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!

Today is November the fifth a day for plots and coup attempts, remember? Well today also marked the official launch of the National Theatre of Wales and boy did they do it in style. Not only were parties being thrown across Wales but Producer Lucy Jones and Artistic Director John McGrath shared the event online with people across the world. Let’s face it the Welsh know how to do Culture, in many ways they epitomise culture and ‘national’ they certainly know all about that, from fighting to retain their language and heritage, to forming their own Parliament to seeding their musicians, writers, actors and artistic talents across the world.

In fact, you have to wonder what kept them so long, well this was all explained at the launch and then we were treated to a filmic feast of what’s in store over the next year (2010) with live links to a school in Bridgend, an artist at the summit of Snowdonia another in a lighthouse and live chat from three young artists in the National Theatre social network chat room 

http://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8344309.stm  

The long and the short is that it is all very exciting and inclusive, as work will be truly national and taking place all over not just city-centric. For us social media queens and geeks there will be digital technology aplenty as the NTW embraces new technology and new ways of taking theatre and art to the people - I can’t wait, the ‘For Sale’ sign is up, my bags are packed and I’m moving (unless that is, train tickets get cheaper in which case, I’ll just commute as I still remember how ‘incomers’ holiday cottages were vandalised and burnt in the seventies).

Whatever, good art deserves a chance and next year I will at the very least, be winging my way to Port Talbot for the finale - Michael Sheens collaboration with poet Owen Sheers who will be staging a contemporary version of the towns ‘Passion Play’.

London’s National Theatre is just that, in London. The National Theatre of Wales promises to be much more, much, much more. 

http://www.nationaltheatrewales.org.uk/

I have become a fan of emerging new artist Jon Hawke aka @theboywyatt especially his poetry which takes me from sadness to uncontrollable giggling fits. He recently launched his poem “That Older Woman” via Twitter and his Tumblr blog and it had a great response especially from those of us for whom it may have been written – who really felt quite flattered (slightly pink cheeked even). To echo the words of one reader Elly Laine “I want to pick him up and put him in my pocket”. I suspect it’s now pinned up on fridges all over the world, that’s the wonderment and the challenge of social media – instant access. If you take a peek and like his work, do let him know – feedback is to artists what a good hairdresser would be to Donald Trump – Vital  ;0)

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.

I have decided that 2009, well some of it anyway, should be given over to admiring/lauding the work of creative people out there in the social media universe who’ve got something to sing about. Why virtual rather than real? Because I spent three months researching ‘Social media and the Arts’ and where else am I going to let rip some of the fruits of all that labour?

2008 ended with a memorable moment when GL Hoffman, author of the ‘What Would Dad Say?’ Blog site, took a leap of faith and emailed me a pdf of his forthcoming book ‘Dig Your Job’ Keep it or Find a New One. It’s a “not so serious career handbook” written by an astute entrepreneur and Chairman of www.JobDig.com for the US market, with the wisdom and insight of one who really does know what he’s talking about. So if you’re a student/graduate, unemployed, a dissatisfied freelancer or disenchanted with your current work status quo then this could be money well spent http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/dig-your-job/ you can download a pdf for approx. £5 or buy a paperback version from www.lulu.com for £8.69 https://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=4947573 or you can purchase a Kindle (Amazon) edition for somewhere between the two. It doesn’t matter what your career path is, there really is something for everyone in ‘Dig your Job’. G.L. Is even offering free copies to Libraries – which makes him a social entrpreneur as well as businessman.

I stumbled across two writers this year and last, both very different, whose work has inspired me. Mark C. Hewitt aka MCH was running a ‘Funding your Madness course’ with The South last November and we managed to tease out of him stories of some of his inspiring ‘word-related’ projects that he dreams up himself, before approaching potential partners to work with him . This year, I’m hoping his project with BBC South comes off, as I’m looking forward to seeing Salisbury Cathedral covered in other people’s words but he’s also Artistic Director of a live literature production company ‘Lewes Live Lit’ so look out for ‘Dementia Diaries’ at this years Eastbourne Festival in April http://www.mchblank.co.uk/

@Sniffyjenkins aka Justine Kilkerr started following me on Twitter  and has been making me smile, laugh and howl with glee ever since. She’s about to publish her first book ‘Advice for Strays’ with Jonathon Cape . If you’re an aspiring writer or creative then read her blog http://amihumanyet.co.uk/ it is an honest and open retrospective and do, definitely look out for her book, if it’s anything like her tweets it will be a sound investment.

