OutdoorArtsUK believes that the outdoor arts sector is particularly well placed to support Arts Council England (ACE) in delivering its new Strategic Framework. Our Director, Sho Shibata, explains.
OutdoorArtsUK welcomes the Arts Council’s reiteration of its purpose: to “foster a future in which creativity sits at the heart of society, shaping the lives of its people – whoever they are and wherever they live – for the better”. This is very much in keeping with the outdoor arts sector strategy – Wherever You Are, Whoever You Are, The Arts Are Yours, which was published in February this year.
The sector looks forward to working with Arts Council England to:
- Champion forms of artistic excellence rooted in place and community voice
- Strengthen the cultural sector’s commitment to improving audience diversity
- Expand access to meaningful artistic experiences in areas of the country that are historically underserved by culture
On “Excellence”
Arts Council England now makes explicit reference to investing in the creative sector to foster excellence, and OutdoorArtsUK particularly welcomes the Arts Council’s recognition of the variability of artistic excellence. We urge Arts Council England to apply its commitment to “enabling local voices” to the question of excellence, to avoid the risk of it becoming a mechanism for exclusion and alienation. The full spectrum of communities must have their say on what excellence means, and the outdoor arts sector stands ready to take the lead on exploring the intersection of artistic excellence and community voice.
As explained in our sector strategy, outdoor arts is inherently civic, unfolding in shared public spaces and reaching communities historically underserved by culture. This context demands a form of artistic excellence grounded in place, people and lived experience. Our artists draw on their social awareness to create meaningful, high-quality work that diverse audiences not only attend, but see themselves reflected in. This is how our artistic practice succeeds in fostering pride, trust and belonging for a wide variety of individuals in all corners of the country. For us, artistic excellence and civic relevance are interdependent: without the former, work becomes shallow; without the latter, it may be impressive but disconnected.
This is why outdoor arts is equally at home creating flagship spectacles for Cities of Culture and other major events, as well as large-scale participatory work such as carnivals, and intimate performances in the public spaces of towns and villages.
Freelance artists and personnel hold deep expertise of our methodologies, and OutdoorArtsUK asks that the Arts Council include freelancers in our sector in co-designing its new Service for Individuals
On “Everybody”
We are pleased to see the increase of emphasis of culture reaching a wider range of people, as well as access to culture for children and young people becoming a specific priority. The Audience Agency research has consistently shown that outdoor arts audiences are: More socially diverse than many other artforms; attend in larger groups than is typical across the arts; and are strongly motivated by opportunities to spend time with friends and family. These suggest that outdoor arts is particularly effective at attracting family and multi-generational audiences from a variety of diverse communities, successfully appealing to people who do not regularly engage with other forms of cultural activity.
Whilst we welcome the Arts Council reiterating its commitment to “invest to grow opportunities for Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse people, Disabled people, and people from working-class backgrounds”, its current commitment focuses on governance, workforce and programme, and the issue of diversity within audiences is not directly addressed. OutdoorArtsUK believes that the cultural sector cannot be deemed fully inclusive if audience diversity is not considered within its measures of success.
We are encouraged to read that the Arts Council may be moving towards including audience diversity more explicitly in its thinking, as it states that:
“We believe our investment should reflect the diversity of our country, both in the individuals and organisations we invest in, and in the public experiencing it.”
With the Arts Council also committing to “providing clearer, simpler research, data, and practical support” as a development agency, we urge it to work with outdoor arts, relevant research bodies and other cultural sectors to develop a reliable framework for monitoring audience diversity.
Outdoor arts must also be included in any efforts to develop a framework to monitor the arts’ impact on policy priorities such as social cohesion and wellbeing. We are a key sector for delivering social impact and audience diversity, and questions of what is being evaluated, and how, is a key focus within our sector strategy. The outdoor arts sector invites the Arts Council to work closely with us as a key partner.
On “Everywhere”
Outdoor arts can work with Arts Council England to address its concern that the “uneven distribution of funding has left too many places with a limited cultural offer”. The fleet-of-foot nature of our work means we can bring artistic work to communities where cultural infrastructure is lacking or perceived as “not for the likes of us”.
This is why we work effectively in Creative People and Places and Priority Places such as Stoke-on-Trent and Great Yarmouth. We also look forward to broadening our work in newly designated Culture Priority Places identified by Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Key outdoor arts organisations already exist in places such as Tameside and Doncaster.
We ask the Arts Council to work with the outdoor arts sector to address another kind of uneven distribution of resources, including the £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere Fund, and Cultural Tax Relief. These opportunities overwhelmingly favour cultural institutions with buildings and do not directly benefit those who work in public space, or individual artists and producers.
The outdoor arts sector also urges the Arts Council to involve us in any efforts to “collaborate with partners across national and local government, philanthropy, the private sector, education and local communities to unlock new resources”.
As outlined in our strategy document, the power of the outdoor arts sector lies in our ability to bring joy and belonging to communities, and the sector is keen to work with the Arts Council to invite national and local partners to our festivals, carnivals and melas so that, together, we can inspire them to understand why investment in arts and culture makes sense.
