Introduction.

Welcome to the website for the Eastern Leadership Centre (ELC) Arts Projects. These innovative projects are funded through the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), and managed by the ELC. They include visual arts, drama, digital media and poetry, and cover the entire UK, in schools and cultural centres. The 14 projects are using this unique space to share outcomes from their work as they become public, and offer a glimpse at the cutting edge of arts practice. The ELC is working with the group to inform educational and cultural leadership.

Eastern Leadership Centre is a company established to promote the quality of educational leadership in the Eastern Region by forging partnerships with headteachers, staff, and governors of schools, local education authorities, diocesan education authorities, higher education institutions and business partners. They work to deliver programmes of excellence across the Eastern Region.

To visit the Eastern Leadership Centre website from any page, please click the ELC logo.

Conference Planning - Update March 2008

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Sheffield DocFest 2008

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Between the 5-9th of November, the next Sheffield Doc/Fest takes place. This is a truly inspirational event, where the next documentary film making generation gather each year to discuss opportunities, screen the latest documentaries and build networks and connections with broadcasters and content network owners. There is the Digidocs element too- where masterclasses and panels address digital documentary making and distribution. There is the Crossover element- which looks at what 360 commissioning and new media opportunities complement and work with traditional scripted and produced documentaries.

There is a great deal to interest and stimulate those of you interested in getting into this exciting and growing area of film making and so I urge you to have a look: Doc Fest website

Creative Partnerships looks for, er, Partners…

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The Government announced today (13 February 2008) that each child should be offered at least 5 hours of high quality culture per week, in and out of school. They are seeking expressions of interest from partnerships wishing to explore how this could be achieved. The deadline for submitting an expression of interest is April 7 2008.

As a minimum young people should have access to a range of the following opportunities:

attending top quality theatre, orchestral and dance performances
visiting and engaging with national and local exhibitions, galleries, and museums
visiting heritage sites, significant contemporary buildings and public spaces
opportunities to engage creatively with library and archive services
learning a musical instrument
playing music or singing in ensembles
taking part in theatre and dance performances
producing a piece of creative writing, taking part in a reading group, or listening to authors talk about their work
learning about and making films, digital or new media art and
making a piece of visual arts or crafts

Background

Culture enriches lives; and all children and young people should have the opportunity to engage with high quality cultural experiences no matter where they live or what their background.

This programme will give them the opportunity to learn in and about culture, developing as critical spectators, participants and creators of the cultural world around them. They will learn through culture using engagement with the arts and other activities to boost attainment, other skills and personal development. It will be an opportunity for all, but there will be a particular focus on those who would otherwise miss out.

Where young people show particular talents, the programme will ensure that they have the opportunities to develop and to progress into careers in the cultural and creative sectors. There will also be scope for communities and young people themselves to be involved in further designing the offer depending on local needs.

Young people will be offered:

a depth and quality of cultural engagement not just access or one off activities
a vibrant local offer with access for everyone, and the opportunity to develop talent and excellence and help particularly talented young people to have a career in the sector
the opportunity to encompass experiences from birth to their transition to adulthood at 19
the opportunity to be part of a multi-layered offering which includes culture on the curriculum and/or positive activities provided by local authorities and other providers in informal settings

Please use this link for more information

Over The Counter Phentermine

The Art Room - forthcoming symposium, October 2008

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Here are some details on a forthcoming event at the Art Room, Oxford, please pass on details to anyone who you feel might be interested:

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

A symposium to debate working with challenging

and vulnerable children

Hosted by The Art Room, Oxford, for professionals

working in this field

On Tuesday 21st October 2008

From 1.00 to 4.00 p.m. (registration 12.30 p.m.)

