Are we entitled to culture? Is it important? Is it a human right? These are some of the central questions that will be explored during Catalyst, a major European conference that is taking place on the 15th, 16th and 17th September 2005.
The conference will be hosted jointly by Liverpool and Manchester, two cities that are themselves, leading cultural lights in Europe’s firmament.
As an official event of the UK Presidency of the European Union, Catalyst has the full backing of the government via the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and there is clearly no accident in the timing. For the 6-month duration of the UK’s EU Presidency, one of the main focus themes will be, ‘Promoting access and entitlement to high quality cultural and sporting opportunities’.
‘Cultural Entitlement’ is the buzz phrase of the moment in these circles, and we have heard previously in ArtsHub features of the increasing popularity of culture and the arts as well as their economic benefits. Arts Council England has shown that almost nine out of ten people have taken an active part in the arts over the last year, and that four out of five had attended an arts event. But what does Cultural Entitlement mean and who will benefit?
It is true that barriers to accessing arts and cultural events are slowly being removed at the practical level, such as wheelchair ramps, family-friendly facilities, longer opening hours, reduced price or free admission etc. In theory now, few individuals or social groups should need to feel they are unable to gain access to arts and cultural events. However, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water…but you can’t force it to drink. There’s not much stopping them, but not everyone actually wants to make use of our museums, art galleries, theatres, libraries, historical buildings etc.
At Catalyst the delegates hope to explore ideas and strategies that will ensure every strand of the population has both the opportunity and the encouragement to participate at cultural, arts and sporting events.
The strategy seems to be to focus on funding and supporting the local initiatives and encouraging standards of excellence at a regional level. Then get all the regional bodies to work in harmony as a network, sharing their resources and examples of best practice.
DCMS sees itself with the role of supporting this network, “providing investment and leadership for the cultural sector, championing the cultural interests of the citizen and helping to create and sustain the public value of culture.”
In 1999, DCMS established the Regional Cultural Consortiums England, which comprises 8 consortia across England. The Regional Cultural Consortiums bring together representatives from regional agencies working in the arts, heritage, museums, tourism, libraries, sport and archives, and from local government, as well as others including individuals from the creative industries. They provide a strong voice for culture in the region and encourage a ‘joined-up’ approach to the delivery of regional cultural services.
Significantly, Catalyst will mark the first national conference of Regional Cultural Consortiums, in addition to which they will invite UK and European delegates representing a wide range of cultural and educational practitioners, academics, policy makers and managers and together they will explore the importance of having an entitlement to culture.
Among the speakers will be, renowned author and broadcaster Professor Germaine Greer; Managing Director of Institute of Culture, Barcelona City Council, Oriol Balaguer; Director of the Center for Intercultural and Social Development, Lidia Varbanova; Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in England, Tessa Jowell; Chair of Culture and Education Advisory Committee for the successful London 2012 Olympic bid, Jude Kelly and renowned Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, Benjamin Zander
It is the aim of the DCMS to improve the quality of life for everyone through, cultural and sporting activities but the rhetoric and the programmes have been focussed most firmly on children and young people and the role that formal education will play in attaining their vision of cultural entitlement for all in the future. At last year’s national conference for Creative Partnerships school coordinators, practical examples of cultural entitlement were given as:
• a chance to work with a wide variety of artists
• to travel to places outside immediate environment
• work with highly experienced artists
• have someone to introduce you to a new experience to feel comfortable to go yourself later
• gallery space planned into school buildings
The aim is to encourage children to be open and expressive, to be a better-informed audience and to enjoy enriching and diverse new cultural experiences. One must suppose that the thinking behind building cultural activity and experience into the formal education structure is to establish ‘brand loyalty’ as the advertisers might say, in the hope that these children continue to participate and support arts and cultural activities into their adult lives.
There are currently several cultural entitlement schemes and projects at both the national and regional level. The DCMS report, ‘Living Life to the Full’ cites many examples including Priory Primary School where the national curriculum was structured around famous pictures from the National Gallery with each class focusing on a picture as a reference point for work across all topics. The head teacher credits the introduction of this approach with an increase in pupils achieving level 4 or above in Key Stage 2 English from 79% to 93%.
Did no one mention to this head teacher that the pupils were actually supposed to be encouraged to be ‘open and expressive’ and enjoying of an, ‘enriching and diverse new cultural experience’?
As with so much of educational ‘reform’ in the past 20 years, there is a danger that initiatives will be piecemeal; this will be crow barred into the existing education system where inappropriate measurements of achievement will be applied making a mockery of cultural experiences that have real authenticity and artistic integrity. Will Schools be forced to gallop superficially through the guidelines they are given, ticking boxes when each government-imposed experience has been delivered?
Perhaps you are still unsure as to what the government sees Cultural Entitlement to mean. In their Living Life to the Full report, we are told about the Creative Sparks programme which aims to consolidate the best of the existing cultural and artistic projects all over the UK and with a little tweaking to suit each region they intend that by the time they leave school, every young person would be able to say:
• I have performed a piece of music live to an audience
• I have made my own piece of individual art work
• I have taken part in a theatre production, through acting or backstage production
• I have taken part in a performance that involved dance to a live audience
• I have created my own piece of media art or watched and commented on others’
• I have written and/or read aloud my own piece of original writing, or heard a professional writer read their original work
• I have visited a museum or an art gallery and experienced a collection either digitally or via a loan box
• I have visited a significant building or site
• I have visited local libraries and been supported in making use of all they have to offer
• I have studied documents from archives and record centres, helping me to understand the story of my community and country.
How many boxes can you tick?
If you, your colleagues, partners, networks or members would benefit from being part of Catalyst, booking is now open and you can get full details from their website Catalyst Conference.
