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Musings News

A Culture of Participation aka ‘Growing Our Own Culture’

By Matt Baker

In this post I’m going to talk about sport, or specifically, about how we value and fund sport in Scotland and how this could positively enhance culture[1] in Scotland and deliver on our national strategy for culture[2]

We fund sport in Scotland in two ways, firstly we support sports venues, organisations, individual sportspeople, international competitions and the promotion of sport. So, a very similar picture to the way we fund culture.

But, importantly, we also fund grassroots sports development, local clubs and opportunities for everyone to take part in sport. It can be strongly argued that this support for participation in sport embeds many of the qualities of sport in our nation – such as teamwork, self-improvement, physical activity etc far more so than would be achieved by simply watching others playing sports. It also clearly drives an accessibility and inclusion which we see demonstrated in the diversity of backgrounds of successful sportspeople and those who comment on/present and administrate sport.

I need to say before I start to talk directly about support for culture that all my arguments are based on the foundation that we must retain the support we already give to culture. Everything I am saying here is about additional support which compliments, enhances and relies on continuing support for our national cultural infrastructure and development.

Fundamentally, in Scotland, we do not have a comparable second strand of support for participation in culture. In 1946, the first chairman of the Arts Council of Gt Britain announced, ‘It is about the best not the most. The principle is we support professional artists. That’s our obligation. And our second obligation is to enable others to appreciate, understand and benefit from that’[3] and that is still pretty much the principle of how we fund culture in Scotland today. As a result, culture has ended up in something of a silo of its own, concerned with culture in and of itself rather than the potential for culture to make the deepest contribution to society as a whole.

Yes, we do our best with the cultural support we have in Scotland to encourage growth from the grassroots of our communities and there are some incredible isolated examples of this – but fundamentally Scotland does not have a clear policy or a mechanism to support widespread participation in culture. There are many cultural groups, projects and organisations that promote grassroots participation, however, in order to support their work, they find themselves in competition for funds with other groups working in food poverty, addiction services etc and unsurprisingly ‘culture’ often misses out, seen as a ‘nice to have’ but not ‘necessary’.

So, why is the situation for sport so different? The straightforward answer is that sport made a focussed and sustained case for the health impacts of physical activity and inclusion in communities. One direct outcome of improving people’s wellbeing through sport is that there is less demand on the health service with a consequent saving of money. 

Culture has a myriad of similar arguments for the societal value of participating in and shaping the culture of the country:

  • Mental health/wellbeing and positive pathways for disadvantaged individuals/communities
  • Reducing social isolation
  • Education in teamwork, problem-solving and adaptability
  • Community cohesion/safety
  • Community visioning and placemaking
  • Innovation growing new businesses and social enterprises

(to name but a few…)

So, why don’t we have support for participation in culture as we do in sport? I believe that part of the answer lies in the very multiplicity of societal impacts from participation in culture, the argument can become diffuse and unclear because of its diversity. However, the issue also lies with the culture sector itself, we have been starved of investment for so long that we cling with white knuckles to what we have and that the way we are used to doing things. In that anxious state the concern expressed is that a participation strand in culture would somehow dilute the quality of our cultural offer by setting up a two-tier system of ‘first and second class art’. The argument goes that this could disrupt the perfectly equal and accessible meritocracy we have now. In truth, culture is the very opposite of equal and accessible currently, and risks side-lining itself into irrelevance unless it finds the confidence and optimism to open itself up and be part of the change required to build a society that is founded on wellbeing, fairness, and opportunity for all.

And of course, as with sport, funding grassroots participation is wholly dependent on the existence of, and a relationship with, a strong and healthy professional cultural sector.

Making the Case

I believe the opportunity and case for supporting culture as a key building block towards a Wellbeing Economy has yet to be effectively made to our politicians, so that they can lay a pathway of understanding and support in parliament and government. The Culture Strategy offers a policy framework for this work, and I’d propose we’d use the strategy as a foundation for making the case through its three pillars of Strengthening, Transforming, Empowering through culture and its core principle of culture being ‘mainstreamed’ across all the portfolios of government.

We need to work across portfolios and in collaboration with those working in government and policy and listen to advice about how to make the case for participation in culture. In the spirit of furthering the idea, I’d like to offer a few thoughts on how such an idea might be implemented. These are simply in the form of a framework or principles for making embedding participation in culture one of the features of the Scottish nation.

