26 cultural leaders from around England have been selected to represent the voice of the cultural sector on the new Culture Forum.
Set up by Arts & Business, in association with the National Campaign for the Arts (NCA), the Forum gives the sector an opportunity to engage in the Government’s call for a national debate on the cultural economy.
The voting process returned a strong group of representatives from small, medium, large and major arts organisations. In order to ensure the final group has representation from as many art forms and regions as possible, a further 6 representatives have been included, see further below.
The representatives
(If you can't see the document above, then please click here to download the list)
20 candidates were elected from a pool of 75.
Arts & Business and the NCA selected the following additional 6 members to ensure the Culture Forum had representation from all regions and all major art forms:
• Andrew Higgins – Head of Development and Membership Glyndebourne. We wanted to ensure we had participants with a wide mix of fundraising skills and knowledge. Andrew brings with him particular experience of the US philanthropy models which have been seized on by Government. How these models can or cannot work here will be a significant part of our conversations.
• Ian Lush – Deputy Chair Heritage Alliance. To truly speak for the cultural world, we thought it vital to have a representative from the Heritage sector which is also facing immense pressures. Ian’s experience will be valuable.
• Dr Richard Mantle – General Director Opera North. We felt it appropriate to have a leader from a large regularly funded arts organisation from the North. Having a mix of RFOs and non-RFO’s is important, as the potential funding cuts will present different challenges.
• Matthew Rowe - Director, Towner-Contemporary Art Museum is our visual arts representative from a medium sized organisation in a rural/coastal area. He also brings knowledge of local authority funding pressures.
• Lucy Bird - Director of Marketing and Development, The Sage Gateshead will be our North East representative. Lucy seemed the natural candidate to represent that area, bring with her unrivalled experience of both private and public income.
• Geoff Sweeney - Director of Development at the Birmingham Royal Ballet is both our representative from the West Midlands and also for dance.
Meetings
The representatives will meet three times before autumn to discuss current political and policy imperatives facing the sector under three key themes: public funding, earned income and private income.
Outcomes
Following the conclusion of three meetings, Arts & Business and the NCA will collate all information, action points, recommendations, relevant case studies and examples into a report. This report will be delivered to the Prime Minister, Chancellor, Secretary of State for Culture, Minister for Culture and senior officials in time for the Treasury’s Spending Review announcement on 20 October.
Digital Open Door
We want to make the Culture Forum meetings as open as possible (within the Chatham House rule) and provide a way for the wider sector to observe and contribute. To do so we are creating a ‘digital open door’ by tweeting the meetings live on the hashtag ‘#cultureforum’ from the Arts & Business twitter account: http://twitter.com/arts_business
Notes of the meetings will published on the web after the event.
What will the Culture Forum do and what is the role of a Forum Representative?
The Culture Forum will discuss the following issues and will inform the Government in the final report on:
• Feedback on the impact and effects of proposed cuts to the arts sector, sharing insight into the strongest counter cuts arguments and most effective cost saving strategies
• Generating new ideas on innovative income streams, funding models and efficiencies
• Growing the contribution from the private sector to invest in the cultural sector
Any further members that the Forum wish to co-opt, will be decided by the Forum when they meet.