www.palatine.heacademy.ac.uk
PALATINE
dance
drama
music
performance
ICEBreaker
An examination of models and practice for the
effective integration of creative practice and
entrepreneurial skills and understanding, at both
undergraduate and postgraduate level, within
Performing Arts
Mark Evans
Principal Lecturer, Performing Arts
Coventry University
The
Higher PALATINE
Education Dance, Drama
Academy and Music
working together to enhance the student learning experience
THE AUTHOR
Mark Evans is Principal Lecturer in Theatre and Programme Manager for Performing Arts at
Coventry University. He is currently holder of an iPED (Inquiring Pedagogies Research Network)
scholarship to research reflective practice and the development of student entrepreneurship. He
has recently published a book on the French theatre director Jacques Copeau (Routledge, 2006).
PALATINE is the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music.
Our role is to provide, for the performing arts communities in UK higher education, high quality
information, expertise, and resources on good and innovative learning and teaching practices. We
also promote and transfer such practices to enhance learning and teaching activity in the
performing arts HE sector and to the wider higher education community.
ICEBreaker
An examination of models and practice for the effective integration of creative practice
and entrepreneurial skills and understanding, at both undergraduate and postgraduate
level, within Performing Arts
Mark Evans
Copyright © PALATINE, 2006
First Published November 2006
ISBN 1-905788-22-3
All pictures included by permission of the author
Published by:
PALATINE
Higher Education Academy
Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music
The Roundhouse
Lancaster University
Lancaster, LA1 4YW
All rights reserved.
Except for quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, and for use in
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While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, neither the publisher,
or author is responsible for applications and uses of the information contained within. PALATINE
takes no responsibility for the content of external websites listed in this guide.
The
Higher PALATINE
Education Dance, Drama
Academy and Music
ICEBreaker
An examination of models and practice for the effective integration
of creative practice and entrepreneurial skills and understanding, at
both undergraduate and postgraduate level, within Performing Arts
Mark Evans
Principal Lecturer, Performing Arts,
Coventry University
A
PALATINE
PUBLICATION
CONTENTS
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Undergraduate
The Wider Picture
The Local Context - Coventry University Performing Arts
Course redesign 2006
Is Professional Practice enough?
Teaching and assessment of the creative elements
How do students learn to use failure constructively?
Recognizing success
Implications for recruitment
Institutional developments – Coventry University’s Add+vantage scheme
4
4
8
11
17
17
20
21
21
21
Postgraduate
24
Innovation and Creative Enterprise (ICE) Academy
Why an MA?
Resident artists/agencies – why and who?
Why is this important for the University?
MA Performing Arts Innovation and Enterprise
Current position
New developments
Proposed new structure for MA Performing Arts Innovation and Enterprise
Assessment
How would the PgDip/MA split operate?
Recruitment
Preparation for exit
Overview
Conclusion
24
26
26
27
29
29
30
32
35
36
36
37
39
40
Recommendations
General
Undergraduate provision
ICE/MA in Performing Arts Innovation and Enterprise
40
40
40
42
References
43
Online Resources
45
National
Regional
45
46
Appendices
48
1
Introduction
This report aims to examine the development of a Performing Arts curriculum at
undergraduate and postgraduate level designed to enable students to create real and
sustainable career opportunities for themselves after graduation. It takes as its starting
point Ralph Brown’s comprehensive report on Performing Arts Entrepreneurship for
PALATINE (Brown, 2004), which is recommended as a key resource for any
department wishing to review and develop the delivery of enterprise and employability
skills and knowledge.
Coventry University’s Performing Arts department has, since the early 1990s,
consistently sought to develop innovative courses with a strong commitment to the
investigation of professionalism within the Arts. As the department approaches a
significant period of review and growth, this report examines past and present practice
and looks towards future developments.
In order to fulfill this aim, the report adopts the following methodology:
An examination of current practice, involving an audit of existing and planned
course and module content.
An evaluation of relevant course content against industry needs. Is it current,
adequate, appropriate, and are delivery modes effective?
Formulation of recommendations for future practice and development, and
identification of possible indicators for success.
