This week saw the inaugural gathering of the new CABN (Creative Arts Business Network) ….you might remember adverts a while back for new posts as ‘creative arts business advocates’ for the different creative disciplines? In the deeply appropriate setting of the wedding capital that is Gretna, the advocates from D+G met with their counterparts from the Borders (touchingly, with a wedding reception happening in the next room). We are all really hopeful that this group will be an important link between the grassroots of our sector and the high heidyins in the councils, government, Creative Scotland etc.
This is the very beginning of the project and before (too!) long you should be hearing from CABN to explain how the thing will work and inviting you to join the database/directory. One of the significant changes from the way things have been done in the past is that this is a partnership between D+G and the Borders – it will be interesting to see how this develops, but it is especially significant given Creative Scotland’s decision to look at ‘South Scotland’ as one region in their planning.
The Commonty will be retaining it’s South West Scotland focus – but we are delighted to welcome our colleagues from the East who have joined the blog and look forward to hearing news from the Borders about events and opinions over that way.
posted by MB
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posted by MB
Creative Arts Business Network?
ReplyDeleteIt set me thinking. Once a role of the Arts was to question endlessly the motives and actions of companies and industries and openly examine the relationship of commerce to culture. Of course, I quite understand the motives of crafts folk and the legion of retired art teacher, Sunday painters who wish to peddle their wares getting behind a business network. I suppose more power to them. But has art really lost its force now it is sidelined off to Leisure and Recreation or business? Have the great artists been marginalised as celebrities or eccentrics with their “life stories” covering any meaning or purpose of their work? Perhaps I am being an idealist - or is that the role of an artist?
It is an interesting debate - right enough. Actually, one that was first on the agenda at the meeting in Gretna. What was interesting (and to me surprising) was the strength of feeling amongst the younger speakers in favour of 'seriousness' and 'professionalism' being to the fore of this new network. The reality is, that unless an artist has independent means then they need to eat in order to continue to make the work that drives them. The intent behind this organisation is not about 'becoming like Tesco' rather it is a attempt to counter the vicious-circle that allows artists to be taken advantage of by other less 'sensitive souls' - it is a self-conscious effort to demand that the world values our contribution and takes our work seriously.
ReplyDeleteArt became a fashionable pursuit for the wealthy around the turn of 20th Century...a breed of artist with the luxury of cocking a snook at 'making a living'....maybe it is a healthy sign for our culture that we value the role of the artist (as a freethinker) enough to pay them a living wage.
I totally agree. Bury art in enterprise and business - a new strategy from Creative Scotland! Already art is lumped into Recreation and Leisure Services. Could we at least acknowledge a different, other purpose for the arts? A department called ‘Cultural Services’ would begin to change the way they are viewed for they are really given little presence in D&G or the UK. Look at the coverage the ephemeral world of sport and games get in the media. In some local and national newspapers you will be lucky to see a column on the arts while the lives and doings of puerile footballers and their teams, covers pages. Has art been bought off, cornered by and for an elite? Have the mass of the population ended up with the dross?
ReplyDeleteOh well, all heads down and shoulders to business network! Dross needed...
On the money (whoops) about the need for recognition of the value of culture within our local government. I have not found anyone in the last 6 months who can even tell me who has the Culture Brief in the cooncil.
ReplyDeleteEveryone from Agriculture, Tourism, Environmental Agencies understands the crucial part that artists, writers, performers etc have to play in the interdependent fabric of the region. These people understand that a creativity that challenges and questions has a genuine value within this fabric....they also understand that by it's nature it is not usually 'commercial' (though this is not a 100% rule). Thus this essential cultural ingredient for the 'health and prosperity' of our region requires the support and backing of those democratically charged with stewardship of the region.
For some unknown reason D&G Council cannot grasp that backing the arts is the smart strategy and one that represents outrageously good value for money. Unfortunately they seem trapped in a time-warped attitude that art is the 'icing on the cake' rather than the gauge of a modern forward thinking governance.
Just a couple of points from your first comment where you said CABN “is a attempt to counter the vicious-circle that allows artists to be taken advantage of by other less 'sensitive souls' - it is a self-conscious effort to demand that the world values our contribution and takes our work seriously.”
ReplyDeleteI see no “vicious circle” when art is often at best ignored. This sounds like paranoia and the description of artists as ’sensitive souls’, perhaps a bit patronising? I see no serious efforts at demanding much for who will rock the boat? What CABN is offering is a business strategy for the arts put forward by Creative Scotland. CABN website declares that over £100,00 will be used to “support creative individuals and micro enterprises in rural areas to develop their business skills and networks and test new ways of reaching new markets“. Notice it is not about better, more meaningful art but new markets. So it will be up to the marketplace to decide on art? Of course, not for all, as state approval from numerous public bodies will commission, subsidise and purchase some artists work. …
You continue, “Art became a fashionable pursuit for the wealthy around the turn of 20th Century...a breed of artist with the luxury of cocking a snook at 'making a living'.…”
Why the “turn of the 20th Century? (Presumably you are not questioning the construct of Modernism here and linking it to fashion?) Art has always been a pursuit of the wealthy and did not begin at the turn of the 20th C. In Scotland the wealthy Medieval Church, the Stewart Monarchy, 18th C landowners and 19th C middle class businessmen in Glasgow, to name a few, were all “pursuing” before your start date.
Does the “breed of artist with the luxury of cocking a snook at making a living” include Piet Mondrian who died in poverty and solitude; Amedeo Modigliani died penniless and destitute; Kazimir Malevich died in poverty and oblivion; and many, many others, Francis Cadell, Kurt Schwitters, Umberto Boccioni, Robert Colquhoun…. But all that was before the Creative Arts Business Network! Oh joy, we shall be saved!
Has anyone seen or heard of a Creative Arts Business Advocate yet(or their mystery controller)? Has this project been launched, the suspense is unbearable
ReplyDeleteHi anoni mouse, Wendy Stewart here , music advocate, been busy since January getting in touch with many musos in the area, connecting and highlighting our areas musical strengths to my other music contacts around Scotland. Planning three get togethers to hear more of what local performers, teachers, sound crew need more of and would would love to see happen here. I have strong ideas of long term projects myself and have been a self employed musician for 30 years, so have no illusions of the highs and lows of making a creative living. I applaud that CABN is using people who actually make, perform, teach the arts , to advocate for it - we know what its like to juggle paid and unpaid work with family commitments and even try to have some creative time left over .....
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