A Percentage for Culture

Because of the diverse impacts of cultural participation any approach needs to be cross-portfolio (health/wellbeing, education/lifelong learning, communities/regeneration, justice, economy/enterprise). An idea that has been talked of for a while is a ‘percentage for culture’ – this could take the form of a tiny percentage of the budgets of departments whose outcomes could benefit from the impacts of participation in culture (see list above) being allocated to cultural participation programmes.

A principle of any ‘percentage for culture’ policy would require that the departments contributing budget would hold accountability and a degree of control of how budget is spent and the delivery of outcomes. How this would work in practice is beyond the scope of this paper. All I seek to do is propose some principles, one being that a ‘percentage for culture’ cannot simply be handed to a cultural agency to be distributed without the ongoing involvement of the departments contributing to the scheme. Long-term impact and change in society needs to be built into this idea and the mechanism for growing deeper and more integrated joint working between culture and other departments of government.

Other thoughts on implementation would be a need/opportunity for a regional and place-based approach reflecting the very different challenges and opportunities of working within the urban and rural areas of the country. Such an initiative would also be an opportunity to explore the potential for longer-term funding agreements with programmes, projects and organisations. This is a principle that comes up in every sector consultation and the benefits to service users, service providers and funders of long-term agreements has been clearly articulated. One possibility could be to use ‘percentage for arts’ public funding as the basis for regional (or national?) ‘endowments for culture’[4] which could lever additional funds from local sources to develop added value and security for participation in culture.

A Framework

In summary a Participation in Culture Initiative framework could include:

  • Percentage for culture across government departments
  • Accountability/collaboration across departments in implementation of Participation in Culture
  • Regional/place-based approach to implementation
  • Innovation in funding models

I’d be very interested to hear from anyone with thoughts about supporting participation in culture and particularly anyone who’d like to help develop the case. Please get in touch at [email protected] or @_mattbaker on Twitter

[1] ‘Everyone has the right to participate freely in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits’ (Article 27, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

[2] ‘Scotland is a place where culture is valued, protected and nurtured. Culture is woven through everyday life, shapes and is shaped by society, and its transformative potential is experienced by everyone.’ (Culture Strategy for Scotland. 2020) Full strategy here

[3] The beginnings of the British Arts Council and its shift away from ‘participation in culture’ to ‘professionalised culture’ is well covered in ‘Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art
– The British Community Arts Movement’ edited by Alison Jeffers and Gerri Moriaty.

[4] The work of Leah Black at EVOC is instructive in this regard – see her initial report into setting up a long-term fund for Third Sector organisations in Edinburgh

Matt Baker is the Orchestrator of The Stove Network and one of The founders of the organisation. His challenge is to remain attuned to the overall direction of The Stove, through remaining true to our values and leading a culture of learning, empowerment and excellence within our organisation. Matt is also the interim chair of the National Partnership for Culture, the independent group appointed by the Cabinet Secretary for Culture to support the delivery of the national culture strategy.

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Musings News

Reimagining Where We Live

Cultural Placemaking & the Levelling up Agenda

The Stove often contributes to Government consultations – these are one of the ways that policy is shaped. Committees are the way that Government oversees what it does, so the Culture, Media and Sport Committee looks after the work of the Dept of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), by suggesting new policy directions and holding ministers to account for what they have promised. It is these Committees that run consultations – when they want to explore something, they call for people’s views, they then hold committee sessions to discuss what has been submitted and often call people to speak to them at these sessions. Following this, a committee will make set of recommendations to Ministers and often new policy results.

In February of this year, a consultation (they call them ‘Calls for Evidence’) was announced by DMCS which was around subjects very relevant to the work of The Stove. Our very own Matt Baker pulled together a Stove submission, but also encouraged Stove Members to contribute to this.

The below is the submission of Hope London, who is a commissioned artist working as part of the What We Do Now project, which forms part of the national programme called Culture Collective coordinated by Creative Scotland.

Reimagining where we live: cultural placemaking and the levelling up agenda

By Hope London

Background

My name is Hope London. I’m an artist with a socially-engaged practice and over thirty years of experience in arts management, consultancy and education throughout the UK, including legal issues for the arts and creative industries.  I believe in the transformative power of the arts to make life better and love working with people to release their creative potential.   Website hopelondon.com

I’ve worked in towns and cities labelled some of the most deprived in the country –  Liverpool and Manchester (in the 1990s/early 2000s); North West and North of England (including Barrow in Furness, Burnley, Hull, St. Helens, Newcastle), the Welsh valleys and South West Scotland. Currently commissioned by The Stove (Dumfries) as established artist for ‘What We Do Now’, a Creative Scotland | Culture Collective project in the seaside town of Stranraer, working with the community to re-imagine their vision and identity for the town in the future. 

