Artsmonkey Blog

Two weeks ago I had one of those phonecalls. No,  not that kind of call. I mean one of THOSE phonecalls where the hair on the back of your neck prickles and you just know it’s going to be something good.  This call, went something along the lines of “Hello, you don’t know me but I work for LGiU, you responded to my boss via twitter and we’re doing something you might be interested in…” I listened, my curiosity was piqued by the mention of the words Children in Care and breakfast, count me in!

On reading the information Jasmine Ali Head of Children’s Services Network had sent me about LGiU’s proposal to get people round a table to look at “Only the best is good enough: improving education for children in care” all kinds of thoughts arose, like ‘ How come only 6% of care leavers go on to  university’?  ‘If children in care have wealthiest parent of all – the state, why is the state failing them’? What should be happening that isn’t? Is it lack of aspiration or lack of support from within and around our education system.  What about those who aren’t in the care system but through poverty, neglect or disruptive domestic lives struggle to engage with education fully and get the best from it.? It’s 2010 why haven’t we got it right by now!

The Local Government Information Unit’s (LGiU) strap line is INFORMATION INNOVATION INFLUENCE I’m a great believer in all of these things so I was keen to meet some like-minded people but unsure whether I was the right person to be sat round the breakfast table. I’ve been working with Jo Kavanagh from Medway  Looked after Children Team who is getting her teeth into the very same issue, so  I replied, suggesting she be invited and that a young person who had experience of the care system and who had gone on to University should also be present. Horses mouth and all that.

So here I am on the train home having spent an incisive two hours listening to experts and evangelists from Government, NSPCC and Local Authority settings talking over points raised, quoting statistics, facts, models and ideas and here’s what I’m taking away with me:

The solution will have to be about: the ability to make relationships (there was a lot of talk about social pedagogy (google it) and how building relationships are at the heart of good social work and a young person’s entitlement to have support from at least one trusted adult but it’s also about making relationships between a whole range of interested parties, the professionals who are involved in the lives of young people in care.

Consistency and transition. It has been proven that there are several points in a young person’s life when they are particularly vulnerable we tend to link these points to their learning journey, for example, starting school (sure start was introduced to help make this a positive and beneficial experience for the very young and their parents and carers) and then from primary to secondary education which ties in with emotional and hormonal changes (puberty) and then from secondary education to further and higher education which is, or should be, a much broader period of time given that young people in care aged 16 to 18  are having to deal with independency, and a range of practical issues that many young people don’t have to face until their mid-twenties or on leaving university.

The system we have has too many gaps, there is not enough focus on emotional and mental wellbeing, there is not enough understanding and listening. For the professionals working within that system it is very hard to put away their defence shields and be open to new perspectives. The system is large and there is not enough proof of efficacy, too much patching of the engine when perhaps the engine needs to be replaced?

There are significant obstacles to consistency of care. One is funding, two is lack of professionals with the right level of experience and skill and three is the tension between positive support and preventative measures and safeguarding practise and getting the balance between intervening too early or too late.

There are lots of models and examples of work being done by Children and Families Services across the country to work with ‘aiming high’ (google this as well)  and colleges and universities, or to run summer schools or set up virtual learning networks and even in the south west a ‘virtual school  council’ but there isn’t a framework to capture and evidence the benefits and value of the individual models, there isn’t enough evaluation that would allow for a clearer more focussed solution. May be because some of this work is only beginning ?

And finally, now is the time to act because the figures are shocking and if it’s left too long, the only way to improve the situation will be drastic measures and the people who will lose out if drastic measures and knee jerk interventions are imposed will be the young people themselves and they’ve got enough to deal with haven’t they.

It was good to know that something like LGiU exists, comforting to discover they are passionate, committed people who want action not just words, they’ve been listening very carefully and are ready to ‘kick off’.  Ripples in a pond or maybe in terms of a think tank, spreading thought waves across the social webverse and beyond?

Now I must go and google CHATHAM HOUSE RULES to find out just WHAT happened at Chatham House that resulted in the coining of the phrase.

