arts council england – Dr Nick Owen MBE PLUS

… 45 .. … .. … … …. ..: Reimaginings

On 26 October 2022, Arts Council England will announce the results of their long-awaited investment decisions into which arts and cultural organisations have been successful in their applications to become National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) or Investment Principles Support Organisations (IPSOs) between 2023 and 2026. The Mighty Creatives are in the same position as everyone else in the sector and are ready for the email on 26 October which will tell us about what our relationship with Arts Council England will be over the next 3 years.

So, in the meantime, in the spirit of hoping for the best but planning for the worst, here’s another reflection which highlights some of the amazing work the charity has done for children and young people in the East Midlands over the last ten years.

Today’s reflection: A Mighty Love Letter

To be mighty is to be creative, we know that much already.

Our drive is a renowned one. An engine of empowerment –

our heart a toll-free motorway pumping access region-wide,

merging and emerging, fighting and defending.

We filled in the surveys like good tick-box others,

it’s all there – to be mighty is to collect the figures.

To be mighty is to untangle them. To feel the injustice within them.

The figures are Midlands children after all –

our seaside souls, our urban underbellies, our rural roots,

our stuck schools, our underrepresented origins, our ravaged resources.

To be mighty is to fight for their voices.

There are still so many kids with austerity-plucked wings,

their potential fenced in, caught in netted thought.

To be mighty is to fall in love with their stories

and fill their heads with feathers and glue

and no instructions, only encouragement –

let them be the architect of their own flight.

We find patterns amid the arrows,

the splashes and swaths that point to transformation –

an arts award has direction, imagination can travel,

change makers are the future.

To be mighty is to keep on doing. To see ‘young’ as a doing word.

Young poet, young confidence, young leader,

young purpose, young festival, young teacher,

young dancer, young education, young skill,

young conference, young artist, young will.

That’s all we’re doing, really –

passing on the things we’ve learnt, the love we believe,

and what our mighty vision hopes to achieve.

And you, my love, for reading this, are mighty too.

You feel our fight, hear our voice,

and we hope you will fall in love with our story.

(Commissioned from Charley Genever, Emerge Young Artist 2017, to mark the TMC Business Plan from 2019 – 2024)

The Mighty Creatives staff team took part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on 5th October 2022. You can check out the campaign here or donate your support to it here.

Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcomed and appreciated.

… 44 .. … .. … Big …. ..: Reimaginings

Today’s reflection: Inspiring – Rare – Community – Beneficial – Resourceful

“At the beginning of this journey all I had was a vision and a small voice, hoping to be heard. Now seeing that vision come into fruition, I believe that my voice has been amplified and I hope that it will also amplify the voices and stories of the people who get involved with the project.”

These are the powerful words of one of the young people who have benefitted from The Mighty Creatives’ Young Empowerment Fund setup as part of our response to the Covid-19 pandemic back in 2020 and which we’re here today to celebrate.

The Young Empowerment Fund threw down a challenge to young people across the East Midlands: how can you respond creatively to the challenges the pandemic presents for the benefit of your communities?

If we had any doubts back then that young people could respond creatively given the immense pressures on their education, their families and their mental health, these doubts were rapidly washed away by the desire they showed to see a better life through their creativity, imagination, and vision.

Since the beginning of the fund, 44 inspiring projects have blossomed over three rounds of the programme. Our young people have engaged a diverse range of art forms including music, performance, poetry, writing, websites, community art, drama and so much more.

They have worked with our staff, freelance creative practitioners, and artists and in doing so, have helped those who have been working in the cultural sector itself, to financially navigate their own routes through the employment pressures caused by the pandemic.

Today provides us with the opportunity to congratulate all the young people involved – those here today and those who are unable to attend – on what they have achieved.

Not through Zoom, not through Teams, not through WhatsApp, but in the here and now, face to face. It’s been a long time coming and I hope you are as thrilled as we are that we can share their achievements with you. As well as the displays, you’ll also be able to enjoy some performances too. Refreshments are available throughout the afternoon at Gray’s café – located over there – so please enjoy their fabulous food offer as well.

More recently we asked our participants to sum up their experiences of the Young Empowerment Fund in five words and they responded with the following:

Inspiring – Rare – Community – Beneficial – Resourceful

So, today please take this opportunity to browse through their creative work, talk to them about their projects and see how beneficial their work has been for themselves and their communities. You’ll see for yourself too how resourceful they have been and be touched by that rarest of qualities: the ability to creatively respond to personal challenges and forge a new vision from those challenges.

