We have just received a very interesting response from Susan Garnsworthy to this weeks 'Weekly Commonty' email ....for those that haven't signed up to receive our mailouts then this will be mystery to you........and so here is the text of this week's email from The Commonty:
Dear All
Superb to
see all the Britain-wide coverage of the Embra festival - and great
feedback from all who have made the trip from here (reviews etc welcome
btw). But, wouldn't it be nice if a) the English/International writers
stopped in on D+G on the way home...and b) the Central Belt lot took a
wee break in the SouthWest after their Auld Reekie exertions. We can but
dream.....BUT - if the meeja spotlight WAS turned in our direction folk
might be amazed to see what is happening in a 'peripheral corner of a
peripheral country'. EAFS (Environmental Art Festival Scotland) is
really getting into its stride now with just 12 sleeps before the
opening day - as ever The Commonty is got its ear to the ground on what is happening at the sharp end
Our mythical national journos might also be interested to see:- Blood Orange - confrontational new theatre
- First Stirrings from the second DMC...shut up and play the hits..
- Les Miserables youth theatre workshop in Langholm
- Bill Barlow's amazing poetry machine
- Robin Williamson@Kirmahoe - a legend in our midst
If they were on the pulse of national arts
policy they would certainly make a space in their diary for the latest
'Fresh Start' update - 'All you ever wanted to know about the new Regional Arts Hub - but were afraid to ask' - D&G setting the national agenda with our arts-led approach.
Last, but by no means least - who can resist those
ever-enterprising Spring Fling folk - their fundraiser for a new
national element to their programme is nearing its final deadline....get involved here
While we wait - thank heavens for our fine local cultural publications - all power to them!
all the best from all at
Susan's reply to this was:
Dear Communty (sic)
--
As
someone who is also trying to raise the profile of arts and cultural
events in the South of Scotland in the coming month, I can tell you it
was ever thus. The Langholm Arts Festival which was established in 1997
the same year as the first Gaelforce Festival across Dumfries &
Galloway, aimed to attract folk on their way to Edinburgh or on the way
back. Sadly this tactic did not suceed although the Festival itself was
successful in its local community and attracted visitors for 10 years.
Thank you for all the information but cant get
excited about Spring Fling which has had over £1 million of public
sector funding ( at a conservative estimate) trying to secure further
funds from the artists and their supporters locally.
Likewise I am sceptical as to whether Dumfries &
Galloway is setting the arts agenda nationally with its Fresh Start for
the Arts. Led by a few representatives of the great and the good, I
can't really believe it demonstrates a radical change. La Plus c'est
change, la plus c'est la meme chose.
best wishes
Susan Garnsworthy
Creative & Cultural Business Consultant
Windyhill
Forest of Ae
Dumfries DG1 1RL
Tel 01387 860610 Mobile 07919 366657
E-mail susan.garnsworthy@gmail.com
More thoughts welcome as always - debate and different views make the world a better place.
PS If you are not on our mailing list and would like to receive the 'Weekly Commonty' email then drop us a line at TheCommonty@gmail.com
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ReplyDeleteI'm not sure this letter was really intended to be made public. The Commonty, I have to say this feels a bit witch hunty. Perhaps publication of Susan's mobile number in this context not the wisest?
ReplyDeleteDear anonymous 1 – this comment has been removed due to its potentially libellous content. We apologise for any offence caused whilst the post was online - the blog is checked regulary...but often only once a day
ReplyDeleteDear anonymous 2 – not sure if your comments are to anonymous 1 or to The Commonty blog. If to the blog:
The principle of The Commonty has always been as a service to ‘A regional network for people who apply creativity in their work, collaborate with other creative people and have ambitions beyond solely commercial gain’ – we believe that the ethos of the blog is clear – we ask people to send in material – we undertake to post everything that is sent in without editing or censorship (unless, as on a couple of occasions we have judged material as personally offensive or as in the case above in contravention of the law).
‘The Commonty’ does not exist as any form of organisation – it receives no funding or support from anyone. It exists simply to facilitate the sharing of information, views and art in the region. The Commonty is 'public' - that is the whole point. We ask people to send us material for publication, by email, and then we publish it.
We also understand that people use the Commonty to publicise themselves and their work - so, quite often, people include their contact details with their posts and we include them.
