I realised I had neglected to post the outcome of my top secret art mission! During early July I worked with two small groups of year 9 pupils at Accrington Academy to design and create three circus posters for three special occasions - the head teacher's retirement, the school's contribution to the Schools of Creativity Exhibition at the Festival of Britain and the end of their six year partnership with Jez Dolan, their Creative Partnerships Creative Agent.

The staff held a secret farewell circus on the last day of term, hence the top secret nature and the circus theme (in case you were wondering).

The posters were initially inspired by the work of Ricardo Cavolo and his poster for Cirque du Soleil's Safe Walls project with additional inspiration from pupil research into the history and character of circus posters through the years and across the globe.

It is an unusual bargaining tool, but I did it - I painted Cedars Infant School a Storyteller's Chair. I don't think it will work. I think the end of the Creative Partnerships funding might be too big a barrier to overcome, but it's worth a try.

It's not quite finished yet, another hour should do it. Another hour of yr 2 pupils telling me that I am a brilliant artist and saying 'Wow, that is beeootiful Miss', 'That's like something you would buy in a market' and 'It's brilliant...... it's very symetrical'.

When Chris got the Social Inclusion officer job at Arts Council he came straight round to our house to let me know. I was devastated that he would be leaving Action Factory, that we wouldn't be spending every day together putting the world to rights, dreaming big dreams and talking nonsense. I knew there was no way I could carry on working at Action Factory without him and spent the weekend sobbing, trying to imagine how I could possibly cope.

He left and I coped, and one of the reasons I was able to cope was because of Chris and his belief in me and my abilities. It was as if he had been preparing me for his departure. Work wasn't nearly as much fun or inspiring and I missed him terribly, but I stepped up and began to take on some of the tasks and roles he had previously carried out and I tried to channel a bit of Chris in my dealings with colleagues, partners and groups. I knew the difference it made when he believed in me and I tried my hardest to live those values and pass on that support to other people.

Chris died suddenly four weeks ago yesterday and we are all taking tentative steps into a world without him. One of the reasons we will cope is because of Chris, because of his belief in each of us and our abilities, and his passion for helping other people to shine. Life will be less interesting, less fun and we will miss him terribly but every day I encounter people who are taking inspiration from his life and his passion. I think those of us who knew him will always carry a little bit of Mr May's spirit with us, in our hearts and in our red socks. It is as if he had been preparing us for his departure.

On our way back from Italy: Me, Chloe, Chris and Kate. We laughed a lot, we learned a lot, we ate a lot.

Like thousands of other people I was glued to twitter yesterday as the Arts Council England emails, announcing whether NPO applications had been successful, were opened and the contents shared. I sat for 4 hours, from 7.30am - 11.30am following the stream of announcements, the retweets and the questions, looking for news from friends and colleagues. One by one those organisations I had searched for shared their news - Brilliant! Curious Minds the new North West Bridging Organisation for children and young people, then news from Folly in Lancaster announcing they wouldn't be at the NPO party (which was the first announcement I read which felt like a punch to the chest), Burnley Youth theatre announcing their success but tinged with sadness as the news that the joint bid from Chol Theatre and Proper Job had been unsuccessful. As the hours passed I searched for news about Action Factory, about Prescap, Mid-Pennine Arts and others and the silence was deafening.

Then the email came from Prescap (I joined their board of trustees last week) and the news was bad but the resolve to find another way was evident, then Action Factory announcing that their application had not been successful but with best wishes and support to all those who had been and finally Mid-Pennine with the same bad news but on the same day as finding out that their Contemporary Heritage programme was to be funded by Modern History.

God knows how the staff teams in arts companies around the country felt yesterday and feel today: I can only imagine. I know I feel like I have just heard that there has been a terrible accident and some of my friends have survived and others haven't. Lancashire and participatory arts in the North West seem to have been hit particularly hard - when I look at the member organisations of C-Pal (the consortium for participatory arts learning) in the North West, there are few organisations on there who will retain their regular funding relationship with Arts Council after this year and that is a consortium which is made up of some of the best participatory organisations in the region, with years of experience and an outstanding commitment to the future of participatory arts.

Yesterday afternoon, after my twitter marathon, I went to a performance at a special secondary school in Burnley, a school in its third year of the Creative Partnerships change Programme and where I have been Creative Agent since September 2010. Year 7 have been working with drama practitioner Naomi Whitman and latterly, maker and puppeteer Charlotte Zunder on a project to help them to engage more with reading and stories, improve their literacy, communication skills and confidence through drama. The project has been challening for practitioners, school staff and pupils. There is an unexpectedly high proportion of pupils with emotional and behavioural problems this year, a shift from the usual cohort of pupils with learning disabilities, and this has had a huge impact on the stability and security of the class. No day is a normal day and creating an environment where learning and collaboration are central takes skill and compassion.

