Manifestos

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 | Books / Magazines / Printed resources | No Comments

Manifesto of Possibilities: Rich resources at this wiki hosted by Birkbeck University, London: Increasingly, people working in diverse aspects of contemporary urban society, from developers to park wardens, are turning to the arts for new ideas, regeneration, problem solving and community bridge building. The employment of artists in these (traditionally non-cultural) fields, where there are other non-art issues and agendas at stake, is becoming the norm. This manifesto is a chance for you to address the uncertainties of commissioning art in areas of urban change, discuss crucial concerns, and devise tangible solutions, knowing they will be presented to key decision makers.

Personal, professional and policy factors within a community arts practice.

A great pdf report by Douglas Nicholson that can be downloaded here:

douglas-nicolson-personal-professional-and-policy-factors-within-community-arts-practice

Douglas Nicolson is a community artist with experience of project design, development and delivery. His interests lay in exploring artist role in varied organizational and cultural settings. He has previous experience in working within health, criminal justice, regeneration, intergenerational, education, gallery, international development and research focused projects.

As part of an MA in Community Art at Goldsmith he recently undertook a study of artists working in the social realm from the artist’s point of view. This was in part a response to the lack of artists voices within project evaluation. The aim of the study was to improve the knowledge base and therefore the practice of community arts through exploring the experience of the sample group of community artists, based in London, in relation to personal, professional and policy factors. By Identifying main factors that affect motivation within the field of community arts key recommendations for artists and policy are formulated.

Research methodology uses qualitative data from interviews of community artists, where the adaptation of a framework from a study by Herzberg et al (1959) is noted.

The study adds to the knowledge base on community arts, particularly concerning:

• A lack of adequate management in the field.
• A lack of recognition of the professionalism of artists, especially by social sector staff.
• Artists have a lack of clarity over official aims and can focus on personal aims.
• Artists have concerns over the instrumental aims of social policy.
• Artists find grouping people by funding criteria problematic.
• Artists have concerns over short term funding and lack of funded time allocated within projects.

A desire for a union to counteract negative managerial and financial factors is identified. The study also uncovers the importance of the self-actualisation effects of the work on the artists, particularly those linked with participants, as a major motivating factor. › Continue reading

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