OPEN SPACE DISCUSSION GROUPS NOTES
21.10.2011
In the next 3 years what can we do to
enable arts and culture to thrive in
Gloucestershire?
State investment and involvement in arts and culture is being
reduced, a retreat mirrored in other areas of civic life.
As from April 2012 there will be no grant funding for arts
organisations from Gloucestershire County Council and no
GCC officers with responsibility for arts and culture. GLOSS,
the arts education agency, will also cease to exist.
What do these seismic change mean to artists, educators,
arts venues, development organisations and other creative
people? How can we best respond to ensure
Gloucestershire thrives as a great place for artists to work,
collaborate and be innovative in their creative practice?
A group of leaders from the arts sector in Gloucestershire
started asking these questions about 2 years ago when
Prema, Artshape, Roses Theatre, Everyman, New Brewery Arts
and Gloucestershire Dance chose to work more closely
together. This joined up thinking led to Create
Gloucestershire - a new arts and cultural development hub
led and focused by the sector itself.
This Open Space is an invitation to help shape the 3 year
agenda for Create Gloucestershire, contributing your ideas
thoughts and resources alongside other people drawn from
across art-form, hierarchy and professional disciplines but
who all care about a thriving arts and culture sector in
Gloucestershire.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Convenor’s Name
Sue Brown
Participants’ Names
Richard Holmes
Jacqui Roger (Creative Solutions)
Jo Bousfield
Hannah Brown (Bacon Theatre)
Marianne Orr (Fairgame Theatre)
Matthew Parker (Picturedrome Theatre)
Aderyn Roberts (New Brewery Arts)
Barney Heywood (Stand & Stare)
Lucy Heywood (Stand & Stare)
Elaine Graham (Market Theatre, Ledbury)
Paul Graham (Arts Alive!)
Sean Roger (Animator / oral storyteller)
Question
How do artists promote what they do to arts organisations in
Gloucestershire?
Key points for the agenda
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You have to know what you are selling, not just what you do.
Artists need good references and good word of mouth
Know how to pitch
Know your market
Know the organisation you are pitching to – the right work in the
right place
Follow up emails with phone calls, organisations will respond to
human contact
Network – not only to arts organisations, broaden to businesses,
doctor’s surgeries etc with a targeted project.
How artists diversify – us skills in other sectors.
Could CG be a facilitator in this in some way?
Can Create Glos help artists look for sponsorship beyond the
arts?
How do you package what you do and match values to
organisations.
Loss Leaders – success is showing up
Face to face meetings
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
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Working with peers
Knowing where to go for opportunities
Communication – it’s what we do. Organisations can’t do it
without us. Ask ALOT and then follow up with a voice or a face.
Know who you are talking to.
Ask and ask: gently persistent
Could CG facilitate these conversations in some way?
Networking between artists and organisations
On larger sheet:
- Mentor – small budget – making
- Where is all the learning shared? Theatre Bristol and Theatre
Gloucestershire websites. Turning point mentor model.
- Producers Forum (Theatre Bristol) new models – any thoughts –
pass on!!
- Information sharing (voices for all) ‘locality’ – community
development
- Community first – Leading from what the local area wants and
needs
- Interactive sharing
Convenor’s Name
Emily Bull
Participants’ Names
Question
What do we know about our audiences and how can we
strengthen our knowledge to engage with and develop our
audiences?
Key points for the agenda
Discussion:
- How do we share audiences to sustain ourselves?
- Are ACE as interested in bums on seats? How do we get bums on
seats?
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
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Audiences ‘playing it safe’ which reduces taking risks
Difficult to discuss audiences as they’re hard to predict. Need to
find out more about our audiences.
Collaborating more with local communities and business to
develop work and audiences locally
Maybe it’s a case of developing a brand and loyalty in our
audiences.
How do we share our existing audiences?
Using ‘distancing mediums; on the internet to draw audiences in.
Visual arts seem to take more risks and be more free – is this
because people often don’t have to pay so they aren’t
spending money on attendance so not ‘playing it safe’.
What is audience development? What is the purpose of
developing audiences?
Using your existing audience, understanding them and building
them. Existing audience is valuable. Then developing brand to
building audiences.
Quantative info is needed as well as qualitative.
Boundaries between art forms and types of audiences are
blurring.
Changes in how ‘art’ happens are exciting since the recession.
Do we know what audiences want? To be entertained and to
have an experience.
