Elemental

Introduction given by Jayne Quantrill at ‘elemental’ East Midlands.

The first Arts Council Theatre Policy (2000) identified a number of priority areas including for the first time a commitment to the development of street arts and outdoor performance.

In 2001 Arts Council appointed an external researcher Helen Jermyn to undertake a piece of research aimed at generating statistics about Street Art and Circus sectors – this provided us with the document - Street Arts and Circus; a snapshot

This research was followed by 2 Strategy Reports one for Circus and one for Street Arts (2002) written by Felicity Hall

These reports, commissioned by Arts Council England, outlined the growth of a sector, in particular leading out of the Millennium Dome development, but identified a fragile sector. The report recommended that Arts Council England prioritise action on a number of areas in order to support this growth. This action focused on Artistic Development, Infrastructure, Advocacy and profile and Distribution and audience development.

Arts Council England followed these reports with the publication of its Street Arts Health check in 2006, which gave an update on the state of street arts in England.

Author David Micklem suggested that Grants for the Arts had a positive impact on the sector. He reports on 14 regularly funded organisations whose main area of work is within outdoor performance, alongside a rise in artistic quality within the sector.

However, many of the issues raised by Hall in her initial 2002 report remained.

In 2008 Arts Council England published “New Landscapes – outdoor arts development plan. Which was launched at X-Trax in Manchester last year.

This report was informed by consultation with artists, organisations, producers, promoters, ACE staff, local authorities and stakeholders.

It recognises the ongoing investment being made by local government and the potential of outdoor performance to meet the agendas of other broader stakeholders including Higher Education and organisations such as National Heritage.

It sets out a framework for collaboration with partners and the investment in the development and production of outdoor performances with the intention of maximising the number and range of people who have high quality experiences of the arts.

The report also contains a definition of “outdoor arts work”

And you can download it from Art Council England’s Website here.

Which brings us to today and Arts Council England’s on going commitment to working with & developing both the Circus & Street Arts sector…

To download your copy of this document please click here.

Since the publication of the ‘New Landscapes’ report by ACE in 2008, the South East Office has been leading an number of programmes that have been providing development and support to meet current demands and aspirations for Outdoor Arts from artists, producers and commissioners.

Outdoor Arts engages people in their everyday environments. It seeks out its audience; makes people feel differently about where they live and the communities they live in, it fosters community dialogue and promotes ideas of public ownership and as such reaches across socio-economic or education backgrounds.

Outdoor Arts has formed a key area of the south east region’s Arts Council Plan. £80,000 was committed to the programme in the first year with additional support from the region’s Combined Arts team and further funds set aside in 2009 and 2010. By 2011 we will have invested £270,000 into developing Outdoor Arts.

Nearly 60 independently led Outdoor Arts events and projects were awarded almost £1.5m in 2009, 24% of the total Grants for the Arts budget. A similar amount awarded in 2008.

Awards included investment into programmes of work, new commissions, participatory initiatives, the development of facilities, organisational development and research.

The initiatives have been championing under-represented areas and has included support of diverse artists and development of mela and carnival networks and is working in partnership with leading national advocates such as ISAN (Independent Street Arts Network) and NASA (National Association of Street Artists).

The picture within the south east region is strong. Current work includes major festivals (Hat Fair, Brighton Festival) and companies of international repute such as World Famous and Periplum. There have also been good partnerships with local authorities and these have resulted in major commissions with artists (‘Light up Dover’, Kent County Council and ‘Celebrate! West Sussex’, West Sussex Arts Partnership). Also the vision of experienced creative producers like Dave Reeves and Simon Chatterton and new and emerging ones like Jaswinder Singh, Karen Pooley and Ian Ross.

In Visual Arts and Public Realm Work Artpoint are expanding into the growth areas in East Kent while Folkestone Triennale and Whitstable Biennale are developing rapidly. In addition Strange Cargo have won a number of prestigious European awards with their remarkable ‘Other People’s Photographs’ project.

In Carnival - The nationally unique Isle of Wight Carnival Learning Centre opened in April 2008 and High Wycombe-based SV2G are chairing the first Regional Carnival Network in the country that is gradually raising the ambition of Carnivals in the region. There are already more than 100 members on its mailing list.

In West Sussex, a number of regional creative, disability and local authority partners are coming to together to devise the trailblazing Blue Touch Paper Carnival project that aims to create the most inspiring integrated Carnival in the country by 2012.

We also have a number of companies who are starting to work on a national level - Strange Cargo (Liverpool), Periplum (Without Walls) and potential new festivals in Oxford (Oxygen) and Brighton (Nuits Blanches) that have strong links with continental Europe.

The south east region has set up 6 programmes to build capacity across the entire Outdoor Arts sector:

Outdoor Arts Leadership Network

Carnival and Mela Network

Knowledge Transfer Project

Commissioning Project ‘The Great Outdoors’

Diversity

SEEDA Festival Clusters

OUTDOOR ARTS presents a huge opportunity in terms of breadth and depth of engagement. In 2005, Groupe F in Preston Park attracted 60,000 people in one evening while throughout the region WHILE Carnival reaches across social and education backgrounds with increasingly ambitious and inspiring parades.

The run up to the Olympics and Paralympics gives us an unprecedented opportunity to develop capacity, partnerships, markets and opportunities for Outdoor Arts and a legacy of exciting new partnerships that can change the cultural landscape of the country for generations to come.

Information supplied by Arts Council England, South East.