As followers of this blog will know, the F13 network – a broad coalition of independent artists and arts organisations, freelance creative practitioners and other interested parties convened by Talking Birds – was commissioned (on the back of its ‘Creating the Conditions for Creation‘ draft action plan) to develop and produce an event (The Future Works) to bring the creative sector back together, to move forwards after the turbulence of the last few years. (This process has been pretty extensively blogged, so if you need a catch up, maybe best to start here.)
The Future Works event seems to have been a great success and, of course, generated a lot of material. We wanted to get this online asap to share with everyone who wasn’t able to be part of the event itself and allow the conversation to go wider than the event itself – and so this material is all available in great detail here – but, by way of a summary or introduction, here follows a compilation of posts from the 10 small group facilitators.
Group A: Partnership and Investment
Two groups of very different people, treating each other’s knowledge and skillset with great respect. All celebrating the brilliance of Coventry’s creative offer and it’s potential. In recognising the huge amount of work going on across the city they were able to identify areas where working together for the common good. The passion was infectious and the value of working on a common goal from our range of perspectives was evident. This very much felt like the beginning of something, a network to invest in.
Quick Wins:
- Pick up the Fair Pay Project that CoC started. Ensure mentors are available to freelancers who are negotiating with an employer and utilising the project. Ask major local arts employers to sign up to the terms of the project. Include other working rights issues such as access riders.
- Create a city-wide What’s On. Explore the potential to link with Go CV card.
Group B: Value & Spaces
A real drive in our conversations was to see how we might, as a city and collective of creatives, develop transparency between ourselves. How can we share data more easily to help us each make a stronger argument for the arts? How can we share more easily, the work and the spaces that we have at our fingertips and support their conservation?
Our group also recognised the vital role that the Council plays within our city and wanted to make Coventry City Council’s decision making and arts funding application processes more transparent and accessible. There was also a want for artists to be more involved in the council’s decisions with regard to business permit and building development, to ensure that there is a consideration of the city’s arts and culture in future contracts. This might also manifest in a basic arts and culture levy for businesses.
Finally, there was a hope that we might find a new way to think about arts and cultural development rather than those who make the decisions and those who are affected by it, but instead meet somewhere in the middle to find a more equal language and way of working.
Quick Win:
- Development of an Arts Trail/Compendium that helps direct us all to some of the lesser known spaces and resources that are already in the city.
Group C: Education & Careers
Once individuals began to imagine and ’see’ what could be possible in 2030, ideas as to how we got there began to flow. They saw festivals, open and accessible shows/presentations/displays in numerous pockets and spaces in Coventry. Family members and neighbourhoods being made a part of the creative world. They saw places where creative skills could be accessed near to every area in the city. Artists embedded within schools, providing skills, enabling collaboration within subject areas, training staff. Once group members engaged and began to project hopes and dreams, they were more than able to construct a pathway to get there.
Key Ideas:
- Create more arts facilitators in schools, training teachers and others. Bring in more artist in residence opportunities. The presence should be long term, not a flash presence.
- Collective projects for students – work with presentation events that welcome neighbours, parents and others to create new links between people. These would give additional relevance and meaning to students’ work.
- Building confident artists. Creating confidence in students’ talents and who they are. Fostered by artists on site.
Group D: Community, Belonging and Pride
We had a very lively discussion right from the get-go. Everyone had plenty to say and we could have spent the whole time just talking about the mission statement. We managed to convert that energy onto the post-it notes and there was lots of discussion while participants were writing and sticking! Our actions covered a wide range of subjects from ending capitalism to embedding artists in the council to bringing back pride and making sure the arts are fully on the curriculum.
Quick Wins:
- Work out and analyse what community assets are in the city currently.
- Artists to infiltrate the Council, across different departments.
- Explore how creativity can be embedded in the city. Embed artists in decision making.
