talked about there being different constraints to working now compared with a few decades ago, such as how 'hands on' the activities can be, but Emma Renold raised the point that her department had built up a knowledge of ethics over time, so the process wasn't as complicated. Jenny Kidd talked about her experience with students and the digital culture in that students didn't care too much about data protection but were concerned about cyber-bullying, etc. Presentation Guest Speaker Mike Pearson Professor Mike Pearson gave a stunning slide show of images such as these taken in Adamsdown in Cardiff when he and George Auchterlonie formed a community theatre group called Transitions in September 1971. He said, 'The radical community based performances came out of many sources and perhaps reflected a spirit of freedom that artist had at that time, which enabled to create activities that now look like 'daring projects' with children and young people. At one point in his talk, Mike said, 'Yes that's right, we worked with small children up ladders with hammers.' Time and Trust Youth engagement at Museum Wales Youth Volunteers presenters Josh Baurley, Jade Jenkins gave a wonderful presentation and this commentary accompanies their beautiful power point with illustration of a dance intervention by Sarah Younan and students from Aberystwyth University. Below are some of the points they covered, in their own words. TIME (2) Time is one of the most important things to consider when working with young people, and this may not be for the reasons that one might consider obvious. As young people, we have been volunteering with Amgueddfa Cymru's Youth Forum for two years, which has given us an insight and ideas about how youth engagement with heritage and culture is handled within an institution of this size, as well as giving us the opportunity to consider ways that it might be improved. Time in this discussion can take many forms, such as that as project length, activity length, museum timescales as well as individual timescales. (3) Young people have busy, fast-paced and dynamic lives which stand in contrast to the slower pace of museum programming. While longer activities and projects are appreciated, there is a danger that young people will become disinterested in a project if they see that the project itself is not moving along. We are not suggesting that activities and projects must be short. We suggest that in order to maintain a sense of progression and achievement, thus keeping momentum and keeping young people engaged in a positive manner, that the project should be split into many smaller, diverse tasks. We consider that there is a place for a core of admin-esque young people who can and want to take a more responsible role in regards to organisation, time management and human resources but it is important to remember that not all young people want to do this and not to force them into this role. Through this planning, there can be several activities that contribute to the forward thrust of the project. These activities can range from a workshop spanning an hour, to projects that span several sessions. We think that the key here is having a clear idea of the end aims of the project, and then splitting up the actionable tasks and matching activities to suitable age ranges, groups or ability levels. This can open the door to greater diversity and representation within the museum space whilst still being respectful to those diversities. (their full transcript is on the website) In the afternoon, the breakout groups focused on potential new ways of working in relation to time and trust. The discussion initially focused on funding - how difficult it was to obtain non-arts funding. It was talked about that mixed economy funding is encouraged, e.g. combining musicians/art practitioners/academics, but that the cultural value of art is always up for negotiation. The notion of distrust of academic research was raised. What is the research trying to prove? Should we not just 'do' it, and through doing, we learn what works and what needs to be done differently. However it was challenged that one of the key outcomes for research has to be its social impact, so it's not as if research is being done for research's sake. Also better practices are coming into effect because of research, which is a good reason for research to happen. Plenary ( a few snippets) People said, 'We need to listen to people and not assume what it is that they want to do. How can we not have to try and do everything at once? Not focus on everyone but focus on one demographic at a time. There are also different needs from every single particular location and you can't generalise across. There are some universal things that might work but we need more bottom up working. Could we spend more time connecting young people with policy makers? There's a lot of good ways of working out there. But we need to strengthen the connections between different sectors, e.g. the heritage silo doesn't talk to the arts silo. The question that Josh and Jade raised about progression is absolutely huge. What happens to people after they are 25? There are the 30 something's who do not have any things laid on for them. But they're often saddled with huge debts and high rents. And no one speaks for them. We have to start by asking the young people themselves. There are a lot of youth centres run by participants who are much older. How can these be made more sustainable? What about Josh and Jade's point about trust? How do we get around that? One person's summary of the day went like this.. Today's event was an excellent opportunity for people from a number of different organisations to come together, talk about existing networks and create new ones. It would be great to go forward from today and build on these new links rather than feeling like we have to go back to the beginning. A number of questions were raised today: how do we productively collaborate? What happens when we put small agencies with larger ones - how does this influence funding? If funding is available, we need to focus on using this to build infrastructure, as opposed to carrying out separate disconnected projects. If we had funding, would it be useful to use the money to bring people together, or to conduct research in organisations to see how they function? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.creativemargins.net/cardiff/ |
