Written evidence submitted by Accentuate
(arts 79)
Funded by Legacy Trust UK, SEEDA and the regional
cultural agencies. Hosted by Screen South.
INTRODUCTION TO
ACCENTUATE:
Accentuate is the 2012 Legacy Programme for
the South East of England and will deliver a transformational
programme of 15 projects, all of which have been inspired by our
unique heritage of Stoke Mandeville as the birthplace of the Paralympic
movement. Our aim is to create a cultural shift in perceptions
of disability by promoting talent and access to real opportunity.
Working with the regional cultural agencies, businesses, schools,
Local Authorities, Universities and the voluntary sector, Accentuate
projects range from public art commissions, to major sporting
events, to international campaigns led by young disabled people.
Accentuate has been set up in a way which ensures partnership
working and learning is central to programme delivery. Accentuate
has specialist knowledge about how best to support and promote
disabled people across a wide range of sectors. We have been highlighted
as a programme that demonstrates best practice with regard to
partnership working.
What impact recent, and future, spending cuts
from central and local Government will have on the arts and heritage
at a national and local level;
Accentuate has already taken a hit from SEEDA
one of our key funders cutting some of their funding. This will
have very real consequences. Accentuate is currently reviewing
all of its projects using a rigorous template to assess quality
and how we can best meet our aim of achieving a cultural shift
in the way disabled people are perceived and the type of opportunities
that are open to them. Our projects aim to promote talent and
ensure we are nurturing a growing community of disabled people
with leadership potential.
We know that we will not be able to make any
"efficiency savings" as we have been designed to be
"lean" and only have minimal programme management and
associated costs. We are also meeting and in some cases exceeding,
all of our targets. Therefore this cut is likely to impact directly
on the projects meaning we may have to merge some of them. This
will affect our outcomes as there are likely to be fewer commissioning
opportunities, less opportunities for professional development
and training and fewer businesses, organisations and local authorities
will be able to access specialist advice and training to improve
facilities for disabled people.
We have evidence that our projects are working.
They are up-skilling people, providing employment opportunities
and bringing extra revenue into the region. This cut will mean
that there will be less of benefit across all sectors and at all
levels.
It will not only effect some of the organisations
we work with (some of them are relatively small and rely on Accentuate
Projects for a large proportion of their portfolio of work) it
will also profoundly affect the numbers of disabled people we
will be able to offer opportunities to. We will continue to ensure
that we will promote and engage with deaf and disabled artists,
cultural leaders and sports people. We will also continue to focus
on quality. However we are likely to need to downscale what we
are doing which is very short-sighted at this time when there
are few genuine specialist opportunities that provide support
and backing that will help get disabled people out of the welfare
system and into valued paid employment.
Accentuate will seek to continue to do what
it has always done—work in partnership to ensure there is
no duplication but there is a shared learning. We believe we are
in a strong position during these challenging times to share our
working methods with other organisations, which may help them
to develop a more "joined up" approach.
What arts organisations can do to work more closely
together in order to reduce duplication of effort and to make
economies of scale;
Cross-sector and cross-organisation working
with the arts and the cultural sector is the key to this issue.
Accentuate is working at the cutting-edge of collaborative working
developing new and innovative strategies and methodologies to
bring partners together. However, the recent cut to Accentuate
funding will impact directly on the ability to share this vital
learning more widely. Accentuate's leadership role in this field
has been acknowledged as having national importance by the DCMS.
Increased funding to ensure the dissemination of the programme
nationally would result in future savings, as organisations use
the Accentuate expertise to change their ways of working.
What level of public subsidy for the arts and
heritage is necessary and sustainable;
Public finding for the arts is a sound investment.
Studies have shown that for every pound of public subsidy invested
in the arts, more than a pound is raised for the UK economy. Therefore
the return on investment means that subsidy is both necessary
for a buoyant economy and sustainable.
Whether the current system, and structure, of
funding distribution is the right one;
A streamlining of the cultural organisations
that distribute public arts funding is necessary to ensure for
best value for money. However, the overall structure is strong
and robust. The danger with merging organisations into one "culture
council" which seems to be the current trend, is that the
expertise and diversity that is central to the arts is lost. It
is vital that the arts remain at arms length from the Government.