Our vision here at TMC is simple: it’s to inspire children and young people to harness the power of arts, creativity and culture for positive change: and I am sure that today, you will witness first-hand how our young people have harnessed their artistic powers for all kinds of positive change.

The official launch of Round 4 will be later this afternoon, but in the meantime, I want to leave you some final words from one young person about the effect the Young Empowerment Fund had on them:

“I have met new people and made new connections.”

Which, in our ever-challenging world of mental health distress, dissolving community and heightened political tension is a fantastic testimony to the power that the arts and culture can have on all our lives. Thank you.

(Extract from welcome speech at the Young Empowerment Fund Celebration event, LCB Depot, Leicester, 26 March 2022)

The Mighty Creatives staff team took part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on 5th October 2022. You can check out the campaign here or donate your support to it here.

… 43 .. … 26 … Big …. ..: Reimaginings

Today’s reflection: building talent pipelines in the age of creative austerity

Arts Award inspires young people to grow their arts and leadership talents: it’s creative, valuable and accessible. Whatever art form they’re interested in, whatever their ability, Arts Award can be a perfect fit with their interests and skills.

They can do an Arts Award in any area of the arts from fashion to poetry, rapping to dancing, sculpture to film. They can be artists or performers, or want to develop their skills in essential roles like marketing or stage management.

Designed by our very own Chair of Trustees, Felicity Woolf way back when, the East Midlands is at the national Arts Award forefront and it’s a programme that we at TMC are honoured to promote.

Arts Award truly is a creative, flexible and valuable qualification for everyone: it can be achieved at five levels – Discover, Explore, Bronze, Silver and Gold levels – and offers children and young people every aspect of engagement possible: everything from taking part in different arts activities, to being inspired by artists and arts organisations through to organising your own projects.

We achieved 16,709 passes across the five levels between 2015 and 2018: and together we enabled over 35,000 young people to create their portfolios which go towards gaining their Arts Award qualifications.

This means you have contributed to young people growing their leadership skills, artistic talents, confidence and creative skills.

The numbers associated with the project are impressive. Across the region, we have over 300 Arts Award centres actively hosting activiities; and 119 Arts, Cultural and youth support organisations

So, we’re here today to celebrate this phenomenal achievement. Everyone in the room has contributed to young people in the region accessing great arts and culture through the Arts Award framework. You’ll hear some great key note presentations, and will be inspired by the amazing work produced by the children and young people of the region.

You’ll also have lots of networking opportunity to meet many practitioners including our Local Cultural Education Partnerships.

As we look forward to the future with Arts Award – and plan for its further evolution – we want to ensure all of you continue on the journey with us. Please make sure you sign up and stay connected with us at TMC, Trinity College London and Arts Council England for latest developments, continued support offers and opportunities.

(Extract from Introduction Speech at the Arts Award conference, ‘Arts Evolution’ at Stamford Court, Leicester on 13 March 2018.)

The Mighty Creatives staff team took part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on 5th October 2022. You can check out the campaign here or donate your support to it here.

Day 40 .. the 26 … Big …. Up: Reimaginings

So, in the meantime, in the spirit of hoping for the best but planning for the worst, here’s another reflection which highlights some of the amazing work the charity has done for, with and by children and young people in the East Midlands over the last ten years.

Today’s Reflection: Arts Infrastructure? Give it a rest!

People ask me, what are The Mighty Creatives then? And what’s an Arts Council Bridge Organisation when it’s at home? And what does being an arts infrastructure organisation actually mean? And why don’t you just give the money directly to the organisations that are actually delivering the arts? And cut out the middle men? Read on here…

The Mighty Creatives staff team took part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on 5th October 2022. You can check out the campaign here or donate your support to it here.

Day 39 .. the 26 … Big Shut Up: Reimaginings

Today’s reflection: what is the point of school?

What with accelerating technological and social changes, children have become socialites at 7, adults by 12 and are doubting everything the teacher and the school stands for, within a few months of joining secondary school.

If you believe the crystal ball gazers of the media, the curriculum has become irrelevant and has been superseded by the Internet where children work out their own curriculum, perhaps blindly, perhaps intuitively, perhaps guided by who knows what – certainly things we parents and teachers know nothing or little about.

No matter where you look, the central questions are the same: how should schools respond to the rapidly changing nature of the world we live in? How can they prepare children for an uncertain today and a completely unknown tomorrow?

We at the Mighty Creatives firmly believe that this preparation for the future – the ability to future proof our children so to speak -lays fairly and squarely at the doorstep of arts and culture.