So far this year snow stopped travel plans and play commenced (as long as my feet and hands are warm I love the snow!). Being based in South Wiltshire I had to go looking for it at first but once it finally settled everything looked beautiful and so began a magical start to the year.

Creativity 4 Health is in its final and most exciting year. The project co-ordinator, lead consultant and I, have put our artistic heads together and come up with a cookery theme for linking the various strands, events and legacies of the project together. Food has always been close to my heart and there has been an upsurge of food-linked art work emerging through 2009. I am now doubly motivated to mine and excavate examples from participating Local Authorities  of how involvement with creative activities has inspired, enhanced and developed emotional, mental and  physical wellbeing for foster-children and foster-carers across the South East (or should that be recipes?). I’m also excited about our celebration event in October that is currently being shaped and planned by Kevin Skinner Ltd. Also the Creativity 4 Health website being developed by Alive With Ideas (and indeed they are!) is moving on apace as is the training package aimed at up-skilling foster carers to participate in creativity sessions with their foster children along with the accompanying *creativity cookbook* we aim to put together.

I’m also excited about working with the new South East regional development agency for the Arts Award  ‘Future Creatives’. Down the road from me the Portsmouth and urban South Hampshire ‘Find your Talent’ scheme has been promoting and enabling young people to undertake the Arts Award  and artists and arts organisations to deliver it in partnership with Artsworks ‘Academy’ project. Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership (OYAP) have just launched their young leaders scheme in association with Creative Junction and Oxford Brookes. The Arts Council England have launched their ‘Achieving Great Art for Everyone’ consultation and I really hope that this time they will listen to feedback and then get out there and talk to the people who respond rather than treat it as an information giving exercise dressed up as ‘debate and discussion’ the comments on Mark Robinsons brief on the ACE website are well worth a read. It’s all go, go, go.

Plus there has been the adventure of enabling young people to take over an empty shop unit aka ‘The Unit’ and turn it into a ‘youth info centre’. Myself and Director Ruth Jones at Firestarter Arts and Keith Gale the Project Manager have learnt so much about the responsibility of taking over an empty shop; from leasehold agreements to chasing changing goal posts from potential funders to handling difficult behaviour and public misconceptions but our voluntary youth committee have given impromptu presentations at local council area board meetings, met and talked with local politicians, community police, city business representatives and managers, been interviewed on local radio and shown determination and skill in acclimatising to a world of commerce with monetary expectations requiring instant outcomes and constant reassurance.

We’re getting there. Summary update = Gala Bingo the owners and our immediate neighbours have continued to support and encourage, a carpenter made us some shop window display boards, a young digital media artist has offered to help us utilise technology to promote information and activities, a local church has donated the collection from a carol concert and we have a badge making machine and to be honest, somehow the badge machine is THE thing – I had no idea just how brilliant a marketing tool a badge machine could be. It’s a very promising start to what was always going to be a challenging year.

Oh yes and this July will see another *shift* in how things happen as Pilot Theatre Company and York Theatre Royal host the third annual #Shift Happens conference . ALT SHIFT on the 5^th and 6^th July looks at Arts, learning and technology; building and strengthening networks, policy, ideas, approaches and conversations – can’t wait! Mentally, I’m already in the queue for the  bar-b-q on the opening evening.  As they say on Twitter and Facebook – YAY!

I travel quite a bit in my role as a freelance creative consultant and often at my own expense, so I’m careful about my journeys. One of my favourite journeys is returning home from Brighton.

Brighton, as far as I can tell is like Marmite, you either love it or you hate. I love it. I always meet interesting people, I often learn something new and am usually invigorated by the cultural buzz of the place. My journey there could involve the M25 but for obvious reasons only does so if I need to avoid the racing traffic in the summer. Usually I travel out of Wiltshire into Hampshire and take the scenic route via West Sussex into East Sussex. Skirting past Southampton and Portsmouth along the M27, to join the A27 through Chichester, Arundel and Lancing, before finally dipping into Brighton via the Devils Dyke.

