Venue: Committee Room , National Assembly Building
Title Arts & Culture Policy Review: Diversions Paper
1. Other than providing additional funding, what do you feel the assembly can/should offer the arts in Wales and how could the assembly develop its definitive arts and cultural policy?
Without additional funding, there cannot be a successful arts strategy for Wales. The arts need to be offered sufficient resources so that change and innovation can take place.
The Assembly needs to give strong public signals that it values the arts as a national resource. The arts cross all areas of national interest, such as employment, tourism, education, culture and regeneration, so it should be given greater importance in government.
The Assembly should ensure that the individuals appointed to manage the arts have a mandate for innovation and change. The arts funding system must also be free from short-term political interference.
The Assembly must reduce bureaucracy in the arts. Bureaucracy consumes resources, limits the freedom to energise work and demoralises creative people. Funding bodies should only be required to agree a simple 'success strategy' with each client.
The Assembly could consider certain arts clients as coalitions and deal with them with a different strategy. One group could be the Wales National Performing Arts Companies (WNPAC's) who need security of contract and long term development strategies. Another group could be the resident companies of the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC). These nine companies work closely together and need to plan many years ahead.
The Assembly should invite a balanced group of distinguished, established artists and arts managers from a variety of art forms to be involved in the development of a cultural policy at the highest level of policy making.
2. What should be the principle objectives of an arts and cultural policy for Wales
Create a culturally healthy and imaginative society.
Broaden people through the world of ideas.
Stimulate creativity in all age groups and sectors of society.
Build a future with self esteem and individuality.
Provide adequate resources for success to be achieved.
Agree how to define 'success' in the arts in collaboration with the Assembly, ACW and their clients.
The attainment of artistic excellence. Excellent art is the best way to be accessible and is life-enhancing. The general public deserves the best of all the arts.
Create a balanced and national arts provision including:
a) international quality Wales National Performing Arts Companies in Dance, Music, Drama and Opera
Characteristics:
International-level of excellence and access; all Wales responsibilities; need for long term planning (3-5 years)
b) a healthy middle ground of professional artists and companies to serve local needs and the demands of the art forms
Characteristics:
Fresh and lively, innovative creative work to a national standard, local Wales responsibility, need for medium term planning (1-2 years)
c) funding for individual artists to create new work and develop careers
Characteristics:
Experimental, fresh and lively, innovative creative work, self responsibility, need for short term planning (6 months - 1 year)
d) more financial support for the established theatre network in Wales to programme high quality arts companies
Characteristics:
Consistent quality of excellence of presentation and access to the public, good local contacts and network, local responsibility, need for strategic planning in co-ordination with other companies, need for medium term planning (1-2 years)
e) a community arts programme that works at grass roots level
Characteristics:
Access for all to good creative experiences, good local contacts and network, local responsibility, need for strategic planning in co-ordination with other companies, need for medium term planning (6 months-2 years)
Minimise bureaucracy in arts procedures. Too much paperwork, proformas and performance indicators kills passion and creativity.
3. Should the priority of such a policy be based upon the arts in Wales or on Welsh Arts? What should be the balance between the two?
There should be no competition between heritage art and contemporary art. They are both critical for the future. The one builds upon the other.
Welsh heritage art is substantial and needs to be highly valued for its history and binding together of the nation. This is already well funded through the Museums and other such organisations in Wales. However, the old Wales as a Wales of castles and songs is a cliché that needs to be overhauled if Wales is to move forward as a dynamic culture.
The Assembly should back the future, not the past. We should move forward together in a Wales that is internationalist. The Assembly should help the contemporary arts in Wales to be a creative force that seeks to define and shape a new cultural agenda for the nation.
This new art needs to be quality-based. It needs to have creative passion behind it.
For Diversions, we already work in partnership with many established and new cultural organisations in Wales to bring a fresh new vitality to our work. We commission Welsh and international designers, composers and artists to work in Wales to create art that is ‘Welsh’ because it’s made here. We hire Welsh and international dancers to perform that work. We send young Welsh dance students out across the world to study and work, before coming home with skill and experience.
