Submission to South Dublin Council Arts Strategy 2010 - Sue Hassett:
I am concerned with the local arts strategy as a resident in the
county with a family here, as a long-time community activist and
professional social researcher and as a practising artist.
First, I would like to submit that the County is a relatively new
entity without established arts structures and facilities such as the
Abbey Theatre, 3rd level institutes with arts education, etc. We are
resource-poor in terms of the arts as well as in terms of other
infrastructure in this county. We are still struggling to catch up on
the infrastructural deficit created from day one when the sprawling
housing estates in this county were built without good planning.
I suggest that we can see ourselves as victims, or as having been
subjected to this or we can act as agents, we can take it as an
opportunity to shape the arts in the county.
While development is paused at the moment, arts infrastructure must be
a priority alongside health, education, transport and other
infrastructure in future planning. Arts development and
infrastructure, is I believe, part of the health and the soul of a
place and is as important as economic activity.
These are some suggested strategies for the arts in the county, in no
particular order :
Currently arts resources in the county are mainly located in Tallaght
- the county arts office, Rua Red, the library, Alternative
Entertainments, Tallaght Community Arts, the Civic Theatre, the
Tallafest. There are some resources in Clondalkin, Lucan, Newcastle,
Rathcoole, but not on the same scale. Public transport to Tallaght is
not good from many parts of the county so there are issues of access
and ownership for many people who do not live in Tallaght. In the
long-term, I believe, we should address this as part of the County
Development Plan, Corporate Plan, and the arts and heritage
strategies. In planned development such as Liffey Valley Town Centre
and Clonburris, I submit that we should include arts infrastructure as
a condition of the development. We should be ambitious and visionary
about this and not limit ourselves to small-scale local arts
resources, although these are important too. Instead, if and when new
development takes place we should research what is needed and feasible
and be ready with a proposal for a national centre for the arts, as
needed in the performing arts for example, to be located in Clonburris
or Liffey Valley. In addition, the Omer's Lock House in Clondalkin,
which is where the first sod of the Grand Canal was turned, should
become a cultural centre incorporating arts, culture and heritage.
I believe the County needs a Cultural Plan, set out in accordance with
international models of best practice. Some examples of models of
cultural planning used by local government and by individual
organisations, along the lines I would like to see happening in South
Dublin County can be seen on the following links :
http://www.artsyakka.com/resources/planning_and_policy/cultural_planning
http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au/files/information/CPG-final.pdf
This methodology is important because it has been tried and evaluated
and is transferable. It provides for participation and development.
What is, I think, particularly important to note is that there is
currently no strategy in the county for corporate participation in the
arts, although some of the biggest global corporations in the world
are located here. This is a missed opportunities. It is my
understanding that guidelines are not in place for local authority
officials to liaise with businesses and so the arts office cannot
approach this. Either these guidelines need to be put in place and an
approach put in place under the auspices of the arts office, or
another structure needs to be created to develop this as a strand of
the arts strategy. I believe that such a strategy could be developed
without draining existing resources or demanding huge new resources
and would add to arts resources in the county in the long-term.
I believe we need to look at professional development for artists in
the county urgently. My own experience as a writer is that I need to
seek both professional supports and outlets for my work outside of the
county. I would make an observation that it seems to me that the
studios and galleries provide a level of infrastructure for visual
artists not available to writers, and there is also better music
infrastructure, e.g. the music education programmes to be run by the
arts office, youth services and Alternative Entertainments/Des Carty
Traditional Music School - and we need to have a focus and strengthen
the literature strand in the new arts strategy.
In this regard, my preference is for community based inter-genre arts
education - assessment, mentoring, networking and professional
opportunities for artists across all art forms could be housed under
the same umbrella structure. Innovative models should be researched
and put in place and 3rd level institutes in the region, such as NUI
Maynooth and IT Tallaght should be asked to act as partners, with the
local authority, arts agencies, artists and local businesses, in a
community based professional arts education project. I believe this
would attract artists from around the world to the county.