Examination of the University’s ICE project for graduate creative enterprise
development. Identification of potential models for content and delivery of
postgraduate provision in relation to industry needs and current practice.
Summary of key recommendations for effective implementation of
undergraduate and postgraduate developments.
Summary of relevant resources.
It is hoped that this report will provide a useful model for other performing arts
departments interested in reviewing and developing employability and enterprise within
their courses. See the appendix for examples of audit mechanisms and general
resources.
2
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to:
Ralph Brown, Projects Officer, PALATINE.
Charlotte Carter, Third Year BA (Hons.) Theatre and Professional Practice, Coventry
University.
Simon Day, B Theatre.
Tim Ellis, Creative Director, Hybrid Arts.
Lyndsay Evans, Non-Descript.
Anna Fenemore, Research Fellow Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan
University (Cheshire Campus)
Lucy Foster, Improbable.
Kelly Higgs, Third Year BA (Hons.) Theatre and Professional Practice, Coventry
University.
Clare Huby, Arts Development Officer, Coventry City Council.
Tony Inglis, Business Development Manager, Coventry University Enterprises Ltd.
Jill Journeaux, Associate Dean of School of Art and Design, Coventry University.
Phelim McDermott, Improbable.
Kirstie McKenzie, Improbable.
Vanessa Oakes, Arts Development Officer, Warwick District Council.
Jonathan Pitches, Principal Lecturer Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan
University (Cheshire Campus)
Liz Read, Business Development Manager, Coventry University Enterprises Ltd.
Amy Saunders, Non-Descript.
Nick Sweeting, Improbable.
Mike Tovey, Dean of School of Art and Design, Coventry University.
Janet Vaughan, Talking Birds.
Sarah Whatley, Head of Performing Arts, Coventry University.
Sarah Worth, Highly Sprung Performance Company.
…and to all who helped with and/or took part in ‘Sustaining the Dream’, the Open
Space event at Coventry University on Wednesday 21 June 2006.
This project is a component of the CoLab project, a collaboration between PALATINE;
the Department of Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University (Cheshire);
and the Performing Arts Department, Coventry University. The project has been funded
by the Higher Education Academy.
3
Undergraduate
The Wider Picture
The introduction of enterprise and employability as key concerns within the Higher
Education sector has been a gradual but sustained process over the last fifteen years or
more. The term enterprise was barely mentioned as an important aspect of higher
education in the late 1980s and early 1990s 1 , now it is wide-spread. Significant changes
have taken place since the Dearing Report into Higher Education and the granting of
degree awarding powers to the ‘new’ Universities (who had traditionally placed more
emphasis on vocationalism). Graduate enterprise has been increasingly encouraged at a
governmental level, and is now supported by several national agencies. By the end of the
1990s, there was a clear recognition, both nationally and within the European
Community, of the value for students of training and education which blended skills
development and creative exploration with an understanding of employment and
enterprise opportunities within the industry (Birch, Jackson & Towse, 1998: 63, and,
European Community, 1999).
The two terms are often used together, and generally taken to mean broadly compatible
things. How do these terms function with respect to practice within the Performing
Arts industry? Employability can be broadly characterized as a set of skills and modes of
behaviour which are both essential requisites for professional employment in the
Performing Arts and also compatible with the customary practice within the industry.
For instance, a professional actor would typically be expected to be skilled in voice,
movement, characterization, text analysis, rehearsal techniques, stage combat, social
dance and perhaps singing. She would also be expected to be reliable, flexible,
presentable, on time and able to learn lines. She would typically have to manage her own
finances and market herself as a freelance artist. This is a complex and demanding set of
skills and knowledge, traditionally associated with a conservatoire style training, and
embodied in the content of texts such as An Actor’s Guide to Getting Work (Dunmore,
2004). This set of skills and capabilities constitutes the conventional criteria for
employability as a professional actress. Enterprise within the Performing Arts however
implies something related but different. Most typically, enterprise would be associated
with the starting up of a new performing arts business, and with self-employment. As
well as a grasp of relevant performance and employability skills, performing arts
entrepreneurs would also be expected to demonstrate skills and knowledge in relation
to the setting up of a new business, the identification of market opportunities, marketing
strategies, communication skills, and the development of original ideas. Modes of
behaviour associated with performing arts enterprise would include: high level of selfmotivation, flexibility, risk-taking, self-confidence and endurance (Onstenck, 2003: 76).
