No clear and simple answers

A very wise man at a recent lecture on educational research at Newcastle University proposed that for every complex issue there is a clear and simple answer… and it is wrong.

My journey of developing the Northern Cultural Ambassadors Network began with action research undertaken in Gateshead schools in 2003. The research began with developing a creative self-assessment tool and an arts auditing tool to judge how creative a school is. It gathered baseline information about culture and creativity in schools and attempted to judge what impact the schools felt that creativity had on the students’ learning and achievement. At this time Gateshead embraced culture as a driver for regeneration and was bidding for European Capital of Culture. As a culture-led local authority, it seemed a natural step that our children and young people should benefit from the region’s cultural offer.

Our intended outcome was always that we should enable cultural ambassadors to access the arts and culture most appropriate to their needs

A lot of conversations, questionnaires and visits later, a mountain of ideas, even more questions and information started to flood my way. At this point I was overwhelmed by the complex issues with no clear and simple answer to anything. With cross-council support from colleagues, we identified issues and actions and the need for strategies and policies. We also needed champions and buy-in from both the cultural and the learning sectors. The main challenging questions identified were:

• How do young people find out about culture and creativity?
• Who are the cultural champions for young people? Who listens?
• How do young people access culture and the arts?
• When and where can they access culture and the arts?
• Is it embedded in their education?
• What do cultural organisations offer young people?
• Are there differentiated approaches, age, gender, ability?
• Who celebrates youth culture?
• Who funds it – why?

Without knowing the pitfalls, I started to tick off the main questions through desk-based research and conversations with young people, teachers, artists and cultural organisations. I wrote reports and ran workshops, and some small changes were made. But information and knowing what was on offer was by far the biggest challenge. Finding out what people want does not lead to finding a way of providing it. But in the spirit of creativity and with a heartfelt philosophy that doing one thing is always better than doing nothing, the Culture and Creativity Ambassadors Network was launched, which over the last 12 years has grown, matured and evolved into the Northern Cultural Ambassadors Network (NCAN).

NCAN facilitates a two-way dialogue and partnerships between the educational and cultural sectors in the north east of England to allow children and young people to access high-quality arts and cultural experiences, to help raise educational achievement and enrich learning and foster a lifelong enjoyment in the arts and culture. Ambassadors volunteer to receive news of creative opportunities on behalf of their colleagues and the young people they work with and circulate these accordingly. The cultural partners and provider organisations agree to provide information on opportunities for children and young people. The network began with 40 schools and 80 cultural partners and currently consists of about 800 members, including teachers and educators from the majority of schools in Gateshead, Newcastle and many in Northumberland, plus cultural venues and independent practitioners.

It is now accessed primarily via the website and a fortnightly e-bulletin. All the members are volunteers and there is no fee for joining. It has always been paperless although we have organised poster events and showcase exhibitions. We have occasional events and meetings including an annual general meeting and we arrange CPD for both teachers and cultural professionals. We also promote Artsmark and the Arts Awards schemes. New members can join, blog, upload documents to share with others and share best practice. Teaching professionals looking to work with the cultural sector can search for practitioners or cultural venues using a search facility that searches through member profiles for keywords.

Our intended outcome was always that we should enable cultural ambassadors to access the arts and culture most appropriate to their needs and in doing so enable all young people to effectively receive their cultural entitlement. There are always problems such as staff and resources to keep the network going, but its success is recognised and we are still afloat. Keeping up to date with changes in teaching staff is a problem and relies upon forging good relationships with local authority network coordinators. In terms of technology, it has taken a degree of website refinement to get to the current format and third-party contractors have caused time lags on occasion. This results in a loss in momentum now and then. We have a constant challenge to encourage members to use the site and update regularly.

Three years ago we benefited hugely from Bridge North East, based at Sage Gateshead, which supported our communication models and championed the network in the wider north-eastern region. That allowed NCAN to stand as an effective working model for developing a coherent communications network between the cultural sector and children and young people, and one which could be replicated in other regions.

So, what was ‘wrong’? Well in contradiction to the lecturer, certainly not NCAN itself but the premise that there might be a simple and clear solution. We jumped in with both feet, without adequate funding and without strategy support. We had a huge amount of goodwill, a regional network of artists and arts organisations and our own enthusiasm. Probably a fair bit of dumb luck too. Although times are very tough we still exist and the biggest challenge has always been the future.

Ednie Wilson is Creativity Development Manager at Gateshead Council.
ncan.co.uk