The current reduction and merging programme is minimising this
distance and therefore the independence and risk-taking character
than makes our cultural sector so vibrant.
Current funding structures do not operate in
an accessible way. This results in artists with a disability having
less access to funding opportunities than non-disabled artists.
This inherent inequality also means we are missing out on the
full potential of some disabled people to become arts and cultural
leaders of the future. The Accentuate programme is leading the
way in uncovering these barriers and breaking them down in partnership
with the cultural organisations. On some occasions a simple change
of approach (a longer lead in time for an application, or an adjustment
to seminar timings or venues) is all that is needed. In other
cases barriers are more about ways of thinking. Challenging and
changing these practices, to ensure equality of access and support,
should be a priority of the coalition Government.
The impact of recent changes to DCMS arm's-length
bodies—in particular the abolition of the UK Film Council
and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council;
Accentuate works closely in partnership with
the MLA. We are concerned that the excellent work of this organisation,
particularly in preserving archives such as the Ludwig Guttmann
archive at Stoke Mandeville, must be continued. In particular
the expertise of the Staff of the MLA is a hugely valuable resource
and must not be lost to the cultural sector. We are reassured
to hear that the majority of the MLA's work will continue, and
hope to see this pledge move into action soon.
Accentuate is working to influence and change
the way large cultural "gatekeeping" organisations,
such as MLA and Film Council operate, in order to ensure equality
of opportunity. We have worked closely with MLA and would be keen
to ensure that this learning and relationship is transferred to
any new organisation that may be formed—or indeed is passed
to any organisation that may be absorbing parts of MLA's current
work.
Accentuate is hosted by Screen South. Screen
South are the regional Screen agency for the South East. The UK
has a heritage in cinema and has produced some of the world's
top directing talent—Ridley and Tony Scott, Christopher
Nolan, Danny Boyle to name a few. The UKFC and the organisations
it works with has been largely responsible for bringing the UK
to the forefront of great modern cinema. UKFC has also launched
the international film careers of some of the mostly highly regarded
British film directors working today stripping away potential
for our future film-makers is a huge mistake for one of the world's
most creative countries.
Currently less than 1% of people working in
the film industry have a disability. This statistic shows the
great wealth of potential talent that is not being explored. Accentuate
can make a difference, but in order to do so we need partners
on the ground who have direct routes into industry. UKFC is one
such partner.
Whether businesses and philanthropists can play
a long-term role in funding arts at a national and local level;
We do not believe that private sector support
or philanthropy is a viable alternative to public funding. There
may be opportunities to encourage business or philanthropic support
in some particular cases, but it is unlikely that it would be
an option in the vast majority occasions. In particular we are
concerned that this kind of support will inevitably be drawn to
large, high-profile arts organisations who have the capacity to
employ staff with the expertise to seek it. This is result in
a further widening of the gap between the large established organisations
and the smaller organisations. This will lead to a loss of diversity
and innovation in the arts, and therefore a reduction in the value
of the Creative Industries.
In addition this will encourage organisations
to "do what they have always done" to try and maintain
income, rather than do any risk-taking or look at altering the
way they work. This has potentially serious implications for the
levels of equality and access to the arts. The elite arts in the
UK have had a reputation for being white, middle class, academic,
male dominated and non-disabled. Significant progress has been
made in changing this. But a reliance on business or philanthropic
support will set this trend in reverse.
If business or philanthropic support is to be
part of the picture of helping to support the arts then
there must be mechanisms put in place to encourage greater understanding
of where these opportunities lie and how organisations and individuals
may be able to access them. If these mechanisms are not put in
place it will continue to ensure there is inequality to access
opportunities.
Whether there need to be more Government incentives
to encourage private donations.
Anything the Government can do to encourage
investment in the arts would be welcomed. However, the encouragement
of private donations does not relieve the need for public funds.
As mentioned in the previous answer, it is not
only important to encourage private investment, but there must
also be a transparent process. Therefore artists and organisations
must be able to access these funds—or at least the information
about who is prepared to be a sponsor—and the process for
bidding or applying for funds must be clear and well supported.
Without this, there will never be a fair system based on talent,
rather than how well connected you are.
September 2010
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