Theory, practice and dilemmas

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Birmingham, conference, Creative economies, Culture, Festivals, Salford

The other day I was at a symposium at Leeds Metropolitan University called ‘Protests as events/Events as protests’, listening to the dilemmas of some academics who are or have been activists and how they consolidate these different identities in their jobs and research.

The opening address was a conversation between Dr Ian Lamond of Leeds Met and Dave Webb, Chair of UK CND and they discussed how they first became politicised, how this had affected their careers, up to the point of where they were today. Dave offered a useful insight from his many years of experience at CND: “Sometimes there’s a mis-match between what the public perceive you’re doing and what you think you’re doing” he said, “and you don’t know how much your organisation has achieved because you’re too close to it”.

Over the last few weeks I have also discovered that reading for my PhD is actually more productive when I’m on a train. I’m putting this down to the possibility that when I’m among strangers and in strange places, perhaps I feel more in the world so that I can think about it from the point of view of others. All of this, I hope, will be helpful!

I also recently presented at my first ever conference. I made a Pecha Kucha entitled ‘The Role of the University in the Cultural Economy’ and presented it in Salford at the SPARC post-graduate conference on the subject of Theory, Practice, Impact. I found that the ’20 slides, 20 seconds each’ format was a great way to condense academic waffle into a fast paced and fun performance (I even won a prize for it!)

Starting off with my current sticking point – ‘what is the cultural economy?’ and presenting to a non-specialist audience, I crammed in some basic ideas about whether culture means high art and civilisation or popular culture and commercial products, how the value of cultural goods can change over time and happens within an economy or eco-sytem that combines a mix of cultural and social exchanges with the production and consumption of goods, some of which have intangible and non-market values.

I went on to talk about how an economic system combining state-funded activities with commercial production and international business attracts plenty of debate around value for money and justifying public investment. Then I connected that subject of enquiry up with my other big topic – the role of universities in the cultural sector (and the coming of the REF), before suggesting film screenings as ways to acheive public engagement. 

There was just enough time to mention bringing together different groups of people from on and off campus to exchange knowledge, ideas, culture and experience, and how presenting a series of film screenings could work to generate impact in my own research before my slides ran out!

So with public screenings in mind, I’m still looking around at what’s new in the world of film and I was really chuffed to finally get along to one of the leading documentary festivals Sheffield Doc Fest this year – a festival that has such close links with the Sheffield Hallam University that they run an MA programme together. Two standout films for me were the new documentary about Stuart Hall by John Akomfrah (2013) and From The Land to the Sea Beyond (2012 – a repeat of one of last year’s favourite events). This surprisingly moving film was made mainly from BFI archive clips of the British seaside and coastal industries, directed by Penny Woolcock, produced by Sheffield Doc/Fest and Crossover Labs and screened with a live score by British Sea Power.

The Staurt Hall Project film is brand new, was backed by BFI Film Fund (which is also run in conjunction with Sheff Doc Fest) and is meant to be coming out on general release in September, which will be especially significant for those at Birmingham University I expect. 

Before that, however, for those of you in Birmingham there’s a great opportunity coming up this month to see the classic Murnau silent black and white film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) presented by Flatpack Film Festival outdoors at mac arts!

In this film you can really feel the tension in American and European society at the time, perfectly summed up by a single tram ride that crashes two fairy tale worlds into each other – the luxurious, shiny depravity of urban modernity and a sweet, gentle agrarian home. It also had the best action sequences Hollywood could produce at that time, winning an award at the first ever Oscars for unique and artistic production, and I am assured that the screening will go ahead whatever the weather!

Parades, Making and Wellbeing

Last Sunday 2 June saw the fourth Manchester Day Parade animate Manchester City Centre with a striking procession of people and artworks created by community groups, artists and volunteers. Hundreds of groups featured in the parade including Z-arts; The Real Harpurhey; Taylor Made Community Fitness; Women’s institutes of Manchester;  Jazzie J Street Dance; FCAM (Federation of Chinese Association Manchester); Batala Lancaster Samba; Greater Manchester Police and Band.  The list of participants is a very long one and would run to pages if I detailed them here. There are great videos showing the making and makers here: Workshop Videos

