15/07/2011
A Curious Review
On Wednesday 6 July we held our Curious Celebration for the end of the Creative Partnerships’ programme at the Eden Building, Hope University. Over 150 teachers, students and artists were present to celebrate, have fun, debate and bring the Creative Partnerships’ programme to a fitting conclusion.
Joining us that day was Lucy Johnson, on work experience with Curious Minds, and she wrote the following review on the Curious Celebration:
A Very Curious Celebration
Wednesday 6th July was the big event of the year for the Curious Minds team on Merseyside, celebrating the end of the Creative Partnerships programme. It took place at Liverpool Hope University, organised by Little Atom Productions.
It got going at 2 o’clock with lots of people filing in ‘curious’ to what the event was going to include. I helped out on the information desk, where people had to collect their name badges and were asked if they wanted to sign up for free taster days, or to enter the competitions which included; guess how many sweets in the jar and to write your own curious story. Three actors from Little Atoms Productions were very loud and welcoming, enlightening everyone’s mood by performing silly antics and games with people. The majority of the Liverpool Curious Minds team were there, along with teachers, practitioners and some young people, all eager to try out what was on offer!
After grabbing a drink and a quick chat with various people, everyone started heading up to the auditorium, where Chris Finn, Acting Chief Executive, and Alice Birdwood, Director of Programmes gave an inspiring talk to what the event was all about and who the event was in aid of, which is Chris May, who was Chief Executive of Curious Minds before he sadly passed away earlier this year. We then watched a Curious Minds film about the work they do and what a difference Curious Minds and Creative Partnerships makes to children’s lives.
This was followed by a series of workshops, which included drama and film among others. I chose to go to film which was lead by Tristan Brady-Jacobs. He showed us how to use a camera professionally and how film can be incorporated into children’s learning and to build much needed confidence. The pictures and films or ‘spinnys’ he had created were fantastic, we were all very impressed! To add to the excitement, a fantastic 1950/60’s ice cream van turned up outside with some gorgeous ice-cream on offer!
Afterwards, there was a panel discussion with various representatives including author Frank Cottrell Boyce, head teacher of Wallasey School, Phil Duffy and Curious Minds very own Chris Finn. There were various issues and questions tackled by the panel along with a few funny stories from Frank Cottrell Boyce which received a warm response from the audience. Later on, I also had a chat with another author Hilary Keating, who was lovely and gave me some fantastic advice for future!
To add to this, the winners of the curious stories competition were also announced and received an original copy of part of the up and coming ‘Curious Stories’ book. Curious Minds have managed to get some celebrities on board to create a book for children about their curious stories! It looks fantastic and I can’t wait to see the finished copy! Overall, the day was a success, finishing with a glass of wine for the adults and a goody bag for everyone to take away with them!
Lucy Johnson – Work Experience at Curious Minds, Liverpool
Connor Review of Magritte Exhibition – TATE Liverpool
Connor Moore joined Curious Minds during June for his school’s work experience placement. As part of his work experience Connor worked on an Arts Award Bronze Award. Part of which is reviewing cultural events. Below we have Connor’s review of the Rene Magritte exhibition currently taking place at TATE Liverpool.
RENE MAGRITTE : The Pleasure Principle – TATE Liverpool
On Thursday the 23rd of June i attended another exhibition called Rene Margritte The Pleasure Principle at the Tate gallery in Liverpool. The late artist Margritte painted all the pictures in the exhibition which range from the brilliant artistic pieces to the almost schoolboy drawings behind the black curtain…
The majority of these pictures though are almost things of beauty from the picture of the two people kissing with cloth around their head or just a man with a lightbulb instead of a head. These two images alone gives you an insight into magritte’s constructive and imaginative mind. In comparison also you wouldn’t think that these two pictures are by the same artist and I think that this is another quality of Margritte in the fact that no two of his pictures look the same.
The pictures can vary though from those exquisite ones from the top paragraph to the ones which you look at and then turn away straight away because they lack the certain imagination the you’d expect from margitte given the standard of the two above.
Then of course are the drawings behind the black curtain which resemble yet another side to Magritte. This is not really a good side though as they are almost like schoolboy drawings.
