Aims Objectives Impact Of Project Artistic Activity S.L.A.P organizational development Return to Home Page
To promote cultural diversity in the arts in rural areas
To offer equal opportunities and access for all art forms in low income neighbourhoods
To encourage professional development amongst artists in rural areas
To facilitate arts education for young people in excluded rural areas
To provide a cross district infrastructure through partnerships for arts in education
To identify and address gaps in arts provision in rural areas
To create work for artists in rural areas
To encourage younger artists to work with socially excluded communities
To provide young people in low income neighbourhoods with access to the arts through schools and colleges and third sector organisations
To source match funding for facilitation of aims and objectives
To give best value in provision of arts education for rural areas
The Equal Opportunity Policy of South Lancashire Arts advocates equal access to the arts for all. Transport is a major access issue for many people travelling to venues and can be expensive, and time consuming, particularly in rural areas where transport can be sporadic and where there are several low income groups.
Part of the Project Coordinators brief will involve facilitating adequate transport arrangements through sourcing and sharing of resources.
Funding will be sourced through partnerships with the three district councils involved, the Third Sector and educational organisations, and through charities, trusts, and sponsorship. It is intended that the Project will be come sustainable through its own efforts.
Creates opportunities for young people in socially deprived and eclipsed areas
Creates a pathway from school to training providers (promoting life long learning)
Good value and creating more after-school opportunities and summer schools to assist educational improvement (government agenda)
Provides artists with a structured framework for self help and improvement as well as more opportunities for professional development
Agency is the only way to involve the Third Sector as equal partners in influencing social agenda through school and learning and meeting their own needs
Third Sector Arts need recognition having 25 years experience in the area of using young people in participating arts projects
Recognises Third Sector strengths and needs to help professional artists promote new work in sustainable projects for all
sub-regions (EMPIEIX research records similar need and outcomes for both groups adding that third sector activities in the arts provide a unique combination of creative values and social capital)
The potential development for the arts, cultural development, education and the Third Sector plus the opportunities and access to all art
forms, and the resultant benefits for young people, minority groups, disabled persons and others, offered by the South Lancashire Arts
Project are limitless and would change forever the perception of the area as a cultural desert Valuing Creativity (Arts Development Officer)
1999, Chorley Borough Council.
The South Lancashire Arts Project (S.L.A.P.) covers the three district of:
Chorley Borough
South Ribble centred on Leyland
West Lancashire with includes Ormskirk, Skelmersdale and Bamber Bridge
All three districts have large rural areas of population with few amenities and public transport facilities. Traditional framing and automobile industries are declining and there are high unemployment black spots in each district (charley East, Ormskirk and Leland don't qualify for SRB funding) and a high rate of teenage pregnancies. In the rural areas there is little arts provision (only 20 days of programmed professional arts at the theatre in Ormskirk) and young people in these areas have very limited access to the arts. Many have to access at all.
The index of deprivation (DETR), 1998, shows that Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire include several areas of social deprivation and low income, with some local wards faring wore than others. In Chorley the wards of Chorley East, Chorley southwest, Clayton le woods west and Clayton le woods east show high levels deprivation (ward level-index of deprivation [DETR], 19990. Croton, Walton and Bretherton in the west of the region and the Brindle, Wheaton and Houghton areas to the east have an above national average number of households which have no car (Households with No Car-Index of Deprivation [DETR],1999). The central part of region, focusing on Chorley East, Chorley North East and Chorley South West, have an above national average of low income household (Children in Low Earning Households-Index of Deprivation [DETR], 1999).
Chorley and District Arts Association have promoted local community arts projects and there are a few pockets of arts activity such as in Chorley East. However, there are over 500 Third Sector groups in Chorley and south Ribble (primarily concerned in health work) and 200 such groups in West Lancashire providing a large hitherto untapped resource. The arts as therapy in health work is a growing concept, successfully pioneered by a literature project in a Glasgow hospice, and it has been taken up enthusiastically by the Chorley and South Ribble Health Authority.