Sometimes if my meeting or event is at a reasonable time, I’ll park at Chichester and get the train in and out which is usually fun and never dull. However, my favourite journey is the one home, when occasionally I have the leisure to travel back along Brightons Regency seafront with the sea on one side, bandstands, mini golf, the rusting silhouette of the West Pier and beautiful architecture from many decades, on the other. The landscape closes in a bit after Hove, passing by Hove Lagoon and more beach huts, then on to Shoreham which gets more commercialised and ‘shipping industrial’.This week I was travelling at dusk and the fishing boats in Shoreham harbour were dramatically lit up as a flock of seagulls circled above in the darkening sky. Shoreham is a mish-mosh of run down industrial, estuary foreshores, maritime contemporary and reviving town with a history, the Rope Tackle Building is a treat to come across as I veer off across the bridge over the mud flats (depending on the tides) past all the new apartments and houses on Shoreham Beach towards Lancing and then Worthing.  

Travelling with glimpses of the sea on one side always raises my spirits and the light that changes, as anyone who lives by the sea will know is magical, suprising, breath-taking often. Always taking the chore out of sitting in any traffic that may occur at any point. And then Worthing, with its seafront Guest Houses and B&B’s. If you turn left as you enter the town you can travel along the Worthing seafront with its theatre on the pier and grand seafront hotels and buildings towards the very Wildian ‘Goring by Sea’ where in the summer I detour via Ferring beach to drink in the salty air and art deco houses. Then on via Littlehampton past Poling through Wick and Lyminster to rejoin the A27 just before Arundel perched so majestically on its hill.  

Then I’m back in the heart of horse and hounds county of West Sussex with its racing of the equine and automotive kind courtesy of Fontwell and Goodwood, only glimpsing the sea again as I approach Portsmouth for another visual feast as Langstone Harbour comes into view. I get one final contact with the sea as I cross the river Hamble before returning to the leafy, earthy loamy views of Wiltshire fields and rolling hills.

It pains me to contemplate what I’ll do if my work stops taking me to East Sussex with its historic sea frontage and the compelling lure of the sea.

autumn haiku

.CrispAutumn.
Dead leaves hang from tree
like brown butterfly cocoons.
Seasons of nature.  ©theboywyatt 

This week sees National Poetry day come around again. I have a love/hate relationship with this day ever since I was asked to be part of a team delivering ‘poetry on the buses’ with mixed success. Our carefully picked mix of contemporary and classic poetry, read out between stops (by myself, an actresss, an actor and a storyteller) as we circumnavigated the citys’ bus routes, was more than once met with rage and fury. This was before i-pods and mp3 players and I often wonder how people would respond now (if at all). It could have been because we were butchering their favourite poem with our interpretation but I think it was about the invasion of their headspace, the precious time when they shut off and allow the bus to carry them, alone with their thoughts from A to B and not to be cruelly interrupted by caterwauling thespians! I still remember the look on the persons face who insisted the driver stop to let them off, so indignant where they, or maybe it was fear that they might be asked to join in? Either way – tough audience. I declined when invited to repeat the event the following year. 

But I do love poetry. It started at school, by writing and swapping really, really bad song lyrics with friends in my class. By the fifth form it had evolved into poetry and our group had expanded  - we became an ‘unofficial poetry club’. I wrote tons of the stuff, not much of it good. Although my English teacher did compare a poem I wrote about a ‘deer’ to Ted Hughes work once, which I grew to appreciate having gone off to find out who Ted Hughes was. And many years later, I met a man who recognised me because his daughter had been one of those ‘poetry enthusiasts’ and he told me how miserable she had been at school until she joined our ‘group’, how it had saved her. I had no inkling at the time but I knew what he meant. Something about expressing yourself through poetry and indeed reading other people’s poetry that goes beyond the depth of a play script, cuts through, creates a bond, a sense of place, of being.                                                        

At drama school I used to write people poems for birthday presents and each year I was entered in for the annual ‘Poetry Cup’, usually two days before the event because no-one else had volunteered. I never won. I rarely got through the whole poem without forgetting the words because unlike plays (in my head, at the time), performing a poem demanded a degree of skill and utter command on a far higher plane than simply inhabiting a character, and just like plays required far more rehearsal than I found time for. Hey ho. It got me and some peers invited to tea with a lady called Morag from Surrey Unversity who regarded us thespians as suitable fodder to showcase her students work, by putting us together for evenings of poetry, so we would look bad and her students would shine (sorry Morag, I’m sure it wasn’t your intention, it just felt like that). Which was funny because her students read their work like thespians and we read the poems like ‘shared truths’ which I think had more impact. 

