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SCAN’s annual summit took place in Edinburgh on March 29 2018, at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, where we welcomed members and friends from across the country. 1. The context The launch of the Visual Arts Manifesto in December 2017, with Engage Scotland and Scottish Artists Union, continues to shape our thinking about how to face the challenges of precarity and the need for change, sustainability and diversity in the sector. The crisis in cultural funding processes at Creative Scotland in January this year has made this context even more urgent, and as part of the day we asked chief executive Janet Archer to take part in a discussion about our members’ concerns. 2. Keynote speakers For our 2018 summit SCAN chose to build a day of active conversations, challenges to our thinking from within the visual arts, and voices of experience from other areas of public life. We were excited to hear from opening keynote speaker Andrea Phillips, Baltic Professor of Contemporary Art, on The Problem with Toby Young, or, Reversing Aspirational Economies in the Arts. She challenged us to abandon our ideas of meritocracy in the sector, and to face up to fundamental inequalities. Our closing Keynote speaker, the inspirational human rights activist Amal Azzudin from The Mental Health Foundation, described her inspiring personal journey and commitment to change. She told us about her current work and about her activism, when as a 16-‐year-‐old and one of the “Glasgow Girls”, she fought against dawn deportation raids and for the rights of refugees. Amal reminded us that culture is one of the key ways that communities tell their stories. 3. Learning from change-‐makers: hearing from other sectors We asked three expert voices to tell us how they made changes in their own areas of practice and policy. Marguerite Hunter Blair, Chief Executive of Play Scotland, led us though her ground-‐breaking campaign on outdoor play for Scotland’s children and how she took it to the heart of Scottish Government policy. Journalist and community buyout campaigner Lesley Riddoch told us the incredible story of community activism that led the people of the Isle of Eigg to buy their island for their community and to reshape the values and meaning of landownership through projects like sustainable energy and affordable housing for families. Nick Stewart, the programmer at Sneaky Pete’s music venue in Edinburgh and a leading member of the Music Venues Trust, explained how working together allowed small
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live music venues to fight to retain their place as a vibrant part of culture in cities, and to campaign against threats like licensing restrictions and developers. Each of our experts contributed their knowledge and skills to a workshop. Here’s what emerged from discussions.
All images, Eoin Carey
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Andrea Phillips
Amal Azzudin
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Change from within Communities. Our Expert: Lesley Riddoch What we learned about making change: The need to:
• Knock on doors • Identify values, priorities and challenges • Create parity and common purpose
How we can apply it to the visual arts sector: Arts institutions can act as custodians for future generations, offering skills and stewardship. We need to:
• Develop peer support networks and activist organising • Operate for “one common good” • Make tangible change, at both grassroots and policy level
Lesley Riddoch
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Network-‐led Policy change. Our expert: Marguerite Hunter Blair What we learned about making change: The need to:
• Articulate the risks of not having access to culture • Need to have a range of messaging (micro-‐macro) • Recognise that champions come in unexpected forms (cross-‐party, cross-‐platform) • Lobby for the “character” of our sector, play for example is messy, mucky,
autonomous, experimental How we can apply it to the visual arts sector:
• Create a picture of the risks of deprivations of art and culture • Show what is really at risk: creativity, innovation, autonomy, psychological wellbeing • Reduce aims to clear points – that any supporter felt they could be accountable for,
but that constituents recognised themselves within • Work together with other lobbies, who have shared interests • Keep that sense of experimentation at the heart of our work – (for adults too!) risk,
rebellion, autonomous, experimentation • Find non-‐artistic ambassadors to tell their stories about how culture impacted their
lives • Recognise what Scotland can teach the rest of the UK
Working Together. Our expert: Nick Stewart What we learned about making change: The need to:
• Decide you’re the person with expertise! You can speak to anyone! • Identify a clear specific change (it’s easier if not a funding ask) • Research – gather local evidence to inform national picture
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How we can apply it to the visual arts sector:
• SCAN can be a network of 100 local voices to create a national picture • Evidence the need for change articulate why visual art; not just economic benefit
4. Making change: hearing from the visual arts We asked experts from within the visual arts to work with our board members on workshop sessions around key challenges in the sector. Our session on Resilience heard guest provocations from artist and curator Gordon Douglas, Elisabetta Rattalino from Deveron Projects, Huntly, and Ainslie Roddick, curator at CCA, Glasgow. A session on Equalities was led with contributions from Samar Ziadat, curator, activist and committee member of Transmission Gallery, and from Rachel Thain-‐Gray who leads the Equalities in Progress project for Glasgow Women’s Library. In our Workforce session Dr Dave O’Brien Chancellor’s Fellow at Edinburgh College of Art gave us an early insight into his vital research on inequalities in the cultural workforce. Beth Bate, the Director of Dundee
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Contemporary Arts, shared their dignity At Work policies and Sinead Dunn from the Scottish Artists Union talked about paying artists. We’ve summarised some of the ideas discussed here: Resilience What can we commit to doing: as individuals? As organisations? As a network? Reflect on our own practice and on practice around us Consider the implications of the pressures on organisations and individuals to be 'resilient' Some voices were uncertain (and some vehemently opposed) about the nurturing of an arts ecology made up of resilient components and preferred “resistance not resilience” Is there a policy change that we are asking for? Who are we asking? Need to create the conditions for change and recognise that process, research and different modes of working are valuable and important Who might we ask for support or to work with us? Open the conversation out to other experiences and perspectives SCAN to organise new opportunities for discourse Equalities What can we commit to doing: as individuals? As organisations? As a network?
• Question and raise issues in our daily interactions with institutions • Look at recruitment supporting young people as trainees and employing those from
outwith higher education • Live values and learn about inequalities from those who experience them
Is there a policy change that we are asking for? Who are we asking?
• See data and analysis of diverse workers who struggle to get into sector
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• use research to properly inform the policy agenda
Who might we ask for support or to work with us? Government Networks of cultural workers Funders Workforce Session What can we commit to doing: as individuals? As organisations? As a network?
• Share/adopt Dignity at Work and Discipline policies • Commit to making such policies ‘live and breathe’ (not hidden) • Recognise our own power & our collective power • Build solidarity • Accept risk / give up power • Get EDI issues on the agenda of organisations and encourage self-‐reflection
Is there a policy change that we are asking for?
• Ascertain the demands for a highly precarious workforce • Adequate pay (when voluntary work has become so normalised) • Maternity pay, sick pay and pensions • Professional development opportunities • A wage accreditation scheme
Who might we ask for support or to work with us?
• SCAN to animate research & use it to lobby government and work with universities • Work with ‘platform/gig’ economy activists/lobbyists • Engage the ‘patron class’ in these issues • Raise awareness of working practices and career structures in the sector with Job
Centre / DWP
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5. And finally, here’s what you said about the day “It is really important to hear from people outside of the sector and to get a chance to pick up with them afterwards, through group work. I really appreciated this.” “Please keep doing what you are doing! I don't think I could match the creativity of your programme.” “I was impressed to hear from such great people beyond the usual art world types and I thought the whole thing was extremely well organised. I was especially impressed by the workshops. Clearly, a lot of thought went into putting those together and the ones I attended generated nuanced, intelligent, passionate, and thought-‐provoking discussion.” “I would simply like to say thank you to all those involved -‐ whether as organisers or speakers. The programme was great, everything ran very smoothly, and I left with a wealth of fascinating ideas and thoughts. I'm looking forward to the next one!”
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