4. Given a clean sheet, how would you suggest the Assembly structures its funding and management/development of the arts in Wales?
Keep it simple. Involve successful arts practitioners in strategy development, but keep the arts committee system simple so that the arts officers can get on with managing the arts, not their committees.
Hire the best arts managers and give them adequate resources and independence to manage change free from political interference.
Get decision-making speed into the system. The present funding system is far too slow for good business to be developed. Decisions need to be made faster. Too many resources are wasted in the process. Give more budgetary authority lower down in the chain.
Avoid over-analysis. Offer realistic strategies to re-inject energy and innovation back in to the arts in Wales.
‘Direct funding’ for the WNPAC’s or the WMC residents might make for an easier system to manage. Also, smaller funded clients and artists find it difficult to compete against big clients.
5. In your experience, how open and accessible do you feel the Arts Council of Wales is and have they been prepared to listen to your views and take on board your ideas? Using the drama strategy as an example, do you feel the consultation exercise was well managed or were there things that have could have been done differently?
Diversions has a good relationship with ACW. There was a previous Dance Strategy paper which was arrived at by good consultation, but it was never implemented. The present ACW have moved towards partial implementation.
ACW does listen to our views and generally has made attempts to take on board some of our ideas. For instance, ACW now operates to our normal business cycle (2-3 years ahead - soon to be up to 25 years with a WMC lease).
For some time, ACW has tried to push through change without extra resources, so it was always going to be difficult. The consultation process was perhaps too lengthy and complex.
When the ACW review was undertaken, dance funding had been at standstill for many years. ACW listened to dance clients and a little more money was secured for dance as a proportion of arts funding.
ACW has devised complex strategies for all art forms and possibilities. Artists now feel out of control of the artistic agenda. However, artists and arts companies cannot be allowed the last word on funding strategies and allocations, or the loudest and biggest will swallow all. It is critical that there is a strong ACW.
ACW might have been bolder two years ago and announced that due to a shortage of money, they were going to rationalise their arts portfolio. Theatre and dance companies have to do it all the time.
Diversions can make no comment on the drama strategy as we were not involved in the consultation or implementation. However, as one of the aims was to redress a historic position of extremely poor dance funding, we were in full support of that part of the campaign. We made our own art-form and Company representation and accepted ACW's decision when it was made.
6. Do you feel the Council's structure and organisation is appropriate to enable it to develop national arts strategies and to manage the distribution of Assembly funding?
The Arts Council is a system that protects the arts from political interference. However ACW needs art-form divisions and specialists that have authority. ACW also needs freedom to negotiate unique arrangements that are relevant for each Company, theatre and artist.
The present ACW management structure is not helpful as it encourages direct approaches to the Chief Executive rather than at Officer level due to a reduction in authority at the lower levels.
Diversions is a touring company, but we have little contact with ACW's touring department.
Also, there should be more joint strategy between ACW and the two Lottery divisions so as to allow a 'big picture' mentality to emerge.
ACW appears excessively bureaucratic. This is passed on to clients and therefore a climate of mistrust builds up.
ACW has been short-funded for many years and has found it hard to make good progress for their clients.
7. In your view, how well have the arts been supported across the whole of Wales, particularly in promoting the medium of the Welsh language?
Diversions is an all-Wales, national touring company, so we provide a service across the whole of Wales. We perform and give schools' workshops in every part of Wales.
We produce bilingual promotional material to support the Company's work.
8. Do you agree with the principle of 'funding fewer better' i.e. concentrating resources on lesser number of organisations with a view to significantly improve the quality of productions.
We agree with this principle of funding fewer better. It is the only way to generate good outcomes for the pubic, arts companies and artists. It makes good business sense too.
Precious resources need to be targeted towards the most talented artists and companies. This develops better art throughout the industry.