Getting theatre members / staff to market by face-to-face
conversation and word of mouth to create trust.
Promoting the feeling / buzz in a positive way.
Wish List:
- Making an audience feel special
- Taking art to the audience is a comfortable space with little / no
barriers.
- Collaborative marketing – all putting a budget together to
promote.
- One place to promote – website, app, Time Out Glos.
- Audience club with incentives
- ‘An Audience Package’ being involved – being told about other
opportunities.
- How do we build / develop our local audience positively? How
do we perceive our audience?
- Having ONE engagement strategy and not lots of different ones.
Online and in print and use this to enhance engagement.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
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E.G. of Cheltenham Festivals joining together in marketing –
creating a clear, well branded, unified offer to their audiences
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Convenor’s Name
Sue Davies
Participants’ Names
Dave stokes (photographer)
David Jubb (BAC)
Ali Russel
Beth Alden
Emily Bull
Phillipa Claridge
Frances Day
Tom Keating
Ali Heywood
Jo Bousfield
Maggie Tildesley
Justin Gregory
Sarah Blowery
Gordon ?
Question
How can our voice in Gloucestershire counter a rising tied of
conservatism? i.e. argue for arts and culture locally,
regionally and nationally.
Key points for the agenda
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Politics of funding – should I / shouldn’t I go for funds from the
government?
Want to make exciting work, not downgrade.
How can we respond to cuts in a strategic network, e.g.
audience development
Devaluing of arts. Conservatism = have to guarantee tickets,
how else to be sustainable without subsidy?
7% of GDP comes from arts.
Education system has driven out creativity
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
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Turn the paradigm on its head (KEN ROBINSON – not just about
arts but culture and CREATIVITY)
Value of arts in challenging conservatism
We as a sector get better at talking about benefits of creativity
and its impact. We have to take responsibility.
Excited!
o Creativity is bubbling up, change is coming, history is telling
us that the wave is rising! The old going has created a new
space for working together outside ‘Art’.
o We have responsibility to find ways to communicate what
we do and why its important.
On larger sheet:
- Deprived community – fundraising for parts of audiences /
participants to attend and take part – where can I find money to
fund this? Also how do I feel about applying for funds from this
government?
- Finding different way to not create ‘safe’ work – anything I can
do to counteract this.
- Changes of audience development, changes made by
government – therefore obligations need to fulfil to fit this (AG:
sorry – don’t really understand what they are trying to say here!)
- How will we fill the gap with NPO funding?
- Venues are being pushed to become conservative. Obligation
to personally become more edgy but responsibility towards
artists to earn living and income.
- Conservatism
o devalues arts in education
o commercial choices
o participation work – can we make risky choices
- Working within a conservative government – models for funding
seem to be about reducing need
- Where does the investment come from? Is it possible to have arts
culture which is not subsidised?
- Historically (1990’s) petitioning government to invest.
Challenging the attitude that arts don’t need funding.
- We know ‘not-for-profit’ organisations offer so much.
- Problem with art education in a target-led culture of league
tables.
- ‘Changing the Paradigm’ Ken Robinson talk on YouTube
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
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Should the argument be about creativity and culture rather than
boxed into the ‘the arts’?
Would this make it relevant to people – can it connect up to
other sectors to form a rounded argument.
Very diverse changes to subsidies to arts – has the argument
been made to prioritise the arts?
We can’t assume individuals connecting translates to making it
available
Has there been any research as to which areas have retained
arts funding?
How can we fund art?
Is it based on industrial / cultural / community or international
agenda?
What are different ways of subsidising the arts? Reframing ‘the
arts’, broadening the term and crossing over from e.g. science –
reduce ‘pure art’
Pressure in schools, cutting down on arts trips. Lack of
opportunities for young people to take part. Teachers are
frustrated.
Is it lazy just thinking ‘I need money!’
Poor sharing of arguments that support ownership of arts and
creativity
Its a negative attitude towards ‘the arts’
If there was more desire or opportunities to engage with the
general public – for a groundswell of creativity to ‘just do it’, new
work being made regardless of funding, despite politics – is there
a changing approach?
HOW ARE WE GOING TO TALK ABOUT WHAT WE DO DIFFERENTLY?