Collaborative, community and participatory arts practice also needs a
focus, I believe, within the arts strategy. For me, there are
fascinating connections between social research and contemporary arts
practice across all art-forms. The In-Context programme has
commissioned award winning work in this category. It seems to me that
'new thinking' will emerge within this artform and that we live in a
time that needs new thinking. Could the county host a participatory
arts festival? I believe this would be in keeping with SDCC's focus on
innovation.
Can we look at the feasibility of using empty buildings, including
those held in NAMA, for art, over the next while? For example, could
Rua Red extend its gallery space to the empty space in the adjacent
Library Plaza - I understand the galleries in Rua Red are in huge
demand.
While I am very happily based in Rua Red, and currently am focused on
producing pages rather than on promoting or publicising my work, I
wonder about outreach and connectedness to the rest of the arts world.
I need connectedness and am interested in looking at ways in which
this can happen. For example, can we encourage the Dublin Festivals -
dance festival, theatre and film festival, writer's festival,
traditional music festival, open house and other city based arts
events to include Tallaght - Civic Theatre, Rua Red, found/unused
space, etc, in their programmes, - as well as developing programmed
events in the county which will bring colleagues, collaborators and
audiences to us.
I wonder if other artists who have studios around the county would
welcome a county-wide studio network whereby artists could register
their studios for visits, open studios and exchanges with other
artists locally or even internationally.
Could we have showcase and festival events celebrating the work of
artists in the county and outside the county together. Many artists
have networks to artists and art movements internationally. This would
be not just e.g. the limited and scarce possibilities of the gallery
or formality of a commissioned work for the theatre, but, for example,
a series of pecha kucha nights where four or five artists are invited
to present and talk about their work more informally.
I am entering the arts in my 50s and am envious of some of the
programmes available for young people - can these be extended to be
more age-inclusive?
At a conceptual level, my experience is that, often, arts is seen as a
driver of other things, a way of attracting business to an area,
increasing footfall, giving the place a touch of culture to impress
visiting dignitaries or business people - all of that.
In my view, that is never going to work.
For a start, it is not a correct relationship to the arts or to
artists. Artists will accept commissions to participate in
commercially motivated events, but arts dynamism will never grow from
this - and the events organised from this perspective will be
commercial in character, costly and limited in their ability to
generate income.
The arts sector needs to educate the local government and business
sector as to how art works - and how it does not work and we need to
be clear, vocal and assertive about this.
IFACCA, the international federation of arts and culture councils and
agencies, has carried out a literature review of research on the arts
in regeneration. It is available online. This report identifies three
strands of arts activity that play a part in regeneration of cities,
disadvantaged communities, etc. These are - flagship buildings,
cultural quarters and arts dynamism.
I would submit that in the current economic climate, the latter, arts
dynamism, is the most appropriate and most beneficial strand to focus
on, unless specific development opportunities for flagship buildings
or cultural quarters open up. Clearly, there can be no successful
flagship building or cultural quarter without arts dynamism.
What creates arts dynamism?
This, I believe, is an important question we need to think about in
developing the next local arts strategy for the county.
Speaking as an artist, I would say that for me, the fundamental
requirement for creating arts dynamism is that artists and arts
activities need to be nurtured and people need to have the opportunity
to develop artistic qualities at every level in society.
As an artist, I do not like or need to participate in arts events and
programmes which are too heavily bureaucratised, competitive, and over
programmed and administrated. 'Light touch' supports by arts agencies
work better for me. I also need technical assistance and learning
from the best teachers. I need peer support from other artists, I
need space and I need to be connected to professional opportunities
and to the wash through of thinking and practices from artists around
the locality, the country and the world. I would like that to be
available locally!
Thanks for taking time to read this, I look forward to hearing from
others involved in the arts and to an exchange of ideas during the
consultation.
No comments:
Post a Comment