Introduction

I will focus on the first three questions:

  • How can culture reanimate our public spaces and shopping streets?
  • How can creatives contribute to local decision-making and planning of place?
  • How can the Government support places without established artistic infrastructure to take full advantage of the opportunities that the levelling up agenda provides?

Artists|creatives are often asked to achieve miracles. We may be called upon to work in deprived areas on arts-related projects with community groups, public art commissions, festivals or events.  We wave our wands in the face of post-industrial decline, deteriorating infrastructure, generational poverty, inadequate public transport, lack of opportunity, even a sense of hopelessness about a positive future. 

Sometimes it works.  Successful projects benefit the people who participate, sometimes profoundly.  I can think of many positive examples involving young people, often those with mental health issues or disabilities. But one-off, short-term projects or those aimed only at a specific group don’t lead to major change across the community or help to re-animate the high street and increase economic opportunity. Poorly conceived or executed projects on the other hand, such as works of public art that aren’t properly maintained, can be downright negative, serving to reinforce a sense of neglect. 

Cultural place-making works best when culture is a catalyst, working organically – not imposed top-down but embracing local culture and building from the ground up.

Innovative thinking, sustained attention and commitment of resources are essential ingredients; otherwise, the arts are just a sticking plaster over an unhealed wound.  Artists and creative producers embedded within a community can play a profound role in the healing process that will lead to the kind of deep, ongoing positive change envisaged by the Levelling Up agenda.  It starts by connecting with the people who live and work there.

Artists|Creatives and Cultural Place-Making

Artists are well-placed to do the work – lack of formal arts infrastructure is not an obstacle*

Arts and creative professionals with a background in community work are well-positioned to work at ground level as a catalyst for cultural place-making, even in areas of the country there is little recognised arts infrastructure.  Local councils, arts councils (e.g. Creative Scotland) and local/regional arts organisations know how to advertise, recruit and work with communities to commission artists/creatives to work with them.  Where needed, appropriate training could be made available (how to prepare a brief, recruit, commission and work with artists and creatives).

Artists can come into a place first.  A formal arts infrastructure is likely to evolve later. There are usually more creative people in every community than some at national level might imagine, albeit a less formal kind of infrastructure.  Artists who work in communities know how to connect and collaborate with local creatives and build on people’s interests, abilities and resources to help communities take advantage of opportunities offered by the Levelling Up agenda.

The ‘art project’ is the place itself.  Artists use creative tools to help communities express what they need and want.

Artists are able to create projects designed specifically to discover what local people most want and need.  We’re currently doing this kind of work as part of the ‘What We Do Now’ project in Stranraer, a rural town in South West Scotland.  My colleague Rory Laycock and I co-designed The Stranraer Colouring Book and printed 1,000 copies for distribution throughout the community.  We first talked to a range of local people on the street and at community events to find out what they wanted to change in their town.  We discovered that amongst their top priorities were certain landmark buildings that have become, in their words, neglected or abandoned ‘eyesores’ – omnipresent, depressing structures that lower community morale and deter new businesses and tourists.

The colouring book is just one example of an artist-led intervention – a fun, accessible way of giving people a chance to express their views and make them known.  The completed books will be collected and documented.  There will be an exhibition, and the information gleaned will be collated and shared with local government and more widely, for use in planning redevelopment and making a case for the necessary support. 

* Question 3 – How can the Government support places without established artistic infrastructure to take full advantage of the opportunities that the levelling up agenda provides?

Artists|creatives initiate change organically – this is a chance to do it better

Perhaps the first question should be expanded to ask “how can culture reanimate our public spaces and shopping streets without making the town too expensive for local residents and businesses?”  This relates directly to the second question: How can creatives contribute to local decision-making and planning of place? 

Sometimes artists|creatives are commissioned to work on cultural place-making projects – but perhaps more often, artists and creative businesses initiate change organically by gravitating to cheap living, working and retail spaces, and kick-starting regeneration. I witnessed this process while living in New York’s East Village in the 1970s and there are numerous examples worldwide.  As boarded-up buildings are replaced by new shops, galleries, restaurants, bookshops and cafes alongside established businesses, public spaces and shopping areas become more vibrant and interesting.  Morale is lifted when eyesores are cleaned up and derelict buildings refurbished.