Commissioned by Manchester City Council, produced by Walk the Plank and created by Manchester People, the theme this year was ‘Wish you were here’.  Liz Pugh of Walk the Plank and co-producer of the parade with Billie Klinger and Candida Boyes said:  ‘What you see on the street is the tip of the iceberg…Culture has immense economic value – a £4 return for every £1 invested; cultural businesses contribute £28m to the economy annually and the arts are responsible for around 1 million jobs…Manchester’s great because people from the community groups and the many volunteers involved in the parade love their city.  And that’s the legacy of an event like the Parade – it’s the glue on your fingers; the renewed sense of community and the paint splashes on your clothes. As Orwell said, “nothing ever stands still. We must add to our heritage or lose it, we must grow greater or grow less”’. Strong words in challenging times. Even more reason to keep on celebrating culture.

The Day Parade was sponsored again for the fourth time by engineering and construction company  Laing O’Rourke  who are currently working on the transformation of Manchester’s Central Library Building and Town Hall Extension in addition to the Metrolink extension and Beswick regeneration project. The company also deliver talent programmes and career development and are based regionally in Hulme.  Many other organisations sponsored or supported the Day Parade. Being immersed in crowds, creativity and colour as well as having lovely sunshine for the parade did much to lift my spirits.

Not content with being extremely busy in Manchester, last week Walk the Plank were in Derry for the creation of their biggest ever outdoor event as part of City of Culture 2013

In other news, I’ve been continuing conversations with individuals and organisations who are part of either the ‘big story’ case studies or governance case studies for the first year of this project. Interviews included those with Simon Ruding Director of TiPP (a practice-based organisation housed at the University of Manchester), and Cilla Baynes (MBE) Creative Director and founding member of Community Arts North West CAN. Cilla and Simon were as inspiring as ever on their respective organisations. Both represent long-standing and intensely crafted and connected work with many different people addressing a plethora of concerns, celebrations and challenges.  Their working practices have inspired and developed new projects and they continue to passionately support caring, meaningful and considered arts practices with people. Here’s a link to Simon presenting TiPP’s work which formed part of the Curious Minds, Bridge Development Group seminar based on the theme of Engagement and explains how Tipp began and their connections with various communities and also questions what we are talking about when we talk about ‘engagement’.  http://vimeo.com/57687023

Both Cilla and Simon are members of C-Pal (Consortium for Participatory Arts Learning). Established in 2005, C-Pal is a learning network for participatory arts in the North West. The main remit is skills development for people who are currently working in or want to work in the participatory arts sector. It is also a network to share learning, unearth key issues and explore the development of the sector. Originally C-Pal was set up by Arts Council England, North West in response to the need for learning pathways and capacity building within the participatory arts sector as highlighted in the 2004 ACE, NW research report carried out by Karen Smith (yes that was me!). Sadly approximately a quarter of the founding participatory arts organisations in this network no longer exist or exist in a different context following funding cuts from Arts Council and Local Authorities.

On a wellbeing note, as reported by Arts Professional: After much lobbying by many groups to include cultural activity as a measure in the Measuring National Wellbeing Programme, The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) will take account of  people’s engagement in the arts as a contributing factor to wellbeing. A report reviewing the criteria used to measure wellbeing in the UK shows that questions on arts, culture and sports participation have been the most commonly requested additions to the survey. The programme will use figures taken from the DCMS Taking Part Survey, specifically the measurement of the percentage of people who have engaged with or participated in arts or cultural activity at least three times in the past year. The Programme originated in 2010 to complement the use of GDP to track the nation’s progress.

Manchester International Festival is also about to kick off. I have spent some of my earnings on tickets to Massive Attack vs Adam Curtis (I lived in Bristol for a while and Massive Attack are part of the soundtrack to that part of my life, and Adam Curtis is always worth spending time watching) and, as ever, there is a wealth of arts activity taking place across Manchester and ‘The North’!

A big thank you to Liz Pugh, Cilla Baynes, Simon Ruding, Karen Shannon (at Lets Go Global) and everyone else who continues to commit and give their time to talk to me about this project when they are not paid to do so. I’m going to finish with Walk the Plank’s statement:

Create it, memorably
Burn it, beautifully
Make it, imaginatively
Learn it, passionately