Overall though this is a fantastic exhibition and is definetly worth seeing. A majority of the art is weird but absolutely remarkable with so many different people and landscapes. The exhibition is well layed out we plenty of space for each picture so that you give each picture an equal amount of attention. For more information about this exquisite exhibition visit http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/renemagritte/default.shtm
Curious Stories
We have quietly been mentioning over Twitter and our Facebook page in recent months something called ‘Curious Stories’.
Now some of you may be wondering what’s all of this about? What are these curious stories? Who are they for? Tell me more!!! Some people have asked.
Well now I can tell you a little bit more about them.
When Curious Minds was formed in 2009 a project was developed by Chris May and creative design agency Dorothy to help raise the profile and fund-raise for the Charity. We would produce a small but highly inspirational book that will help us grab attention and raise awareness of the power creativity can have on young minds – ultimately, helping us increase creative opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The concept for this project? Contact up to 60 celebrities, artists, musicians and similar high profile figures – ask them what or who inspired them as a child – then bring their contribution to an artist who would then produce an illustration of their ‘Curious Stories’.
Seems simple enough on paper doesn’t it? But not as easy as it sounds. Since 2010 Dorothy, specifically Ali Johnson, have been contacting high profile figures right across the arts, TV, film and music spheres to gain contributions. Although they were slow to contribute at first it seems now we are being inundated with contributions (over 40 contributions at the moment). As with all things once you get a handful of contributions others want to be involved.
Contributors so far include: Dame Judi Dench, Sir Terence Conran, Carol Ann Duffy, Wayne Hemingway, David Shrigley, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Jeremy Deller, Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc, Maxine Peake, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jenny Éclair, Frank Skinner, Cath Kidston, Stephen Merchant, John Bishop and Jimmy McGovern. Who wouldn’t want to be associated with this great bunch of leaders in their field of creativity?
We also have some of the countries top illustrators drawing up quirky and fun curious stories. These include Emily Forgot, Steve Appleby, Andrew Rae and Nick Sharratt who you will know from the Tracey Beaker series of books.
Original Idea
The original idea for the book came from the much loved and much thumbed copy of ‘Milligan’s Ark’ which was complied by Spike Milligan in the 1960’s from over 90 contributions from his friends and peers; from John Lennon and Peter Sellers to Vidal Sassoon and Sooty. The book, which combined poetry with doodles , drawings and cartoons raised awareness of the Wildlife Youth Service and encouraged kids to take an interest in the wildlife around them.
In the lead-up to our recent Curious Celebrations we invited our Twitter followers and the Twitter community as a whole to tell us what their #curious_stories were. Over the space of a week we received over 200 stories, most of which involved grandfathers and Tony Heart. During the events we projected these stories on plasma screens and within the the main auditoriums during the debate sections of the celebrations.
Also at the events we had six limited edition panels of contributions and illustrations (two of which you can see below) showing how the contributions will look in the book when it is published later on this year. Four delegates at the celebrations were lucky enough to win one of the limited edition panels, I will be in touch with the winners in the next week to arrange how you can pick up your panels, which we hope will become collectors items in the years to come.
We will release further news this year when the book will be published. Till then please follow @curious_stories on Twitter.
But to end, one of Chris May’s , our Chief Executive who sadly passed away in April, driving passions was to give confidence and inspiration to all those around him and beyond. The main question we have asked celebs and you over the last year is what or who inspired you as a child. Something Chris really had a strong belief in – those who inspire you when young really can help guide or/and give you the strength to succeed. All funds raised from sales of the book will be pumped straight back into projects for young people that inspire, guide and bring out creative inspiration and talent. Something Chris would be proud to see happen. We all miss Chris so much here at Curious Minds and we hope Curious Stories will play a small part in ensuring his legacy of inspiration lives on in the youth of the North West and beyond for many years to come.
