...from Australasia

What a blur this week has been! The conference has probably been the most interesting and engaging of all those I’ve recently attended. Whilst its been great to spend quality time with colleagues and friends from the UK, it has been fantastic to catch up with old friends from other parts of the world and make new ones too! (Be lovely see more friends from non-English speaking countries though) Thank you to anyone who’s gone out of their way to say hello to me. Its great to meet kindred spirits in this arts and health field.

There are so may people I’ve met whose practice I’d like to share, but of course that’s not practical, so, to shine a spotlight on just one of the many new things I’ve seen and heard, here’s a link to just one organisations work that’s of exceptional vision, quality and impact.

Vic McEwan runs an organisation called Cad Factory and I had the pleasure of chairing a session he spoke at about his year-long exploration of a community in recovery, actively seeking the stories from the town of Yenda in the wake of the 2012 floods. Click on the shop front to find out more.

A few conference-connected highlights include having a breakfast with the philanthropist (and advertising magnate!) Harold Mitchell. Organised by Currency House Press, the breakfast saw Mitchell emphasising the need for creative leaders to have imagination and courage. Thanks to N.S. for arranging this. Being invited to the residency of the Governor of New South Wales for a drinks reception was something I felt a little uncertain about. Those of you who know me, will know why! But what a woman Professor Marie Bashir is! With a background in medicine, public health and psychiatry, she was quite a sensational host, and completely in tune with the potential of culture and the arts in the 21st Century. The final day of the conference has seen a contingent meet the Minister for Ageing and Disability Services, John Ajaka and an exploration of research, policy and practice in creative ageing. Brilliant work Margret Meagher.

As for my presentation at the conference this week - I had the chance to share some of my thinking around the constant, (and in my opinion, deluded) assertion, that to understand the impact of the arts and cultural activity of health and wellbeing, we need to measure our work using the Randomised Controlled Trial, as exemplified by big pharma. You can make your own opinions (although, I am bored rigid with the myopic mantra of dull-eyed pseudo-scientific sycophants) so enjoy - (or not) - this quickly recorded version. Some people loathed the music, some loved it, so good look with it - but remember, it’s there to drill into you, not placate and soothe you. Click on the CONTROL image, above.

I had to reduce many elements of my presentation, to keep within the allotted 30 minutes slot and another time, perhaps we can share some of those things I edited including: the soft-drinks industries influence on government policy; the ‘gatekeepers’ of our hyper-inflated and gated-community-of-interest ‘journals’; (overpriced-exclusive and just a tad-self-congratulatory) - oh, and Barry Manilow drug endorsements + dogs on sedatives! 

So much to say and play with - so little time.

And on the over-priced books front, I’m thrilled to have a new book-chapter out. It’s called Towards Sentience and is text developed from my thoughts on how art and design might be relevant to the ways in which we live and die. Its in a book called: The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design, by Bloomsbury and only costs around £90. Cheap eh? I don't want to dig my own grave ; ) but I think the publishing industry is outrageous! I’m sure most libraries can’t afford books like this, let alone the hallowed journals.

DEMENTIA & IMAGINATION

Whilst I’m away, I can announce that the first of the Dementia and Imagination posts is open for applications. I’m very excited by this, but have to advise that this is a research post working with me and is pivotal to the three-year programme, and we are looking for post-doctoral candidates. Very soon, we’ll be recruiting an admin role and research-artists to work across the UK in our various research sites. Keep an eye out for the details. To find out more about the Research Associate post, click on the researcher below.

Whilst we are developing the Dementia and Imagination research, we’d love to share this simple survey with people who are involved in arts/dementia work. This will help inform our theoretical framework. thanks in anticipation, and feel free to circulate. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K3DDBBL 

BEAUTIFUL AND PROGRESSIVE SCOTLAND 

The Glasgow Centre for Population Health is currently recruiting a Public Health Research Specialist to work on a project called Representing Communities: developing the creative power of people to improve health and wellbeing. The project involves understanding how community representations produced through creative arts practices (e.g. storytelling, performance, visual art) can be used as forms of evidence to inform health-related policy and service development. You will be involved in both the facilitation of these creative outputs (in partnership with Impact Arts) and leading on parallel research which will describe and report on the process. This post will be based within the Glasgow Centre for Population Health. Click on the mob below to find out more.

