Darlington Borough Council, having re-arranged the existing activities at Darlington Arts Centre to run on fewer days, have made the Arts Centre available to Darlington for Culture (DfC) on Monday and Tuesday evenings to run their own programme of events. These would be additional activities, expanding the use of the centre.
Ideas for what to do will largely come from supporters of DfC and at a meeting on 31st March a number of people outlined the ideas they had. They were then hit with a "single whammy" - they must plan and organise their event themselves. This may be a great way to get people more involved in supporting DfC's campaign to save the Arts Centre but it seems like a case of being dropped into the "Big Society" deep end.
It also stopped us putting forward a few vague ideas we have because:
a) we don't know enough about the facilities to work out if an idea is possible
b) we don't know how to assess the overall feasibility of each idea
c) we don't have a broad enough range of skills or experience to take on a broad range of ideas
d) we don't know how to develop the ideas into fully formed proposals
e) we don't have the time to research all the above and work out how the ideas could be implemented
f) we're not in a position to underwrite them financially
g) we can't run three or four ideas on our own
Perhaps a better alternative may be for the steering committee to take each of these ideas, decide how workable it is then organise a small team of people, including the person who suggested it, to plan and implement the idea. This would combine the innovative ideas with the experience and support of others. It could also protect DfC from running unsustainable activities and may also lead to other ideas being considered.
We are hoping to attend the next meeting on Thursday when more details of the programme up to March 2012 will be discussed. But we suspect that our ideas will stay on scraps of paper for now.
Another development coming up in May is that Darlington For Culture are to officially become a Community Benefit Society, a type of co-operative. This approach is more democratic than alternative structures such as the Community Interest Company originally mooted and means that groups and individuals with an interest in the arts can be more directly involved.
This poses an interesting challenge for us: should we become members of this organisation to show our support for the arts in the town? We have discussed this at length between ourselves, debating the pros and cons, trying to predict the future and looking out for alternative proposals that may interfere with DfC's plans. We haven't convinced ourselves either way yet. Here are some of the issues we have considered.
Pros: If DfC take over the running of the Arts Centre it would continue to be used for all its current activities and probably more; DfC's democratic structure would be good for the arts community and should help with funding applications; the cultural parliament meetings that DfC have already been holding helps to direct and validate arts activities in the town.
Cons: Running or expanding the arts centre will be a mammoth task and could be overwhelming; there is no guarantee that DfC will be allowed take control in the future; as a group they have no track record of running such a complex organisation (although the individual experience of the people involved would help); will DfC be able to attract the substantial funding necessary and co-ordinate the resources when Darlington Council finally withdraw all their financial support?
The opportunity for running activities on Monday and Tuesday evenings will allow DfC to begin to show what they are capable of doing. Perhaps we should wait until this is under way before we make our final decision.
Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art.
Ideas for what to do will largely come from supporters of DfC and at a meeting on 31st March a number of people outlined the ideas they had. They were then hit with a "single whammy" - they must plan and organise their event themselves. This may be a great way to get people more involved in supporting DfC's campaign to save the Arts Centre but it seems like a case of being dropped into the "Big Society" deep end.
It also stopped us putting forward a few vague ideas we have because:
a) we don't know enough about the facilities to work out if an idea is possible
b) we don't know how to assess the overall feasibility of each idea
c) we don't have a broad enough range of skills or experience to take on a broad range of ideas
d) we don't know how to develop the ideas into fully formed proposals
e) we don't have the time to research all the above and work out how the ideas could be implemented
f) we're not in a position to underwrite them financially
g) we can't run three or four ideas on our own
Perhaps a better alternative may be for the steering committee to take each of these ideas, decide how workable it is then organise a small team of people, including the person who suggested it, to plan and implement the idea. This would combine the innovative ideas with the experience and support of others. It could also protect DfC from running unsustainable activities and may also lead to other ideas being considered.
We are hoping to attend the next meeting on Thursday when more details of the programme up to March 2012 will be discussed. But we suspect that our ideas will stay on scraps of paper for now.
Another development coming up in May is that Darlington For Culture are to officially become a Community Benefit Society, a type of co-operative. This approach is more democratic than alternative structures such as the Community Interest Company originally mooted and means that groups and individuals with an interest in the arts can be more directly involved.
This poses an interesting challenge for us: should we become members of this organisation to show our support for the arts in the town? We have discussed this at length between ourselves, debating the pros and cons, trying to predict the future and looking out for alternative proposals that may interfere with DfC's plans. We haven't convinced ourselves either way yet. Here are some of the issues we have considered.
Pros: If DfC take over the running of the Arts Centre it would continue to be used for all its current activities and probably more; DfC's democratic structure would be good for the arts community and should help with funding applications; the cultural parliament meetings that DfC have already been holding helps to direct and validate arts activities in the town.
Cons: Running or expanding the arts centre will be a mammoth task and could be overwhelming; there is no guarantee that DfC will be allowed take control in the future; as a group they have no track record of running such a complex organisation (although the individual experience of the people involved would help); will DfC be able to attract the substantial funding necessary and co-ordinate the resources when Darlington Council finally withdraw all their financial support?
The opportunity for running activities on Monday and Tuesday evenings will allow DfC to begin to show what they are capable of doing. Perhaps we should wait until this is under way before we make our final decision.
Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art.
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