Cultural Metropolis, Consultation The Crafts Council has responded to Cultural Metropolis, a Greater London Authority public consultation on the Mayor s draft cultural strategy for the capital. The consultation document sets out how the Mayor will support the cultural sector and its key priorities and concerns in London. The Crafts Council response to the consultation questionnaire was submitted in September 2010 and is available below and the Cultural Metropolis document can be downloaded here The Mayor s cultural strategy Public consultation questionnaire We would like to hear your views on the themes and issues the Mayor has identified and the policies that he will implement to support and strengthen London s already enviable cultural sector. Please provide as full a response as you are able, including reasons for your answers and additional evidence if possible. London s cultural sector is enormously wide-ranging. As such it s impossible for a strategy to address each area individually in sufficient detail. For this reason the Mayor s cultural strategy is not structured on the basis of art form or sector, but rather thematically, identifying and addressing the major cross-cutting themes of relevance to the sector as a whole, and which the Mayor can usefully have a role in shaping. The Mayor has identified the following as his cross-cutting themes and priorities: Maintaining London s position as a world city for culture Widening the reach to excellence Education, skills and careers
Infrastructure, environment and the public realm Culture and London in 2012 Delivering the cultural strategy 1) Can you tell us what you see as the key issues for the cultural sector over the next four years? Funding: Ensuring that the capital s reputation for innovation and the economic and social impact of the cultural sector are maintained in the short term, despite public funding cuts and the likely consequential loss of leverage with private funders. Education: Restoring the opportunities for cultural education within formal education, including the teaching of craft and making, to encourage the development of arts and cultural knowledge in young people and the recognition that the cultural and creative industries can lead to viable and entrepreneurial careers. - Providing teachers with opportunities to learn relevant skills and teach them confidently. - Diversifying and facilitating new routes into the sector beyond Higher Education including a renewed focus on Further Education and apprenticeships Skills: -Maintaining the sector s vitality and ensuring a skills supply to rebuild capacity when the funding situation improves. - Equipping graduates with business and entrepreneurial skills to match their artistic skills. Research suggests that further integration of this kind of training within creative and cultural education courses is needed. 2) And do you think the priorities the Mayor has identified (listed above) are the right areas for him to focus work on to strengthen and improve London s cultural offer? Yes Why is this? We welcome this consultation on a cultural strategy for the capital and the Mayor s ambition to champion the importance of supporting London s cultural sector. We also believe that the emphasis in the document (p.60) on the need to continue public investment in culture in financially straitened times is particularly relevant. Specifically, we welcome emphasis on the following areas: Education, skills and careers: -We strongly support the prioritisation of Education, Skills and Careers in the cultural strategy. At Assemble 2010, the Crafts Council s national conference in June, the most important issue to emerge from delegates was the reinstatement of the teaching of craft at all levels of formal education
and the requirement for this to be of the highest quality. The latest Taking Part data shows that craft is the most popular participatory art form, with 18% of the population undertaking a craft activity in 2009/10. We believe that this makes craft an ideal candidate for a focus similar to the focus on music championed by the Mayor, since it provides a similar entry point for pupils and their families to engage in culture. (The Crafts Council s own national schemes, Firing Up and Craft Club, positioned within formal secondary education and Extended Hours provision respectively, are scalable examples of how this could be achieved and of its attractiveness to private funders.) - HE/FE provision: Provisions for craft in HE and FE courses and through apprenticeships are essential to in order capitalize on the potential of the sector. It is also vital that whilst craft skills are represented in broader arts and design courses there are sufficient provisions for in depth specialist craft courses. New research commissioned by the Crafts Council shows that craft graduates are successful, entrepreneurial and socially mobile (1). And current research by DEMOS is exploring how the skills, creative capabilities and aptitudes that craft engenders contribute to intellectual development, character and social capital. Craft is fastest growing amongst the young, which means it is well placed for further growth. Culture and London in 2012: We would strongly welcome the inclusion of craft in the 2012 cultural offer. 3) Now we d like to find out a bit more about your views on the specific support that the Mayor will give the cultural sector, you can comment on some or all of the sections, depending on which aspects are of interest to you. When giving us your comments please think about: Whether the policies outlined in the chapter will address the challenges that have been identified or not. Whether there are any challenges missing that the Mayor should be aware of. Whether there is anything else that the Mayor should be doing. To read the relevant section of the strategy before you comment on it please either download the full strategy, or the executive summary from our website. Maintaining London s position as a world city for culture. Craft plays a key role in the capital s cultural offer and economic landscape alongside other creative industries and England s professional craft industries are concentrated in London. The Crafts Council report Making It in the 21st Century: A socio-economic survey of crafts activity (2), found that over 19% of all studios in England and Wales were in London, the biggest proportion for any geographical area. Craft knowledge and innovation impacts on sectors throughout the creative industries and beyond; new Crafts Council research shows makers contributing to sectors from film and theatre to health and architecture and partnering manufacturers in new commercial products (3). And in Higher Education London attracts craft makers and students from all over the world. Specific Measures Outlined in Strategy: We agree with the analysis in the strategy that the convergence of publicly funded culture and the commercial CIs is one of the capital s strengths (p33).
