Arts Council live chat with Alan Davey, Chief ... - Arts Council England

Arts Council live chat with Alan Davey,
Chief Executive
This is an unedited transcript of the Arts Council live chat conversation on
Wednesday 25 July 2012.
ACE Moderator: Hello everyone, Alan Davey will be joining us at 12pm today but
you can post your questions in advance for consideration between now and then.
ACE Moderator: If you're having any problems with the chatroom in you can email
our support at livechathelp@cogapp.com
Alan Davey joined the room
ACE Moderator: Hello everyone, thanks for joining our live chat with Alan Davey,
we’re about to get started. We hope to get through as many of your questions as
possible in the next hour, but if we don’t get to yours there will be other
opportunities to chat to Alan - please check http://bit.ly/ACEchat for forthcoming
dates. We will make a transcript of this chat available online at http://bit.ly/ACEchat
when it is finished.
Alan Davey: Hello everyone, Alan here. Welcome to our second live web chat.
This is a great opportunity for the Arts Council to speak directly to audiences,
artists and the general public about what we do and how we spend your money.
I'm sitting in a very hot office, but it's great that we've got sunshine at last. Ask
away!
ACE Moderator: QUESTION FROM Jessica Pitt via Facebook:
I love the strapline on this page; "working to get great art to everyone..." and
believe that the Arts Council truly endeavours to achieve this outcome. There is
barely any mention of the role of music in the lives of our youngest children in the
Henley Review. Research suggests that this is the MOST formative period of
human life where all the connections are being made for future learning and

emotional wellbeing. There is a patchwork of provision of early education and care
and no simple way to join up music practice that takes place in Children's Centres,
nurseries, day-care and school foundation classes. Many music practitioners are
freelance in this field - do you see planning and including music in early childhood
as part the Music Hubs' main service delivery or an additional extra? Please could
you give the arts council view as the commissioner of Music Hubs in considering
the provision of music to children under 5? Thank you.(I am a doctoral researcher
in Applied Music Research Centre: University of Roehampton and have over 20
years experience as a music specialist in early childhood)
Alan Davey: To Jessica Pitt:
The Arts Council’s goal is for all children and young people to have the opportunity
to experience the richness of the arts, and this includes the under 5s. Some of the
organisations we fund as part of the National portfolio specialise in early years
provision, as do the Youth Music grants. We’ll also explore the possibility of the
Arts Award (which is developed and managed in partnership with Trinity College
London) extending to the under 5sEarly years and foundation stage provision
could well be something that a music education hub would want to undertake, but
it is not one of the core or extension roles, so the funding from the Department for
Education couldn’t be used but other sources of funding available for this kind of
work, such as local authority funding, or project-based Lottery funding via Youth
Music.
#lostarts: Hi, & thanks for giving us the opportunity to ask questions. We have 2
questions. What do you think about austerity, specifically the arts cuts' broader &
long-term impacts? On both the sector and on local communities who enjoy, use
and learn from them. Secondly, we don't blame you or managers- but we do blame
Government. Do you, and do you think ACE as an arms-length body has a
Alan Davey: To lostarts:
In public spending terms, the arts cost very little but they offer untold wealth to
people, communities and this country. I will always argue that candle end savings
on arts and culture are a real false economy. Any society that doesn't value the
arts is a very small-minded one. You ask me about blame: blame is an emotion
that eats at the soul and, actually, we need to get on and make the case for the
arts and protect what we really value. And that's our main focus at the Arts Council
at the moment.