So back to National Poetry day, we’re seeing some inventive celebrations of it this year and I have two favourites; both invitations. Firstly on ‘Spoonfed’ http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/lowri-257/national-poetry-day-1555/  you are invited to share your favourite poetry, or write your own ‘off the cuff’ (just my kind of challenge) and the other a more daring sortie by The Southbank Centre, http://gps.southbankcentre.co.uk/ who are running *G.P.S Global Poetry System* subtitled Poetry. Find it, map it, share it – an excellent suggestion and I urge you to do so.

Haiku’s courtesy of ‘theboywyatt’ http://theboywyatt.blogspot.com/

  .GoFasterStripes.
Loudly tooting horn!
flicking the V’s at the flash.
Speeding road rager.  ©theboywyatt, 2009

I recently attended a ‘speed awareness workshop’ having been caught speeding by one of  Wiltshires 18 (approx.)  mobile speed camera’s, like many other unfortunate motorists across the county. I’m not proud to be caught speeding, unintentionally as it was because no matter how you dress it, FACT speed kills and approximately 11 people die each day from being involved in road traffic accidents around the country at huge emotional and financial cost. 

Attending a ‘SAW’ is a double edged sword because whilst the whole process leading up to the workshop itself can leave you feeling criminalised / angry / ashamed /put upon, the actual workshop is a really worthwhile, sensitively run, educational and an enjoyable experience. For some it really is an eye opener, for others thought provoking but one thing it is NOT is a waste of time.  I had expected it to become a forum for people to protest their innocence and bemoan the blight of speed camera’s on our roads waiting to entrap unsuspecting motorists and make loads of moolah for the coffers but it wasn’t. I really benefited from attending a SAW but the one thing the workshop didn’t do was convince me that speed camera’s are a positive means of improving road safety, like the issuing of parking tickets and wheel clamping I think that despite good intentions these measures are more successful at criminalising people who really don’t intend to behave in an unlawful way. As they said at the beginning of our workshop we are human, prone to human error, we are not perfect, we all make mistakes, which is why if ALL drivers had to attend a Speed Awareness Workshop some five to ten years after passing their driving test and then again after a further ten years and so on, I feel that would be a much more effective way of both educating drivers on our roads today and also of improving their awareness and driving skills.  

As one of our trainers stated, not many drivers, having passed their driving test give any thought to improving or developing their driving skills and can be embedding and continuing bad and lazy habits in their driving for the rest of their driving days. The law, road signage, road design, has changed so much since I learnt to drive.  Given the ability to maim, seriously injure, or kill either yourself or another person/s whilst in control of a vehicle it’s suprising we give it so little attention.  Surely, if we poured the same resources and energy that Local Authorities spend on administering parking fines into making learning to drive just the start of a life-time process more people would behave more responsibly on our roads and there would be less need to waste valuable police resources on issuing speeding fines and manning mobile speed traps? In our working lives we have continuing professional development – driving is as important as our careers to those of us who do it – for many the ability to drive is a life-line so why not mandatory refresher training and continuing education? 

 .88MilesAnHour.
Flaming tire tracks,
Back to the Future stylee,
speeding driver flies.  © theboywyatt

Well, I was going to write a piece moaning about the injustice of sixth form and exam pressures etc., but you’ll be pleased to know that you’ve been spared any grumblings as I’ve just discovered THE BIG LUNCH campaign http://www.thebiglunch.com which aims to give us all something to smile about, reinforce a sense of community, share food we’ve grown and break bread with our neighbours by holding a street party in our street, a field, a patch of common ground, etc, on JULY 19^th. It’s not just about sharing food, it’s about making music, performing, swapping seedlings, getting out our hidden talents and bringing them to the party – sketching the event, making decorations …endless ways to be involved.