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Convenor’s Name
Jacqui Roger and Terry Richards
Participants’ Names
Terry Richards, Sculptor, volunteer at Brewery
Emma jane Benning, Theatre Bristol
Cath Wilkins, Glos Dance
Niki Whitfield, Cheltenham Open Studios
Alysoun Tomkins, Dance (Education) Consultant
Question
What is Create Gloucestershire? What is the current
structure?
Key points for the agenda
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What is Create Gloucestershire – for practitioners, for artists, for
audiences?
Who is it enabling?
What mirror schemes are there? In Dorset, Derbyshire...
Is there disjointed organisation across the region?
Arts Officers / teams are gone from the county council.
ACE / CC gave money – consultant – 2 year start up plan
Proactive response – better collaboration between
organisations, funding, sustaining arts education.
CG has about 12 partner members, all of whom were CC funded
(Glos Dance, Stroud Valley Arts, Art Space, Everyman Roses...)
CG = independent co. Ltd. Guarantee
Art funding CC held by CG, about £40k?
How do we prevent CG from becoming a closed shop?
What do we want CG to be?
Could individual artists become members?
How to prevent CG becoming admin heavy?
How to create collaborations?
Routes for work / collaborative commissions
Joining up at organisational level
1 portal for voluntary sector, one for educational sector. Making
it easier to reach artists.
Schools / heads showcase for Gloucestershire artists via CG?
Artist survival
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
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CG brokering relationsips
CG branding important
CG funding applications
Keep artists in the county and in the sector.
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Convenor’s Name
Lily Neubauer
Participants’ Names
Ali Heywood
Jane Cross
Allegra Galvin
Question
Where should young people start?
Key points for the agenda
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A-Level student links
Decide NOT to do it
Mentor Scheme
Links with universities and schools
Website?
LOCAL funding opportunities
What to do with amazing degrees? Practical skills e.g.
marketing, pitching for funding, commissions
Multi-disciplinary work e.g. visual art and theatre and
architecture.
Young people’s / graduate’s forum online
Online group like ideastap but local level to encourage
crossover
Open space for young people(school leavers and graduates) –
with experts and mentors
Need support for a project? Put interning opportunities on the
website
Local promotion
Camps and youth theatre are VERY important – keep it up.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Local knowledge – knowing where to get stuff is so important
- Sustainability – local transport – young people often don’t have
the means to get places.
- Scratch night for young people with older support.
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Convenor’s Name
Cath Wilkins
Participants’ Names
Louise Portlock (Glos Dance)
Frank McDaniels (Choreographer)
Lily Neubauer (Pupil / Aspiring Director)
Grace Daniels (Development Director TPSW – visual arts)
Roger Drury (Freelance Community Practitioner)
Question
Who is going to support Producers?
Key points for the agenda
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Who are the current producers? Where is the training for
producers? CPD and development / Festivals (Womad, Glos
Docks, Harbourside etc.)
Getting art valued and building it back into the community and
education. Schools not introducing it as a career option
Bring it to centre of curriculum – evidence needed to make a
case for it.
How to influence arts organisations to invest in producers
Individual support and mentoring for producers / artists. CG to
offer support for producers mentoring? A Network? Time bank?
Production money
Network for producers to collaborate to get joint funding /
consortium funding
There is a need to communicate: local hubs and wider network
‘One stop shop’ online portal / producer’s forum – local level
Reality of rural community – producer role in the streets / site
specific work – critical mass.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Convenor’s Name
Arthur Cunnyngham.
Participants’ Names
Jo Leahy- Stroud Valley Arts
Louise Partridge- Everyman
Roger Drury- Soundwork Community Project
Hannah Brown: Bacon Theatre
Sue Davies: Dance consultant and coach
Francis Day- Wearable Arts Painswick Festival.
Joanna walker- Arist/Sculptor/Painter
Maggie Tildesley- Roses
Fiona Ross- Performer?theatre maker
Caro Day- Everyman/Performer
Kim Kenny- Theatre Gloucestershire
Gordon Scott-Prema
Seana Kozar- animator/oral story teller
Carmel Congrey- researcher
Sue Brown- Artist
Olly Crick- Theatre Practitioner
Kim Hill-Artist
Question
What are the obstacles to creative folk collaborating
together?
Key points for the agenda
Honest sharing of info- CG weekly newsletter? Selling to
public? TG website-user fed.
Turn threats on their head. i.e Roses wants/needs to
collaborate.
Funded orgs need artists
Large orgs- communicate.