ACE Moderator: QUESTION FROM Susan Forsyth via Facebook:
Can you comment on the spread of the Artists International Award? 50% of the
projects are in Europe. Though I am pleased for the individual artists, almost 20%
of the funded projects are in Germany (5) more that the whole of Asia (4), North
America(4), Africa (2) or South America (0.5). There are many existing
opportunities for artists to work in Europe, indeed low cost flights & EU law makes
it much easier. I feel that the global reach and pre-existing opportunities should be
taken into account in the next tranche of British Council/ACE money.
Alan Davey: To Susan Forsyth:
As you can imagine this was a really popular fund. We received almost 300
applications which meant that competition was really high and there were a lot of
great projects proposed for all over the world. We tried to be as fair as possible to
all applicants so there was no weighting for art form or geographical location,
successful applicants were chosen on the strength of their application. Of the 25
successful applicants, 14 are travelling beyond Europe to places like Egypt,
Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the USA. That’s over half of the applicants so I do
believe that there has been a good spread. But I would also say that Europe does
matter and I do get concerned that there isn't enough contact between artists in
this country and some of the things going on in Europe. We mustn't ignore our
nearest neighbours. I've just come back from the Avignon Festival and am full of
thoughts about how we can learn from some of the artistic developments in
Europe as well as the rest of the world.
ACE Moderator: QUESTION FROM @oohmince Via Twitter:
How do you plan to sustain the momentum of the Cultural Olympiad given
anticipated further cuts in arts funding?
Alan Davey: To oohmince:
The Cultural Olympiad has been and continues to be a great showcase for what
arts and culture in this country is and can do. It's been positively Olympic in its
aspiration and achievements and we now have to say to those in charge of the
purse strings that this has shown a level of achievement that we have to maintain.
I believe having any loss of momentum after this year is unthinkable.

ACE Moderator: QUESTION FROM Gary Green via email:
How do ACE aim to ensure that the non-arts aspects of libraries is developed as
much as the cultural and arts aspects? Areas such as (but not only) support for
education & literacy, community & social aspects are as important as the cultural
and arts focus of libraries. Will the ACE charter and mission statement be
amended to reflect your new responsibilities that go beyond the arts, as indicated
above?
Alan Davey: To Gary Green:
We are already working hard to ensure that we join up arts and cultural activity
with the wider libraries agenda, mainly through the Libraries development initiative
announced in January. Areas such as education and literacy will be targeted
through projects like the one led by the London Borough of Richmond, which tests
the delivery of adult learning in libraries. The Books on Prescription project will
also help libraries address health and social care issues by prescribing books from
a list of high quality self-help manuals for people suffering from common mental
health problems. It is also worth noting that most of the artistic activities going on
within libraries will be used to support education and literacy, and will involve local
communities. In answer to your second question, our mission statement has
already changed to reflect our wider cultural remit and is very much embedded in
our decision-making framework Culture, knowledge and understanding. Our
charter has also been updated.
ACE Moderator: QUESTION FROM Oj Lg via Facebook:
Why do about 5-7 organisations in the Professional Theatre Companies (like the
RSC, National Theatre etc) in the UK receive millions of pounds and other smaller
theatre companies receive little or no funding as part of the National Portfolio
Status 2012-15?Wouldn't it be better to have more Theatre Companies benefit
from the Arts Council than less and bigger theatre companies receiving more
money - its seems like a Robin Hood strategy to me?
Alan Davey: To Oj Lg:
There are actually 179 Theatre organisations of all shapes and sizes in our
National Portfolio – including building based theatres, production companies and
touring. But NPO status doesn’t suit everyone because it carries responsibilities
that some prefer not to shoulder. Many are better off with Grants for the arts, which
funded 531 theatre applications last year. The big theatre companies in our
National Portfolio commit to much more than producing great art. They are

expected to make a significant contribution to the Arts Council’s goals for the arts –
working with other theatre companies across the country, expanding and
diversifying audiences, education programmes and the like. The bigger the grant,
the greater the responsibility. What matters is that a wide variety of artists get to
make work that touches and reaches audiences across the country. We need to
make sure there is a balance of big and small organisations working as a healthy
ecology, and that those organisations that we do fund we fund to the right level
and do not spread the money too thinly.
ACE Moderator: QUESTION FROM @mand62 Via: Twitter
How do you expect your staffing changes to affect organisations that you fund?
Alan Davey: To mand62:
We're doing our best to keep our service to arts organisations and to artists as
good as it can be. We’ll continue to have relationship managers on the ground
dealing with arts organisations and artists face to face. You'll appreciate that with
150 less staff this is a pretty difficult thing to achieve, so we're streamlining our
processes, reorganising ourselves in an even leaner way to offer the best possible
service. You can't make savings of that magnitude without it inevitable affecting
the amount we can do - but I'm optimistic that in our new incarnation we'll be
effective in how we serve the interests of arts and culture - and that's my bottom
line.
TheatreShy: Is the Arts Council too concerned with large organisations and vanity
projects rather than the arts ecology as a whole?
Alan Davey: To Theatreshy:
Not at all! The whole basis behind the last NPO funding review was to make sure
we had a balanced ecology with large flagship organisations in a healthy state and
a whole variety of smaller organisations funded to a level that will allow them to do
their jobs well. In every art form we have to look at that whole ecology and our
concern for smaller organisations is evidenced in our Grants for the arts
programme, where we said NPOs could not apply, thereby making sure that we
were letting into our funding system organisations from all parts of the arts
ecology. And I want us to continue this going forwards. By the way - I'm not
conscious of the Arts Council undertaking any vanity projects; we're just interested
in great art being seen by as many people as possible.