Of course both sets of skills are to some extent a mode of development towards the
1
There are, for instance, only two mentions in Eggins, H. (ed.) (1992) Arts Graduates, their Skills and their
Employment: Perspectives for Change(London: Falmer Press).
4
other; more especially so in an age when movement between employment and selfemployment is likely to be increasingly fluid.
Most performing arts students in Higher Education are driven by a desire to practice
their art-form. The majority of students are, as a result, highly motivated towards
practice, and wish to pursue careers which relate more or less directly to their ability to
dance, act, write, choreograph, compose and/or perform in their chosen field. Most
performing arts students would like, on graduation, to join or to set up a business
involved in their chosen discipline. However recent surveys show that the majority of
students, both at Coventry and elsewhere, migrate into other employment fields,
typically in order to address problems of debt or economic survival. It may also be that
self-employment in the arts and creative enterprise are still not adequately understood
and promoted within Higher Education. A principal consideration for the (re)design of
the Coventry University performing arts courses at both undergraduate and
postgraduate level therefore needs to be: to what extent is it possible to improve the
ability of students to achieve sustainable self-employment within their chosen specialism
on graduation.
Non-Descript – ‘A Tale of Competition’ (2006)
Self-employment offers the performing arts graduate several real benefits, which may be
under-estimated by students considering career options after graduation. Selfemployment within the performing arts typically offers:
The opportunity to continue practicing and developing in their chosen field, at a
level they feel comfortable with, and to test what they have learnt in the market
place;
The opportunity to further explore their own creativity;
The chance to see clear results of their own efforts;
Continued interaction and/or collaboration with others in their chosen field;
A greater degree of control over their own career choices;
Valuable experience in project managing and working in partnership;
A chance to develop their ability to work independently.
5
Performing Arts is an area of employment where free-lancing, self-employment and
enterprise are the norm (Wilson & Stokes, 2001: 3-4). There is indeed evidence that
graduates are keen to set up their own arts businesses; a survey at Leeds University
suggested that up to 30% of performing arts students wanted to set their own company.
A report on occupational destinations of Design, Drama, ICT and Media Studies
graduates, commissioned by Coventry University, revealed that 45% of students went
into employment related to their area of study; however only 2% set up their own
business after graduating. At a time when nationally only 20.3% of drama graduates and
10.1% of music graduates are entering occupations related to their studies (PALATINE –
Career Project, see: http://www.palatine.ac.uk/sitefiles/career_fsheet1.pdf), it is clearly
appropriate to examine the role that entrepreneurship can play in developing career
opportunities for performing arts students.
Several factors inhibiting a move into self-employment in the creative industries have
emerged from discussions with students, graduates and artists.
Fear of failure. It is safer to get work with others than create your own – ‘Am I
good enough?’;
Difficult to ‘make it big’ – large number of small companies and small number
of large companies;
Fear of own inexperience – ‘Am I going to cope?’;
Fear of financial insecurity and low returns;
Lack of venues for promotion of work;
Lack of finance required to initiate business; possibly related to…
Debt problems on graduation;
Too much knowledge is a bad thing – more you know about what’s involved
the less likely you are to do it;
‘Business’ not seen as attractive, business skills development not interesting
enough;
Arts are too frivolous to form the basis of a respectable and/or sustainable
career or business;
You need to know/learn a lot to run your own business.
There may also be socio-cultural factors affecting a student’s confidence in moving into
self-employment. Students from particular backgrounds may experience either
disapproval or positive encouragement from family, community or peers. There is very
little research available on the effects of ethnicity, class, economic background, religion
or gender on progression to self-employment in the performing arts. This is definitely an
area that merits further attention and that may well have some real and significant part
to play in improving levels of graduate self-employment.