The danger, however, is gentrification – as more affluent people are attracted to the area, property prices and rents increase; local people who don’t own their properties may be forced out or decide to sell.  Often, the very artists who moved in and started the regeneration process can no longer afford to stay.  This has not yet happened in Stranraer.

You have an opportunity to harness the power of artists and culture to ‘do regeneration’ better, avoiding the pitfalls of gentrification.  In this context, it’s important to remember that people are at the core of culture.  Public spaces and shopping areas are animated by food, fashion, art, music, dance, trees, gardens, architecture, design, performance, shopfronts, street vendors…and the people who live, work and shop there.  Regeneration is supposed to be about making people’s lives better. You don’t want to lose them in the process.

If affordable live/work/community spaces are a serious part of the long-term regeneration plan, local residents and businesses won’t be priced out, and creatives|artists will be encouraged to stay in the area as well.

Artists animate streets and spaces

Streets and public spaces are key to regeneration.  Artists, working with community groups, can co-create projects and programmes of work to bring the public realm alive.  Other creatives can be brought in, commissioned by the community to realise events and projects. Safe, clean, well-designed spaces in the public realm are potential stages for street markets, festivals, horticulture/permaculture, processions, sporting events, performance. Vistas obstructed by rubbish skips and cars – like the view of the sea in Stranraer – can be opened up and walkways/viewing platforms built.  Uninspiring walls can become landmark murals or vertical gardens.  Dingy alleyways can be lit in creative ways.

Blighted buildings needed to be addressed as a priority – artists can help

Buildings, vacant lots and other structures (like the disused former ferry pier in Stranraer) in private ownership pose a sticky problem.  Local councils may have authority over what happens in public streets and squares or buildings that they own, but the legal situation is more complex when it comes to requiring owners to repair deteriorating property and/or put it into productive use. 

In Stranraer, as in small post-industrial towns up and down the country, neglected, poorly maintained and empty buildings are more than an eyesore.  Such buildings blight shopping streets and public spaces, affecting the well-being of the people who must pass them every day. Empty or underused, paint peeling, window frames caving in, trees growing through rooftops – while people require housing, workshops, studios and offices – they are literally a waste of space. 

Until there are effective administrative and legal mechanisms for addressing the problem, re-animation risks being superficial and ultimately ineffective. I understand property rights, and that owners must have a reasonable chance to make repairs to a required standard before penalties may be imposed.  However, given the deplorable state of some of the high-street buildings in towns where I’ve worked (in Scotland, North West England, Wales), existing regulations are not doing the job.

I believe a thorough overhaul of regulations is required – for example, requiring compulsory sale orders when owners are unable or unwilling to repair a building that has become an aesthetic detriment to a town – an eyesore, even if it has not quite reached the stage of posing a danger to the public. The legal and business issues involved may be daunting but not impossible.  Community buyouts or purchase by housing associations may be options if a building is up for sale or there is a compulsory purchase by the Council.  Funding is a huge problem but there are innovative ways to encourage owners, developers, residents and artists to work together, with contractual obligations in place to ensure buildings are refurbished to agreed standards and used for the intended purposes at affordable prices.   I know it’s a huge task but in my opinion it’s key to creating the kind of culture-driven levelling up you want to achieve.

Neglected buildings could be refurbished, and those beyond repair gutted and re-designed.  All could become affordable, eco-friendly living, working, business incubator, training, conference or arts/events spaces.  Artists and creatives can put a community’s vision into tangible form with proposals for new uses, re-design and even innovative forms of ownership/partnership to manage buildings.

In short, culture can re-animate buildings, shopping streets and public spaces through:

  • artists and creatives working with communities, using arts-based approaches to articulate a vision for their place and a plan to make it happen (collaborating with the community on local decision-making and planning of place)
  • events, festivals, performance, art, music, food, street markets and more…the whole range of arts and cultural activities that bring streets and public spaces to life
  • improving the aesthetics and utility of the public realm – addressing ‘eyesore’ buildings, rubbish, public realm design, using all tools at the disposal of artists|creatives including planting, street furniture, building facades, lighting, temporary interventions and longer term artworks
  • encouraging artists|creatives to start and operate businesses, shops, cafes, workshops and live/work spaces in premises that are affordable…and finding ways to avoid gentrification
  • re-designing and using derelict buildings for cultural purposes that benefit the community – keeping them in public or third sector ownership where possible
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Musings News Project Updates

Introducing – High Street Multiverse

By Martin O’Neill

It’s likely that the Marvel fans among you might already be well acquainted with the ‘multiverse’ theory, for Marvel, an all-too-convenient premise to string-out an empire of franchises and merchandise to rival Dolly Parton’s wig collection.