| Description | BarCamp 5: Key Theme - Clash of Cultures - collaboration to true partnership November 28th 2018, Tate Gallery, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | BarCamp5: Key Theme - Clash of Cultures - collaboration to true partnership November 28th 2018, in London, Tate Gallery hosted by Mark Miller of Circuit, academic lead Yvonne Robinson LSBU, Early Career Researcher Frances Howard, University of Nottingham The day involved: • Welcome by April Brown, Assistant Curator, Young People's Programmes and co-chair of the BAME Staff Network across Tate Britain and Tate Modern. • Presentation and tour of the art gallery led Kareem Parkins-Brown presentation and in gallery performance. • Provocations by Mark Miller, Lead & Convenor Young People's Programmes at Tate, Dr Nicola Sim & Hannah Kemp-Welch, social practice sound artist. • Group discussion in response to provocation themes • Breakout sessions, followed by self-nominated audience feedback to wider group, choice of topics: o Breakout session 1 with Anna Glarin and Emily Reddon: Running creative and cultural projects in community youth settings, o Breakout session 2 with Carol Pierre: Bridging the gap: Working class youth v. The gallery o Breakout session 3 with Salma Istwani and Ekram: Mental Health and the "Refugee" Label. • Concluding panel discussion with day's contributors and chaired by Professor Pat Thompson. Frances Howard is a Lecturer in Youth Studies at Nottingham Trent University, provided the notes on ten day as follows: The day started with a presentation and poety reading from Young Poet, Kareem Parkins-Brown's advice to arts organisations wanting to work with young people. Kareem Parkins-Brown set the tone for 'Creative Margins: Clash of Culture' with an in gallery performance of his poetry reflecting his own feelings of cultural clashes. He used the slogan: "Check your privilege, check your difference, check your motivations, check your relevance and check your workforce" His two poems charismatically described his local area as one of 'regeneration' as a response to Chris Ofili's work Blue Devils, in itself a work of art that capture tensions between old and new presences depicting the flurry of the Trinidad Festival with intrusive police presence. Kareem's poems evoked the replacement of old with new. The replacement of the old basketball courts, the chicken shop, the pond with swans in favour of new trendy cafes and bars, symbolic of a place that now 'takes itself too seriously'. The arrival of new crowds as the 'ticket inspectors of cool'. His satirical characterisations of 'Supreme Steve' and 'Flasha Tasha' are relatable new social types attempting to infiltrate his space. These feeling of unusual presence, unease and difference often occur when the arts world comes together with the youth sector - the theme that this event sought to explore. Following Kareem's performance was a series of provocation pieces with key questions for the audience: Provocation 1: Mark Miller Key question: Where does your personal politics stop and start in your work? Mark reflected on some of the learning from the Circuit programme. Circuit was Paul Hamlyn funded programme which aimed to explore different models of 'partnership' between youth and arts organisations. It was designed to challenge the traditional 'outreach' model, starting with a core relationship between partners from the youth and arts sector. Key findings from this programme included a lack of understanding of youth work practice, a lack of knowledge about what happens in the gallery space as well as little acknowledgement of the wide and valuable background of young people. Mark questioned the notion of co-production and asked what constitutes a 'true' partnership. His final consideration was around the need for both arts and youth workers to review their own professional motivations for equality and social justice, asking where does personal politics stop and start in your work? Provocation 2: Dr Nicola Sim Key question: What are the practical solutions to sustaining youth/arts partnerships? Nicky reported on finding from her PhD research which sought to explore the different models of partnership work within the Circuit programme. She reflected on a range of differences between the fields of the arts and youth work which were based around the educational, economic and social differences between the workers. This resulted in differing languages, experiences, traditions of practice and ways of being, which were hidden and often unacknowledged manifestations of power. She argued that youth work and the arts could be natural allies if the youth sector were able to better understand the gallery space and the arts sector could better engage with youth work practice. She addressed the need to develop a 'culture of collaboration' which could include research and practice networks, CPD, training of arts and youth workers within higher education settings and cross sector roles. These would assist in developing