Recognising the potential for audience development outside the ?mainstream?, New Audiences supported many partnerships between arts organisations or individual artists and voluntary or community organisations.
Much of the funding came through the Regional Challenge funding strand, which was managed by Arts Council England?s Regional Offices. This gave access to first-time funding, of relatively small amounts, to individuals, voluntary groups and community organisations. They were often able to develop audiences among hard-to-reach audience groups such as young people, ethnic minority groups and rural communities. Open access funds with simple application procedures were set up in the West Midlands and the South West.
Grass roots development
Regional Challenge West Midlands concentrated on rural audiences, young people and cultural diversity. Arts Council, West Midlands created two schemes running over four years, to encourage participatory arts activities where professional artists could work with community groups in local and non-arts settings. The two schemes ? the Youth Arts Fund and the Grass Roots Arts Fund, which aimed to develop rural audiences ? supported work in isolated rural communities and deprived inner cities, and also focused on culturally diverse work.
Between 1998 and 2002, the Grass Roots Fund supported 106 projects and the Youth Arts Fund supported 151 projects ? a total of 257 awards of up to £2,000. During this time, the two schemes awarded £368,200 from the Regional Challenge strand. ?We were hugely encouraged by the range of projects, and some of them have been absolutely brilliant,? says Julie Eaglen of Arts Council, West Midlands. Projects included the unusual ?Sheepshape?, where a farming community organised a festival of sheep.
A further example of Grass Roots-funded work is the Warwickshire-based Storm Theatre project. A group of women from the Over 50s Friendship group in Ansley Common, a former mining community, worked with a member of this professional community theatre company to devise and perform a play in four local venues. A highlight of the Youth Fund was the Madeley Music Project in Telford, a two-day outdoor live music event showcasing local bands and DJs. Young people were involved in all aspects of the project, from health and safety liaison with the fire service and police, to performing and stage management.
Sowing the seeds
Using their New Audiences Regional Challenge grant as match funding for an application to the European Social Fund, Arts Council, South West created a small grants programme, called pARTicipate, to enable groups and individuals to use the arts to develop skills. Focusing on community groups and individuals, especially socially excluded and unemployed young people, the project reached potential participants through a series of regional roadshows.
Catherine Devenish of Arts Council, South West is now taking the long view of the legacy of the project. ?The main result was that we found two needs which we?re now beginning to address,? she explains. ?One was the need of the artists to acquire participatory arts skills, as they were often working with groups they hadn?t worked with before. The other was the non-arts organisations ? such as people who run prisons and young offenders institutions ? who had some experience of running an arts project and wanted to know more about how to continue.?
A new Participatory Arts Network is to be launched in the region in April this year, aiming to bring artists together from all different artforms, to identify their common skills gaps and to find a way of meeting those needs. As Catherine adds, ?It really proved that a little money can do an awful lot of good.?
Instrumental riffs
A number of individually-funded projects also engaged with voluntary organisations in community settings. Raw Material was established in 1994 to provide young people with access to professional resources and expertise in music and digital media production. Prioritising work with the black and minority ethnic community, and with disadvantaged young people aged 16-25, it works through a range of courses, projects and long-term professional development programmes.
?Instrumental? was a music project which enabled young people on a north London estate to take part in a multi-media arts and performance project. It was a collaboration with BEARS Youth Challenge, a voluntary youth project based on the estate. The project culminated in a showcase event, Da Rising, in September 1999 at The Mean Fiddler venue in Harlesden. Raw Material has now developed two specialised centres to lead in cultural industries training and cross London partnerships, based in King?s Cross, Camden, and more recently in Brixton, Lambeth.
Collaborations such as these have often had the beneficial effect of empowering groups and individuals to extend their involvement with the arts, and in return to influence the work of their arts-based partners. Freeing up arts funding in this way also drew many people into a creative engagement with the arts which otherwise would not have been possible.
Beyond the Page
For more information including downloads and links visit http://www.newaudiences.org.uk and click on Essential Audiences
Feedback to Essential Audiences can be sent to audiences@artsprofessional.co.uk
Essential Audiences is compiled and written by Catherine Rose. For more information about the New Audiences Programme, contact the Arts Council England, 14 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 3NQ.
t: 020 7973 6497 f: 020 7973 6791 e: newaudiences@artscouncil.org.uk textphone: 020 7973 6564