There has long been an acceptance that recently graduated artists will probably find that
they are required to supplement their income in order to survive. Socio-cultural and
economic factors may well, for instance, determine whether graduates from different
backgrounds find it easy or difficult (or even possible) to gain part-time employment or
other sources of temporary additional income.
6
For most graduates, it is nonetheless clear that self-employment is no easy option:
There is a high failure rate among creative enterprises but those which do
succeed can be highly rewarded. It is of note that creative products have a
tendency to have a short shelf life and there are a very high proportion of sole
traders, freelancers and micro enterprises in the sector.
(ABL, 2005: 14)
7
The Local Context - Coventry University Performing Arts
Highly Sprung – ‘Unspoken Echoes’ (2001)
In 1997, Coventry University’s Performing Arts department set out to design a suite of
degree courses which would encourage students to engage creatively and critically with
the business aspects of being a successful performance practitioner. This project grew
out of a recognition that: on the one hand an increasing number of performing arts
graduates were emerging from university degree courses and aspiring to careers in
some area of the performing arts industries; and, on the other hand, the nature of
university degree courses meant that students tended to develop innovation and
creativity above technical excellence. There was a recognition that whilst some
graduates would always succeed by joining existing arts organizations (theatre
companies, dance companies, orchestras or ensembles), others would be more likely to
succeed by setting up their own companies or arts businesses and making their first
career steps for themselves. The course design drew on the staff’s previous experiences
of running BTEC HND courses which had a strong commitment to industry relevant
training, and of running top-up degree provision which extended the HND experience
into degree level interrogation of policy, administration, practice and theory, as well as
their experience as professional performers and arts administrators.
At the core of the 1997 course design was a thread of study examining professional
practice within the performing arts. These modules, together with the general emphasis
throughout the courses on industry practice, aimed to support students in the
8
development of the entrepreneurial skills required to establish themselves in the early
stages of their careers (as performers or freelance artists, or as small-scale companies).
The titles of the courses: Dance and Professional Practice; Music Composition
and Professional Practice (later joined by a course in Music and Professional
Practice); Theatre and Professional Practice, directly reflect these key features.
Central to each course was a set of core modules:
Year One
101CPA Professional Practice 1,
102CPA Contextual and Critical Studies,
Year Two
201CPA Professional Practice 2,
202CPA Historical and Analytical Studies,
Year Three
301CPA Professional Practice 3
302CPA Performance, Policy and Culture,
304CPA Collaborative Projects
This cluster of modules aimed to give students: the knowledge, skills and understanding
relevant to professional practice with the performing arts, and their field in particular;
and understanding of the organization, marketing, funding and presentation of their own
performance work; and, the interrelationship between professional performance
practice, contemporary culture and arts policy. The culmination of the course for each
student was their ‘Collaborative Project’, which enabled them to bring together their
subject-specific skills and these core skills to present and market a project of their own
choice, which could act as a stepping stone for them towards their chosen career(s)
after graduation.
The original course documentation recognized the changing nature of employment in
the performing arts industries during the last decades of the twentieth century, focusing
in particular on the need for performing arts graduates to be equipped with the skills
and knowledge to survive and thrive as independent freelance artists and as small-scale
performance-based companies. Small scale performing arts practice was identified as an
important space for ‘experiment, innovation, resourcefulness and accessibility’ (BA
Theatre and Professional Practice, Definitive Course Document, 1997). During the
1980s and 1990s, the costs of undertaking a traditional drama school training increased
rapidly. As HND courses arrived on the scene and BA courses became increasingly
practice-orientated, higher education programmes became increasingly popular. The
Coventry programmes were distinctive and innovative in offering a core element which
focused on the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge that students would need to
succeed after graduation.
9
Relevant aims of the original programmes included:
Theatre
To provide students with an understanding of the way Arts and theatre policy is
generated and implemented.
To familiarize students with the nature of a professional theatre artist’s career
structure and the potential career opportunities available nationally and
internationally.
To encourage qualities of enterprise, co-operation, initiative and resourcefulness.
