Refract '99 International Circus Conference
Letters to and from the Arts Council
Here is the text from the letters sent to and from the Arts Council of England (ACE) both before and after the conference.
Sent to Di Robson (Convenor Refract '99) by Peter Hewitt, Chief Executive, Arts Council of England on 12th May 1999
Dear Di Robson
Thankyou for your recent letter about ReFRACT '99 and about the place of Circus in the funding system.
At ACE, Circus has been included amongst the responsibilities of the Combined Arts Department. I can assure you that the new Arts Council will have the ethos of that department at the core of its activity. There will be posts specifically dedicated to inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary work and we shall be appointing an Executive Director of Arts whose duties will include responsibility for ensuring that such areas of work are properly developed throughout the funding system.
It is also our intention to devolve funding responsibilities as much as possible to Regional Arts Boards. This will allow the Council to exercise a national leadership role in the arts by shaping policy and operating strategically. We shall also fund activity directly, focused on priorities determined by Council with an emphasis on nationally strategic work which could not be funded any other way. We aim to have the necessary structures in place by the autumn.
I note from your letter to Ian Reid the wish to commission a major study examining all aspects of circus which I shall ensure is brought to the early attention of the Executive Director of Arts.
But essentially, I wish to assure you that the new Arts Council will take a careful view of the work, including Circus, which has until now been handled by the Combined Arts Department.
Colleagues and I join in offering best wishes for the success of ReFRACT '99.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Hewitt
Chief Executive.
Sent to Peter Hewitt, Chief Executive, Arts Council of England by Iain Reid, as chair of ReFract'99.
Dear Peter
As chair of the recent conference on Circus Arts - ReFract'99, I am writing on behalf of the conference delegates (list attached) who wish to respond to your letter of 12th May addressed to Di Robson, the conference organiser.
Whilst delegates understood your statement that Council would take a careful view of Circus, as work previously handled by the Combined Arts department, they would like an assurance that an officer will be given responsibility for the artform so that "Council can exercise a national leadership role in the arts by shaping policy and operating strategically".
Delegates also wish to emphasise it is vital that there should be members of appropriate Arts Council and RAB panels and committees with knowledge and experience of Circus Arts; and that each RAB, having delegated funding authority should have an officer with responsibility for Circus Arts, the time and expertise to be able to carry out that responsibility, and an identified budget to support the artform. It was the view of the conference that without these basic elements in place the undoubted artistic and audience development potential of Circus Arts will remain unrealised.
ReFract'99 concluded with an agreement to establish a national circus association which will represent all areas of Circus Arts in the UK. A working party has been set up to establish how to move forward on this initiative.
The letter was sent to the chief executives of all ten English regional arts boards, Brian Ferran at ACNI - the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Joanne Weston at ACW - the Arts Council of Wales and Seona Reid at SAC - Scottish Arts Council
The response from Peter Hewitt, Chief Executive, Arts Council of England to the letter written by Iain Reid as Chair of ReFract'99:
Your letter raises a number of issues on which I would like to reassure you. Firstly, I am happy to say that in the new Collaborative Arts Unit there will be a designated officer (Multi-disciplinary) whose brief specifically includes Circus Arts. The officer who will be continuing in the new structure with responsibility for this area is Pax Nindi, whom I am sure you know.
I fully appreciate that the delegates at your conference believed it essential that our Advisory system, including Panel and Committee members across the funding system, should have appropriate knowledge and understanding of Circus Arts. As we move towards the implementation of the new structure and the development of a new Three Year Plan, we are looking very closely at the composition of our panels and committees and will revise them accordingly. On appointment, our new Executive Director of Arts, who will be responsible for the development of Collaborative Arts, will be taking this work forward.
We shall also work with our colleagues in the Regional Arts Boards to ensure the needs of artists working in Circus Arts are met and that they have access to the necessary officer and advisory support. On the matter of funding, the new Regional Arts Lottery programme will offer artists working in new and collaborative art forms (including Circus Arts) new opportunities to obtain funding. Finally, I must say that I welcome the news that ReFract'99 agreed to establish a national circus association and I look forward to hearing how this initiative progresses.
A letter from Pax Nindi regarding the new structure of ACE:
THE ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND
Dear ____
UPDATE ON ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND CHANGES
I wish to bring you up to date with changes at the Arts Council
of
England, particularly in relation to developments, which will
impact
your area of work.
There have been a number of significant changes, which have taken
place throughout the arts funding system. From 1 November, the
_Combined Arts_ Department disappears. The new ACE structure
places a
new Unit, called _Collaborative Arts_, within the remit of the
new
Executive Director of Arts, Kim Evans, who has recently joined us
from
the BBC.
The Unit's main brief will be Interdisciplinary _arts_ covering
new
forms emerging from the interaction of art, science and
technology and
_Multidisciplinary arts_ covering carnival, new circus, street
arts
and celebratory arts practice. We will work collaboratively with
partners inside and outside the arts funding system investing in
early
stage research and exploring new development opportunities for
these
areas of activity. Our work will also include benchmarking and
dissemination of good practice in terms of methodologies and
structures for supporting Collaborative Arts development
nationally
and internationally. During the Year of the Artist (June
2000--May
2001) we hope to work with collaborative partners to research and
fund
innovative interdisciplinary projects.
I will be responsible for Multidisciplinary Arts and will still
be
looking after Arts for Everyone clients. The Interdisciplinary
Arts
Officer will be recruited by January 2000 at the latest. The rest
of
the staff within the unit is, _Bronac Ferran_ (Senior Officer)
_Jemma
Gascoine-Becker_ (Assistant Officer to Bronac, till end of 1999)
_Kate
Laird_ (Assistant Officer to Pax, till end March 2000).
Other members of staff within the Combined Arts Department have
moved
to other positions within the Arts Council of England. If you
wish to
telephone anyone who is moving from the Department during the
next few
weeks, please phone the ACE switchboard number on 0171 333 0100
Our e-mail addresses are still the same and the main telephone
lines
directly into the Unit will be 0171 973 6573 for Jemma and Bronac
and
0171 973 6563 for Kate and me. We also hope to update the ACE
website
over the next week or two to include a Collaborative Arts section
and
an information leaflet updating the public on ACE changes is due
to be
circulated widely during November.
Yours Sincerely
Pax Nindi
_Collaborative Arts Officer_
and a response from Chris Barltrop of the Moscow State Circus:
Dear Mr Nindi
We met when you attended the ‘Refract’ circus
Conference at Three Mills, Bow, earlier this year. The Moscow
State Circus and it’s associated companies remain Members of
the Conference Group.
The Refract mailing system has sent me a copy of your recent
letter detailing changes in the organization of ACE. I welcome
the continuing inclusion of ‘circus’ as an Artform
supported by ACE, but am alarmed to see that the definition in
your letter is ‘new circus’. The Refract Conference was
keen to acknowledge that there is no ‘new’ or
‘old’ circus, but only ‘Circus’ as a whole.
I would be pleased to hear from you that ACE acknowledges this
positive view of circus practitioners, and undertakes to support
Circus in general rather than selected parts of the whole.
Yours sincerely,
Chris Barltrop
DIRECTOR & GENERAL MANAGER