Wednesday 28 June 2017

RESPONSE TO THE CONSULTATION ON THE DERRY CITY AND STRABANE DISTRICT COUNCIL ARTS AND CULTURE STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT




Two fledgling ideas by Dave Duggan, dramatist and novelist, June 2017, written as aspirations.


Maker's Money (MM) is targeted investment in entry level artists of all ages, by Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC), so they can make art. This ensures the benefit of arts and culture to individuals, while ensuring maximum community benefit, value for money and public support. It assists the future recognition of the artists, their work and its value. It enables artists to begin careers as practitioners in the district council area. The investment delivers equality, strengthens the economy, contributes to the growth of the artistic workforce (a vital element in the creative sector), enhances the tourism offer and heartens us all, thus improving health and wellbeing.
Like all investments, it is not without risk. Making this investment in a confident manner, however, will enable artists, in particular new ones, to respond actively and make work across all artistic forms. Application and reporting can be minimal and not arduously administrative for the artist as sole trader. The investment programme should be considered as long-term. Details would require working up, but, in outline, could include:

- An investment period of five years, 2017/8-2022/3;
- an investment pot of £5, 000 per year, allocated as £2, 500 each for two individual artists per year, no artist being eligible for two Maker's Money investments;
- the total investment to be £25, 000 over five years, at which time it would be reviewed;
- application is a one page statement of what the artist intends to make in the Derry and Strabane District Council area, supported by a brief cv of work previously made. Receipts to confirm the investment has been received into the artist's bank account, in staged payments, are the only written reporting required;
- the individual investment to be made in stages: £1, 000 on signing up; another £1, 000 on a successful six-month review interview and the final £500 at a successful conclusion, all within 18 months. Definitions as to what constitutes ‘success’ to be agreed and contracted at the time of the award.

The programme budget of £25, 000 over five years can be allocated as part of the Council’s overall budget in allocation models as used by Invest NI and the Strategic Investment Board. Consideration can also be given to funds secured by the National Crime Agency in the form of 'assets recovered'. This investment programme would not replace SIAP funding offered by The Arts Council (ACNI).

In enabling artists to buy time to make work using this investment, the vision is to offer artists an equal opportunity to achieve their aspirations and ambitions, while tackling social exclusion of artists in a manner that tackles wider exclusions in society by new, imaginative works and acts. The theme of cultural togetherness is made manifest when a society confidently invests in makers who use their imagination and skills to make the work they wish to make. These artists contribute to their own and society's wellbeing through rich cultural expression, rooted in this place and reaching far beyond it. 



THE WRITING DISTRICT (TWD) is a designation and a programme by Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC) that enables expression and storying through imaginative writing from adults across the district. TWD asserts that the act of writing in all its forms is a defining characteristic of the district, creating healthy citizens, a wealth of written stories and texts with social and historical benefits and contributing to the tourism offer by making the region a fascinating place, where visitors can see and experience artistic production through writing.

TWD is about writing, not writers, in the first instance. Writing in the work-place, at leisure settings, in families, in social and religious groups, on buses, in taxis, bars and cafés, at the park, the sports field and the gym, at festivals of jazz, film, Christmas and Halloween. TWD animates the district with writing.

People in the district, like people all over the world, have stories to tell. TWD creates opportunities for those stories to be written. People in the district have expressions to make. TWD creates opportunities for those expressions to be written.

The written works, sometimes very short, become public, as the person writing decides, via blogs, twitter accounts, emails, pages in the district's newspapers and magazines, dedicated sheets, pamphlets and billboards, readings, books, recordings, websites and all other platforms imaginable.

The principle outcome is a vibrant and lively district with texts and stories, poems and lyrics, sketches and scenes, memories and speculations written by people in the district, shared by people in the district and beyond, so that the district becomes known by its writing. It becomes The Writing District.

Another outcome of TWD is that a small number of people may wish to enter the writing industry. TWD would assist with information, advice, mentoring and pathways into the industry, across all forms, so that those people may become writers in formal and industrial senses.

A one year pilot programme and associated projects for TWD takes place in 2018. On review and adjustment, the designation and activities are rolled out for five years, then reviewed once more.





©Dave Duggan, June 2017





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