Arts Council Funding

Government policy is part of the context within which arts practice operates, but is now going through unpredictable changes that make it more difficult to write about in terms of practice. The Arts Council has just announced the grants it has for arts organisations, their overall funding had been reduced. It is a time, therefore, that many arts organisations are thinking about their future. In the article there are brief comments from Jeremy Hunt, the Culture secretary, saying that the deficit is at the heart of the cuts, and Ivan Lewis, the shadow culture secretary, saying that frontline arts services will be affected. The leaders of arts organisations are at the brunt of managing this crisis, even those whose funding was cut less dramatically.

A sample response from the article says:

Others saw the cuts against a broader canvas. Michael Boyd, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, said: "I hope we will see some longer-term thinking from government about arts funding. I would like to see more collaboration between government departments which recognises the value of the arts across many other areas of policy – in education, tourism and inward investment just as much as culture (Higgins and Brown, 2011).

The rationale for public funding may be linked to both economic and ideological sources as the current coalition government enacts legislation; because of the recession there is less money but how the Coalition decides to spend this money is also related to idea that government should limit the direct funding of public services. That is of course is an over simplification, and establishing the motives and directions of the new government is an ongoing debate. However, as the quote above indicates, arts practice also relates to other areas of the economy, such as education and tourism. By cutting funding in some areas of public funding, the context for other areas, such as tourism or entertainment, might also be affected.

The Arts Council funding cuts relates to an article we looked at the last Campus Session from Stage that indicated funding in the outer boroughs could be diminished in order to focus on the main London cultural centres (Woolman, 2011). This might be saying that tourism is being prioritised over services to local arts community. A case in point would be the cut in funding (Arts Depot, 2010) that is continuing to operate, but must now rely on more private funding in order to operate. For the Arts Depot, it is the local government policy about funding cuts that would have to be explained in order to understand both the decisions and consequences facing similar arts organisations. If the issues facing arts organisations financially stem from changes in policy, then understanding these changes to government policy must be crucial to their survival in these challenging economic times.

Arts Depot (2010) 'Keep art in the frame!', Arts Depot News, online, [Accessed 31/3/11] Available from:http://www.artsdepot.co.uk/news/index.php?articleid=326

Higgins, Charlotte and Brown, Mark (2011) 'Arts Council funding: a day of mixed fortunes as cuts are announced', Guardian, online,  [Accessed 31/3/11] Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/mar/30/arts-council-funding-cuts

Woolman, Natalie (2011) 'London arts cuts - Barnet and Croydon Among the Losers', The Stage, London: the Stage Newspaper Limited, March 10, p. 3.

 * To get the quote to indent - I did this article in Word and then cut and paste back into my blog.

Google Harvard citation for samples if they are not in the BAPP Subject Handbook or on the Libguides - an example would be:

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/uniservices/infoservices/library/find/references/harvard/index.php#book_electronic

The sources can say slightly different things - so just use a consistent approach throughout your document.

Before I forget Arts Management sources& Agony and Ecstasy

I had a MDX student in arts management advise me that Art Management 2nd ed Routelege 2010 Chang was good. 

FYI found the UKP Arts website that has some short and article at the bottom of the page AND article attached thought you might be interested. 

Watch the Agony and the Ecstasy 

ALSO on iplayer

Try Rosemary's career path urvey up on her blog

Dewey and Mezirow

this is a quote that I really liked... it says it all

"Our own writing and research has been on the development of reflective judgement. Based on the work of Dewey (1933), who identified reflective thinking as a goal of education, our work defines a reflective thinker as someone who is aware that a problematic situation exists and is able to being critical judgement to bear on the problem.In other works, a reflective thinker understands that there is real uncertainty about how a problem that brings same kind of closure to it. this judgement, which Dewey refers to as a "grounded" or "warranted" assertion, is based on criteria such as evaluation of evidence, consideration of expert opinion, adequacy of argument, and implications of the proposed solutions" (Kitchener and King, 1991).

Kitchener, Karen and King, Patricia (1991) 'The Reflective Judgment Model: Transforming Assumptions About Knowing', Meziro, Jack (1991) TRANSFORMATIVE DIMENSIONS OF ADULT LEARNING, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

also see Mezirow

So what does it say? I would explain it this way: a reflective thinker does not understand a problem at the start, but uses evidence to argue a particular course of action after developing a good idea about what might happen as a consequence.

Suggestions for an art portfolio

17th March Campus Session for 3835

As a starter - I thought those who attended yesterdays session did a great job. Really good thinking, interaction and questions. A recap on the assessments will be coming up soon in another blog. 

This was the agenda for the session and the 2 PowerPoints about the inquiry tools: reviewing literature and the 4 practitioner inquiry methods that you are going to trial 'informally' in 3835. These 'social science' tools make it possible to gather and analyse data from the real world with real people. However, in the past people have asked for more time to practice these methods, so thats what we have tried to build into 3835. While the 3 reviews and the 4 inquiry method exercises do not have to be about the same things, your questions and emerging topic area can guide you to finding out about the things that interest you and perhaps the others you have developed SIGs with or discussed topics with on the blogs.

At the end as Rosemary discussed the plan - we tried to clarify some of the questions people had about the assessment will be putting more information up on the blogs AND on the BAPP Libguides (either on the front page news or under 3835) so 'watch this space'. As this is the first run of our revised module, we welcome the feedback so we can clarify any points and get as much out of the module as possible. Also Mike Howarth attended to try to get some new shots for our brochure and some new learning tools - so thanks to everyone for participating!