The performance was wonderful. It had been devised by pupils working with Naomi and their class teacher and TAs, and with props made with Charlotte it was a magical adventure telling the story of the sequel to James and the Giant Peach that Roald Dahl had neglected to write. In the midst of the challenges and chaos a beautiful process had taken place and it was evident that performers now had more confidence and were more deeply engaged than anyone had ever thought possible. They took turns, listened (mostly), spoke clearly, remembered lines and soaked up the applause at the end. Their families, fellow students, head teacher, ex-primary school teacher and yr 6 pupils who will join the school next year saw these young people blossom, demonstrating their ability to contribute positively, express themselves and succeed. They have been part of a project, in their class and as part of their curriculum, which will have had a significant impact on their learning and I hope one which they will always remember. 

So, what does this have to do with arts funding?

• Creative Partnerships, the programme which has paid for this project and for thousands more across the country has already had its funding cancelled and the programme will end this summer. The programme works in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country, teaming schools and artists together to try new approaches to teaching and learning with the aim of improving life chances for disadvataged children - and it works.
• Curious Minds, who deliver the programme in Lancashire and Merseyside, applied to be the Regional Development Agency for children and young people and were successful yesterday. They are a brilliant organisation and absolutely suited to do the job well. Curious Minds rose from the Creative Partnerships Programme, establishing themselves as a social enterprise and the Area Delivery Organisation and over the past 6 years of CP in Lancashire have supported the development of artists and arts organisations through their work. I know that, just from my own perspective, working alongside them has played a huge part in my own professional development and consequently in my ability to deliver the best outcomes for the communities, children and organisations I work with.
• Naomi Whitman is a freelance practitioner and a creative agent. Until last year she worked for Proper Job Theatre, a theatre company with a strong history both as a devising and touring company, but most significantly as an organisation who specialise in drama work with people. Naomi is a wonderful practitioner. She is skilled at devising theatre collaboratively, an excellent communicator and with a solid understanding of emotional intelligence and the power of drama as a tool for confidence building, communication and development. I am sure her time with Proper Job will have had a significant impact on her as a practitioner. Proper Job will no longer receive regular funding from Arts Council England after 2012.
• Charlotte Zunder, freelance maker and puppeteer has worked with many organisations and I first worked with her at Action Factory in 2000. I recall her describing Action Factory (and I hope she won't mind me sharing this) as 'the mother ship', a description which really summed up for me the role of Action Factory in supporting and developing artists working in participatory and community arts. This level of support is not necessarily linked to a project or chargeable time - it's an investment made in the future of the sector through supporting freelance artists and takes the form of anything from a training course, development review, cup of tea and a chat, networking opportunity, paid work or support in developing a project idea. Charlotte also brings a great deal of skill, creativity and insight to any project she works on and her input and the input of other artists to Action Factory enriches projects and the organisation's work. Arts Council subsidy is what allows organisations like Action Factory to carry out that valuable role. Action Factory will no longer receive regular funding from Arts Council England after 2012
• And finally, there is me! I went to Action Factory in 1990 on a 3 month work experience placement, a placement which changed my life and resulted in a twenty year career in community arts (so far) and has allowed me to buy and keep a house and support myself and my partner.
  Action Factory has provided learning opportunities for hundreds of artists, students and volunteers over the years, investing in their personal, artistic and educational development. This takes time, care and attention. The core team works hard to ensure that each individual has an experience which meets their needs and contributes positively to their lives. It is testament to this investment that scores of artists and individuals can count their time with Action Factory as a turning point in their lives and that many of those have gone on to become professional community artists or have used their time with the organisation to build their confidence to move on to other careers. All this is in addition to delivering projects, creating art work with people and running a business. Action Factory will no longer receive regular funding from Arts Council England after 2012.

These are just a couple of stories from behind the arts funding headlines, the headlines that paint the arts as a sector of champagne sipping luvvies and fatcat producers. I don't think any of us have any idea yet about the depth or breadth of the impact these cuts will have on the future cultural landscape, and we may never get to hear the thousands of stories of individuals (like the children involved in this project) whose lives are poorer because of the cuts. I know Arts Council had a very difficult job to do and I admire their decision to use this as an opportunity to take a fresh look at who and how they fund the arts, but looking at the scale of the cuts to existing RFOs in Lancashire and the North West I struggle to see the parity in the decisions they have made and how they are going to result in 'Great Art For Everyone'.

And I feel very, very sad.

 

I have spent so much time updating the blog from the Curious Minds Training I did last week I had entirely forgotten to update my own blog!

All I want to say is I LOVED IT! For someone who spent years as a participatory arts facilitator I have facilitated very few workshops in recent years (far too much time form filling and organising other people to do the stuff) and it reminded me just how much I love it. I felt alive. Part of that was with fear initially, but very quickly I got into the zone and was back to my old self. (Sorry!)