11/04/2011
A new international connection
One of the great privileges of this job is that from time to time overseas colleagues ask to visit and see what we’re up to – it’s a great way to meet new friends and develop alliances which really help broaden our perspectives. Last week we welcomed seven colleagues from IDA in Vasteras in Sweden who spent three days with us in Liverpool. IDA equates to Inclusion, Participation and Activity and is a programme developed in schools which connects the work of social workers, language specialists and a team of arts and culture workers who work alongside teachers to animate the curriculum and develop cultural provision. It was this team that spent time with us learning about the Creative Partnerships programme, visiting four schools and taking part in a day-long seminar we hosted at the Bluecoat, attended by programme managers and creative agents.
It was a productive time and a great conversation – sharing the details of one another’s practice and then, more importantly, exploring where this might lead in terms of potential collaboration.
It’s always interesting to discover what is of greatest interest to visitors and this often shines a new light on what we do. We are well-used to hearing that our system for programme management is complex, detailed and probably over-bureaucratic, but it was this very organisational structure that was of greatest interest to our visitors. They really appreciated the level of detail involved in CP and the way in which the programme planning cycle, with application, project planning, evaluation and reporting was all integrated into one system, giving the programme a sense of coherence that they had not been able to achieve themselves. Other visitors have also complemented us on the structure of CP and the way in which programme management is integrated into school improvement plans and the longer term development needs of schools. Perhaps it’s the case that sitting in the bubble of our own experience, we sometimes fail to appreciate our strengths. These three days certainly reminded me that there is a vast amount that those involved in the Creative Partnerships programme can be proud of.
The learning was not all one way of course and we were fascinated to learn about the IDA team’s recently developed ‘passion in our eyes’ approach, where practitioners are invited into the classroom to observe lessons and respond imaginatively to what they experience, exploring possibilities in what seems like an evolving and ‘organic’ manner of developing project ideas. We discussed the challenge of balancing detailed planning with working in a more improvisational style and how the conditions for creativity require people to allow space for the unknown and the unexpected – something that is certainly hard to achieve in the British education system
Among all the laughter and sharing, both teams made a commitment to continue thinking and talking together. We’re going to set up a regular Skype call to stay connected and hopefully we’ll be able to arrange a visit to Sweden in the near future. I’m particularly interested to see how the whole IDA team operates in partnership with the schools and how this integrated approach to meeting children’s social, emotional, language and cultural needs works in practice.
Huge thanks to Peter, Sabina, Robert, Suz, Sussi, Asa, & Sivi and to all the Curious Minds team for a wonderful three days – and to our colleagues at CCE for brokering the introductions.
Chris May
04/04/2011
A positive result…. for some
It was quite a week last week – the nervous build up to Wednesday’s announcement from the Arts Council about their new National Portfolio Organisations, followed by the mixture of elation and disappointment that followed the news. For Curious Minds the outcome was fantastic and we’re incredibly pleased to be appointed as the new ‘Bridge’ organisation for arts and cultural work with children and young people in the North West. At the same time, we genuinely commiserate with organisations who have experienced a cut in funding or removal of Arts Council support altogether, and of course congratulate those who were successful in achieving continued funding with very welcome uplifts in some cases. If anyone doubted the power of Twitter to connect and inform, Wednesday morning’s avalanche of messages was an object lesson in the power of social networking.
During our ‘campaign’ to achieve this status we adopted a strategy of openly communicating our ambitions as widely as we could, and in as transparent a manner as possible. We were greatly touched by the statements of support and positive suggestions that this process generated. So to those who took the time to endorse our bid, I’d like to say a huge ‘thank you’ – we’ll do our utmost to live up to your statements of faith in us.
Our bid was grounded in the principle of close partnership working – developing effective collaborations across the arts and cultural sector in the North West that will raise the quality of work with children and young people while increasing access and opportunities, particularly for those who are currently most excluded from provision. To start planning for this we’ll soon be undertaking an extensive consultation process with partners across the region, in order that our work can be of the greatest benefit to both delivery partners, and children and young people. We aim to develop the overall resilience of the sector by exploring new ways of securing resources through increased participation in commissioning, combined with an emphasis on quality assurance and workforce development. So for those organisations who work with children and young people and who are feeling disappointed with the result of the NPO process, we very much hope we will be able to work with you to explore how other sources of investment can be sourced and used to improve the lives of children and young people through arts and culture. Watch this space!