Tea will be available during the afternoon

At St Hugh’s College, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford, OX2 6LE

Speakers will include:

Camila Batmanghelidjh Founder of Kids Company, London

Juli Beattie Director and founder of The Art Room, Oxford

Steve Lunt Headteacher of Oxford Community School

Sue Mortimer Headteacher of Rose Hill Primary School

John Turberville Director, The Mulberry Bush School

Richard Wentworth Ruskin Master of Drawing, University of Oxford

Art Room students

Chaired by Simon Richey – Assistant Director, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

The Art Room, a charity based at Oxford Community School and Rose Hill Primary School, offers ‘art as therapy’ to children and young people aged between six and fifteen who are having serious difficulties managing mainstream school and may be at risk of exclusion. The project uses art to raise their self esteem, confidence and independence.

This seminar will be led by leading practitioners from voluntary organisations using art and related strategies to help challenging and vulnerable children. They will be joined by local headteachers and artists to talk about their work, about recent research and to answer questions.

Tickets @ £60.00 Please apply on the attached form by 15^th September

For further information see The Art Room website www.theartroom.org.uk or email the administrator at enquiries@theartroom.org.uk

Epivir-HBV

Approaching Christmas- reflections on 2007

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I am just going to take a few moments to reflect on 2007, and what have been the challenges and opportunities this year.

Within the project cluster, there have been a series of excellent gatherings over the autumn period, including the Art Room Symposium held at NESTA, and the Leonardo Effect Conference at St Mary University in Belfast. Both events were dynamic, positive and sure in their belief that the ideas they have refined and developed, their approaches to the intergration of art into the mainstream and it’s emotional value (Art Room) and ability to illuminate science (Leonardo) will find a wider audience. They both attracted key policy and decision makers, those responsible for engaging more disenfranchised young people and those concerned with developing a more creative curriculum.

Cheered by this, it would seem appropriate too to celebrate the better than expected settlement for the Arts Council in England, the Legacy Trust for the Cultural Olympiad and also a newly independent Creative Partnerships. But there are still some odd decisions being made, such as the news from Arts Professional on hundreds of arts organisations having their arts funding cut by ACE- without sufficient notice or explanation. The boom and bust model in the arts works against embedding good ideas, as does the dominance of capital projects in regenerating communities where culture is at the vanguard- and revenue based, ongoing funding seems still to be highly elusive. It is with great cheer that I salute the work of both the Art Room and Leonardo in thinking very carefully about commercialisation, income generation and grant dependency and ensuring a balance in their weighting. It is still very necessary.

In looking forward to 2008, ELC are now working behind the scenes to create a public conference, with the theme of ‘Champions of Change’. We are looking to hold this in Cambridge, make it as affordable and exciting as possible and engage with wide debates about the arts and cultural lives of regions around the UK, to show how our champions worked to innovate, how they will go forwards, and how young people particularly need to be more involved in driving the transformation of our town, cities and villages. Watch this space!

What a Brilliant Creative Exchange- here are some notes!

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Thanks to all for attending the Creative Exchange event on Wednesday 10th October at NESTA, to the projects, Mark Stevenson from Flow Associates, to the representative from Teachers TV. We at ELC Arts thoroughly enjoyed the day, and have some exciting plans now for a public conference next year. For the projects that weren’t able to make it, please find a series of notes (still in note form!) from the day. Sorry that the quality varies quite a bit! Thanks again for coming and please do add comments by clicking on the comments button.

Wendy – Reactive Colours

Wendy set out the genesis and development opportunities for Reactive Colours and what has come about as a range of activities from development of the web gallery, the full standalone version, and the Creativity Box. She also set out how the commercial opportunities have been negotiated so that the partnerships can develop, such as with TAG Learning. She outlined the ESRC research project and also the ReacTickles Global project which is being developed with the National Film Board of Canada.

Ivor – Leonardo Effect

Challenge to get trademark- the project is working with the university to continue to evaluateb how best to roll the project out. Running the activity for training, partnership. Trying to affect the Curriculum Authorities – in UK and in Scotland, Wales too

Susan Potter - Vital Communities Spotlight Project

7 local authorities of Peterborough and Cambs. Unique, quantitative, qualitative, participatory, longitudinal and with community focus.