Around 140 artists live and work in the three districts and they face a number of problems:
Lack of funding
Lack of work opportunities
Lack of networking
Lack of facilities
Lack of contact with the public, especially young people
Some artists practice more than one art form but, in Chorley and South Ribble, there is still a heavy bias towards visual arts with
80% of artists engaged in some form of visual artwork. At present there are no professionally funded companies resident in the
borough, and the performance arts of drama (except in West Lancashire), dance, music and literature are under-represented in
almost equal measure
To Create S.L.A.P as the managing body for an agency to be set up to encourage cultural diversity and promote arts
through education for young people in rural areas
To develop the three districts of Chorley Borough, West Lancashire and South Ribble as stakeholders in this projects
To employ a co-ordinator and broker projects
To improve access to the arts through education for young people in rural areas
To prepare and develop a programme of after school projects with schools,
Residencies, summer schools etc.
To network with educational and third sector partners to promote work of artists
To promote professional development of local artists
To raise awareness of the potential for schools and artists through arts in education
To create availability and source funding for professional artists to work in schools
To create artistic opportunities for artists and schools
Key tasks
To set up a sub-regional joint arts database and directory of artists, schools and colleges, resources, venues etc.
To employ a co-ordination (initially on a three year contract)
To broker projects in low income neighbourhood schools (initial target to create an extra 50 days work)
To initiate ¡°after school projects¡± with a cluster of schools in low income neighbourhoods
To identify partners for networking: e.g. venues, schools, artists, Third Sector
To set up a base in Central Chorley with disabled access
To identify further resources form local and county wide sources
To source and encourage performance artists projects
To plan a programme of professional development and training with artists
To expand arts in education work in schools( as in NISA project ) in all three districts
People resident within the S.L.A.P. areas usually travel to Manchester, Liverpool or Lancaster to participate in performance arts.
Younger artists are leaving the rural areas due lack of work availability, studio space, funding, and the expense of travel; and also because they are attracted to the artistic opportunities offered by cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster.
The Government have issued a report encouraging the concept of arts in education by recommending, ¡°creative and cultural education should be explicitly recognised and provided for in the curriculum.¡± All our Futures (national Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education) 1999. It is felt that all young people should have equal opportunities to access the arts and to participate in the arts because artistic expression leads to:
A more positive approach to life
Creative enjoyment of leisure time
Learning new skills
Exploring personal potential
Appreciation of diverse cultural horizons
Lack of access to the arts for young people in low-income neighbourhoods, especially in rural areas, is largely a result of
the following factors:
Lack of co-ordination between artists, schools and local authorities in promoting opportunities
Lack of strategic cross-district funding and resources
Lack of safe (especially for young women) suitable venues and affordable
Transports as there are no late night bus services
Lack of practitioners in performance arts, which may appeal more to young people and others initially than visual arts.
Currently, however, there is no local strategic planning or county plan for professional work with education and art, and there
is little arts education work and little opportunity for arts projects in the area according to artist feedback (analyses of
responses to evaluation of arts provision in S.LA.P. area enclosed)
Consequently there is little professional activity in the area (currently approx, 20days of theatre catering for a population of 300,000)
and no after school clubs to encourage extra-mural arts and educational activities. Existing local clubs and societies tend to attract
older people. There is no cross district working at present and therefore there have been no major lottery awards and no significant
regional work Chorley Borough.
And West Lancashire do, however, have cultural arts strategies and a current audit of provision.
S.L.A.P Organizational Development
With the S.L.A.P Agency being managed by a new Board of Trustes made up of a range of Third Sector, artists and cross-
district Council members, it is vital that the quality of Partnership is reflected in the skill of the Board.
It is therefore necessary to plan a two year programme of Board training and development with may include the following:
Roles and responsibilities of Trustees
Regulation of Charity and employers
Strategic thinking and planning
Managing and developing strategic and Action Plan
Financial management and budgeting
Equal Opportunity and Action Plan
Fundraising and sponsorship issues
Project management
Working with artists in teams
Presentational work
New Board member will be appointed through interview after submission of a CV and after individual skills have been
assessed and balanced against geographic considerations, etc.
All members will agree to undergo regular training in developmental issues, as will Council members making presentations
on feedback from other cross district borders: e.g. South Lancashire Improvement Programme; Tourism; Community Safety;
Rural Transport Partnerships.
The Cross District Arts Officers team will present proposals for developmental training to the Board at the first meeting for
approval.
An external facilitator in a exercise will be programmed form Optimum Training (Leyland DAF Management) Company Ltd.
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