people who can respond to the needs and talk the language of both fields. Provocation 3: Hannah Kemp-Welsh Key question: How can we involve artists is framing equitable partnerships? As a sound artist, gallery educator and youth worker, Hannah gave details on the 'many hats she wears'. She offered her perspective on her different frames of reference and how the two worlds can meet. She referred to "transferring the chaos" of youth work and youth projects often to the feet of the artists, who been have been positioned as a bandaid - bridging the void between the youth club and the arts museum. She encouraged participants to explore their hybrid positions and embrace the interdisciplinary. Hannah described the benefits of engaging artists in partnership work which focuses on process rather than product, ideas rather than medium and quality of experience rather than assessing impact. In response to these provocations, network members raised that there exists a 'hiddeness about peoples lives' and many missed opportunities for harnessing the skills of workers in alternative spaces. A cultural shift in organisations was called for in the way that workers can be 'trusted' to work differently. We may choose to work for organisations where our values align, we might be lucky enough to be employed by them - but it was recognised that this is not a universal experience. Funding was also actively discussed in relation to the structural change of partnership work. There were several comments about the different agendas that funding brings and the importance of experimenting without funding. Often the best artistic work is created without funding, without focus and without an end product. The importance of 'lived' experience in facilitation and programming was also raised. Lived experience in relation to employing artists from the local area, acknowledgment of young people's cultural funds of knowledge and the lived experiences they bring with them. In this way, we are recognising the power of young people as a group - their collective power, as a way of recognising difference. Breakout sessions from a range of organisations working with young people and the arts followed the discussion and provocations. The first session with Anna Glarin and Emily Reddon from London Youth shared their learning around the Young Culture Makers programme. This programme supported community youth organisations to run arts activities. Their session explored how to ensure that youth workers have a positive experience within arts programmes and how youth centres worked to 'scaffold trust' with diverse groups of young people, but also to widen out the range of partners they are working with. Breakout session 2 with Carol Pierre, an independent researcher and social historian, explored the question of bridging the gap between working class young people and the gallery. The participants in this session explored how gallery programming could be more inclusive for working class young people and arrived at some practical suggestions including removing non-paid internships and supporting young freelance programming. The third breakout session was run by Salma Istwani and Ekram from Refugee Youth. This session employed youth work methods and creative arts activities in order to explore the labelling "refugee" young people in relation to their mental health. This approach encouraged participants to think differently by thinking through the use of creative tools and alternative means of communication. Concluding panel chaired by Professor Pat Thomson Pat Thomson reflected on two key themes that had re-occurred throughout the day: funding and the portrayal of institutions. She argued that we were not perhaps exploring a "Clash of Cultures" but the effects of "living within" organisations. As things that lie within other things, the economies that sit within capitalism. She cited the notion of "subjugated economies" from Gibson-Graham (2001) in relation to the ways that particular functions within society are hidden, they are happening alongside. This reflected, she argued, the sometimes troubled relationships between youth work and arts organisations. She recognised that there are similar principals of community development held by both socially-engaged arts practice and detached youth work and that by exploring 'alternative economies' differing models might emerge which would make partnerships more sustainable. These models would be based around redistributing the wealth among the population and sharing resources, rather than expecting more from government funding. In the discussion that followed there were key messages from the day which included the shared vision, practices and values of youth work and the arts, the need for more room for critical discussion, questioning what we take for granted and the relinquishing of power to young people. There is need to more recognition around hidden knowledge and creativity within both in institutions communities and youth centres. The group recognised the need to check our own privilege, our own assumptions and the importance of sharing information across networks. To close Gabrielle Ivinson argued that it is not fair that the arts and sports are asked to do the job of youth work. There is a need to subvert this expectation through resistant practices and experiencing different knowledge(s). The following suggestions were made in relation to key messages from the discussions: • The need for places and spaces where practitioners from youth work and the arts can talk through networks such as Creative Margins and further events. • The importance of exploring alternative funding and economic models to end short-termism and the competition for government funding. • The need for organisational change, which could include the re-allocation of existing budgets towards youth work and the arts. • The importance of an on-going conversation about how arts organisations can be inclusive in their decision-making practices and forefront youth voice and a youth-led perspective. • A manifesto was suggested which could explore the shared agendas of youth work and the arts, but also highlight the local issues that are most important to young people. In sum, instead of considering youth work and the arts as a 'Clash of Cultures', they can be seen as subjugated, symbiotic and sometimes hidden resources for society. Frances Howard is a Lecturer in Youth Studies at Nottingham Trent University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.creativemargins.net/london/ |
