- The Southwark Cultural Strategy
Coral Flood, Southwark Arts Manager
- Camberwell Arts Festival
Dan Cowdrill, Camberwell Arts
- The Camberwell College of Arts
Nick Gorse, Dean of College, Camberwell College of Arts
- Blue Elephant Theatre presentation
Minutes:
Councillor Dora Dixon-Fyle, cabinet member for adult care, arts and culture introduced this item. She explained that the council’s arts and culture focus had been retained, despite overall cuts in council funding. This was because culture had a positive effect on community cohesion and well-being. In Camberwell, there was a plethora of artists and organisations and it was important to promote those and help make a contribution to their development.
The Southwark cultural strategy
Pam Usher, libraries, arts and heritage manager, outlined Southwark’s cultural strategy:
- performing arts
- visual and applied arts or crafts
- creative industries
- film, media and digital arts
- events
- cultural and built heritage
- youth arts and arts education
- literature development, creative writing and reader development.
The strategy was approved by cabinet in July 2013 and was a five-year action plan document for the council’s work with culture.
The themes of the cultural strategy were:
- communicating, connecting and navigating
- platforms, places and spaces
- creativity, quality and innovation
- resilience and sustainability
- people and audiences.
Coral Flood, arts service manager, explained that the cultural newsletter was one of the things recently launched to inform the sector about resources and arts spaces available in the area. The newsletter also had information about commissions and funding opportunities. There were usually 4 or 5 enquiries per month from the arts, looking for cultural space in the borough. Work was being done with the regeneration, property and community engagement teams to ensure that the information was in one place on a register and database. The council was also working with organisations to provide training and apprenticeships in creative and cultural skills.
Residents could sign up to the culture newsletter via - artsadmin@southwark.gov.uk
In response to questions, the following points were made:
- The council aimed for affordable rents for arts and culture.
- Camberwell organisations could submit their details if they wanted to appear on the mapping resource.
- Organisations were expected to be accessible for all groups and information was circulated widely. The libraries did a lot of outreach work which included focus groups and consultation exercises.
Camberwell College of Arts
Nick Gorse, Dean of Camberwell College of Arts, explained that the college had about 1,800 foundation, undergraduate and post-graduate students on a range of courses. Many of the students and teachers lived in the local community. There were plans to redevelop the steps and the front of the building to make it more inviting to the community. There were also plans to develop the rear of the site into a college campus. The plans would improve access to the building and provide flexible and well-equipped rooms for students. The college wanted to involve the community more in the work of the college.
The chair thanked Nick and praised the open house events that took place over the summer which showcased the work of the students and gave opportunities for adults to get involved in activities.
In response to questions, Nick made the following points:
- There were plans to develop the Camberwell gallery space as the existing one was hard to get into. The Wilson Road site had exhibition space and more use would be made of that.
- There was also a plan to rename two bus stops, one would be ‘Camberwell College of Arts’ and the other ‘South London Gallery’.
Camberwell Arts Festival
Dan Cowdrill, Camberwell Arts Festival Trustee, gave an overview of the work undertaken by the group who organised the festival. Founded in 1994 by local artists and residents who wanted to celebrate the rich cultural and artistic talent in the area. This has developed into the June festival each year. The aim was to work with the art college, art studios, commercial galleries and residents to put on the June festival. The festival includes exhibits, events, workshops and talks. This year the festival received arts council funding and was able to commission its own work. Funding had been a problem in recent years. The organisation was in a state of flux with key members leaving and new board members required to fill vacancies. This year the festival had generated some of its own income which was welcome, but core funding was needed moving forward to help deliver the festival and keep a year-long programme going in the community.
Blue Elephant Theatre
Niamh de Valera, from the Blue Elephant Theatre, explained that she helped to run the theatre. There was an artistic department and a participation department. The aim was to offer opportunities to those who may otherwise not have them. The participation department ran more than 600 workshops per year. There were two youth theatres. One running all day on Saturdays and one on Thursdays at Jesse Duffet Hall. There was support for new works including physical theatre and puppetry. The theatre also put on several shows each year, often tackling some major issues such as mental health. There were concessions on tickets for local residents. A number of exhibitions also took place in the space available upstairs.
Councillor Dora Dixon-Fyle thanked Niamh for her presentation and said one of the reasons the Blue Elephant continued to survive was that it opened its doors to the community and local people gained a lot from that.
The speakers on the theme were invited to the front and took part in a panel question and answer session. In response to questions, the following points were made:
- As part of the development of Camberwell College of Arts there was a courtyard space that would be opened up to the public as a performance space. The new Camberwell library, Camberwell Green and developed pocket spaces may also have options in the future for events to take place.
- The College of Arts plans were available to view and resident consultation was a key part of the process.
- Access to the Blue Elephant Theatre was an issue and possible improvements were being looked at.
- There were links to the Globe Theatre, Tate Modern and larger facilities as part of the South Bank and Bankside Cultural Quarter. Those organisations did take part in outreach community work, including activities with several schools in the borough.
- It was important to link and promote the various art and cultural opportunities throughout the borough, so that more people were aware of them, and had access to them.