Wahoooooooooo!

Another great learning experience this evening courtesy of Curious Minds as agents and practitioners came together to learn the jargon, explore the purpose of and our role in pupil tracking and assessment.
Of course, as well as the facts and figures there was collaborative creative activity - Can you tell what it is yet?

Or.......stuff I have learned about photographic documentation.

I love taking photographs. I have no great skill and don't entirely understand how to use my camera (ok, don't understand at all once it's not on full auto) but some people tell me that I take good photos and I am always chuffed to see how many people have used shots I have taken of them as profile photos on facebook.

These photos were taken yesterday at a wonderful CPD session at Cedars Infants. Dominic Kelly, a storyteller from Lancaster, will be working with welfare staff, TAs, parents and teachers over the next two terms on a whole school storytelling project which we hope will inspire a love of story, a passion for language and will raise the confidence and self-esteem of both adults and children. Yesterday's 3hr session provided all the school staff with an opportunity to play with stories, learn a little about the techniques of storytelling and build their confidence in anticipation of the project.

I hope that the photos capture some of the fun and energy of the day and that they communicate the beginning of our storytelling adventure together. Someone said yesterday that they were an example of how easy it is to document activities, and they were right. If I can do it, anyone can.

So, here's what I know (inspired by the lists of @marcusromer) - please feel free to add to the list!

1. Be clear about the purpose of the photos. Yesterday was just about capturing the spirit of the day. If we had been using it as a tool for measuring progression, capturing a starting point, I probably would have taken video or looked for a wider range of images linked to verbal/written documentation (just thinking, maybe I should have done that) - OK, be clear before you start and remember when you didn't do that last time to do it next time (Cath)
2. Shoot from the hip, the shoulder, feet and the sky. I am quite a controlled person and recognised that lots of my photos ended up looking the same. Matt Gartside from Zumamedia told me to hold the camera in different places and not look through the viewfinder. It is more likely you will get an interesting shot and less likely that people will notice that you are taking photos and assume the 'cheese' position. He even recommended looking in the opposite direction to the one in which your camera is pointing (haven't quite got the hang of that yet)
3. Take loads and loads of pictures. I took about 150 shots yesterday and will probably show about 15 to any other human being - if I was being really tough I would probably show about 3. The more photos you take, the more chance you have of getting some good images.
4. Use what you've got - camera phones can be excellent and I am increasingly using the tools on my phone for documentation. Stills and video are pretty good and apps like hipstamatic and retro camera on smartphones can help make a quick shot into an engaging image (check out @documentally http://OurManInside.com for someone who makes great use of the tools on his phone for documenting.)
5. Get help! It's hard to participate/facilitate and take loads of photos. I am full of good intentions then get to the end of the session and notice my camera, still in its bag, unused. The 'shooting from the hip' technique helps here - I just carry the camera round with me whilst doing other stuff, or I duck out of participating for short periods of time (which I had to do yesterday), or I ask someone else to document as well (either a volunteer, participant, TA, teacher). Children and young people take some excellent photos and it's always useful to see the activity from their perspective.
6. Edit I'm not any better at taking pics than anyone else, I just don't show people the crap stuff. I was going to show you a collection of legs, noses and floor pics here, but there were deleted even before they left the camera. And there were a lot of them - an awful lot of them!
7. Crop, adjust, fettle (hang on, that could be the sequel to 'Eat, Pray, Love') I still use photoshop when appropriate, but mostly use the really simple (and free) tools in Picassa to crop images. Most images can be improved by cropping, adjusting light etc. I turned some of the images into black and white - there was so much colour in the room and I hadn't got my lighting right so it was hard to see what was actually happening. Switching to black and white helped draw focus to the action.
8. Share the pics and share them quick - Even if I haven't had chance to fettle them, I try to pick one or two out and get them sent to people - I'll either email them to teachers or participants, send links to picassa albums or get them on twitter/facebook/flickr (if I have permission) as soon as possible. Photos speak volumes, but they can't communicate if they sit in your camera or on your hard drive.
9. Have fun! If you have a digital camera, 300 shots will cost you nothing to take and share. Experiment, learn, play (it will never replace crop, adjust fettle though). I find that people really value the effort you put in and it's just another way of contributing a bit of creativity and spirit to the world.

There must be loads more - please, please add bits!

Oh, and I'll keep you up to date with the Storytelling Project. It's going to be a goodun!

 

A couple of weeks ago I spent a morning at a Creative Partnerships School of Creativity Hub meeting, practising my visual scribing techniques. Unfortunately a lot of people had to send their apologies, so the meeting followed a less structured yet still fascinating route and I ended up just sitting, listening, drawing and occasionally scribing. I really enjoyed the process though, learned a lot and will definitely do more, but next time - more usefulness and fewer twiddly bits.