| Description | BarCamp1: Key Theme - 'Class, the elephant in the room' June 26th 2018, in Bradford, Common Wealth Theatre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was one of five Barcamp/meetings as part of the Creative Margins network. The aim of Creative Margins is to share and generate new knowledge by bringing participants from the fields of youth and community work, from public Arts organisations and grass roots charities that draw on arts, and academics to critically debate how to widen participation in the Arts to address social inequality. The key problem that we addressed was: 'Why does participation in Arts framed within inclusion agendas often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways? Further guiding problematic were: • How can we work meaningfully with socially marginalised groups? • What approaches and methods of outreach practice undertaken by artists and Arts Institutions are 'good' ways of working with marginalised young people? • Can we develop new models of working that will address social inequality? The specific topic of this meeting was - 'Class, the elephant in the room' June 26th 2018, in Bradford, Common Wealth Theatre, hosted by artistic lead Evie Manning. The day involved: • Thereat piece 'The Elephant in the Room'. • Introductions and discussion led by Hassan Mahamdallie. • Panel Discussion lead by Dr Nicola Sim and Javaad Alipoor, playwright and theatre director 'What more we need to think about in relation to Class and Arts Participation' • Open space discussion thinking through class and access to art institution and practices. There were 40 participants form various sectors and organisations that had booked to come on Eventbrite. We were over subscribed and the discussions were very lively ( Ia could barely get them to leave at the end of then day). Following the theatre piece, participants revealed a vast array of ways of being working class. The actors asked us, the participants, if we identified as working class (hands up), middle class (hands up). This exercise revealed just how many people did not identify according to this class binary. We took from this that class distinctions have become blurred in contemporary UK, at least here in Bradford, in this north of England event. Discussions revealed the complexities of working class up-bringing, which create a wide variation of experiences while growing up. Complicated class identities were narrated, such as: • growing up on a working class estate with non traditional working class parents, such as immigrant parents who came to the UK with rich arts cultures and how this was passed on to their children. • growing up in a working class estate to working class parents and discovering other practices, reading materials, media, habits and rituals through a middle girl or boy friend. • growing up on working class estate that held onto the traditions of working class arts cultures. We recorded the day on the website and one of our bloggers wrote: There have been some wonderful moments and the opening event, in which an actor dressed in an elephant costume got everyone singing to Oasis 'Don't Look Back in Anger' before 12noon shines brightly in my memory. The elephant was speaking about being working class and finding a way into theatre as a performer (let alone a director) and what that's like, now in 2018. This provoked a sharp set of conversations about 'CLASS: The Elephant in the Room'. Here a young member of a learning disability project declared: 'No-one has ever asked me about my class before. If you're learning disabled you are treated like you don't even have a class.' 'Class' as a topic has never been far away in these gatherings. Some of the theorists invoked are people who wrote about class and culture: Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu, exploring structures of feeling and practices of distinction that create companionable or exclusionary atmospheres. Sometimes it is Brian Massumi's thinking-feeling enlivens and the conversation turns to matters of co-creation and living knowledge(s). In recognising the role of youth workers, gatekeepers, necessary to the whole project of 'socially engaged arts practice' in many ways, the divide between part-time youth workers and those also precariously employed young people trying to make their way as 'creatives' has been present in every case. We refracted these discussing through two provocations one by Javaad Alipoor and Nicola Sim. Javaad Alipoor, actor and theatre director, pointed out that many working class groups simply choose not to spend their money on theatre trips and visual art exhibitions. If the art culture in those places reflects the taste and values of middle class groups, then it is not surprising that working class people do not choose to pay to see it. There are other things they choose to spend those large sums of money on. Why