Facebook friend Doug Macfarlane; Film geek/maker/actor/director and monthly ‘guest’ on Sky TV News, has had a full-on year and he’s just messaged to say he’s off to the Sundance Film festival where he will interview/grill celebrities and film folk for the delectation of UKFilm Network suscribers. Doug is waiting on the release of his first film ‘Making it in Hollywood’, is a founding member of ’shooting people’ and also runs  the UKTheatre network, his dynamism, grit and determination sometimes exhaust me but Doug is a great example of hard work and dedication paying back dividends.

So these are the people currently at the top of my creative iceberg, I should also mention recent twitter friend, @Mikebreed. Mike is a copywriter/aspiring film writer based in Dorking (Reed Words Ltd. - LOL!) and it was his website http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/misc.html that made me think about who I admire and what it is about their work that inspires me. I was both entertained and informed by his blog article on Puccini’s and their marketing campaign I can see why he does what he does.

Oh, alright then, just one more. Do you remember the Tanker’ ‘Ice Prince’ that left a swathe of the Souths coast covered in five thousand tons of timber. Well Worthing does and this year artist Dan Thompson aka @artistsmakers is narrating a workshop to mark the first anniversary of the ‘Ice Prince’ disaster, hence Jan 24^th sees Worthing’s one day ‘Ice Prince Festival’

Starting a new year with so much uncertainty also brings with it a possibility of excitement, the thrill of the unknown as well as the fear of it.

I know 2009 will involve a wedding, travel across the South East of England again including some forays back to Kent where I ’saw in’ the New Year and I’m certainly going to make an effort to get back to Folkestone where we stopped off before returning home and Begbury Forest and the very glamourous Tenterden with it’s avenue of trees festooned with twinkling christmas lights (yes, I know they’ll be gone soon but the memory will linger on). I also know that 2009 will see me changing my ways as I strive, much harder to keep in touch with nearly ‘lost’ friends who have proved much better than me at re-establishing communications and greatly enhanced my Christmas as a result. Good to know that although I can’t remember what day of the week it is, I still retain minute details of past teenage adventures and daring do’s, which I think is a good thing?

Otherwise it’s a case of “he who hath the steerage of my course, sail on…” except that of course, if I’ve learnt one thing in 2008 it’s that we’re masters of our own destiny, if only we have the courage and the drive, or the vision.

Roll on 2009, I’m ready (and so’s my hypnotherapist, my fitness instructor and my psychologist – I wish!)

National poetry day looms on Thursday October 9^th I’ve been browsing sites in search of inspiration and have enjoyed stumbling upon the Altered Books project and had fun with ‘Written in the city‘ especially the Brighton pages although Brighton in 2002 was a different universe. Did you know that ‘newspaper+sharpie=poems’? Well Michael Palmer seems to think so and creates and collects great “blackout” poems in this fashion from around the world, check him out on Facebook or visit www.michaelpalmer.net to see examples or enter your own. I came across ‘the invitation’ by Oriah Mountain dreamer from the book ‘invitation’ and really enjoyed some inner wisdom from the mountains…

“…It doesn’t interest me to know where you live,or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children…It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away”

 But then I got sidetracked by Digg & Twitter and went from Doug McFarlane’s you tube recommendation on the credit crunch (filmed in a car park I dimly recognise) to this: check them out on My Space Antan Debt performs with his band ‘The Overdrafts’ not to be confused with Adam and Joe’s “Credit Crunch Musical” song, as touted by Charlie Booker or Old Man Pies credit card song posted in 2006 (and a prophetic cartoon animation) which are both equally witty commentaries. Then, somehow and I’m really not sure how, I ended up watching the ‘Shelbinator’ show me how to turn a nokia N95 into a video cam with external mic. If you are a techgeek who has accidentally clicked on the wrong blog site - you can watch it too @ http://shelbinator.com/2008/05/04/n95-external-microphone/ which tells me I must end here or who knows where I’ll end up before tea-time so take it away e.e. cummings (as found @ www.kerismith.com/wishJarTales/ ) “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it’s best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”