Chris May
09/03/2011
Philanthropy and the Arts
Last week I and a dozen other chief executives of arts organisations in the North West, attended a round table discussion on Philanthropy and the Arts, convened by Alan Davey, Chief Executive Arts Council England. The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt was visiting Manchester and spent an hour or so with us finding out what we thought about the Government’s recent proposals for increasing philanthropic donations to the arts. It was an interesting conversation, focussing largely on how wealthy givers can be encouraged through incentives to increase their donations. The arts currently features at the bottom of the list in terms of philanthropic giving in the UK in comparison with causes such as international aid, animal welfare or medical research - in 2009, only 2 per cent of philanthropically active individuals gave to the arts.
There was widespread agreement that maintaining government funding for the arts via the Arts Council is vital in order to provide the core stability that organisations need in order to attract further funding and that philanthropy shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to government support. It was also agreed that designing appropriate tax incentives for givers is critically important.
Throughout the conversation the focus was very much on how wealthy donors can be encouraged to give. If you are well-established, have a grand building, work with tangible objects or spaces that people can feel proud to have their name linked to, you’re certainly in a stronger position to attract the interests of wealthy donors. But what about the smaller and less ‘glamorous’ companies whose work makes a real difference but doesn’t necessarily hit the headlines? As is ever the case, our sector needs to be much better at telling the story and persuasively demonstrating the value of our endeavours.
Fortunately Arts Council seems aware of this challenge and there’s a recognition in their thinking of the need for extensive capacity building for smaller organisations to develop much stronger financial planning mechanisms, together with expertise in building relationships with potential philanthropic donors. I’ve suggested that Arts Council have a closer look at Venture Philanthropy – an increasingly popular model of giving which establishes much longer-term and closer working partnerships between donors and recipients. I think that, in addition to the very valuable financial gift a company or individual might give to an arts organisation, the gift of time and expertise to help the recipient develop a sustainable approach to fundraising and financial management would be equally, if not more valuable.
I’ll let you know what Alan Davey thinks of this idea.
Chris May
28/02/2011
Kathy McArdle – A Curious Future, Find Your Talent and Children and Young People
In a series of guest blogs we invite some of the key people in the North West region to contribute their thoughts on strategic work with Children and Young People. Our first guest blog is by Kathy McArdle, the former programme manager of the Liverpool City Region Find Your Talent pathfinder.
One of the great strengths of Arts Council England’s new Ten-Year Strategy is that for the first time it devotes one strategic aim to children and young people having the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts in their life and states this as a universal principle. It also emphasises the importance of children and young people not only as audiences but as cultural producers in their own right. In an era where cultural production has been significantly democratised and where children and young people are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their use of digital and new technologies this was really necessary. But it is also necessary to ensure that these opportunities become available to all children and young people, regardless of social background, economic status, geographical location and ability. The ill-fated Find Your Talent Initiative (FYT) was one national action-research project which was trying to identify more coordinated and coherent approaches to providing these opportunities. In the process of delivering the programme FYT discovered the importance of having ‘honest brokers’ who can work between the education and cultural sectors to broker relationships, coordinate information and bring coherence to what often seems like a fragmented offer to teachers, schools and youth service providers. The regional development agencies proposed by the Arts Council should assist in carrying out this work in partnership with both sectors.
Curious Minds were a partner in the Find Your Talent Programme in the Liverpool City Region which I was involved in, along with eight significant cultural partners and three local authorities. They were hardworking committed partners who brought a lot of energy, enthusiasm and care to the work. Find Your Talent commissioned them to develop a Quality Assurance Tool with appropriate indicators for cultural practice with children and young people and they developed a sophisticated self-assessment tool for cultural organisations which, if effectively used, would result in increased levels of provision, increased standards and quality of provision and more engagement with children and young people at other management and governance levels of cultural organisations. They also adapted this tool very successfully for schools to support educational settings to carry out an audit of their creative and cultural provision, policies and practices. This tool for schools was due to be tested in Year Three of Find Your Talent and offers schools a methodology for cohering the wide-ranging cultural and heritage offer within their own school environment. To this work, Curious Minds brought real rigour, knowledge of both the cultural and education sectors and a genuine passion for children’s learning through and in the arts.