But for those who think Iron Man’s a cut-price Forman grill, let’s steal from the internet to better explain it…

The multiverse is a hypothetical group of multiple universes.[a] Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. The different universes within the multiverse are called “parallel universes”, “other universes”, “alternate universes”, or “many worlds”.

Thanks Wikipedia!

Imagine it. An infinite web of universes born from even the smallest encounters, where realities blur and bend from even the smallest decisions.

Where whole worlds of stories and sorrows, memories and hopes as vivid and colourful as your own exist within each passer-by.

Supported by DGU, the High Street Multiverse is a digital, public art project working with 5 emerging writers from the region, this unique initiative supported writers to craft five individual audio stories to be placed within the town centre of Dumfries, through a specially designed series of QR code sculptures, the artworks will immerse listeners into new imaginative worlds, traversing time and space.

Under the mentorship of writers Des Dillon, Karen Campbell and Karl Drinkwater, emerging writers Carolyn Hashimoto, Davey Payne, Cameron Philips, Kris Haddow and Jasmine McMillan, worked together in a 4 month period to craft 5 unique tales inspired by Dumfries High Street. These immersive and imaginative works were later recorded, mixed, mastered and designed by producer John Dinning to create immersive audio works, adding an exciting new layer to the tales.  

As part of the project’s conclusion an accompanying publication is set to launch on Friday March 11th at the Stove Café, alongside the artworks themselves. The evening will feature talks and readings alongside a preview of the works themselves. This exciting project culminates alongside a creative writing workshop with Multiverse writer Carolyn Hashimoto exploring the doors and portals of the town the next day.

We hope you can join us in celebrating a new imaginative addition to our town centre, where worlds hidden in the undergrowth of the streets or in the reflections of passing strangers will be heard for the very first time.

1000 years from now lies only 5 minutes from here…

High Street Multiverse Launch: Meet the Makers of the Multiverse

March 11 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
TO BOOK YOUR PLACE, CLICK HERE

High Street Multiverse Writing Workshop: Doors & Portals

March 12 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
TO BOOK YOUR PLACE, CLICK HERE
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Musings News

A New Approach to Culture in Scotland?

By Matt Baker

The Committee for Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture is currently examining future directions for funding culture in Scotland. The Stove gave evidence to the committee on 16th September and this blog builds on the themes developed in our evidence and the evolving conversation about the role of culture and creativity in society as a whole – a conversation given extra focus and urgency in the context of Covid and Climate Change.

Culture & Wellbeing The Stove Network Evidence Session on Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 16 September 2021

In periods of lockdown during the pandemic, creative practitioners filled many of the gaps created by the withdrawal of local authority services for people with additional support needs. In my own area, I have many, many stories of the extraordinary efforts of creative people during this time and of the positive impacts on clients and patients, some of whom experienced creative practice for the first time and have made progress that has astonished their carers. Similar stories are perhaps more widely known in education, with creative and cultural organisations and individuals providing physical and digital resources to support home-schooling.

Could the pandemic result in the widening of attitudes to education among parents/students and of outcomes for people with additional support needs and chronic health conditions?

These examples are part of a wider phenomenon through which myriad examples of arts practice embedded in communities came to the fore in Scotland, developed through local support networks during the pandemic. These can be added to the many community-led initiatives and social enterprises that have been started by a cultural project or the involvement of artists in local activism. The key connecting aspect of all these examples is the direct participation of people – people using creativity as a tool to change their own circumstances and/or the places around them, people being involved in shaping and making their own culture, rather than passively consuming culture that has been made for them.

Investing in Cultures The Stove Network Evidence Session on Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 16 September 2021

Perhaps it is time to ask a fundamental question about the way we do culture in Scotland? Could we consciously support a culture of participation and popular ownership of culture as a key part of our national toolkit towards a just transition from both Covid and Climate Change?

It might be useful to look back at how we arrived at the current model we have inherited for the public support for culture. There are very interesting parallels with the pandemic in this regard. 80 years ago, another national crisis caused us to look anew at culture: during World War II people participating in and making their own culture was a vital factor in maintaining morale. This was recognised in the formation of the Council for Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) in 1940 which had two distinct strands of activity: one supported people to participate directly in the making of their own culture, whilst the other supported professional practitioners to create cultural work and events for the public. The participatory strand was very successful with projects such as the ‘Travelling Musicians’ programme which in 6 months started 244 amateur choirs and 37 new orchestral groups.