As an organisation, we regularly restructure and rationalise our work portfolio to cut out weaker aspects so that we can maintain or increase the quality of our productions and reach more people. We naturally support any other strategy that does the same.
9. Which body/ies should play a key role in the management and distribution of European funding of the arts?
Wales Arts International, in tandem with an overall strategy that is co-ordinated between ACW, WDA, Wales Tourist board, Lottery, etc.
10. What more can Wales Arts International, or others, do in promoting Wales' creative industries abroad?
Assist in enabling companies such as Diversions to develop its own international perspective with strategic funding to tour abroad and commission international artists to make work in Wales. They also need budgets that can be offered well in advance of present time scales.
11. How do you feel the arts can contribute to tackling social exclusion in Wales and what barriers presently exist which hinder progress?
A healthy provision of arts and arts facilities in our communities contributes to social stability and cohesion. When the arts are quality-driven, it offers memorable and life enhancing experiences to all. Education and the arts are about raising the human spirit, and inspiring a creative and vibrant multidimensional society.
The arts are proud of its record. Artists invariably care passionately about inclusion and non-discrimination. As an example, Diversions offers an innovative 'artists in schools' programme where children can meet and work with the Company's professional dancers. The dancers teach over 100 workshops per year to schools across the whole geographic and social spectrum. All children are treated as equal and are offered a challenging arts experience with high expectations for their individual success. This builds self esteem - a key factor in tackling social exclusion.
Cultural work can take place anywhere, providing an entry point to the work environment through voluntary work and work experience, creating jobs and job opportunities. It links individuals to work opportunities elsewhere. It is also an entrepreneurial activity at the grass roots level - just what Wales needs. New businesses, led by the inspiration of the arts.
12. What support should the Assembly be providing to sustain or increase the viability and income of the creative industries in Wales?
Increase resources available to the funders and the arts.
Recognise the disparity in funding levels between Wales and England.
e.g. Equivalent companies are on the following funding levels in Wales:
Diversions The Dance Company of Wales £365,000 pa
In England: Adzido £680,000 pa
Rambert Dance £1,240,000 pa
Contemporary Dance Trust (Richard Alston) £785,000 pa
Ensure that funds for the arts are spent on art, not administration.
Co-ordinate Lottery and ACW core revenue funding. Direct lottery funds to the arts to assist with long-term viability.
New buildings must have the staff, budgets and visiting product that allows for success with the public.
The terms of reference for the Subject Committee's review of arts and cultural policy suggests a number of themes, which will be considered specifically. In terms of government funding and support of the arts, rank the themes in order of priority, where "1" is the highest priority and "6" is the lowest priority.
Diversions does not believe that there is a low priority theme below. All the following are on a critical agenda list, but have been categorised in the order in which one might naturally follow another.
The development of excellence 1
Reinforcing the national identity and international status of Wales 2
Supporting education and promoting artistic talent throughout Wales 3
The importance of the creative industries to employment in Wales 4
Improving the quality of life for individuals and communities 5
Promoting social cohesion and active citizenship through widening community access to the arts in Wales 6
How relevant do you feel the terms of reference are to assessing the arts in Wales?
These are all important terms of reference, but some of them are outcomes of doing other things first. Creating work of excellence must come first. From excellence, good policy and practice can flow. With excellence, we attract a bigger general public, which increases jobs, which increases quality of life, which promotes social cohesion, etc. This all helps to reinforce national identity and international status.
Government funding for the arts must seek to sponsor excellence in artists, product and presentation in all their manifestations. This will raise support for the arts as a vital part of life.
Education has a fundamental part to play in this process. Children deserve access to the best arts' teaching and product, so that it becomes a lifetime's exploration of reactive and proactive creativity. It must become the norm for people to experience high quality in the arts.
How do the arts and, in particular your work, contribute to the above themes?