Silent Pete:
What experience does the arts council have to oversee museums and libraries?
Alan Davey: To Silent Pete:
We've taken on a significant number of former MLA staff and recruited new people
with the right knowledge to enable us to look after these new sectors. We’ve
sought to engage both sectors in a constructive way and have listened very hard
to their concerns and needs. We’re getting good feedback from the sectors about
the way we've done this and so I think you cannot say we lack the right expertise.
ACE Moderator: QUESTION FROM Annie Yactor via Facebook:
Mr Davey, Why does ACE give £60k-£90k grants to theatre companies like
Youmebumbumtrain who use it pay the Artistic Directors and 20 crew but fail to
pay actors? Why should other grant recipients who pay ALL staff have to unfairly
compete with companies that fail to pay actors? Why do you think their business
model is a good and sustainable model for the industry?
Alan Davey: To Annie Yactor:
Of course the Arts Council encourages all applicants for funding to employ best
practice in regards to both paid positions and volunteering opportunities. We aren't
funding the current performances of Youmebumbumtrain, but we did fund them
previously via Grants for the arts. In their applications, they were clear that
participants took part voluntarily and were entirely free to take part at their own
discretion. The budget set out in their application showed that everyone who was
to be contracted in a professional role on the production was paid in line with
industry standards.
ACE Moderator: QUESTION From Catalyst via chatroom:
Is it realistic to expect very significant increases in income from private donors and
commercial organisations in the current climate, and certainly without significant
tax breaks and a long-term strategic approach to changing the UK philanthropic
culture? Is the Catalyst fund in danger of simply providing many additional
fundraisers to approach a pot of donors that isn't going to grow that much?
Particularly how do smaller companies compete?

Alan Davey: To Catalyst:
This is about helping organisations to become more resilient for the future. In my
report on endowments I was very clear that philanthropic and commercial
sponsorship is not a short-term fix and is only one part of the funding mix that has
to remain publicly funded at its heart. Donors want to fund success; they want to
fund something extra - and I want to help organisations get better at convincing
those with money to give that culture is a good cause worth giving to. Changing
the philanthropic culture in this country will take 20 years. Catalyst is one response
to help organisations meet that challenge but it's not an instant answer and, I have
to emphasise again, does not and should not replace core public funding. That is
the bedrock of the mixed economy of the arts in this country and we should never
forget that.
Curious Minds:
Hi Alan, looking at all things future positive what is the dream situation for arts and
culture and children and young people in three years’ time and what is the
probable situation in three years’ time? Also what or who inspired you when you
were young?
Alan Davey: To Curious Minds:
My dream is for young people to be able to discover art and culture and, if they
have a talent, to be able to take that as far as it can go - no matter what their
background. With schemes like Artsmark, Arts Award, Music Hubs, our funding of
Bridge organisations and working with other funders in response to the Henley
Review, we're putting in place some essential building blocks for this to develop.
But we have a lot to do and we also need to look at the position of Humanities in
higher education and people's ability to get the training they need and, indeed their
first jobs and ability to make a living from their talent. In the autumn we'll be
announcing a scheme for paid internships in the arts but you are right to suggest
that we will not have done everything we want to in three years' time. WE have to
keep working at it. As for what inspired me when I was young, it was, frankly, a
teacher - who showed me that the arts WERE for someone like me, living on a
council estate, and that I could go on to university and end up where I am now.
TheatreShy: How do you ensure that your staff are appropriately qualified and
trained? You are in the position of expert and critical friend - yet surely those most