- We also agree with the observation that public strategy on digital developments neglects culture (p45) and firmly believe that craft should be given a level playing field alongside the digital, media and STEM priorities which are dominating the HE and creative industry agendas. Craft has a valuable place in digital sectors; the recent Crafts Council research report Making Value explored the spill-over effects of craft in numerous industry sectors including digital media. The report covered the work of makers such as Dr Jane Harris, Reader in Digital Textile Design & Media at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, who has worked with the Museum of London to develop the range of digital textile effects available in CGI tools. Her work has an impact for the Museum of London in particular and the cultural heritage sector in general, enabling the animation of delicate artefacts in complex and context-specific ways. This work was undertaken with NESTA, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and ICON. - Significant recent cultural research has identified the spill-over effects of CCIs into other sectors including business. The Crafts Council s own research report, Making Value, provides a wealth of evidence illustrating this argument in the specific case of craft. We support the argument in the strategy of the importance of collaboration and connectivity between sectors. - The strategy mentions that the Mayor will endeavour to resist excessive regulatory policies and practices (p67) and the specific example of regulation in relation to live music venues is given. We agree with this ambition to assist small businesses. To give just one example directly relevant to craft, recipients of open entry award schemes are currently taxed on their award, whilst recipients of invited application schemes are not. Thus the more open and competitive system is penalised. Given the amount of work commissioned by competition this is relevant across many creative industries in addition to craft. Any assistance that the Mayor can give with this or similar regulatory issues is most welcome. - We agree with the need identified in the strategy for in depth specific support for creative businesses in addition to generic cross sector mechanisms such as Business Link (p75) while welcoming the ambition to ensure that Business Link provides the best possible support for the creative industries. We strongly agree with the importance of brokering better connections between cultural industries and Business Link and believe that the Mayor is well-placed to influence developments in this area. Widening the reach to excellence Education, skills and careers We strongly agree with comments in the strategy that there is a need for better cultural provision in schools (p105); craft has a key role to play in cultural education. - Craft has proven developmental and education value; craft thinking is crucial to learning at all ages, and there is growing evidence that its practice shapes character. The sense of achievement and self actualisation that craft provides gives people pride in themselves and in what can be accomplished. The Crafts Council provides research and support for craft educators for example thorough a major, new national education programme, Firing Up which is initially taking place in London, Liverpool and Plymouth and will reintroduce ceramics education into schools.
- We agree with the importance placed on supplementary education in the strategy; the Crafts Council s programme Craft Club, which provides extended hours craft opportunities, will have trained approximately 150 Volunteer Trainers across 6 English regions by the end of October 2010 with the potential to reach 4,500 children over the 2010-11 academic year. However, we also believe craft has a key role to play in the mainstream curriculum and craft provisions in supplementary education should be seen in addition to this. - We support the recognition in the strategy of the importance of skills in maintaining the competitive edge of London s cultural and creative industries. However, it can be difficult for young people to find routes into creative sectors. The apprenticeship system provides one possible solution but typically works well within sub-sectors where employers are large and less well in sectors comprising smaller organisations. Craft businesses are typically sole enterprises or SMEs and representatives from the sector have expressed concerns that the apprentice model will not be financially viable for craft makers. Although we strongly welcome support for alternative routes into the cultural sector, the apprenticeship model needs to be designed according to the structure of different cultural sectors. Infrastructure, environment and the public realm Although craft is often associated with small scale work, craft makers have made major interventions in the built environment. At the 2009 London Design Festival the Crafts Council presented Hand Built, a showcase of makers who work in the built environment, which demonstrated the diverse application of craft and the techniques and skills offered by the crafts professional. We welcome the recognition of the importance and potential of public art in the strategy and believe that there should be specific provision to enable less obvious art forms to respond to commissions and contribute to art the public realm. We strongly agree with the observation in the strategy that workspace and artists studios are significant contributors to urban regeneration, and that artists tend to be both pioneers and victims of culture led regeneration. Provisions for studio space have declined in London in the last ten years, largely as a result of the boom in property prices. However, the impact of the loss of studio space has not been uniform across sectors; many craft makers have lost studio space to cleaner industries such as graphic design, which commonly require less space and do not entail the same health and safety provisions. Sector specific studios also have powerful cultural associations in different parts of the capital, for example Hatton Gardens has historically been London s jewellery quarter. Studios are also a key way for artists to network and exchange skills. Whilst we strongly agree with the objective of the DRLP to encourage boroughs to protect creative workspace, the strategy also needs to take into account provisions for different art forms. Culture and London 2012 We strongly welcome the initiative to involve the arts sector in London 2012 through opportunities to contribute to the ceremonies and to the Olympic Park through commissions for the Park and Tier One ceremonies and via the Live Sites and other public engagement events. (We have an ambition to enable our Craft Clubbers to challenge the world record for simultaneous knitting with events in London and across the country, but this is subject to funding.)
4) Delivering the cultural strategy Although the strategy considers major cross-cutting themes of significance to the cultural sector each art form has specific needs and priorities. In June 2010 the Crafts Council launched three major sector specific research reports: Making Value: craft & the economic and social contribution of makers, showing the contribution of craft makers to industry, education and the community Crafting Futures: a study of the early careers of crafts graduates from UK higher education institutions Consuming Craft: the contemporary craft market in a changing economy, looking at the current and potential market for contemporary craft and consumer attitudes in a changing economic environment. We hope that the London Cultural Policy Reference Group will be informed by sector specific research including research published by the Crafts Council. 1. Hunt W, Ball L and Pollard E (2010): Crafting Futures: a study of the early careers of crafts graduates from UK higher education institutions London, Crafts Council. 2. McAuley, A. and Fillis, I. (2004) Making It in the 21st Century London: Crafts Council 3. Schwarz M and Yair K (2010): Making Value: craft & the economic and social contribution of makers London, Crafts Council.