9 locations where projects are taking place, there is indepth film analysis- there are 10 communities, 108 artists, 15 schools, 89 community groups- 37,067 interventions

Diversity was high given that the area indices for diversity are poor, time money are access are barriers to what the projects want to do.

Community cohesion is strong

There is a need for further funding at ACE East has made some drastic cuts.

D4LC- Patrice

A subject association as National Drama- trying to find a way to get imaginative ways of developing education, with drama at the core. 60 schools applied for small amounts of funding to get the expertise into the schools. Drama co-ordinators have been declining- and so the team set about making links with HE, and to try and ensure that they evaluate and research way.

2 teachers minimum- 1 does not have impact. 100% of schools have put into school improvement plans. There are free places on drama courses- after having subsidised access.

D4LC have involvement of Mick Walters- who wanted the SST, DFES, CP etc to have awareness of what they are doing. Presenting in Poland, HK, Jamaica, Iceland is doing it- The museums service want to use the learning from the project and this is part of Year 2. Primary Learning Network has stepped. Baeline showed fear from teachers about the way drama is taught in secondary schools.

Rick Rogers – Poetry Archive Evaluation

Evaluation- how does one piece of evaluation allow there to be further evaluation over time.

What to evaluate to show IMPACT over time-the challenge is to find an identifiable group- they are lots of individuals using the web archive and listening to poets. To meet and interview users is therefore pretty hard! The archive has some key issues- timing- when is the best time to carry out the process. When to best spot the key elements from a project. What are the ways of looking to the long term in evaluation. How do you handle issues of confidentiality, between evaluators and those being evaluated, within organisation itself.

What is the value of it and what do you do with it.

We understand the much evaluation is self-fulfilling- you must be challenging and HOLD HANDS. Maybe you could do some pre-assessment to see their readiness.

Sally and Joanne – Discover Centre and Listening to Learn

An appetite for being listened to! Decisions that affect their life, how professional adults interact with the pupils who live in the areas. The project is about creating spaces for children. The UNICEF concept of the ‘child friendly city’. The early reception was muted, Years 4 and 5, what are the areas of regeneration that are most feasible for children to influence and how? What are the most effective media processes to communicate their perspectives, the ways to feedback.

Toolkit in the pipeline for regeneration toolkit. Not to have low expectations of kids. Language issues! Making sure people speak the same language. Complex task- to gather evidence. Impact and change, opportunistically, data that they never thought would be there.

So planned (strategically) interviewing agencies transforming Newham.

What, right now, do you think about childrens’ abilities? What would the consultation process be like?

Post-contact interviews will take place.

Britta - Schooltoons

Animation as creativity in the classroom- and trying to get away from animators coming into schools and the teachers working out! What is the language to help teachers decode the mechanics of animation, to pick up on an interest in say, music videos. The case study approach on the website, shows how you could work around a controversial topic, such as through politics, such as arms race, green issues. Using animation from sources that are free on the web but to which access is sometimes blocked- like esnips and YouTube. The research element has informed the A4 240pp resource, KS3 and 4. The resource pack is for teachers. It includes the interesting history of animation, such as optical toys- to fit a whole term or as discrete lessons. It also supports using digital technologies, technical advice. First pack ready in December. Teachers are testing the pack. What is missing- to have training if needed, after taster days. Publisher discussions underway.

Jeff Adams- Teaching Learning Communicating through Contemporary Art Practice

Jeff set out the project aims – to close the chasm between traditional skills-based (printmaking, fine art) teaching of contemporary art and the modern experiential art world. The project exposed some of the mild terror on the part of the teachers who were unsure about how the pupils would receive the challenges.

