The Visual Art Blueprint

Creative & Cultural Skills
23 November 2009

A major workforce development plan for the visual arts sector has been launched at the new Nottingham Contemporary gallery in the East Midlands.

Developed by employers and practitioners in the visual arts sector, the Visual Arts Blueprint, published by Creative & Cultural Skills in partnership with Arts Council England, puts in place an action plan to tackle the skills needs of the visual arts sector across its 37,480-strong workforce.

The Visual Arts Blueprint calls on the sector for an increased commitment to continuing professional development and training, specifically leadership and business skills. It also highlights the urgent need to diversify a workforce which is 95% white and facing ever-increasing global competitiveness.

There is also emphasis within the Blueprint on the need to ensure that the visual arts sector interacts well with the education system, ensuring that qualifications are fit-for-purpose and that students thoroughly understand what it means to work in the industry.

The Visual Arts Blueprint was developed through extensive consultation with those in the sector, ranging from individual artists, art development agencies, and public and commercial galleries from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The drafting of the document was overseen by an Advisory Panel made up of key representatives from the sector.

Tom Bewick, Group Chief Executive, Creative & Cultural Skills, said:

“The Visual Arts Blueprint springs directly from research and consultation with visual arts employers. It is a crucial call to action for the sector. Although the visual arts contribute £1.9billion GVA to the UK economy each year, we are in danger of losing our place as one of the world’s leading visual arts hubs unless skills needs are addressed directly. We want to make sure that everyone in the visual arts sector is aware of the full range of opportunities open to them, and is supported consistently and coherently throughout their training and professional life.”

Vivienne Bennett, Director, Visual Arts Strategy at Arts Council England, said:

“Workforce development is absolutely vital for the visual arts in the UK. Now that we have mapped out many of the potential solutions for strengthening professional resources and pathways, it is important that we can come together as a sector to deliver a range of schemes and new ways of working to improve our professional and creative lives.”

Stephen Beddoe, Programme Manager, Artquest and member of the Visual Arts Skills Advisory Panel, said:

“The Blueprint is important to practising artists and freelance practitioners in that it begins to clearly articulate the complexity and diversity of approaches that make up the sector. It is a road map allowing us to better understand (and appreciate) the fact that practice and professionalism are absolutely interlinked. It is a Blueprint that all in the sector can sign up to.”

Download the Visual Arts Blueprint.

David Cotterrell: Bridging the Gap...

Bridging the Gap from David Cotterrell on Vimeo.

Having a short break from downloading information from the huge pile of Post-it notes generated at the 06 November event, and just finished watching this video from VAGA's Making the Case symposium, held at Tate Modern in September 2009. 

The presenter, David Cotterrell, always insightful and articulate, does a brilliant job of 'situating' the artist.

The AIR advisory group, to which David refers, is I feel a really critical link for the Turning Point Network. If you don't know about their work do click here and find out more: http://www.a-n.co.uk/air

Click here to find out more about David: http://www.cotterrell.com

Measuring success across the Turning Point Network...

One of the many questions that are emerging from the notes of last week's Turning Point Network event, is that of how we will know if the Turning Point Network has been successful: what are the indicators of success? How will we measure the impacts?

To help us to identify some answers we have commissioned Annabel Jackson Associates to develop an evaluation framework for the pilot phase, through to March 2012.

Annabel and her team will be a resource that any and all of the visual arts groups can draw on. In her words:

"The role of the evaluator will be to help regional groups and the national coordinator with conceptualising and reflection; to carry out surveys that will help to embody and share knowledge across the network; and to provide an overall judgement of the success of the network, including value for money.

Success will be defined taking account of the intangibles (development of a networks and partnerships) as well as the tangibles (delivery of projects and outcomes [within each of the groups])."

A summary of the evaluation framework is available to download now. The full framework is in development, but will require close consultation with people in each of the groups over the coming weeks.

One aspect of the framework I'm particularly interested in is the 'network analysis'. This will allow us to collect and visualise data about relationships in, across and extending out of the network.

I hope that this evaluation will help everyone involved to make an informed choice about whether they think continued commitment to the network is of value post March 2011. Please do get involved!

Over the summit...

DELEGATES AT THE BALTIC, DEEP IN CONVERSATION

This post follows a really brilliant (for me certainly, but I hope for others too) few days in the North East for the first Turning Point Network event.

This is also my first post using a new mobile application, so fingers crossed it works!

Incredibly 110 people cleared space in their diaries and, in many cases, made long journies up to BALTIC, in Gateshed. Generousity and a willingness to engage really created a positive atmosphere in which a wide range of discussions were held around 11 tables.

This first event was about starting conversations that will, I hope, now find their way back into the various regional groups. Put another way, there was nothing conclusive about the day - no answers were found. Rather, the key issues facing us were discussed and debated in an attempt to 'define the moment' we find ourselves in, together.

I've collected over 100 post-it notes, each home to an idea, thought, provocation or point of action raised on the day. My job over the next few days (half way through now) will be to distill these down into something coherent that can be shared with everyone.

Once we've gathered some feedback on that first piece of work, Julia Bell and I hope to commission some pieces of writing that will extend thinking in key areas.

Thanks to the Archive team at BALTIC we have some bits of video footage from the day, which I will be uploading soon.

If you would like to be notified when the videos are ready, the best thing to do it subscribe to my blog now... hint, hint.

Programme announced for the first national #turningpointnetwork event

The final programme has been announced for the first meeting of people from across the various visual arts strategy groups, that make up the Turning Point Network.

Hosted by BALTIC and Turning Point North East, this event will bring together over 100 leading figures from across the visual arts in England.

It will be a day of discussion and debate that attempts to 'define the moment', and explore how co-operation through the Turning Point Network might contribute to a stronger visual arts.

More information about the programme can be found here, on the roomman website.

For anyone not attending and who wants to follow the conversation online, I (and other attendees too, I hope) will be making regular posts to Twitter, using the #turningpointnetwork tag.

Thanks to support from the Archive team at BALTIC, we will be posting vox-pops collected throughout the day on the Turning Point North East website (currently in development).

A second national event is also now in planning. It will be hosted by Turning Point South East during Spring 2010, at a venue to be confirmed. This second event will invite into the conversation many people who, although not working through one of the visual arts groups, are critical to the full realisation of this emerging national network. 

If you have any questions about this event please do contact Simon Zimmerman via the contact page. 

For more information about the genesis of this first event, and to learn more about who was invited to attend, please click here now.