do we assume that arts and theatre events are good for working class groups? Indeed, why set up a policy to widen participation, to encourage participation in what many people consider elitist culture? Working class people (of gender, colour, age etc) do not want to become middle class, middle aged people. There is a degree of patronising that lies behind widening participation policies. Other arts are happening in other places and maybe art in the forms that middle class people recognise is irrelevant to working class groups? This provocation sparked and on-going debate about that asked, 'What is art? What is good art? And whose art is recognised as good art?' The afternoon discussions raised issues such as the problem public Arts institutions have in accessing and supporting maginalised groups. Here is a brief overview: A major problem for Art Institutions outreach work is that they often rely on youth workers to manage the access to marginalised groups. Youth workers recognise that marginalised young people require considerable support to participate in the initiatives that have been set up for them. They need to be given reasons to take part, they need to be supported to travel to venues, helped to work on arriving on time and in place, given the complexity and lack of resources that beset their daily living. Some spoke of successful synergies where youth workers and arts organisations worked together sensitively to support young people in more co-produced events. Among the groups in the Theatre in the Mill, we had a wide range of participants from long standing Marxists activist who and dedicated much of their lives to making theatre more open to non-BME groups to people who had been brought up to aspire to middle class aspirations which they went on to reject. We were reminded of traditional forms of mobilisation when people stuck together to fight for a cause in solidarity and some of the new policy initiative that might be trying to orchestrate or design greater equality such as the 'pay what you can' theatre and arts event tickets. There were about 30 participants in this energetic debate which helped to recognise how complex class is - how varied are working class experiences and how permeable the boundaries between working and middle class identities have become. In summary we, recognised: • how participation in arts and getting roles in theatre an other activities have become more not less class discriminatory due to the professionalisation of the arts in general, making trajectories into art jobs very difficult for working class people. • how class is recognised by those who read off markers of taste, fashion and accents from those who do not look and sound like us and how the in-group in the `arts is the middle class. • how notions of cultural capital abound and how this is fed by stereotypes of working class who are imagined in need of betterment by the middle class. This attitude is perpetuated by many arts institutions and is evident in many of their approaches to 'out reach work' and their feelings of needing to widen participation - instead of recognising where good art already happens. We asked should the middle classes simple step aside and let others run Arts Institutions - while recognised that institutional practices are imbricated with power. While recognising that this maybe rather an extreme suggestion, we imagined what it would be like to have Arts Institutions that reflected the make-up of the population in which 60 percentage are working class. We imagined at least broadening what was accepted as art while recognising that good art or quality is something that everyone holds dear, even if we will never agree on what exactly 'good' means. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.creativemargins.net/2018/06/27/427/ |
| Description | BarCamp2: Key Theme - 'Co-production, collaboration and the rebalance of power' July 5th 2018, in Manchester, 42nd Street Youth Centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was the second of five barcamp/meetings as part of the Creative Margins network. BarCamp2: Key Theme - 'Co-production, collaboration and the rebalance of power' July 5th 2018, in Manchester, 42nd Street Youth Centre hosted by Julie McCarthy, & Horsfall. The day involved: • Interactive Exhibition 'Dress' co-created with young women about body image and why we wear the clothes we do. • Interactive research 'Luggage Tags' led by young poet Ella Otomewo • Introduction to 42nd Street, Julie McCarthy, Creative Producer and Karina Nyanonyo, Mental Health service manager, 42nd Street. • Invited speakers: Dr Janet Batsleer and Prof Kate Pahl - a radical research perspective • Discussion facilitated by Gabrielle Ivinson 'Making good art with youth people' • Plenary with young people from 42nd Street and reflections in the form of an original by Ella Otomewo. The event was sold out on eventbrite. The day started with two interactive arts activities. An exhibition - The dress Interactive Exhibition 'Dress' co-created with young women from Wythensahwe about body image and why we wear the clothes we do. A further arts-based interactive activity called 'Luggage Tags' The group's discussions took place following an introduction to the history of the centre - 42nd Street by Julie McCarthy. Here are some snippets form the group discussions. The first person to speak remarked - Young people do what they know. When do you intervene? When do we as adult feel we have then right to make an intervention? Artists work hard to listen to young people and create with what they find. Examples were recalled from working with young people through music such as rap. Musicians can take what young people say and put it