Doing something together- Ciren plinth
Local communication+county wide+wider collaboration.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Work can happen as its good work. Not necessarily all about
long-term paid work to sustain a living.
CG raising arts profile.
CG Whats on Website= good plan. Like Create Dorset.
Opportunities and signposting available here.
Digital facebook page?
More “live” meetings.
Prema, Roses etc
Prema offering support for spaces and sharing practice.
ALIAS- no plan- artist together. Collaborate!
Low cost! Networking. Outcomes and support
Brewery Arts eg in café- comes from people who are there.
All chip in money for an event locally?
Different mechanisms are needed to support different
collaborative practice.
Accessing info- What do audiences want?
All belong to CG!! Web/online forum and down to individuals
and orgs and then disseminating opportunities.
Lots of info- Info overload. Each org has LOTS of info to share.
Forum- get the buy in,
Obstacles to collaboration and information sharing?
Sharing of databases- law?
Creative Camden overcame this by agreeing to do this.
Agenda:
Consortium bidding- versus all applying individually creating
a competitive culture within the arts.
2 years ago- all have to work together. Now how are we
going to do that?
Hills/georgraphy physical boundaries can create obstacles.
Art trail/textile- loose collaboration in Stroud- artists working
together in mutually supportive environment.
Artists good at collaborative ventures in newworld of
tendering need:
a) shared language
b) shared values (though different medium)
c) Intellectual propoerties-fear of ideas being stolen, used
and funded!
Relationships- take years- when in new partnerships how do
we navigate?
Small orgs working with large orgs. Status of work.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Large and small orgs are all part of the bigger picture.
-in crisis now- small orgs ARE vulnerable.
Indiv. Artist working with orgs. Dependant on orgscollaboration is only thing we can do.
Collaboration working costs time.
Capactiy-spread thin-one role is many roles.
Real partnership is where the big doesn’t dominate.
TRUST
TIME
LANGUAGE
RISK TOGETHER
Then sum of parts make bigger.
Can we create this in something new?
CG currently arts orgs. Plan is CG will have associate
members.
Some artists (visual) individual players.
What are benefits. SVA (for eg)
- makers i.e Prema project (process led)
- living (£) product based can be competitive.
Different levels of collaboration
Finding out about duplications re funding bids.
Poss role within CG for person to bridge and communicate
about funding applications.
Collaboration- areas within county having access to different
amounts/events/variety of arts? How can we offer more for
more people.?
Funding throughout the county-how is it shared out?
Identifying gaps? Where are boundaries? Offers vary
according to areas?
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Convenor’s Name
Mark Bick (Gloucestershire Music Makers)
Participants’ Names
Harriet (West?) - Artshape
Adam Payne – Roses Theatre
Question
Who cares about the skint people? Or more fully – What
about those who lack the economic resources or are
dependents whose parents or carers are not supportive?
Key points for the agenda
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We noted that only 3 people had been interested enough to
turn up and discuss this. Did that answer the question?
All three participants had numerous stories about people who
had been supported over the years in engagement in creative
activities despite coming from various kinds of “disadvantaged”
backgrounds. It had made a major positive difference to these
people – enabling them to achieve more in their lives and give
back to others.
Artshape is running activities are £4 per session and has waiting
lists for most of these. Music Makers has found it difficult to
charge more than £2 per session to teenagers in Cinderford, but
has found some particularly vulnerable young people not able
to come at this cost and offered them free places, demand has
exceeded capacity with young people queuing for access at
times.
Financial support for children, young people and adults in these
situations is reducing drastically. Adults needing support are now
being moved to personalised budgets but there have been
recent decisions that leisure activities (including the arts) should
have low priority in how those budgets are allocated. Funding
for creative activities at after school clubs, youth clubs and other
places has been cut more or less to nothing. Music Services are
facing almost total withdrawal of subsidy, targeted support
serviced and locality teams working with children and young
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
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people deemed “at risk” are looking for free provision from arts
organisations most of the time, while funding for the
organisations to do this kind of work has been reduced. There
was agreement that these changes are short sighted and the
true value to society of equality of access to the arts was being
ignored.
In hard economic terms the arts earn out country significant
export income. Many of our established artists, musicians etc
have come from very disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Government seems to be looking for provision by volunteers,
seemingly at zero cost. Our 3 organisations made extensive use
of volunteers:
Artshape – recruit volunteers through the voluntary agencies, by
referral from Occupational Therapists etc of people recovering
from health difficulties, and from past participants. Many
students, some have significant support needs – most get a huge
amount out of their volunteering, the most competent tend to
move on more quickly.
