2011 Regional Forum for intercultural arts

The Regional Forum for Intercultural Arts brings together creative individuals, groups, organisations, venues and

institutions to discuss and develop strategies, activities and programmes to improve the impact of culturally diverse artists

on the Creative and Cultural Sector in North East England.

We were VERY pleased that our recent 2011 Regional Forum for intercultural arts took place on Friday 30 September 2011

at the brilliant Star and Shadow Cinema. The strong grass-roots, DIY and volunteer-ran ethos of the cinema struck a chord

with us and we are aiming to work more closely with them in the near future.

The importance of the forum was compounded by the fact that Intercultural Arts' current ACE funding finishes in March

2012, therefore we are committed to redefining our strategic position and are in the process of a top-to-bottom consultation

with our artist users and professional networks. We are reassessing our business model to develop and support the

North East diverse arts sector in creating great art and to engage thoroughly with the regional 'mainstream' arts sector.

Furthermore, we will soon be rolling-out a series of project clubs for artists which will continue elements of our artists

consultation as well as providing a platform for peer-to-peer artistic development and support as well full support from

Intercultural Arts.

Image: 2011 Regional Forum for intercultural arts @ Star and Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, Byker, Newcastle. Copyright Intercultural Arts 2011

The day Forum began with a professional, yet light-hearted, speed networking session, then broke into intorductions from Intercultural Arts' Steven Walker and David Faulkner, before the Arts Council England update on its renewed diversity policy and publication, the 'Creative Case for Diversity', presented by Ann Fletcher-Williams. In this publication, the Arts Council sets out and invites the arts sector to engage with a new and different approach to diversity and equality in the arts, which we are calling the Creative Case.

This is a repositioning of the Arts Council’s previous work where, due to statutory requirements and legal duties, the Arts Council did separate strands of work on race, disability and gender equality and where the focus was on addressing past imbalances and reducing deficits and structural gaps in the arts sector. These factors are still present and there are still barriers to creativity, participation, learning and involvement – which consequently put a brake on the fullest development of the arts and creative industries in this country. The Arts Council is as committed as ever to removing those attitudinal, hierarchical and class barriers that still exist.

The Creative Case does not deny the worth of previous work - the moral, legal, ethical and business cases - but argues that there is a clearer, simpler and more potent position to articulate: that diversity and equality are crucial to the arts because they sustain, refresh, replenish and release the true potential of England’s artistic talent, regardless of people’s background

The Arts Council are conscious of the growing call to bring art back into the centre of the discussion and thinking on diversity. They have already acted on this impetus, so that for the first time their ambitions for diversity and equality are knitted into those of excellence, reach, engagement and innovation. This is articulated the Arts Council 10-year vision for the arts, Achieving great art for everyone: a strategic framework for the arts. In the PDF publication from the link below, Arts Council England set out an artistic-led approach to diversity in the arts as the driver for change.

Click this link to get the PDF publication: http://bit.ly/qq5cHZ

Next up was some great intoroductory talks from a selection of regional creative organisations.

Last but certainly not least, Louise Taylor facilitated the insightful Open Space discussion groups. In Open Space meetings, events and organisations, participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme of strategic importance, such as: 'What is the strategy, group, organization or community that all present can support and work together to create?'. We had some great questions and they are presented at the bottom of this article.

We had 41 people attend the throughout the day with representation, support and involvement from Arts Council England, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Star and Shadow Cinema, Swallow Partnership, Sage Gateshead's Learning and Participation team, OnSite Culture Lab, Crossings Group, Zendeh Theatre, 25 Stratford Grove, LifeWorkArt, ISIS Arts, Newcastle Council Arts Development Team, Northern Roots, Jumpin Hot Club and Platforma North East Hub, as well a whole host of artists / creatives.

We realise that we need to become an entirely artist-steered organisation and want to hear from you whether you are beginning your first steps or continuing to work in an engaging intercultural context with your creative practice. Intercultural Arts' is here as your 'critical friend' in the development of your artwork and projects so feel free to contact us for one-to-one artist 'crits', project development and to introduce you to other artists and organisations.

We are both excited and committed to developing support for lots of the issues which came from the Open Space afternoon groups. Interestingly there were some elements that came up in several conversations or suggested several times in the last exercise of the day as areas that Intercultural Arts could support. We will include these as areas of interest in redeveloping our goals for Artist Support and Development in the new business plan for 2012-13 and will invite you all to future projects, including the forthcoming project clubs...Watch. This. Space.

Open Space discussion notes:

Intercultural Arts Regional Forum 30 September 2011

Open Space Conversation Notes

How do we collectively connect (digitally/physically) to develop an ‘uber projects/event’ to create new work with regional intercultural collaborations?

Meeting face to face rather than through technology will always be much more useful in communicating;
A mixture of both digital and real meetings is useful as everyone can’t always attend physical meetings;
The use of ‘minutes’ in meetings is still the best way to communicate decisions in meetings – consensus – rather than a fancy web-app;
What is the uber project/event?
Think about economics – low wage, BME/different can try similar factors through ‘diverse and non-diverse’ artists;
Feeling like an artist after a long period of ‘surviving’ in similar field to passion is difficult, especially when moving to new city, especially new country;
Engage - £2/300 per event/project
- Turner Prize Emma T Baltic
- MIMA
Think about ‘commissions’ in an artist curated context to develop an event. Like an Aids Awareness, Black History Month etc. As well as wider ‘culture’ across the worlds communities – united economy, politics, business, sport with innovatively programmed events (curated by artists);
Plan 12 months ahead on ‘global’ events/issues
Action: keep talking/meetings