Despite this success, in 1946 CEMA was restructured as the Arts Council of Great Britain and support for participation in culture was discontinued with the first Chairman of the Arts Council declaring: ‘It is about the best not the most. The principle is we support professional artists. That’s our obligation. And our second obligation is to enable others to appreciate, understand and benefit from that’

Substantially, this is the way things have continued to the present day.* We, as a society, have come to understand culture as something that is professionally produced for others to enjoy.

It is a leap I know, but imagine how different life could have been in our communities and for our arts sector had we continued to support participation in the making of culture? Our way of thinking about learning, health, inclusion and empowerment in our communities might be very different. I’d like to propose that we use this moment of resetting with Covid to make a bold step as a country and to use culture as enabler and connector across multiple sectors in our society. Could we imagine something like a national Cultural Investment Programme supporting the mass participation in culture as a vital building block for a wellbeing society as part of an essential re-set after Covid?

It’s important to stress from the outset that this new approach to culture would be additional to the traditional support for the professional production of culture not instead of. In practice there would be expansive synergy between the two approaches to supporting culture in Scotland, with cross-fertilization in funding across organisations, projects and practices and opportunities for individuals to develop portfolio careers across different forms of practice.

Such a programme would be an integral part of our Covid/Climate transition and delivered through a partnership approach with Health, Education, Economic Regeneration and Community Development. It could be thought of as similar to the way in which Sport is supported – where one funding strand supports participation in sport (as part of wellbeing) and another funds elite sport…or like the distinct support paths for applied research and pure research in academia.

Developing this new strand of cultural support would start by bringing together existing experience and excellence in arts in education, health and community development (e.g. Arts in Education Recovery Group, Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland, Creative Scotland Place Dept, Culture Collective, Creative Communities) to work with the various other sectors and across budget strands such as the Place Based Investment Programme.

Future Vision for Culture The Stove Network Evidence Session on Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 16 September 2021

Core elements of Scotland’s Cultural Investment Programme (SCIP) could include:

(NB ‘artists’ is used as a collective term to include: musicians, performers, dancers, visual artists, writers, designers, filmmakers, producers)

  • Education – artists in residence in schools, the Room 13 model, the Sistema model
  • Health and Wellbeing – social prescribing, artists in healthcare settings (eg ArtLink), wellbeing groups
  • Community Development – artists embedded in communities – supporting the growth of new initiatives and groups e.g. bringing unheard voices into community planning for longer term investment
  • Community-based Organisations – to become hubs supporting a population of local freelance artists (and associated creative disciplines) to work in the SCIP. Organisations also promote partnership working and develop new initiatives/projects. Many of these organisations will be community-based arts organisations, working across both strands of support for culture
  • National Network – to link and support community-based organisations and freelancers to share capacity, experience, skills and resources.
  • Skills and Training Programme – for artists and associated creative disciplines to work within SCIP settings and deliver ongoing professional development.
  • Action Research – as part of the roll-out of SCIP, with a remit to monitor progress, share best practice and identify effective synergies with existing cultural infrastructure.
  • Joined up working/funding across diverse sectors at national Government/Agency and Regional levels

We already have brilliant experience nationally of this kind of work across the board in education, health and communities, the principle of this vision would be to pool experience and resources across different fields and agendas to make a commitment, as a country, to a long-term, innovative and joined-up approach to building a wellbeing economy – using culture.

Chapter One – Image, Kirsten McEwan Photography
Open Hoose – Image, Colin Tennant

Artists and the diversity/sustainability of the cultural and creative workforce is central to the idea of such an investment programme. Artists would be employed on Fair Work principles to work as artists within the settings described, this is not ‘artists as social workers’ rather a commitment to genuine co-production with communities and regular local contracts will give new opportunities for artists to develop their own individual practices and grow new collaborations with other artists through the national network.

Local hubs, community participation, arts in education settings and fair work principles will also create the conditions for people from diverse backgrounds to enter the cultural and creative workforce and support all creative people with multiple opportunities to develop careers and creative practices.

Brave New Words – Image, Kirstin McEwan Photography
Charter 14 – Image, Colin Tennant

Important initiatives such as Culture Collective and Creative Communities have already grown from the National Culture Strategy. The Culture Strategy makes an incredible opportunity for Scotland to use these as foundations around which we can attract people and practices and build a world-leading initiative that puts culture and the cultural workforce right at the heart of the effort to build a country based on wellbeing and climate justice.

