The first Turning Point Network Summit

MAKING CONNECTIONS | Image by Johnny Magee © 2007

A date has been set for the first national Turning Point Network event.

Hosted by BALTIC and Turning Point North East on 06 November 2009 this will be the first opportunity for the wide range of people involved in the various Turning Point groups to come together. It will be a day of provocation and debate, and of informal discussion and networking. It will also be a key opportunity to share learning across the groups, and to agree solutions to some practical issues like how we make the most of our resources to create the online tools the groups need.

For this first event we will bring together representatives of Steering Groups and Working Parties from all the groups, which include artists, independents and leaders of all types and scales of organisation. We anticipate around 8 people will attend from each group.

I’ve already been asked a few times why we are not extending this to include representatives from national agencies. It’s a good question, and indeed Turning Point South East are already planning an event for 2010 that will invite people from all national organisations, representative bodies and the other arts councils too. However, we (the other coordinators and I) feel that a chance to meet, for those who are leading the development of these groups now, is needed to consolidate what we have. Like any network, Turning Point needs to build capacity / bandwidth in stages. It will be stronger for all in the long-term as a result.

The archive team at BALTIC will be recording everything on the day, and as ever I’ll be posting links to the material once it’s live.