Transcript Creative collaboration - story of a partnership.

Creative collaboration
the story of a partnership
between
Tony Jones – participatory photographer
and
Burslem School of Art, CEO Cath Ralph
Top down
or
organic?
This case study
examines evidence
from the support
given by Burslem
School of Art to
developing
individual &
participatory artists
Burslem School
of Art (BSofA)
•Arts promotion
•Focus on
community
•Mutual benefit
•Viable projects
Process
Value driven –
social objectives • Power-sharing
• Collaboration
• Egalitarian
• Respectful
partnerships
• Transparent
• Enabling
Initiatives
•Skills share – as
mentor & co-mentee
•Community
pARTnerships
•Photographers
Collective N Staffs
•Seminars – art biz
and participatory
arts
Benefits for BSofA
•User involvement
•Improves sustainability
•Self-managed, self-regulated activities
•Transferred responsibility
•Cost-effective / income generating
intervention
•Develops bonding & bridging social capital
•Creates goodwill / develops relationships
•Places BSofA within a network of support
•Developing collaboration & ‘culture’ in N
Staffs
•Develops an audience for art
Tony Jones
•“Retired,” disabling illness
– 2006
•Photographer since 1960s
•MA Participatory Arts
•Developed practice as
participatory artist – work
with NSCHT, Brighter
Futures, Staffs CC, Letting
in the Light, UHNS, BSofA,
Staffs Uni, Stoke CC,
B Arts, Photographers
Collective N Staffs
Benefits for
artists
•Support for activity
•Skills share
•Income whilst training
•Other resources
•Training
•Professional development
•Generates work / develops
markets
•Networking
•Exposure to public
•Creative inspiration
•Encourages participatory,
collaborative activity
Problems
•Capacity
•Relevance?
•Some “partners” expect something for
nothing
•Short term funding
•Lot of time to plan and bid for
sustainablity
•Culture clash? –supporting creative
activity versus good working environment
for tenants / good business practice
Lessons
•It’s worth doing - Institutions should invest /
Artists should get involved & come forward
with ideas / Academics - become even more
actively involved / Funders – be bold
•Quick and dirty is good, but need to balance
with slow and clean
•Be collaborative
•Be creative
An Organic approach supported by
enabling policy context has worked
well in this case
references
•Putnam, Robert D.
(2000). Bowling Alone: The
Collapse and Revival of American
Community. New York: Simon &
Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0304-6
•Clements, N. (2004) The
Pioneers: Murals, Mosaics,
Madness and Myths, Ceredigion:
Sound Of Heart
•Webster, M. and Buglass, G. (ed)
(2005) Finding Voices Making
Choices: Creativity for Social
Change (Nottingham: Educational
Heretics Press)
web links
•Burslem School of
Art - www.schoolofart.com
•atypical photography
- www.atypical.me.uk
•Letting in the Light –
www.lettinginthelight.org.uk
•Tony Jones - Arts CV
www.blueshawk.info/CV.htm
Photographs from Tony Jones’s series ‘Loving Gloom’