Lara - The Art Room- Project Transformation

Children referred by teachers, or they self-refer from word of mouth, they also come from foster homes, from looked after children. A therapeutic space- not art therapy. Art as a sofa! Builds confidence, have breakfast and some snacks, the format is to use a lot of recycled materials. All of the material they create is able to be taken home, furniture and lampshades. A large space which is divided into a ‘home’, sitting room, kitchen, store. The area contains all the places that a children might need such as a place to go and be quiet. The transferability was to see if they could transfer from Oxford into Nottingham, a gentle space. Positive interventions and affirmations publications- a classic bad behaviour, and not to highlight the bad bits, the reasons they are there, but their positions within a positive, uplifting.

Lister Community School- Digital Media Arts

The way that the curriculum is very compartmentalised- there needs to be an opening. The way that the base camp and staff off timetable is funded- this enables more than one skills area teacher to be there in the classroom. The timetable is very tight. They involved external evaluator and also a technician. Is My Space Your Space- creating a documentary. Other teaching styles. They want to level out the drop off from primary to secondary.

Claire - Room 13

Room 13 have built a relationship with major advertising agency after their core public funding ended. They find that this culture gives their business what is needed, in terms of speed of turnaround. Pupils are demanding. They ran a 2007 summer school which enabled them to test how they could offer tertiary services
They ran a series of exhibitions across Scotland including the Room 13 Open Day
They want to offer suite of short courses for schools to adopt on a commercial basis
They want to run an International Summer School in 2008
The Symposium at the start of 2007 was excellent and really showed the innovative approaches against European benchmarks.
The project has experienced a period of wider uncertainty in terms of governance but continues to support innovative approaches to early years drama with partners such as Edinburgh Council, the Scottish Arts Council and Imaginate.
Amanda - Talking to the Animals
Family consultation has led to new interpretation for cow creamers and frog mugs giving vastly improved accessibility- and this will be completed by 15^th October.
Sound and light as well as museum content used to stimulate conversation between the adults and babies/toddlers
Provision of new interactives, art work, dressing up clothes, sounds, smells and musical instruments
Sydney – Webplay and Page to Stage

Webplay is a project that has pioneered in online collaboration – in their case between schools and drama companies. Page to Stage platform has been through a few iterations and now has it’s design challenges revealed. But as a trailblazer/pathfinder/champion it excels!

— Next Page »

Side Blog

Btween Interactive Media Forum: useful knowledge for ELC Arts projects

I have been meaning to do a blog post about my one day attendance at the Btween Interactive Media forum on the 15th June. Organised by Just B and the inimitable Katz Kiely, it once again proved that if you can get the structural formula right in the way these events are organised, then anything really is possible. People came from far and wide to enjoy the debate, quickfire presentation slots, and new for this year, the 'meet and greet', up close and personal discussions as panel speakers came off stage. This worked particularly well, as questions from the floor could still set up debate, but moving to enclosed clusters ensured you had a personal answer from your speaker. I suppose the downside is that this was all off camera and the benefit of advice only useful for the small group with each speaker.
Topics were wide ranging: moving from how to close deals, turning interest into finance for your fledgling business into cold, hard cash, and increasing brand loyalty to your products and services. Written in this way, it might initially be hard to imagine that all of them might hold interest for small arts organisations, but in actual fact, they all have real advice to offer.
Morgan Holt gave several presentations as part of panels at the event. Morgan was until recently the Director of Television, Music and Internet at 3, the mobile phone network operator. He is a specialist in digital media aggregation. His contention was that in the distribution of new creative content, whatever the platform, you should use the specialist channels afforded to your creative form, but know the business of the distributors as well as your own. He advises looking carefully at their working practices and spotting where there is match up with your own. You get a better sense of what needs doing and where you would be best to seek advice in getting your work to market. People cannot be expected to sell, whether this is an e-learning product, consultancy service or new training package, unless they have had training.
In many converged and cross platform contexts in modern times, it is critically important to rise above what was described as the 'grey goo' of convergence, where creators are sometimes sacrificing quality for the pursuit of 360 degrees of influence. You achieve this by keeping quality uppermost, of course, but in the way you understand the channels of distribution is also vitally important.
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