*the Community Arts movement of the 1970s and 80s is one amongst few notable exceptions along with individual projects within the fields of health, education and community-based practice in recent years.

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News

Scottish Cultural Manifestos for 2021

The excellent Culture Counts organisation has just launched their Cultural Manifesto ahead of the 2021 Holyrood Election.

You can read it here

They have also started a page where they are gathering all other Cultural Manifestos being produced at this time

Particularly interesting, we think, to see ‘Place’ right at the top of the Culture Counts manifesto, given our recent experiences of connecting with different Scot Govt departments and agendas – Place looks to be a shared platform where ‘culture’ can definitely show its worth as a vital ingredient of building a healthy and inclusive society.

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Musings News

Response to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee on the current Covid-19 crisis on our sectors

This is The Stove’s response to the call-out from the Cross-party Committee on Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs on the impact of covid-19 to Scotlands Culture and Tourism sectors and how our sector should be supported at this time.

We see it as part of our role in the region to advocate for those working in the creative sector in D+G but there is strength in numbers so we strongly encourage others to send in responses so that as many voices can be heard as possible – link here

photo credit Kirstin McEwan

Response submitted on the 17.8.2020

This response comes from our experience as a community focused organisation in the High Street of Dumfries, ongoing discussion with the freelance creative community of Dumfries and Galloway, the small groups and businesses we work with and as many of the national discussions and emerging reports we can sanely be part of.

Q – how best the industry can be supported during this unprecedented time.

We need urgent support for the freelance creative economy in Dumfries and Galloway in the form of a) paid work opportunities for freelancers, b) support for local arts infrastructure to effectively support freelancers and c) support for a network that can learn and share learning from this activity.

This paper develops a series of proposals for support and a long term vision through an understanding of the cultural sector that has been brought into sharp focus by COVID.

NEEDS

  • We need devolved local delivery of support that takes into account the monumental variety of work and structures that produce and deliver it within our sector at a grassroots level
  • We need a long-term VISION that embraces innovations in how we value cultural and creative work – wider social benefit, place-based initiatives and community wealth building, localised power and delivery
  • We need to talk about what we have missed, not just what we have done, and be clear on who has not been heard or supported
  • We need to be honest about the “real” long-term impact of support, who will not benefit and why. We need to share and recycle ALL support given – if we invest into spaces/buildings/large institutions for example, how can they then pay that forward to others in the sector and their surrounding community through resource, space, knowledge sharing, local expertise and procurement and be held accountable to that?
  • Fundamentally we need a grassroots and sector-led approach led by the people who make creative work and the local communities it should benefit and be a part of

OUR FOCUS IN DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY

Our building and community is a non-residential and transient community. At the very start of lockdown it became clear that others were better placed than us to provide the type of community care roles that we have seen a lot of creative place-based groups and organisations take in the field creative community-led work we operate in.

Our focus became the immediate and devastating impact on our local community of creative freelancers who are the pillars that hold up the region’s creative sector – small creative businesses, local projects, independent festivals and events across SW Scotland. The freelancers in our community do not have a platform in national conversations on arts, culture and their economic impact and value, advocating for them as well as providing work opportunities and networking support became our way to act.

We have been approaching this twofold – by taking part in as many of those local, regional and national conversations as we have capacity for and actively working with our membership and creative community so that the grassroots of the sector can be as loud and visible as possible in shaping how we move forward.

For our small acts of solidarity and creativity see our Homegrown Blog

Atlas Pandemica is a new project, like Homegrown, specifically developed in response to COVID, it commissions artists to gather and react to stories of the pandemic’s impact on often unheard voices in our communities and develop creative visioning for going forward into a more socially inclusive future.

It is this grassroots workforce in creative and cultural activity alongside local groups and organisations that we have seen as key collaborators and indicators of the resilience and innovation by local folk and communities.

Our long-term, strategic aim here is to support a regional network of Creative Placemaking activity that helps build and sustain a robust creative workforce whilst responding to real need at local community level.

GRASSROOTS CULTURE

The creative and cultural sector that is embedded in communities is under-represented across our national agencies and as such also lacking in engagement and relative collection of data in terms of their wider economic impact for our places and communities.

