DCMS, smallest of the Government Departments, has 400
staff compared with the MoD's 26,000. Alan Davey is
an enthusiast, clearly convinced by what he's seen coming
out of quality arts work, undeterred by weight of numbers.
For him, PAT 10 provided a passport into other Departments
and onto other agendas. The DCMS is able to offer 'transformational
work that achieves wider social policy objectives'.
He takes the work with the Department for Education
and Skills (DFES) as an example. Cultural activity offers
a means to engage young people. "We undertook some consultation
with a group of children …labelled difficult because
of truanting. What they said to us was that this activity
would give them a voice, that would be theirs. If schools
were offering this kind of thing, they might turn up
- or, more likely, be interested - turning up might
come later..." he remarks, wryly. The most striking
result so far is Creative Partnerships (CP) - £40m over
2 years on cultural activities in schools. Small change
for DFES, it's a huge arts investment in getting back
up the schools agenda. The test will be getting it into
every school. "… we're looking at its sustainability.
It won't be quite the form it's been piloted in - as
it rolls out it will be a bit more streamlined, and
then we'll have economies of scale. Then we'll have
to think about how we'll mainstream it, which is going
to be quite different."
A less-developed example is Neighbourhood Renewal (NR).
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) is seeing
the NR communities themselves identifying many broadly
cultural projects. "We're increasingly able to help
them deliver that, and the arts funding system is becoming
better at working across boundaries."
He's enthusiastic about the joined-up thinking and action
behind Summer Splash (see p.11), involving a secondment
from DCMS into the Youth Justice Board, and close partnership
with ACE, even if it ran a bit close to the wire. ,.
"We offered real engagement with young people at risk
of getting into a life of crime. It's not that culture
makes you a better person…. but it engages you, brings
things out of you, out of your own being, that make
you see things that are worthwhile in yourself. Then
you're starting the beneficial cycle of aspiration and
raising ambition."
With a lot on its plate, the Department of Health has
a certain scepticism about what art has to do with its
targets. " Quite a lot in the long term." he asserts.
"Culture and well-being lies at the heart of a lot of
bigger mental health issues, for example, which could
be tackled if we had healthier happier communities.
Sounds a bit utopian, but I think you can draw a diagram
of social policy problems with well-being at its centre."
Nothing stands still, so how can these advances be sustained
in the long term? "We'd like to see an end to the stop-start
nature of arts funding." The last 2 Government funding
reviews have put both cultural infrastructure, and actual
artistic activity, on a sounder footing, and the transformational
work that achieves wider social policy objectives has
resulted in much stronger backing.
"First, we must make sure that arts organisations…don't
have to make cuts - lose social inclusion to save a
post or whatever. Second, we have to make arts organisations
see that part of their function, their survival, is
engaging with their communities in effective ways. It's
encouraging that somewhere like the Royal Opera House
is really getting it, and putting it at its heart. I'm
not going to labour the point, it is in London and it
is a particular place, but the way that the they've
repositioned that organisation and its social role is
very skilful and encouraging, and that's part of the
role of a national opera house. "
But aren't mainstream organisations first up on every
bandwagon? "What we found with CP is arts organisations
going to it thinking 'there's a sack of money…' and
we've set it up in such a way that they have been sent
packing. Only those who are really willing to engage
end up working with CP. Part of the evaluation will
be about what real engagement is. To use the example
of the ROH again, they've ended up working with Slough
in quite surprising ways, not necessarily ways they
thought they would. A number of organisations have ended
up being surprised. "
And the smaller arts development organisations below
the horizon of strategy makers? In England the answer
lies partly in the changes in the funding structure.
Alan points out that some Regional Arts Boards were
good at development. "They weren't just dolers out of
money - they took small organisations, spotted them
and nurtured them." He sees the new ACE having this
as its heart, "…a real development organisation for
the arts, working with the small organisations, stitching
together funding packages, and working with partners
to fund the kind of exciting innovative work that inevitably
comes from small organisations."
|
This
opens up the culture and regeneration parcel. "(It)
can be iconic buildings, and the economic regeneration
that follows; it can also be in a micro sense - how
culture can regenerate communities. Some bits of the
country have got it, big-time, others haven't, their
key agencies haven't got it." The current Lottery review
will bear heavily on spending in the arts, and on developing
capital infrastructure at local level. It's a matter
of arguing not from a straight arts point of view, but
from the benefit of communities. "We've got a piece
of work on culture and regeneration - trying to get
the believers matched up with the unbelievers, and getting
the message over with other players such as the Regional
Development Agencies, so that the good practice in culture
and regeneration can be spread."
So how to get these messages heard across the country?
That's the job of the new ACE. "If you look at the ACE
ambitions for the arts, social inclusion and participation
are knitted into that, as well as pushing boundaries
and being world class. It is part of a whole, and that's
very much how Tessa Jowell got money for the arts. It
was to put the arts on a sound footing, to allow the
art to happen, and then to maximise the effect the arts
can have on the Government's wider social policy agenda."
The DCMS initiative on Local Authority Cultural Strategies
had sparked off some joined-up thinking, but had been
subsumed into the ODPM's Community Strategies. Does
this help with winning of hearts and minds? "It's an
opportunity - if we get local government to think of
culture as being at the heart of any community strategy,
then it steps outside of its ghetto and comes into the
mainstream of thinking. Based on Neighbourhood Renewal
experience what you'll find is that communities hunger
for this kind of thing, and suddenly it becomes more
logical to fund it." Yes, it will vary across the country,
but DCMS is clearly alert to the local Government contribution,
and looking for new ways to engage with the sector more
effectively than in the past.
One of the problems is always proof, marshalling the
evidence. That's why Creative Partnerships has one of
the biggest research operations ever in this field,
innovative, with sophisticated analysis of the views
of young people involved… a lot of the CP project is
its research legacy. "We're working with the Institute
of Public Policy research (IPPR) over the summer, bringing
a fresh eye to the research question. They will ask
harder questions than the Treasury. . If we can produce
something that stands up to the IPPR test, we'll come
up with a strong body of evidence."
Because of her interest in the transformative effect
of cultural activity on individuals and communities,
Tessa Jowell is looking for examples of community regeneration
to be mapped better, to spread models of good practice
and make more happen - what Alan refers to as " almost
like an investment strategy for culture."
Clearly the minister has been a key to change. "She
has a real fire within her about the transformational
possibilities of culture as a right for every individual.
She sees access to culture in very personal terms, offering
possibilities to an individual to become a better-equipped
person to deal with life. … lots of middle class kids
get this, they have a full cultural life in the broadest
sense. It's denied to kids from poor homes, and there's
no reason for it to be denied them."
And the disappointments? "I wouldn't say the battles
have all been won - it's a long haul. It's taken 4-5
years (with)the DFES. It's going to take time with the
ODPM's thinking on regeneration and how we build new
communities. There's still a way to go with the Home
Office, but we believe we can convince them - doors
are open for us. As a small department, we can only
use so many doors before we run out of people. On the
other hand, we are quite nimble and spot other people's
agendas and try and get on them. What PAT 10 started
is beginning to bear fruit in key areas. It's still
slow - I get frustrated that we're not making inroads
into health, urban renewal, crime at the same rate as
with education. But the others will come along in due
course." |