The Commonty has expressed no editorial opinion on this posting (as we don't on anything we are sent for posting....except sometime to say how brilliant an event sounds or similar) - but, we did feel it necessary to provide the context of the letter to which this was a reply, for the benefit of readers who do not receive our mail-outs.
If there is a body of opinion that The Commonty should deviate from our policy of publishing everything that is sent in by our readers - then please do bring forward suggestions - we can then put them out for debate.
As a business person with an interest in the arts I find Spring Fling a fascinating creature to observe in evolution. In my own terms, I see a group of workers forming a trade organisation for their mutual benefit – it is inspiring (and unusual) to watch an organisation staying true to its founding principles whilst maturing into something that provides marketing, advocacy and professional development for its members. I think we should applaud efforts to diversify the income streams for the services Spring Fling offers its members and will watch with interest if crowdfunding is effective. In the longer view, I wonder whether the natural source of support in the future (over and above resources of members) will be business enterprise, tourism or arts development, likely a mixture of all of the above? And while we are on this line I, for one, applaud the use of my taxes in supporting Spring Fling to grow into its current form – Dumfries and Galloway would be the poorer without it
ReplyDeleteThe Spring Fling example is what over-paid consultants like me call ‘bottom-up development’ – this is the holy grail of business development in Austerity Britain. The Catch 22 being that it is virtually impossible for an external consultancy to make such development happen (possibly why consultants were unable to reverse the fortunes of DG Arts?). Though I have seen very little of Fresh Start for the Arts, I do recognise a palpable shift in the working relationship between Council and the Arts Sector. An agreement appears to be in place that investment* (look away Creative Scotland) will be targeted at developing arts organisations in the region to reach a place where, they have both a clear vision of their artistic direction and a sustainable plan for future success with their vision. I like what I see so far in the targeted investment in Youth Learning Journeys and the regionwide development of new initiatives like the Environment Festival and widening involvement in existing projects like Wigtownshire Book Festival. The ambition to involve the grassroots of the arts sector in the planning and delivery of this vision is ambitious and visionary (and, no doubt the old guard will be adding ‘foolhardy’ to that sentence) – certainly NOT ‘same old same old’!
*by investment I ‘m not suggesting that anyone is expecting a financial return – but rather funds are directed at achieving a developmental result – and hopefully some very exciting and challenging work for the rest of us to enjoy!
Publish and be damned Commonty – independent voices are as rare as hens teeth in our capitalised world
I'm sure Susan has every right to be heard as much as all the posts sent into the commonty from the various organisations and groups around D&G, all voices should be given their space here.
ReplyDelete---
Although I don't share the aspiriations of all the arts organisations locally (this would be impossible, I'm sure) - it does seem like there is plenty of potential for positive change around about at the moment, although that's maybe just my young 'blindly optimistic' view point carrying me along. There are some great people doing some really great work - and I really commend them for taking the passion for D&G (I assume that has to come into it somewhere!) and working to create something better.
I guess these sorts of things will always come in cycles and tides - so maybe we should all make our own waves?
Hello everyone.
ReplyDeleteThank you Susan for taking the time to read about our Kickstarter campaign to take D&G artists and makers national in 2014, and thank you Gillian for your positive perspective. We are a small but ambitious organisation and are inspired every day by the wonderful artists and makers who we support, promote and create opportunities for. We work very hard to demonstrate to Dumfries and Galloway Council that the event merits their financial support for the core of Spring Fling, an event which has over the last two years brought just under £2million to the local economy of D&G, and in the last 11 years over £7million.
An important element of my job at Spring Fling is fundraising and as many will know well, public money is becoming less and less easy to come by (and we have received nowhere near a million pounds in public money). This means that in order to develop new projects to promote our artists, our region, and develop audiences and boost tourism, we must be enterprising, entrepreneurial, and as you rightly say Gillian, look at diversifying our income streams, and considering new ones such as crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding is a worldwide platform offering rewards to those who pledge, and thus far we have been blown away by the generosity of backers from the local area and across the world. If we don’t reach our target of £3000 by next week we get nothing and whether we succeed or not I hope that this is something that other groups locally might look at to fund projects.
For anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about here is the campaign page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/308013317/spring-fling-going-national
Enormous thanks to everyone who has supported the campaign so far,
Leah (Spring Fling Manager)
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