Over the last year the context in which Arts and Cultural organisations operate has changed radically.
- As the recession continues there are less resources
- There are increased opportunities to work across a broader cultural footprint that includes the Arts, Museums, Libraries, Film, Heritage and Creative Media
- The concept of a national curriculum is changing, alongside significant diversification of school management and delivery
- Fees for Higher Education, work-based learning/Apprenticeships, Arts award and on-line learning are changing young people's approach to accreditation
To prepare for this changing landscape we proposed a solution focused approach to new ways of working. We believe cross sector collaboration and learning will prepare the sector for the changes ahead.
We set up four Action Learning Sets led by experienced trainers Di Bligh and Katie Venner from Action Learning Associates. The Action Learning took place over six days from January to July 2013. The cohort was made up of education leaders from Dance, Archives, Theatre, Cross-Arts, Film, Museums, Music, Literature, Visual arts and Libraries and includes representatives from the following arts and cultural organisations:
Albert & Friends Instant Circus, Circus Space, Discover, Barbican, East London Dance, Phoenix Cinema, Tri-borough libraries (Westminster), London Borough of Camden Libraries, Poetry Society, Ministry of Stories, Orleans House, London Transport Museum, Community Music, Spitalfields Music, National Youth Theatre, Oily Cart, Almeida Theatre, Half Moon Young People's Theatre, Theatre Centre, Theatre-Rites, The Photographers Gallery, South London Gallery, SPACE Studios, The National Jazz Archive, Iniva, Unicorn, Horniman Museum, Arts Depot and English National Ballet.
The first day was very insightful and introduced everyone to Revans' Law,
"For an organisation to survive, its rate of learning must be at least equal to the rate of change in its external environment."
A New Direction will be capturing the relevant learning to distribute to the wider sector.