into a different beat, 'Sometimes they want their specific words written down, we want to leave their words'. We spoke of what to do when the words are raw, and express emotions that are full of anger, or are in a more general sense 'not acceptable'. We recognised that 'giving the words a differ beat', is one way for staying true to these emotions yet rendering the expression into a form that is able to be widely communicated. The form of rap has its own legitimacy. Expressing the un-expressible through art. We also spoke of what lies below the words 'they use' that points to something more, something other than what is conveyed through the specific words, and how and if art and music can get at those possibly wider, hidden meanings. We know that what can be expressed through words is often only the tip of a much bigger iceberg. Sometimes the anger points to issues that are not articulated, or even, not able to be articulated because there are no words, accessible tropes or known forms of expression to capture this stuff. Some of us recognise these unspeakable things - as the inter-generational transmission of troubles that belong to history of the places where the young people are growing up. Such 'un-expressible' issues include post-industrial loss of meaningful employment, communities that have lost a major employer, such as a factory or mill that has closed, the effects of austerity politics and the loss for example, youth facilities to support marginalised young people, or schools that only reward the articulate and 'academic' forms of knowing. Pace We spoke about pace. We spoke about the pace needed to work with marginalised young people and the pace of project funding. Sometimes, in arts organisations, 'it feel like you are walking a plank'. You have to apply for funding to work with marginalise groups that has a specific, often short-term, time frame and yet you have to try to spend the time required to build trust with young participants. The pace of the art project is often out of step with the pace at which you need to work to genuinely co-produce with young people. You need to go at their pace and yet the funding requires you to go faster. There is a great tension. Yet, another suggestion was that sometimes when the required pace of the project drives us all, including the young people, they do step up to the mark. As they are driven by the time frame, unexpected things happen. We have a sense here of an external time-line, providing a framework that somehow carries the creative process - and that both the artists and the young people become regulated or driven by this and so produce something in an unexpected way. The regulation of time becomes part of the process of making and possibly adds a sense of urgency that can sometimes be productive. Feeling uncomfortable Yet, the Pace of art projects can be uncomfortable. Often art projects are funded for short periods like four weeks or even one week. Such time frames create intensive projects but can create a sense that 'we are pushing and pushing according to our professional expectations'. Young people respond to this in different ways. Some can recognise the need to work intensively to produce something tangible at the end. Aesthetic quality We spoke of the need to push for quality. Many artists are concerned that, when working with young people, the end product has to be of a high quality. They expressed the need to recognise that the art work needs to be understood as having aesthetic qualities, 'not something they are producing for a friend'. The art produced needs to be able to stand up to public scrutiny and be something that displays aesthetic qualities. The aim is to enable young people to recognise and own the aesthetic worth of the art piece. Focus on the friction between the young people and the artists We need to note the purpose of the art early on. We need to start by knowing if young people have been spoken to. As an artist, you can talk with the youth worker. The youth worker will still be there when you, the artist, have disappeared. We need to discuss this multi-agency working and understand where the boundaries are. We can have a conversation to work out what roles there are for the youth worker, the artist and the young people. One participants gave a moving account of being an outsider. and becoming a artist and youth worker. Coming from the place of not-normal I grew up in a Pit Village. I was made to feel I did not talk properly, or look right. Sometimes people made me feel I was not 'normal'. I washed up in a youth centre, my journey took me to adult education. I am also a free-improvisation musician. I have noted two tensions in our discussion today. How do we operate with love make loving interventions as artists? How do we operate with loving integrity, with others, as activists? I learned this from my work (punishment) in FE collage. I was given the kids who smashed the school up, the ones that the behaviour support team could not manage, the hardest kids. We hung out alongside each other, smoking, talking, getting a bus out of the collage when the kids were pissed off. Gradually, we created a community, we started to get better. I got better. These 14-16 year olds created a beautiful, generative space. It took time. We invited Ella Otomewo a young poet to listen to our conversations through the day and respond in spoken word. This is the poem she created that day. A SEAT AT THE TABLE By Ella Otomewo Are there enough seats at the table for me? Or am I going to have to awkwardly squeeze myself onto the corner again? Make myself smaller again, and more palatable? Not having an automatic seat at the table does not mean I expect you to feed me from a silver spoon. You can disrupt the table! Disrupt the heavy expectations sitting dusty next to the silverware. Where mouths have been force fed what to say. Don't ask me to be real and then get angry when I'm not your favourite version of myself. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. Like teaching to an open ear, or a pen in hand. Let's have a show of hands for anyone who's ever woken up knowing that their best idea yet is dissolving away with last night's dreams. Luckily for us there is ample time to redo our mistakes, and meet each other at the place where we have fallen down. Meet me where I think I've failed and I'll meet you where you start. Meet me at the heart of it. Meet me in trust and let me speak as if you weren't there, but as if I had invited you. I do invite you. I hope you keep inviting each other |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.creativemargins.net/2018/07/16/creative-margins-manchester/ |
| Description | BarCamp3: Key Theme - The Politics of Space - October 12th 2018, Brighton Youth Centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Thais was the third of the Creative Margins netork meetings. BarCamp3: Key Theme - The Politics of Space October 12th 2018, Brighton Youth Centre, hosted by Mike Roe, Chris Charles of the National Federation for Detached Youth Work, and Early Career Researcher Tania de St Croix, King's College London. The day involved: • Performance of 'Washing Up' - A theatre piece from a partnership between smallperformanceadventures.com and cascadecreativerecovery.com with Kate McCoy, followed by Q&A. • Presentation on 'The Politics of Space' and reflections on current models of practice between youth and community work and arts organisations, with Guest Speakers: Mike Roe, Brighton Youth Centre Chris Charles (Chair of the Federation for detached youth work), Tania de St Croix (Kings College London) and Harriet Rowley (Manchester Metropolitan University). • Breakout groups: Interactive sessions centralising young people's experiences followed by feedback. • Panel Debate 'Who gets to participate, where and how do young people want to participate in the arts and why should we care?' The event started with a gripping perfornace of 'Washing Up' 'The Washing Up is a community theatre piece that works, not merely because it is funny, irreverent, restless and inventive, but also because it is driven by ideas and techniques that are richer and subtler than you might at first think.' The Washing Up is a devised performance about an everyday and universal mundane act that through stories, songs and verbatim testimony looked beyond the surface bubbles and discovers what lies beneath. It was created and performed by artists and participants in addiction recovery and is centred round a fully working sink! After Mike Roe had given an overview of the history of the Brighton Youth club and its ability to still employ youth workers, unlike so many centres that have closed down, there were inputs from: Chris Charles, Exec Member and Vice-Chair of the National Federation for Detached Youth Workers which aims to educate, inform and advise all relevant authorities and organisations as to the needs of Detached Youth Work and young people, especially those who are under-supported. And Harriet Rowley on working with homeless men using arts-based approaches. Here are some snippets from one of the group discussions that followed. It was facilitated by a participant who was a member of Miss Represented, (https://brightondome.org/join_in/creative_learning/miss_represented/) as she undertook Q&A discussion with a young person at the meeting (C) • Miss Represented creates a safe space for young women aged 13-21 years • The arts are used to understand life journeys of young women that have struggled in mainstream education • The safe space they make and eat lunch together every Thursday then make art and share it with the community • Last year the show turned into a tour that went before the usual spaces of schools and theatres in Brighton to visit Liverpool and Manchester • The tour was incredibly important for the performers • C: "When you go to different places - Liverpool and Manchester, places where no one knows you - then you feel like you've made it. You're not just doing schools. It's just you performing." • An important focus of the process is "sitting in the chaos you never know what's going to emerge" • We wanted to focus the performance on services and institutions and to be open and unapologetic about supporting young people to communicate their experiences • C: "You can access services but still not get the help you need." • C: "I had to commit a crime to get a proper service I didn't have a mum. She wasn't around. So a women only space was a bit overwhelming at first but it helped me develop a relationship with women." • The female only space was a response to continued observations that girls wouldn't open up or keep participating if men are there. They though that Miss Represented was really filling a gap providing young women with, a place I feel heard. • Participation in the project is a rolling thing, you can come for 6 months or a year or however long you need to • Q: Why is it important to share with the public? • C: "So many people out there are going through what you've gone through. It's helping/healing (?) to realise that people are going through the same things. I've been through social services there's this shame about going through social services but then I'm not the only one" • C: "Making the invisible stories, visible the arts have so much power to have conversations that are difficult or uncomfortable." • C: "I tried a lot of jobs but it never really worked out but