Critical Mass

This week sees people from around the world gathering for the 5th International Arts of Good Health and Wellbeing Conference, organised by Arts and Health Australia and this year, with a fantastic contingent of people from the UK...and a positive posse of people from the North East! The first event today, saw Mike White from the Centre for Medical Humanities, facilitate the 3rd Critical Mass event. This brings together international collaborators from the field - artists, researchers, health managers and educators - to explore synergies and collaboration. Evidence of previous partnerships include the joint work between DADAA (Australia) and First Movement (Derbyshire) and the publication of a special edition of Arts & Health: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice dedicated to international perspectives in community based arts and health. In today’s session we focused on the question: What could produce effective international collaboration in practice and research in community based arts and health? Participants came from countries including amongst others, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA and the UK.

Tomorrow, the conference kicks off in earnest and I'll be doing my bit with Fiction-Non-Fiction. More on that very soon.

lost for words...

 ...just a few small words from your disjointed blogger...following last weeks news of the inequalities in cultural spending up and down England, as if by magic, this week’s blog brings you the state’s response - well Arts Council England’s ‘refreshed’ version of Great Art and Culture for Everyone. As with last weeks news on inequalities in spending on the arts, this latest fanfare comes with no comment from me. Why? Because vitriol and bile come easy to me. You decide what you think, but considering the expose last week, I feel the manifesto is due an update!  Black clouds over Sydney. I'll update this blog for anyone who's interested in all things Australian as the week progresses.

Great art and culture for everyone

The purpose of this Arts Council England update is to bring together our remit for the arts with that for museums and libraries for the first time.

The following five goals are at the heart of our strategy:

Goal 1: Excellence is thriving and celebrated in the arts, museums and libraries

Goal 2: Everyone has the opportunity to experience and to be inspired by the arts, museums and libraries

Goal 3: The arts, museums and libraries are resilient and environmentally sustainable
Goal 4: The leadership and workforce in the arts, museums and libraries are diverse and appropriately skilled
Goal 5: Every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts, museums and libraries

The refreshed framework aims to be clearer about what success looks like, and how we will know whether we're achieving our mission of Great art and culture for everyone.

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/news/arts-council-news/we-launch-our-updated-strategy-great-art-and-cultu/#sthash.jSufosdv.dpuf 

Wellcome Trust – Arts Awards 

The Wellcome Trust is inviting organisations and individuals to apply for funding through its Arts Awards. The Arts Awards support projects that engage the public with biomedical science through the arts including dance, drama, performance arts, visual arts, music, film, craft, photography, creative writing or digital media. Applications are invited for projects of up to £30,000 through their small grants programme, and for projects above £30,000 through their large grant programme. The aim of the awards is to support arts projects that reach new audiences which may not traditionally be interested in science and provide new ways of thinking about the social, cultural and ethical issues around contemporary science. The scheme is open to a wide range of people including, among others, artists, scientists, curators, filmmakers, writers, producers, directors, academics, science communicators, teachers, arts workers and education officers. The next application deadline for small projects is the 28th February 2014, and the 24th January 2014 for large projects. Read more at http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Funding-schemes/Arts-Awards/index.htm

Wellcome Trust - Peoples Awards

Awards of up to £30,000 are available under the Wellcome Trust's “Peoples” Awards for projects that encourage public debate and understanding of biomedical science. Projects can include:

· Workshops and seminars; arts projects for a variety of different audiences and age groups

· Teaching materials or techniques to encourage wider discussions

· Projects that utilise the collections of the Wellcome Library and the Wellcome Collection at the Science Museum.

Funding can be for up to three years. Applications can be made by a wide variety of individuals, organisations and partnerships. The next applications deadline is the 31st January 2014.  The Trust also makes “Society” Awards.  These are grants in excess of £30,000.  The next preliminary application deadline for “Society” Awards is 5pm on the 28 March 2014. Read more at: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Funding-schemes/People-Awards-and-Society-Awards/index.htm

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...

Short and sweet this week, but of newsworthy comment are the plans of Narendra Modi, the chief minister in the state of Gujarat, to commission the worlds tallest statue, at an estimated cost of £200 million!  The 182 meter cement and steel, bronze-clad effigy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first leader after independence, is due to be completed in 4 years time. 

