Tuesday 10 February 2009

feeding into thinking on future arts funding

Last week about 10 artists and two puppeteers met at South St for the last in a series of workshops commissioned by Berkshire Arts Partnership. As always many people weren't able to attend or the information hadn't reached them. Some notes from discussion are in comments. Are the hopes and challenges familiar?

2 comments:

Jo Thomas said...

These notes are shared with the permission of everyone who was at the individual artists ‘Out of the Box” commissioned by Berkshire Arts Partnership at South Street.

N.B. the work was commissioned before the current downturn but the intention remains to look at funding and how it can sustain the arts across Berkshire

Hopes and dreams for the next year

Keep working – develop work
Develop range of opportunities
Develop ways of selling work
Getting more happening
Studio and business grows to support
More networks and opportunities
Make a living and not in kind
Money flows to work that uses talents best
Arts are integral not an optional extra
Centre of a thriving locality
Direct dialogue
More contemporary art in Reading & Berkshire
Artistic dynamic
Increased training opportunities
More involved with arts world opportunities
Commercial viability

Challenges

1. Juggling idea making – finding funding
Freedom to work
The creative space ( head space / free from financial contstraint)

2. space – places to meet – a hub in Reading
challenge of separated localities
transport tradition
information – gallery guide

3.Perception
Image of commercial corporate more than cultural
We provide an audience for events in London – does that reduce the need for culture here

4. Undersupply of affordable studio space

5. Not enough backing (and that’s more than funding)


So there’s a taster from the start of the event – there’s lots of things I forgot to note so please add anything you think should be there or ways of achieving these some of these fairly modest aspirations.

Andrew Taylor said...

Thanks for posting this, Jo. Myself and Becky Stewardson from the Aldworth Philharmonic attended an "Out of the Box" meeting in Maidenhead. What concerns me is that the net isn't being spread wide enough regarding these events, so any efforts like this to publicise these opportunities are very welcome. Happy to share experiences from the music world with anyone who'd like to discuss. Andrew