I want to be Bex. I want to be Jo (the other Miss Rep worker). I want to do Miss Rep." • C: "I was really scared before I did the first performance. It was to teenagers in a school. I remember being a teenager. You judge everything before you understand it" • C is now developing her own project called Park Life, a campaign to improve parks • C: "I found out on tour that parks in Manchester are no good. Then I realised that parks back home were bad. So I wanted to do something about it. The tour gave me the confidence" • C: People don't know what art is when you say 'art' they think of school and drawing apples you go to pop-up in their neighbourhood so they haven't got any choice but to see it." • All this takes time. We wouldn't have been able to do any of this [referring to C] if we had to rush it. We're an independent arts organisation so we don't have targets, we have funders targets but we can work in our own way" • Question about exposure: • C: "Everything is in layers I'll say this and then I'll say that I was happy to say things though because I was with Miss Rep. I was with the group. There were some times when one of us thought, I can't say that. Or I saw my friend wasn't going to be able to say it so I would tell her story." • Q: Are they your own stories? • C: "Yeah. People responded to it. People watching the show would ask, are those your stories? We'd say 'yeah' and there was a lot of gratitude you could tell they thought we were brave. The honesty and the rawness really resonated." The activity was to design a service that excludes women. See photos for group's responses. We are still working on the notes and audio recordings from this Barcamp/meeting. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.creativemargins.net/brighton/ |
| Description | Contribution to the Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy, consultation meeting to develop models for creative health in Manchester |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Gabrielle Ivinson participated in a consultation meeting for the Greater Manchester Creative Health strategy on 14 March 2023. The local policy lead on this strategy had been a co-lead for one of the Creative Margin's events which was held a youth centre specialising in mental health called 42nd Street, where the now GM Creative Health Strategy used to work. Based on the working relationship we developed in 2019 Ivinson and other academics from MMU will be contributing to knowledge, methods and potentially training workforce for the early years sector on play and creativity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://gmintegratedcare.org.uk/icp-strategy/ |
| Description | http://www.creativemargins.net/ |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The creative Margins website was build to store knowledge generated at each Barcamp/meeting and to enable participants to stay connected. This network was built on a series of meetings at which artists, members of publicly funded Arts institutions and academics specialising in youth and community work came together to address a collective concern with the persistent inequality in arts participation in England and Wales. The long terms objective is to create guidance for Arts organisations who are grappling with the Culture White Paper's (CM 9218) expectation for the first time that all museums, theatres, galleries, opera houses or arts groups that receive government money "should reach out to everyone, regardless of their background". The challenge here is to develop new models for effective partnerships that can be activated in specific local communities, based on the values implied rather than through performative acts such as counting numbers through the door. This report refers to the first phase of the project, which set up a network via a series of meetings across England and Wales to gather information and generate new knowledge. The objectives of the project were: 1. To create a network of local and cross national connections between groups and disciplines such as; Arts organisations, artists, community-based facilitators/activists, youth workers and academics who teach creative arts courses, to share knowledge and explore differences; 2. To craft 5 BarCamps as non-elitist exchange spaces (through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating) to enable boundary crossing between disciplines; 3. To record and share the emerging debates and map divergent knowledge, expertise and knowhow between fields and disciplines through mind-maps, diagrams, notes and photographs that will be lodged on a web-space modelled on the Sense Lab (see details below); 4. To disseminate key findings to stakeholders through a Futures Planning Meeting, a web space, a summary report and academic papers, and create principles to design a research project to put the knowledge gained in the BarCamps into practice. Dissemination (also see Pathways to Impact) Points of dissonance and convergence will be identified and mapped across each BarCamp through a selective use of photography, talking head videos, note-taking, diagramming and a selective use of audio recording. This will produce: • A project web-space, modelled on the SenseLab http://senselab.ca/wp2/ to share the BarCamp knowledge publicly. • A cross national mailing list of arts practitioners from the disciplines of the Arts, arts organisations, youth work, community activism and academics involved with creative arts courses. The website already holds a great deal of the notes, pictures, ppt presentations and blogs that have grown across the Barcamp/meetings, although it is not yet complete. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.creativemargins.net/ |