If the two key priorities associated with Goal Five are I) to improve delivery of the arts and ii)raise standards of the art being produced for, with and by children and young people Curious Minds are ideally placed to support these priorities. They have a sophisticated understanding of quality, the conditions in which it flourishes and the environments which support quality practice. They recognise it is not simply about training the arts workforce or the teacher but about a fundamental commitment on the part of the educational setting to ensure children have opportunities to engage with cultural experiences. One of their great strengths as an organisation is that they start with an ‘assets-based’ model rather than a ‘deficit-based’ model where they recognise that children and young people already are culturally active as audiences, meaning-makers, producers, and that we simply need to tap into their needs and interests to make new forms of art and culture (that they may not have experienced previously) become meaningful for them.
The organisation also understand that better delivery is not only about finding appropriate ways of improving practice, it is also about improving the coordination of the offer, the communication of the cultural offer and making delivery more sustained, more long-term, more developmental and ultimately offering deeper progression for children who increasingly are capable of engaging with very challenging narratives, images and artistic experiences. Their work as a partner on Find Your Talent always emphasised the necessity of this coordination, and they were really supportive in working with all partners to identify clear mechanisms through which this coordination could happen, making the offer easier to access for all. Their overview of both sectors and their working relationships in areas like Merseyside will enable them to fulfil this function really well, although much development and partnership-building work will need to be done in other areas where they are less well-known. This is an area in which they excel, building long-lasting partnerships and building trust through their collaborative and open way of working.
Critically, Curious Minds is guided by an inspirational and visionary leadership team. They are an ideal twenty-first century organisation, a listening organisation, a learning organisation. They know how to listen to partners and to children and young people. They understand that much of the work of the ‘regional development agency’ will not be about delivering actual programmes and projects. It will be about those key strategic interventions which support schools, early year’s settings and youth work settings to access the existing offer and articulate ways in which the existing offer could meet their needs and those of their young people more effectively. They also understand and value the voluntary sector as well as the professional cultural sector and that quality experiences are on offer through both. In cash-strapped times their wise and inclusive approach will really help educational organisations and local authorities to make better commissioning decisions.
They will place children and young people at the centre of their work, bringing their voices into the cultural fray. They area practiced in the art of ‘translation’, learning to speak many different languages to support organisations with different agendas and aims to understand each others’ values and ethos. And they really understand and value the diversity of the cultural ecology which, when working collaboratively and in a coordinated way, could genuinely deliver fantastic cultural learning experiences for all children and young people throughout the life-time of the Arts Council’s ten-year strategy.
Kathy Mc Ardle
Previously Programme Director of Find Your Talent in the Liverpool City Region
Currently working as The Quays Arts and Cultural Development Manager, Salford Quays
09/02/2011
A good week for music
There was cautious optimism all round this week as the Henley Review was published, and it’s an interesting read in these austere times. The government’s response is also positive in many ways - the Arts Council’s response is similarly encouraging. Apart for the continuation of £82.5 million of funding for music education, which hopefully is a indication of the government’s recognition of the value of cultural education, there’s the much anticipated announcement that Darren Henley will carry out a ‘further review looking at cultural education in the round’. I wonder what he’ll make of what is a highly complex landscape of provision.
Henley makers a number of sensible recommendations, many of which are extensions of existing good practice. Some ideas are newer – the development of a National Music Plan; greater involvement of Ofsted in the inspection of music provision and Arts Council being asked to fund organisations that align their work with a National Music Plan and a set of quality standards that Ofsted will use in its inspections. Some will see this as another manifestation of the centralised control systems that increasingly characterise the DfE’s operations, others will welcome the degree of consistency that these moves will generate. Personally…I’ll wait and see. The new suggested qualification of ‘Qualified Music Educator’ feels like a step in the right direction, but it will be important that this qualification recognises the diversity of practice that exists across the sector, particularly in community or informal settings, where a very different set of skills are required that is the case when working in schools.