The Big Lunch is a UK initiative created by Tim Smidt and friends at the Eden Project with the aim of putting a smile back on Britain’s face. It’s an idea with legs and no reason why it shouldn’t travel a little further afield.A party in your street! How long has it been since the Queens Silver Jubilee, possibly you’ve never experienced a street party? Lots of support on how to organise and manage such a thing on the website (see link above) and you can look and see if one is already planned near you. Lots of supporting partners are also getting onboard to help make it easier for you to do this. Businesses could hold one, Arts Organisations could plan one, Schools can do this (easy peasee). C’mon let’s do this! Let’s come together right now and do THE BIG LUNCH (you know you want to).

Who is Seth Godin? Apparently, and that word is laced with good old British cynicism he is ‘legend’ (sneer here) among the ‘marketing’ elite publishing best selling books and revered ‘copy’ all over the world. Possibly. I don’t know him from Adam (as the saying goes) but I do know GL Hoffman, at least in the online sense I do and clever GL invited Seth to close a month of ‘sharing the podium’ on What Would Dad Say dot com without resorting to blackmail, threats or bribery. Usually at this point you’d hear me yawn ‘so what’, but some of my work recently has been working with people attempting to get a foot in the door of the creative industries here in the UK at the most challenging time you could imagine and ‘WWDS’, as I’ve come to fondly know it, has been a source of sound advice and inspiration, especially during ‘share the podium’. So I felt I owed it to GL to at least read what this Seth bloke had to say.

I may have to eat my hat (perish the thought – I’ve done this before and unwashed knitted products are very hard to swallow) Seth has some really very simple, very wise, very salient advice for those of you looking for work, or new direction or a change. It really is well worth the read here’s the link http://www.whatwoulddadsay.com and here’s a taster of what you can expect when the article goes live midday March 31st -(US time)

“DON’T TRY TO GET A JOB

Don’t you dare.” Seth Godin, March 2009.

As a dog owner I was also particularly drawn to his suggestion that I could start a ‘dog –poop shovelling business’ – is there art in this somewhere I find myself wondering?

Anyway don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself. In fact, don’t stop there, fish around for a bit, find Dave Sniadak’s Vlog on being a creative worker in a non-creative environment, enjoy and take comfort in the fact that other people know what it’s like. You can also read my guest article on Sunscreen and DNA if you really have to but if you don’t have time just play the ‘Wear Sunscreen’ song embedded at the top of the article – I won’t hold it against you, I’ll be somewhere humming along with you in spirit (Baz Luhrmann is the Man).

Simple, plain speaking advice that’s what we need, no frills, no false hopes, good old common sense with just a dash of something ‘special’ as ex theatre-designer Mary Robson might say. Just remember, you saw it here first. And should you already be ‘living’ the Seth Godin maxim then well done you. I know one or two that are and they currently ride the reccession very comfortably because every day is a new challenge to relish and conquer, because they are reaping the fruits of their labours and enjoying the labour as much as the fruitfulness. So maybe, just maybe, this Seth bloke really does know what he’s talking about.

But… you might like to read this response before you make your mind up http://blueskyresumes.com/blog/seth-godin-wrong/comment-page-1/#comment-1037 oh and then this http://corcodilos.com/blog/456/create-your-own-job

Via twitter I came across seamstress @Kokeshi_me and her wonderful blog on Japanese Culture ‘Dancing on Temple Tops’ http://www.wabei-mono.com/blog/ featuring her vintage Kimono’s http://wabei-mono.com/kimono/