The number of poor families in Gujarat's villages have risen by at least 30 per cent over the last decade, going by the state government's own data, and with hours to go before Modi laid the foundation stone for the statue, the Gujarat Police foiled a protest due to take place at the site. The protesters were villagers from 66 tribal dominated villages located near the Sardar Sarovar Dam where the statue is to be built. They had planned to protest during the foundation laying ceremony. The coordinator of the protest, Rohit Prajapati, is now claiming that he is being kept under house arrest.

Whoever said big wasn’t beautiful...?

...talking of which! News coming in from the golden streets of London.

Rebalancing Our Cultural Capital, an evidence-based report addressing the balance of arts funds between London and the rest of England. The report has been produced – independently and at their own expense – by Peter Stark, Christopher Gordon and David Powell. The research reveals the extent of bias towards London in public funding of the arts provided by taxpayers and National Lottery players throughout England.

• 15% of the population of England lives in London.  In 2012/13, Arts Council England (ACE) distributed £320m of taxpayers' money to the arts with £20 per head of population(php) allocated in London against £3.60 php in the rest of England.
• In the same year the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) distributed £450m of public funds from the same source directly to major 'national' cultural institutions with - the report estimates - £49 php in London against £1 php in the rest of the country
• In total in 2012/13 taxpayers from the whole of England provided benefit to London of £69 php against £4.60 php in the rest of the country.
• A pattern of public funding that favours London has existed since the foundation of the Arts Council. A trend to enhance the imbalance has been consistent for at least 30 years.
• During this period successive Governments and Arts Councils have acknowledged the imbalance but argued that it would need a significant new injection of funds to enable redress.
• Since 1995, Arts Council England has had stewardship responsibility for - and has distributed - £3.5 billion of 'new and additional' funds for good causes in the arts from the National Lottery.
• The report argues that funds from the National Lottery - derived disproportionately from the less well off in society - carry a different ethical mandate for the Arts Council: this suggests at least geographically proportionate distribution based on size of population.
• In fact, Arts Council distribution of its £3.5bn of new Lottery funding has provided benefit to London of £165 php against £47php in the rest of England over the 18 years of the Lottery to date.
• Last year's figures, combining taxpayers' and lottery players' funds distributed by Arts Council England show benefit to London of £86 php against £8 php in the rest of England a ratio of over 10:1.
• One way to begin redress would be to allocate London its fair 'per capita' share of arts Lottery funding, for an initial five year period.
• The 'core' treasury funding of arts organisations and cultural institutions in London would not be affected. Funds available to London overall would reduce by just over 10%. Cultural production outside London could then benefit over the five years by a total of £600m. This is still less than the cost to the Lottery of the Millennium Dome.

Click on the gold for more details

Dementia and Imagination...

I could do with your help. If you have a moment and explicitly, in terms of the Visual Arts, would you email me with your answers/thoughts to these simple questions? 

In YOUR OPINION:

* How can the visual arts impact on people with memory loss?

(positively/negatively)

* How can Visual Art appreciation/engagement affect the symptoms of memory loss?

* What evidence do we have to ‘prove’ any of this?

* How can Visual Artists inspire and enhance the lives of people with memory loss? 

* How can Visual Artists challenge the stigma associated with memory loss?

Thank you for this. Who needs survey monkey's anyway?

Maybe an obvious tribute, or perhaps reflections on a personal perfect day...

Collective Encounters Company Stage Manager Required

Fee: £3470

Based in Liverpool Collective Encounters is a national company specialising in theatre for social change. The company has recently been commissioned by National Museums Liverpool to deliver the drama element of the House of Memories Museum training for social care staff working with people living with dementia. The play will be written and directed by Sarah Thornton and will include elements of audience/performance interaction. We are now looking for a Company Stage Manager to support a tour of the piece to venues in the Midlands and Liverpool. Contract period: 3 weeks rehearsal week beginning – 16th December, 6th January, 13th January. 14 performances (between the period January – March 2013) – dates for these have been confirmed.

To apply send your CV by 1st November to vacancies@collective-encounters.org.uk or call 07811175095 for more information.

This little blog may be quieter than usual over the next few weeks, but please check for the smallest updates, as I travel to Australia for the 5th Annual International Arts and Health Conference.