There’s a helpful mention of the pupil premium ‘It is recommended that the Department for Education examines how learning from the Sing Up and In Harmony projects might be developed as a model for narrowing the gap in attainment through the use of the pupil premium’ . I hope when Henley is presented with the huge body of evidence that has been produced by Creative Partnerships about the positive impacts on pupils, teachers, parents and schools the programme has generated, a similar recommendation will be made about partnerships with artists and the development of culturally rich schools.
What interests me most about the review is the clear recognition of the success of programmes such as In Harmony, where ‘whole school provision in a single school with a single lead cultural organisation creates radical improvements in educational attainment for the children involved.’ Henley adds: ‘Rather than being a pure Music Education project, it should be seen as a high impact social action project, which uses music as a tool to deliver change in particularly deprived communities… I would urge Arts Council England and Youth Music to consider how they might be able to develop an In Harmony style project, potentially with other charities or private partners. It would be regrettable if the initial work in this area comes to an early end without our fully understanding its potential as a tool for inner-city urban regeneration and as a means of delivering long-term costs savings to the public purse.’
This absolutely chimes with our belief in the power of the arts to sit at the heart of social renewal and play a much greater role in the ways in which services are designed to address deep rooted social challenges. The cultural sector needs to work much more proactively with local authorities and other commissioning partners to position arts and culture at the heart of service redesign, helping to build the capabilities that families and communities need to develop in order to create their own solutions. I very much hope this thinking can be further developed in Darren Henley’s next review – we’ll certainly be feeding in ideas and if you’d like to join us in that endeavour please get in touch.
Chris May
14/01/2011
Learning without Frontiers
I spent two fascinating days at the Learning Without Frontiers International conference of Learning and Technology held in London this week. This was hugely interesting in a number of ways .Firstly, as you would expect, there were great speakers including the wonderfully disruptive and creative Evan Roth http://evan-roth.com/ who reminded us all of the role artists play in making digital learning truly engaging in social contexts. (forgive his use of language on the website ) Check out his website for wonderful ideas about the role of digital technology in challenging the status quo. Dawn Hallybone, an inspiring primary teacher from Essex expertly demonstrated the role of a range of gaming consoles in the classroom, showing how the children’s engagement and enthusiasm for learning had been enhanced by embracing the tools that they are drawn to in this digital age. Stephen Heppell http://www.heppell.net/ was great – he always is – and his plea for us to remember that education is actually about trying to solve the major issues of our time (he used the example of child soldiers) concluded an inspirational and iconoclastic presentation. Many other great speakers, including Jimmy Wales, David Puttman, & Kerry Facer from MMU to name a few, reinforced the central message that if we are going to make real progress in tackling education inequalities, we must redesign our education system to take advantage of the incredible opportunities that digital technology offers, and that we are quite simply failing to capitalise on the energy, resources and knowhow that currently exists in this field.
One of the unexpected areas of learning for me as a relatively new and infrequent user of Twitter, was how the overall experience was broadened and deepened by the incessant tweets that surrounded the conference. Participants basking in the light of a sea of ipads were constantly commenting on presentations, pointing followers in the direction of the live stream and directing people to a host of other websites and resources that might be of interest. People from around the world were connecting with the conference and feeding in their points of view. This was a real education for me and I finally understood the real power of this facility. Amusingly, when Ed Vaizey, who hadn’t said much of any real substance during his presentation, read out some of the tweets referring to him in a critical light, really came alive as a much more engaging and courageous presenter who was certainly better at speaking off the cuff than from notes.
So what will this mean for Curious Minds as we move forward with our ambition to become the regional development agency for children and young people? Certainly we need to pay more attention to developments in digital learning and ensure that our programmes take full account of the opportunities digital technologies offer to innovation in learning. Clearly artists have a huge role to play in the development of content. Several speakers during the conference commented how important the skills associated with the television and design industries are in creating content that is truly engaging. Working with children and young people to create their own content and frame that within a rapidly shifting landscape using the technology that is now available needs to be a priority of we are going to support the cultural producers of the future.
You will be able to catch up with conference presentations soon at http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com - it’s well worth the effort.
A belated happy new year to all our friends and partners
Chris May