qualified are working artists and working within organisations - those making art,
rather than civil servants administering funds?
Alan Davey: To Theatreshy:
You seem to be suggesting that everyone who works in the Arts Council is a
boring bureaucrat. Actually, many people who work here are practicing artists and
they have a great deal of knowledge about their art forms which is of course very
important. But we need a range of skills in the Arts Council - to make sure that
money gets to where it needs to go, and that we properly account for it to
parliament. And incidentally, civil servants can be passionate and knowledgeable
about the arts, too. There are a large number of these at the DCMS and it's
important that they're there.
ACE Moderator: QUESTION FROM Sally Sheinman, Chair of AIR, via Twitter
@AIR_artists:
Do you have a plan to increase the number of visual artists on decision making
panels?
Alan Davey: To Sally Sheinman:
I absolutely believe that artists from all art forms have valuable ideas and opinions
to contribute – in addition to those they express through their work. That’s why we
do involve them in our decisions – through consultation on many of our developing
policies and funding programmes, through the artistic assessment and peer review
systems they helped to develop, and via the artistic expertise of our regional and
national Council members. It’s also why the theme of our annual State of the Arts
conference this year was ‘Artists Changing the World’. And of course we’re always
looking at ways to improve which, in the context of having to make 50%
administrative savings next year, we’re currently considering our future
governance arrangements – which will give us the chance to think again about the
advisory role of artists within that.
Mac: Hello Alan, Thank you for answering questions today. Has a review or
evaluation of the application phase of Creative People and Places Fund? It would
be interesting to know how much time and other costs hard-pressed individuals
and organisations incurred - especially those who were unsuccessful. It would
appear to yet again dominated by the usual suspects - local authorities,
established bigger arts/cultural organisations, however even that is difficult to
determine as there is no published information about the consortia, bid content or

who was successful or not. So much for transparency! In my experience it proved
an incredibly time consuming, wasteful and counter-productive experience
especially for those 'new and diverse' partner organizations we encouraged to get
involved… sadly most of them will not get involved again in a hurry. Sorry to moan,
but this looked like a 'new dawn'... Best wishes Mac
Alan Davey: To Mac:
Thanks for joining in. Creative People and Places is a brand new fund which is
absolutely about involving grass roots organisations and communities in decisions
about what sort of art they want to see and get involved in. We’ll be making the
announcement about the first round of successful applicants very soon and I think
you'll see that they're not 'the usual suspects'. And before we launch round two we
will be looking at the application process, guidance etc and making any
adjustments we feel necessary, given the experience of round 1. As this is Lottery
money we have to have some sort of application process but we're committed to
learning from every process we run. As a rule we never talk about unsuccessful
applicants to any of our programmes as this might affect their ability to secure
funding elsewhere.
nolarae:
The Rumor Mill is pretty active at the moment, saying that the DCMS will be split
up after the Olympics. What potential threats does this pose for Arts Council not
having DCMS holding 'wolves', i.e. other Govt Depts taking funding away from the
Arts?
nolarae: Sorry should read 'holding back the wolves'
Alan Davey: To nolarae:
Well, I'm not sure that wolves get much from DCMS budgets - it being the smallest
department in Whitehall by far. Whatever happens, they'd need to protect budgets
for arts and museums and there would need to be a place in Whitehall to represent
their interests. In the past this has been the Cabinet Office, the Education
department or even the Treasury direct. Some other countries such as Australia
put arts and culture as part of the Prime Minister's office, reflecting their
importance. So if there is a proposal to abolish the DCMS there will need to be a
convincing alternative so that the interests of arts and culture remain at the heart
of government. And that is the case we - the sector and the Arts Council - have to
argue as strongly as we can. It seems to me to be a false economy to abolish a
body if you then have to reinvent it elsewhere.

Alan Davey: Thanks everyone for joining the chat today. Sorry I've not been able
to answer every question - Liz is up again in a few weeks and I'll be here again in
the autumn.
ACE Moderator: Thanks everyone for taking part in today’s chat, if there wasn’t
time to answer your question, there will be another opportunity to chat to Alan
Davey - to stay informed visit http://bit.ly/ACEchat or follow #ACElivechat on
Twitter.