Music Composition
The creative, management and personal skills needed to operate successfully as
self-employed, e.g. tax, NI, copyright, performing rights, opportunity
seeking/creation, marketing, programming, etc.
A thorough knowledge of the current Arts providers, societies and funding
structures and local and national levels.
Dance
Provide students with understanding of the infrastructure of the performing arts
industry, and the effect of arts policy decision making on it.
Promote understanding of the interrelationship of the creative and interpretative
processes of dance within the cultural and professional context in which it takes
place.
Encourage the qualities of enterprise, initiative, resourcefulness, collaboration
and co-operation.
These aims positioned the courses in line with what was then known as the University’s
Enterprise Code of Practice. The delivery of enterprise skills was integrated into a few
key modules, but essentially it was directly delivered through the core modules.
Over the years since 1997 several further refinements and amendments have been
made, including: the amalgamation of the level 3 module in Professional Practice and the
Collaborative Project module; the redrafting of the level 2 module in Historical and
Analytical Studies to allow for a more subject-specific focus; and the development of
course modules which offered subject specific employability skills and knowledge (e.g.
301TPA Professional Development (Theatre)).
The advantages of this ‘golden thread’ model of curriculum design were:
Clear identification of relevant entrepreneurial skills and knowledge and their
validation as important and relevant to all performance practice.
Delivery of relevant general skills and knowledge to large groups of students.
Cross-course collaboration and discussion at student level.
Opportunities to develop skills through classroom session and hypothetical
projects rather than just through live projects.
10
Disadvantages included:
Hypothetical projects are less motivating for the students. It is harder for the
learning to become ‘deep’ learning if it is not linked to practical application and
real-life complex problems.
Results in a heavy workload for the relevant module tutor.
Can result in the perception by students and staff that other modules do not
need to concern themselves with aspects of professional practice.
Not all professional practice skills and knowledge are common to all subjects –
how to deal with diversity of interest, and ensure relevance to subject
specialisms.
The emphasis on professional practice was perceived as a marketing strength, and past
graduates continue to value the knowledge and skills they acquired on the courses. The
QAA Development Engagement with the Performing Arts department in October 2003
concluded in its report that the curricular emphasis on vocational and professional
practice was highly valued by students as aiding their employment prospects. Recent
graduate artists surveyed for this project stressed that they found that they drew on the
learning from the professional practice modules within the degree programmes ‘all the
time’. They felt that these elements were important in making the course a ‘realistic’
experience of the performing arts, not just a course of academic study.
Through the delivery of these courses, Coventry University’s Performing Arts
Department has trained a wide range of performers, composers, choreographers,
directors, and administrators who have contributed to the development of the
performing arts within the West Midlands (and further afield) over the last decade or
so. The staff have also played a key role in the regional arts industry through their
practice, as well as their membership of boards, advisory groups, and committees.
The teaching on these modules has been supported by valuable input from local artists,
arts officers, arts administrators and arts consultants. Their input has been vital in
ensuring industry relevance, work-place authority, and professional rigour. At the same
time it has also been seen as important to blend this input with critical engagement with
policy and practice (Why is it done this way? How could it be done differently?) within
the common modules. The aim was that such critical engagement might also lead
students to consider working outside the limitations of existing professional models.
Course redesign 2006
In 2005, Coventry University committed to a re-design of its undergraduate
programmes from an eight module framework to a six module framework. The redesign
aimed to bring the University more closely in line with the principles of the Bologna
agreement, and to stream-line its course delivery. It was also determined that the
University should commit itself to being a leader in delivering employability and
enterprise skills across its full suite of undergraduate courses. This has resulted in two
important processes: the re-design of the undergraduate courses to fit into a smaller
11
module framework; and the design of a suite of cross-University half-modules, called
Add+vantage modules, focusing on the delivery of clustered employability and enterprise
skills and knowledge. All students must undertake and pass their chosen Add+vantage
modules in each year as a compulsory part of their course requirements.