Our mission statement is as follows:
Diversions will be artistically successful and popular as The National Dance Company of Wales by:
Maintaining a unique dance identity, serving the dance needs of Wales, building a strong and sustainable financial base, planning responsibly for the Company's future and ensuring the continual personal development of all Company members
Related to the Assembly’s chosen themes: (in our chosen order)
1. The development of excellence
We are one of the Wales Millennium Centre's future residents, with a WNPAC status that expects us to create work of international significance.
When we have the resources, Diversions creates work of international quality from the world's leading choreographers. In addition, we hire the best Welsh and international dancers to perform that repertoire. Our productions are rigorously produced and rehearsed with great attention to detail and production qualities. However, sufficient resources are rarely available to enable us to compete with the quality achieved by similar English and European dance companies.
2. Reinforcing the national identity and international status of Wales
We tour to every part of Wales, the UK and abroad, bringing the world to Wales and taking Wales to the world. As a British Council supported Company, we have performed in Russia, Latvia, Germany, Ecuador, Indonesia, Spain, France, Holland, Eire and the Canary Islands. We reinforce the view that the arts in Wales has an international perspective and that we are not provincial in outlook or quality. We set the standards in Wales for others to follow.
3. Supporting education and promoting artistic talent throughout Wales
Diversions is an Investors in People recognised Company. For instance, our dancers are offered a five week research and development period each year to create their own new dance productions. We are planning fifteen weeks of guest teaching next year offering free sessions to all Welsh professional dancers and dance college students.
Fifty percent of our work on-the-road is in the education sector teaching workshops.
We run 12 work-placement schemes for young Welsh students each year.
We run an annual summer school for young dancers.
We offer regular sessions for disabled people.
We mentor young graduate Welsh dancers to help in the transition to professional work.
4. Improving the quality of life for individuals and communities
Diversions’ innovative method of residency touring means that we give equal weight to community/schools teaching and performing in theatres. Over 5000, mostly 9 - 16 year olds are taught by the Company dancers each year.
Diversions co-produces work in association with many other organisations and community groups. For over seventeen years, we have collaborated widely and effectively with all the Community Dance groups across Wales, the National Museum & Galleries of Wales, the Urdd Gobaith Cymru, disabled groups and others. Our summer schools have trained hundreds of young dancers across Wales. Our lecture/demonstrations in theatres and schools have educated and entertained thousands of youngsters for many years.
5. Promoting social cohesion and active citizenship through widening Community access to the arts in Wales
Same policies as for section 4. above
6. The importance of the creative industries to employment in Wales
Diversions supports fourteen full-time jobs and two part time jobs. There are many dance teachers earning a living in Wales both in the private and public sector. Schools engage dance specialists to teach children to fulfil national curriculum requirements. Dancers and choreographers are entrepreneurial people. They create employment out of nothing in areas that seem most unlikely.
What changes need to be introduced to encourage the further development of these themes?
For Diversions to maintain and develop its method of touring, we need an increase in the resources allocated to us to match English, European and National levels. Our work must not be taken for granted. Work such as Diversions' helps make Wales a nation that is imaginative and culturally healthy. The arts are fundamental to that equation.
The Assembly needs to support excellence in all the funded sector.
For instance, as an emerging National Dance Company, Diversions' present funding level is not sufficient to meet basic running costs by the end of April 2001, let alone allow developments. In 2002, Diversions will be housed in the magnificent Wales Millennium Centre and will need core funding if it is to succeed in that environment as a prestigious international arts company for Wales.
From 2002, Diversions will need access to the following staffing, production, technical, marketing and administration resources if it is to fulfil its brief as a WNPAC.
Headline details include the following needs from 2002:
extra WMC lease costs to be met (extra £70,000 pa)
growth from 8 to 12 dancers (extra cost of £80,000 pa)
enhanced artistic, education, and training resources for WMC developments (extra £30,000 pa)
enhanced production budgets for 2 international commissions per year (£20,000 pa)
enhanced marketing resources to sell the work to the general public (£20,000 pa)
This amounts to £220,000 extra on top of present £365,000 pa ACW grant.
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