It’s the power of arts and culture in the lives of children and young people which will affect their educational, their social and their economic futures.

I don’t just mean the ability to sit back and consume the latest musical X factor fad, but the ability for children to engage actively in the processes of understanding, creation and production of all forms of artistic activity.

We – teachers, artists, policy makers – have known for decades the power the arts have in the education of young people. Many of us will have stories which bear testament to that fact of life and may also be able to point to the many research studies over the years which support what we know from our own hard-won experiences.

This makes it essential that schools are at the heart of championing the arts and are given permission to create opportunities for the transformation that the arts can bring about.

This is why participating in the Arts Mark programme is so powerful for schools and the young people they serve – and why it’s such a thrill to be here this afternoon to see the effects that the Arts Mark programme is having on children across our region.

Since the relaunch of Artsmark in 2015 we have had over 250 schools register and join the Artsmark Community in the East Midlands. They’ve joined the growing national community of over 2,800 schools across England as a whole.

This commitment to arts and culture in our schools means that over 103,000 pupils in the region can be reached – and can have their lives transformed by the power of arts and culture. This level of transformation means that our children and young people are not only just finding the point of school, but are being prepared for a future which they can benefit from, rather than being frightened of and controlled by.

(Extract from welcome speech presented to Artsmark Schools at Nottingham Contemporary on 13 July 2017)

The Mighty Creatives staff team took part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on 5th October 2022. You can check out the campaign here or donate your support to it here.

Day 38 .. the 26 Day Big Shut Up: Reimaginings

So, in the meantime, in the spirit of hoping for the best but planning for the worst, here’s a reflection which highlights some of the amazing work the charity has done for, with and by children and young people in the East Midlands over the last ten years.

Today’s reflection: a Grand Tour with a Grand Ambition

One of my first jobs as CEO of The Mighty Creatives was to tour the East Midlands’ arts and cultural organisations to find the inspiration to rise to The Mighty Creatives’ core challenge: how can we get better at providing cultural education for children and young people? This post was about the first month of the ‘Grand Tour’.

The Mighty Creatives staff team took part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on 5th October 2022. You can check out the campaign here or donate your support to it here.

Day 37 of the 26 Day Big Shut Up: Reimaginings

It’s been a complex and intense process since January, what with the publication of guidelines and relationship frameworks, introductory conversations, digital briefings, opening of application portals, diversity monitoring, application assessment, balancing and decision-making. The process resulted in 1,728 applications to the programme, requesting just over £2 billion over the three-year period. This is more than double the number of NPOs that the Arts Council currently invests in and makes it their most over-subscribed investment round to date.

There will no doubt be winners and losers in this process. Some organisations will find themselves being able to speak and present their work perhaps for the first time; others will breathe a deep sigh of relief whennthey hear that their work is going to be continued to be supported and others will find themselves silenced and potentially shut down.

Was it ever thus. This process happens usually every three years and leads to an anxious sector with organisations uncertain for their futures. Scenario planning takes on a whole new levels of complexity and arts administrators the length and breadth of the country are noticeable by their absence of hair, shortage of nails and wild eyed staring look due to many sleepless nights.

The Mighty Creatives are in the same position as everyone else in the sector and are ready for the email on 26 October which will tell us about what our relationship with Arts Council England will be over the next 3 years. So, in the meantime, in the spirit of hoping for the best but planning for the worst, the next 10 days will highlight some of the amazing work the charity has done for, with and by children and young people in the East Midlands over the last ten years.

Today’s reflection: Let’s Create: arts packs through the Covid-19 Pandemic

Let’s Create packs were packs of arts resources for children and families who had been struggling through the pandemic. We focused on reaching children and families in poverty by working with Local Cultural Education Partnerships and with the End Child Poverty campaign. This highlighted the roles of food banks in communities which “became clear quite quickly, and where there weren’t links to food banks, we made them”.

Some families who received these packs would not otherwise have had access to creative materials. This was especially relevant in the city where packs were distributed through food banks serving people experiencing financial hardship.

One food bank manager spoke of how being able to offer packs made a material difference to families’ financial welfare and quality of life:

“It takes the pressure off and – all these lovely things that people have got, but not had to go into debt for. For lots of people these things are normal, but not for everyone. They were extra things that we could provide for them, for the whole family, although it is for the kids it helps the whole family.” (Let’s Create City Partner)

For more information about The Mighty Creatives supported this project in the East Midlands are here.

The Mighty Creatives staff team took part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on 5th October 2022. You can check out the campaign here or donate your support to it here.

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