Each Faculty was invited to put forward suggestions for Add+vantage modules. The
Performing Arts Department has proposed five Add+vantage module streams, to be
managed internally: Arts Funding and Enterprise (levels 1 - 2), Creative Enterprise (levels
1-3), Capturing the Creative Spark (Level 1), Into the Dragon’s Den: How to Pitch
(Level 1), and Five Life Skills Right Now (Level 1). These modules were designed to
draw on the Department’s previous experience of offering the professional practice
skills and knowledge within its previous module scheme. In addition the Department
took the decision to make a radical change from its previous policy and embed the key
professional practice knowledge and skills into the programmes as a whole, rather than
re-validate them as stand-alone modules.
In order to achieve this change, course leaders and the programme manager for
Performing Arts had to be able to identify appropriate modules within the new
programmes for the teaching and assessment of skills and knowledge relevant to
professionalism, enterprise and employability. These modules, and the relevant new
learning outcomes, can be identified as the following:
Theatre
111TPA Theatre Manifestos
LO2
Examine the relationship of relevant theory and practice to concepts of professionalism
and funding policy;
210TPA Theatre in Practice
LO4
Through allocated roles and production tasks, participate cooperatively, creatively and
effectively in the preparation of a performance.
212TPA Touring Performance
LO5
Participate in the efficient management of a touring group project.
310TPA Professional Production
LO1
LO2
LO3
LO4
Knowledge and understanding of the requirements of working within a professional
environment;
Identified and utilised practical skills appropriate to assigned responsibilities and the aims
of the production;
The ability to work with an appropriate professional attitude at all times
An intimate understanding of the importance of professional working practices within
the context of overall learning and career trajectory.
311TPA Professional Development (Theatre)
LO2
LO3
Realistically identify their own strengths and weaknesses and to have assessed
appropriate employment opportunities.
Identify and formulate a coherent personal and innovative strategy for working within
the theatre/performance industry
12
Dance
110DPA The Moving Body 1
LO4
Apply focus and concentration, attend the required number of classes and respond
appropriately to tutor correction thereby demonstrating professionalism in relation to
daily class practice
114DPA Dance Performance Projects 1
LO1
Demonstrate a basic awareness of the economic, social and political context for the
production of dance performance events.
210DPA Dance Performance Projects 2
LO1
LO2
LO5
Demonstrate awareness of responsible professional practice and relevant project
planning/management requirements.
Analyse and evaluate the operational aspects of a performance project.
Apply business skills in the organisation and management of a dance performance
project.
213DPA Dance Practice and Composition 2
LO1
LO5
Demonstrate awareness of funding policies in relation to arts projects.
Construct a funding application.
Music
124MPA Performance Seminar 2
LO7
Exhibit professionalism in the preparation for and presentation of a performance.
224MPA Performance Seminar 4
LO7
Demonstrate professionalism in the planning, management and presentation of a publicly
performed event.
310MPA Practical and Analytical Performance
LO3
LO5
Participate in and respond to a directed ensemble situation with professionalism.
Analyze and evaluate material effectively to particular target audiences.
311MPA Music Arranging
LO5
Prepare scores (and parts if required) to professional calligraphic standards.
312MPA Music Recital
LO3
LO4
LO7
Approach concert preparation in a professional manner.
Demonstrate projection, communication and professionalism in performance.
Independently produce and stage a concert.
Music Composition
129MPA Composition Projects 2
LO6
LO7
Demonstrate professionalism in the presentation of new works ‘in concert’.
Demonstrate, in writing, an understanding of the term ‘Professionalism’ in the context
of contemporary composition.
227MPA Composition Projects 4
LO5
Demonstrate professionalism in the organization, planning and presentation of a publicly
performed event.
311MPA Music Arranging
LO5
Prepare scores (and parts if required) to professional calligraphic standards.
13
All Performing Arts degree programmes
310CPA Final Project
LO4
LO6
LO7
Demonstrate awareness of target audience, client, participant, consumer, and/or reader
need in the creation and presentation of the final project.
Create a substantial and coherent body of work that integrates appropriate artistic,
scholarly and business concepts.
Manage the process of creation and production adhering to appropriate scholarly
conventions, legislative frameworks and safe practice.