And a quick re-visit: back in 2008 I came across ‘Own It’ http://www.own-it.org/ a website run by the London College of Communication and University of the Arts London Own-it offers free intellectual property advice for creative businesses. As their site says “Within your business or your practice, you’ve probably created a wealth of in-house ideas, designs, music, writing, images – in short, ‘intellectual property’ - which can make you extra money, as long as you give it the proper legal protection. Own-it will show you how.”  They run great free seminars for creatives, producers, artists, directors, musicians, et al.There is a growth industry in ‘stealing’ people’s work, or as I heard it described recently ‘harvesting’ the wealth of creative work available and in the public domain on the internet. Sites such as Flickr and Facebook, are scoured by design, marketing and ad companies for images or as a free resource for ideas that they used to pay artists and designers a fee for. So before you post that photo make sure you really understand IP and what a creative commons agreement is, or keep it private.  Blog articles can be re-used as someone else’s work elsewhere on the net etc. Cynical I know, but worth considering how and what you post on the net. Here’s another site that offers advice if you find your work has been ‘borrowed’ by someone check out Calvin Lee’s advice on his blog site http://www.mayhemstudios.com/blog/2008/02/on-line-copyright-infringement.html

Finally I keep mentioning Twitter, but you may not know what twitter is – it’s a social networking site where you post updates of your activity or links to other sites, interesting articles etc. in no more than 140 letters. You can comment on other’s posts and advertise your latest blog or upload of pictures to Flickr or ‘tweet’ about events. It’s a little thin on UK creatives so if you’re an Artist and want to give it a try read this info guide first by Jewellery designer Nicola Tallmadge ttp://www.squidoo.com/ArtistTwitterGuide

Are you e-proficient? Or does your son, daughter, niece, nephew etc. understand the world wide web far better than you?

There’s no doubt we’ve moved much closer to a ‘big brother’ state and one of the biggest watcher’s of our activities is the internet. It’s also one of the most popular leisure and work tools since the bicycle was invented. We bank online, we shop online, we socialise, we share work, listen to music, educate ourselves… there’s an ever expanding list.  I was asked to run a drama session with the Brownies this month on e-safety and I came across Tim’s Blog. Tim is a youth worker who is asking some very pertinent questions about social media, because no matter how much we worry about our young people being safe when ‘online’ there is no denying that they thrive on the flexible, creative nature of social media. The whole point of social media is it’s self-regulation and lack of rules imposed by an authority – the masses vote with their feet. 

In youth arts young people, can make a film, write a song, record it overlay it as a soundtrack and upload the whole shebang on the internet in a very short space of time. They can grab photo’s and content from their work and market their project to friends and strangers alike in a scarily efficient way –sometimes capturing the imagination and interest of thousands of people as evidenced by you-tube and face-book campaigns. Is it time for an e-safety test? (like cycling proficiency) i.e. before you get on it you have to be aware of how to use it safely; protect yourself, respect others (there is an alarming incidence of e-bullying). Taking the computer away might be a little like bolting the stable door – it’s an exciting world and I do mean ‘world’ it is addictive and equally it’s useful. Do read Tim’s blog and do check out these sites below if you have any concerns about e-safety. The most useful piece of advice given to me by Artist and blogger Dan Thompson was “don’t do something just because the computer or a website tells you to, you’re in charge not the computer” - ‘check before you click’. 

Internet safety websites giving information to parents and young people http://www.bbc.co.uk/chatguide/parents/index.shtml 

An easy-to-understand site with a common sense guide to using chat rooms for the whole family.

http://www.iwf.org.uk The only organisation in the

 http://www.safety.ngfl.gov.uk   Advice for schools on internet safety from the Department for Education and Skills. 

http://www.childnet-int.org/ Childnet International : Key safety issues and how best to discuss internet safety with children. 

http://www.getnetwise.org/  Challenge yourself and learn how your children can use the internet safely. http://familyinternet.about.com/cs/internetsafety1/a/safety01.htm 

About: internet safety. Take the tutorial for internet safety. US site with level-headed information for parents.

http://www.besafeonline.org/English/safer_use_of_services_on_the_internet.htm 

This site has been developed to make adults more aware of how to use the internet safely, so they can encourage safe behaviour online among children and young people. http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/ 

A safety site with resouces and activities for families and teachers including some interactive games. http://www.safer-internet.net/ 

A European site with information about the campaigns and activities on making the internet a safer place for all. http://www.keepyourkidssafe.com/ 

Product reports and information about what software you need to have installed on your computer.  http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents  The Home Office working with industry experts to keep parents informed.