Group E: Inclusion and Democracy
Each person shared their thoughts of significant actions we might take to achieve that vision between now and then, then wrote their own on a post-it note and collectively we decided where to place it, depending on if the group felt it was a short-term or long-term process. There were many actions the group believed would need to be repeated (such as regularly reviewing if all communities had representation in the decision making and implementing process). There was an air of excitement and determination, with active listening and respectful consideration of others throughout.
Quick wins:
- Change the word ‘democracy’ and think about other structures that could be used instead.
- Make funding sources and structures more transparent and available.
Group F: Health & Wellbeing
“Care” was a key word that came up throughout both group conversations. We care about the well-being of the city’s artists and practitioners/communities and the importance of this and how we need to look after our overall health and wellbeing so we can continue to work in the ways that are important to the work that we do.
That the cultural strategy was successful because of the commitment at every level, with regular review processes, conversations, and consultation – this is how we can identify what is needed. Ensuring that communities feel valued and supported, having access to a range of spaces to work in across the city (centrally and in neighbourhoods). There are lots of things we can do now in 2024 as part of our practice moving forward with the commitment and support from others.
Quick Win:
- Conversations with local organisations and businesses to adopt the cultural strategy and embed in the processes of the health structures.
Group G: Ambition, Spectacle, Mass Experience
Our primary focus was on enabling artists to fully embrace their artistic essence, allowing innovative thinkers to unleash their creativity and dream big. The emphasis was on initiating widespread engagement, ensuring that artistic expression could flourish in every corner of Coventry. The goal was to empower individuals to hold the license to craft, engage in blue-sky thinking, and cultivate their artistic endeavors.
While acknowledging the significance of ambition, spectacle, and mass experience, we recognised that championing the arts as a viable career path was a universal starting point. It served as the foundational seed that would eventually sprout into large-scale, epic, and bold artistic endeavours.
Quick wins:
- Make sure artistic voices are valued.
- Showing the power of our city, proving the approach works, Coventry artistic product is of highest value.
Group H: Research, Business and Innovation
Discussion was frustrated by a lack of vision amongst University staff about the usefulness of involving creatives in research. There seemed to be a pervasive sense of creative involvement being limited to patronage. It was clear that creatives need to be better at shouting about some of the amazing research collaborations they have been involved with and how these have directly benefitted the research itself. The Universities had seen the benefit to being involved in the City of Culture year and wanted to continue that kind of relationship with creative industries, but also admitted to no longer having the budget to maintain it. Staff from Creative organisations raised the issue that Universities had a history of expecting their representation at events for free and freelancers talked about community arts opportunities being poorly paid. It was noted that of all the ESF funded projects in Coventry, only the FABLAB had not been refunded by Cov Uni, despite the fact it covered most of the Vision Statement.
Quick wins:
- To advertise University opportunities in Arts Listings through Arts Council England as well as through Talking Birds and Coventry Artspace.
- To hold F13 and Artspace meetings at the Universities to get artists into those buildings (it would be great if random members of different faculties could be present, too, in order to learn about what creatives are doing in the city)
Group I: Neighbourhood Green Action
Quick wins:
- Positive action shared effectively.
- Create a framework with designated framework actors to create action and give power back to people – beehive analogy.
- Enable grey spaces to become green spaces, consider wildlife corridors.
Group J: Heritage and innovation
The first group felt that the emphasis was too much on technological solutions, and not enough on the agency of use and reuse of the existing built environment. We should audit our built environment to map and identify current and future potential cultural use of indoor and outdoor spaces, including shared and multiple use. We felt that the ring road should be treated as a large-scale building.
Big Idea:
Redefine the ring road as a building, reimagine it’s purpose on/around/under and create an urban park.
Quick wins:
- Audit and reimagine spaces for the use of arts and for multiple uses.
- Create and train up a set of freelance cultural custodians to open spaces out of hours.
For full detail of event and discussions, see The Future Works website.
Words from the Birds 