CAMPUS SESSION 3 BAPP WBS3835 17.3.11

Schedule of session – tools (Paula) and then plan at end (Rosemary)

Introduction: (10 Minutes – 2-2:10pm)

·      Where are we/you now?

·      Using inquiry tools to inform your practice

Practitioner Tools

1. Literature/Documents (2:10 – 3:05)

·      Brief PowerPoint describing literature (discuss other sources such as performance DVDs) that are relevant to your questions/topic to extend knowledge and understanding (content can be disciplinary, sector, or learning related) (will put this on Paula’s Blog)

·      Interactive demonstration of searching for literature and sources for data from professional and academic sources

·      Google and Google Scholar

·      Middlesex journals- Sandra and Rosie

·      Discussion about how to critically evaluate the literature

·       Scanning

·      Collecting

·      Reviewing task – responding and analysing 3 pieces of literature in writing

·      Exercise – using literature as a tool – group wikis – using one main article or piece of writing, try to develop an understanding of the

·      source (author)

·      the main points of view (argument) and their validity

·      how this piece of writing provides information about theory or practice – how it is a part of a bigger whole

BREAK 3:05 – 3:15

2. Inquiry/research methods (3:15 – 4:?30)

·      Brief PowerPoint describing the point of research methods (will put this on Paula’s Blog)

·      Exercise - informal research method ‘practice runs’ with SIG colleagues or associates that will give you experience for when you do your practitioner research about your topic

·      Observation – YouTube video (Samba Competition)

·      Survey – develop 5 main questions to find out something about people who undertake professional practice – use one with the people who are attending – talk about analysis and following up the data

·      Interview – exercise in twos – learning how to ask questions and listen

·      Focus Group – role pay in larger groups – managing discussion

ROSEMARY TO TALK ABOUT PLAN

17.3.11 wbs3835 literature search

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Tools campus workshop 17.3.11 bapp wbs3835 qual r

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Google dance and health and see what your get

Community Dance

Arts Council Dance and Health

Cheshire Dance Health project

Hampshire Dance

Mention others in the comments... just see what you get...

Post on the arts management SIG

There is a article in Stage about London arts cuts March 10 2011 - this might test both management and leadership. In another article Alistir Smith questions whether arts venues should drop their charitable status to run as businesses. All 'hot' issues - What are the main points of view in the argument?

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Dance UK

Ellie and I were chatting about the self-Image SIG and o wondered if anyone had looked up info from this site. Others on the programme have found it helpful.

http://www.danceuk.org/

http://www.danceuk.org/healthier-dancer-programme/

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Brabazon advice on writing in an academic style

This Brabazon's advice form the Times Higher Education website.

The ones folks tend to make on the course are...

Single-sentence paragraphs. Academic writing builds an argument through a paragraph. A student constructing single-sentence paragraphs is unable to develop a complex series of ideas.

Use of long sentences. Often, single-sentence paragraphs are composed of one long sentence. Such students confirm that they cannot express a concise thought within the husk of a succinct statement.

There are others as well - but she writes this for an academic audience so some of them are a bit tongue in cheek...

WBS 3835 - an exemplar statistical study Campus Session

I hope everyone is beginning to look around for sources that inform them about their topic - scoping what is out there... You might try googling or Google Scholar. This is just another example of research that tells us something... what does it tell us? Comments please...

Images of inquiry

A little explanation here - I was talking with Lucy and was trying to describe developing the questions for inquiry as the difference between travelling on a train track - where there is only one direction - to a car journey where you go to other places along the way to inform you about the destination you may want to go to... so I drew this out as a concept drawing. Asking a fellow artist if this picture was clear - she actually said it looked like 'conception' - which is actually pretty close to the idea of inquiry! however - she went on to draw the little images to the upper right  that show 3 stages of thinking about ideas - 1. thinking of the idea as a sole thing 2. thinking about different directions to the idea 3. and actually agreeing that there is more than one idea so there are many ideas and many different ways to think about them - where this came from (theorist) we are not sure... so design your own version of thinking

I also mentione De Bono which is elaborated in this site and the 6 hat image

Article - about dancer with virus

Where do your ideas come from? Do you get ideas and then follow them up by talking to others in the BAPP network or looking at related ideas on the web? - Google and Google Scholar are a good place to start - literature searching will be explained at the next Campus Session 17 March.Leaping back article

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BAPP Visiting artist in play

Wendy Nottingham is now in Fen 

Video on YouTube about the production

Fen Review

The Stage review

Middlesex Uni Careers Networking advice

MDX Networking

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Middlesex Uni Careers Cyber Identity advice

MDX Cyber identity

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Natalie has helpful blog about Athens access

Natalie was trying out her new Athens password - and was able to call the Web HelpDesk for further directions - she has a brilliant blog about the access.

Stella Cottrell's book

I actually met Stella Cottrell once in a workshop at Birkbeck - she was very responsive and joined in with the group I was in - she has done a number of very successful books about critical thinking and study skills that might be helpful.

Campus Session 2 3002

A quick note for 3002- videos up on YouTube about 21 Feb session.

Reflection Theme - aligned with Reader 2.

Exercises (planned by Adesola - Paula carried out).

Roles- discussing and describing what you do
The Scary Story- sharing invention and developing skills of communication- telling the same story by sharing the plot
Sticks- developing an action plan trying to move with sticks balanced on fingers with a partner
Theory- like Schon's reflection in and on action and Kolb' learning cycle- think about in terms of your own work
The Silent Tour - creating a plan that takes others on a for - communicating non verbally with the group- handheld cameras by group members

Brief but I hope helpful.

Paula


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