Roses – have older mostly female volunteers doing front of house
work, and some older participants in youth groups go on to be
volunteers.
Music Makers – (Cinderford site) have older young people
volunteering (17-23 age group), mostly previous participants BUT
they can move on quite suddenly – 3 core volunteers recently
decided to take up HE courses at the last minute. CCP studio in
Cheltenham are struggling to find enough opportunities for all
their young music volunteers. Wired gigs at Gloucester Guildhall
had loads of young volunteers but have stopped now as the
leader could secure enough earned income to cover the time
he put in and this was not sustainable for him (he did it for at
least 8 years!)
All of us agreed that volunteers make a significant contribution
to keeping costs down and enhancing the quality of what we
offer and that the volunteers benefit as well BUT we cannot do it
without significant paid staff input. The costs of providing
sufficient support are substantial. We are struggling to find this
money and had expected from the Government’s rhetoric that
might be forthcoming.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Local Authorities do have some funds to support the more
disadvantaged. They are developing policies of only funding
“evidence based practice”. The Arts in Health sector has been
building substantial evidence, as are Youth Music, but often in
very lengthy documents. It would be helpful is organisations
could collaborate to get together the kind of concise versions at
the evidence that the budget holding lead professionals are
beginning to ask for. (Nationally and across regions as well as
locally). It needs to be of very good quality. We to use this and
other actions to get across the value of what we do in the right
language for those who control budgets. BUT there is a need for
caution as there is not much evidence that local authorities
really follow “evidence based practice”.
We concluded that equality of access MATTERS and inequality of
access has a long term detrimental effect on our society and
nation. Things have taken a turn for the worse and we need to
fight against this, but fight smart and find smart ways to do at
least some bits of work in the mean time. Recession always
throws up opportunities as well as difficulties. Creativity is innate
to human nature and there will be sparks whatever the barriers.
We need to find and nurture the sparks and fight for the
resources we need, from whatever source.
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Convenor’s Name
Alicia Carey
Participants’ Names
Jo: Cheltenham Borough council
Alicia Carey: Hawkwood
Adam Payne: Take Part Tewkesbury
Tessa Webb: Associate Lecturer
Mark Bick: Glos Music Makers
Harriet: Artshape
Jo Beal: Youth Music
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Mathew?
Question
What are the educational pathways for artists in Glos?
Key points for the agenda
What happens now?
What support is needed?
Engaging 16-25 years
Touch paper moment for youngsters then
Peer-engagement
 Organisations\opening door for young
artists-supporting and coachingConveners name
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Convenor’s Name
Ed O’Driscoll
Participants’ Names
Marianne Orr (Fairgame)
Richard Holmes (Barnwood)
Paul Graham (Arts Alive)
Phil Gibby (ACE)
Phillippa Claridge (Cheltenham Festival)
Pat Roberts (Visual arts + media)
Frank McDaniels (Gloucesteshire Dance)
Rose Cottrele ?
Louise Portlock (Glos Dance)
Tom Keating (Walking the Land)
Grace Davis (Turning Point SW)
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
Question
New models of funding that allows Arts organisation to
become sustainable
Key points for the agenda
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Crowd sourcing/digital innovation
ACE sustainability action plans
Philanthropy
Arts and the social agenda//SROI bonds
Commercial viability
Innovation/asset sharing
Extending the market place
New Philanthropy capital/pro bono economics
Mapping of commercial sponsorship
Training for board members/how to ask for money
Convenor’s Name
Emma Jane Benning
Participants’ Names
Question
Associate schemes and artists support.
Key points for the agenda
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS
New Brewery Arts:
Makers studios
Gallery space
Flexible auditorium-wooden sprung. Small programme.
Bacon Theatre- school site. 566
Good rehearesl- wooden floor but lacks technical
Central point of communication- Town Hall
Glos Music Makers Forum.
Create Glos needs to serve need for web listings and an online mag?
CCP music- young musicians
Need netowkring with other artists
Where/how to meet?
Hard to find support in Gloucs. Lots outside.
No HUB to meet.
Need venues to play/rehearse/platforms.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.creategloucestershire.co.uk
Twitter: @createglos
Address: Prema,
South Street, Uley, Gloucestershire
GL11 5SS