The Stove’s recent Embers report, April 2020, highlighted the necessity of supporting community-led, localised action and the lack of understanding of the value of this work to healthy economies. The grants for self-employed creatives were welcome but they do little to consider and understand the expense needed to continue to work as a freelance worker in our industry (support for three months of living/work expenses in Scotland coming out lower than the UK average of £2900, under £1000 a month) SEISS Statistics.

” Performers and other creative practitioners like me earn on average £10k a year and do not fit within the Chancellor’s characterisation of those left out of the SEISS. It is claimed that those who are excluded represent just 5% of the self-employed workforce, earning on average £200k – this is very clearly not the experience of the more than 40% of Equity members who have not been able get support so far.” – Equity letter to Government

Excluded UK estimates that 3 million freelancers across sectors have been excluded from any support.

This needs to be courageously recognised so that it can be addressed in the plans we now take forward. Through our experience this includes, but is not limited to, the following groups and activities in cultural and creative industries:

  • Voluntary
  • Community-led
  • Freelancers
  • Young emerging and those not registered as self-employed
  • Vulnerable groups and minorities
  • Informal learning programmes and groups
  • Independent festivals and events

“Creative workers–one of the more vulnerable sectors of the workforce–are already seeing devastating impacts on their income, not only in turnover terms, but also in their charitable contributions and sponsorships. Leaving behind the more fragile part of the sector could cause irreparable socio-economic damage.” – p5 Oxford Economics Report – The projected economic impact of cvoid-19 on the UK Creative Industries 15.6.2020

Our ideas around this add to the pool of information, research and experience coming from creative freelancers across the globe, community groups and workers, academics, think tanks etc. to justify a more holistic and creative approach to economic recovery that makes use of our community groups and organisations (Community Wealth Building, Carnegie Trust on Wellbeing, Wellbeing Economy, Anchor Organisations). We need the investment to start making it happen and the courage to do it in a localised, place-based way.

Through our work at The Stove we have seen the impact that can be had when the ground is made fertile and people are given the agency to develop and grow things locally.

A CULTURE COLLECTIVE

We see an opportunity to devolve resource and power to local people by supporting creative freelancers and groups and organisations that are already working as part of their communities to develop locally responsive projects that can also take advantage of cross sector opportunity for long-term benefit.

“What if we were to pay out of work people in the Creative and Community sectors a fair wage to work in their local communities to start new projects (or build on things started in lockdown) – these could be cultural projects like choirs, writer’s groups etc. but they could also be environmental projects or new social enterprises. Our skill set is to ‘make shit happen’, we are producers, innovators and entrepreneurs! If this National Task Force was to get things started then the national agencies and funders could come in behind and help take things to the next level and, before you know it you have communities making their places, economies and health better.“

“The premise is simple – our Embers report has clearly shown the pivotal role played by creative practitioners and small creative organisations to initiate and maintain momentum in placemaking projects. These may start with cultural projects, but quickly develop into new social enterprises, asset-based and environmental initiatives. In short – do some cultural pump-priming in a community setting and the payback in terms of community resilience, economic development and people’s wellbeing is incredible.“

This idea is based on power of community and cross-sector collaboration and respondent to the Guiding Principles from the Report by the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery – p12. More on the development of this can be found on The Stove Blog here

A LONG TERM VISION

We believe support needs to align towards a clear VISION that can be shaped by the changing needs of the sector and is representative of the wide variety of work this includes – notably the less heard voices of creative freelancers, voluntary and community-led groups and organisations. It needs to be local, be a collaboration between the sector and our communities and feed the local innovation that is already there.

Carnegie Trust UK’s recently published (1st July 2020) “Conversations with Communities” initial findings state it brilliantly

“The COVID-19 emergency has let us see what only the state can do – set up hospitals; fund research into a vaccine; shift resources to the front line – and what only communities can do – mobilise and respond quickly by building on existing relationships; pool collective resources; think creatively about what assets are available.”

“While the Government is able to float ideas for action, these can only become a reality through collaboration with the arts and creative sector. For example, the idea of a National Arts Force needs all of us in culture to come together and work with other bodies to shape a plan that can make this happen…only we the creative practitioners on the ground know how this could work…we must take our place at the discussion table for the sake of everyone who works in our sector and for society at large.” – https://thestove.org/creativity-and-community-as-part-of-the-national-recovery/

We have the knowledge, we have the tools, we have the live projects that are working and the historical examples of what activities and investments are impactful in a deeper, wider sense of economic resilience and wellbeing, now is the time to stop pitching our systems to big business and outdated ideas of ‘growth’ as a measure of societal success.

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