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Arts debate
We ask the arts sector: if you were the Arts Council, how would you do it?
A final arts debate event will bring together 300 arts professionals to debate the future of public funding of the arts on 29th and 30th September.
The event is a collaboration between the Arts Council England and theatre company Improbable. It will be held at the National Youth Theatre in London and is open to everyone. Places are on a first come first served basis so to ensure your space please contact Alessandra Scapin now on 020 7973 5203 or at openspace@artscouncil.org.uk. The event is for two days and we do need you to attend both, so please only sign up if you can make it for the whole weekend.
It is an Open Space event, and Improbable will be drawing on their impressivetrack record in producing these kinds of events. It will take place over two days and will enable a large group to come together to debate how we could make public funding of the arts work better for everyone. Open Space events are gatherings of equals, where the participants set the agenda and lead the discussions themselves, within a unifying theme. The overall theme of this event is both a question and a challenge: if you were the Arts Council, how would you do it?
Not an easy question – but the arts debate is about the long-term future of public funding of the arts in England, not tomorrow’s performance or next year’s funding agreement. And while it can be difficult to look a long way ahead in times of uncertainty and change, it's also the perfect moment to come together as a sector to really debate where we’re going and why.
We hope very much you can join us. If you know somebody else who you think would be interested please feel free to download the invitation from Peter Hewitt and pass it on. For those that can’t make it, a full report of all the weekend’s conversations, provocations and conclusions will be available here on the arts debate website.
If you have any further questions about this event, pleased contact us at mailto:openspace@artscouncil.org.uk.
Join the debate
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Click on the image to access a PDF (990Kb) of the new summary report, What people want from the arts
News
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Arts debate overall findings now available!
06 November
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Open space event report
11 October
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Final stage of arts debate fieldwork highlights the importance of quality of experience
28 September
more news > >
Dear Alessandra Scapin,
I would like to join this important debate. I'm a Danish arts manager who have been working in the field of dance for 5 years and through my work also visited and joint partnerships in UK. In September I begin my studies (MA in Cultural Policy) at Goldsmiths College and the debate would be of great importance to me, to get familiar with the struggles and questions concerning British art and funding.
Thank you for your attention - I'm looking forward to your reply,
Kind regards
Lene Bang Henningsen
Is this going to be yet another event completely dominated by the theatre lobby?
I would like to suggest a topic of discussion. I have noted that most of the public money spent on the arts seems to be spent on administration. Jobs for artists are for a few weeks or days, often with minimal pay. Administrative jobs are paid at normal job rates and are generally for six months or more. More arts money needs to end up in the hands of artists DOING art, not artists surviving by day jobs administering some art-related thing.
The essence of the success of past D&D openspace conferences has been the confidence attendees have felt at speaking out without needing to be concerned about what they say in front of the arts council. It's a worry that the fact the arts council is colonising this event may stifle some of the vigour the conference needs to make it worthwhile.
Can having local artists working in Arts Centres be detrimental to other local Artists? Will other local artists get the same support and be made aware of the same opportunities as the Artists who work in Local Arts Centres? If an Artists works in an Arts Centre then surely as an artist they must have a conflict of interest at times with the programming of local arts, and informing others of Arts opportunities, as obviously other local artists are their competition.
get some unique art preferences going on - spice up the art world.. i'm sick and tierd of there being less poetry recognization.. and all the poetry seems to be aimed at either non-white british or disabled people. It seems my interest cannot go far due to this. i think more arthistory should be created and mentioned. Art is becoming sort of endangered.. it's scary.. art needs to be in everyones faces everyday... art is motivation
Though only being a newly teenage performer, through experience and time gone by, I feel the dramatic arts deserve more attention and recognition. Especially at schools, there is a very small amount of drama involved, and the arts should be well known as motivation for the future, hence we have the whole point of being a studential occupation. So if I was 10 years older and I was in the arts council, I would indeed make the arts more known and used!