In addition there will be a level one module which all students in the School of Art and
Design will take – 100AD Personal Development Portfolio 1 – which supports the
students’ reflection on their learning and encourages them to develop an overview of
their studies in relation to their future career aims. This module will be central to the
fulfillment of the University’s policy for PDP delivery. Second year students will also be
able to take an optional level 2 School module – Professional Experience – which covers
work-based learning such as placements and live brief projects. There are two
Performing Arts modules – Critical and Reflective Practice (level 2), and Documenting
Performance Practice (level 3) – which aim to build on the students’ work on their PDPs
at level 1 with skills and knowledge relevant to a further understanding of
professionalism, creativity, innovation and career development.
The appendix includes a mapping of the new modules against the old. This audit of
new/old module content illustrates both the areas in which embedding has taken place,
and the areas of omission where further module development may be needed to ensure
that the embedding of skills is thorough, consistent across courses, and adequately
rigorous.
Industry needs
This project included a survey of local artists, arts administrators and recent graduates.
They were asked to identify what they saw as key attitudes, behaviour traits, skills and
knowledge, useful and appropriate for undergraduate performing arts students who may
wish to set up their own arts business. The principal topics they identified were:
Funding, planning and finance
Forward planning: what is a business plan and why do you need one? How to
research and write a business plan. Can you put on paper what you believe in,
and how does this feed the work you do?
Arts funding policy and practice: who is funded and why, what can you get
money for, how does funding impact on your work, where does funding come
from – local, government, lottery or Arts Council funding, private sponsorship,
etc.
Arts funding applications: required data, how to complete the forms,
strategies for success, ‘application-form-speak’.
14
Budgeting and account-keeping – awareness of legal responsibilities and tax,
when and where to get help.
Flexibility – how to think laterally and adapt your project without
compromising your vision.
Roles, structures and organization
Basic understanding of roles and responsibilities within professional arts
organizations. A taste of the various skills needed in your field (e.g. lighting,
sound, prop-making, design, acting, etc.). Know your own skills and how to
develop and expand them.
How to liaise with other companies – what are the relevant hierarchies,
structures, roles and practices.
Company status: what kind of a business are you – limited, not-for-profit,
collective, charity, unconstituted, voluntary, etc.
Understanding of professional discipline – promptness, attendance, rehearsal
conduct, cooperation.
Understanding safe and good practice – health and safety principles; basic risk
assessment; insurance; CRB and child protection; relevant aspects of the 2003
Licensing Act; duties of care to participants, audiences and employees; access and
equality.
Understanding responsible practice – sustainability, ethical awareness, cultural
sensitivity.
Communicate and collaborate
Ability to communicate, collaborate and work with other people. Build
relationships with partners, sponsors, funders and audiences. Work as a group
and take responsibility for each other within projects.
Know how to describe what you do. This is the starting point for selling an
idea. Explain clearly what stage your project is at. What is your ‘unique selling
point’?
Networking: knowing who is doing what and where, and how they might help
you. Exposure – being seen in the right places. Contacting agencies, joining
support networks, getting a mentor, choosing graduate courses.
Talk to artists about their careers and how to make a living. How to ask
useful and appropriate questions of other artists.
Managing self
Awareness of own strengths and weaknesses – peer evaluation, skills audit,
self-knowledge.
Early in course (first year?), students need to get a taste of different areas of
specialism within their subject, and use this as the beginnings of their career
planning.
15
Confidence in experimentation and innovation, knowing how to learn from
failure.
Nurturing enthusiasm, inspiration, integrity, imagination and bravery.
Career management – the realities of work in the performing arts: part-time
jobs, short contracts, ‘snakes and ladders’, work/life balance. Identifying what you
can control and learning how to deal with what you can’t. Recognizing different
levels of success.
Critical awareness of industry
‘Crits’ – gaining an understanding of the value of your work and that of
others; gaining confidence in yourselves and your product.
Sense of art world and where innovation is, what it is and its value. Understand
creative process of others. Understand how to identify areas of opportunity.
Understand industry from financial point of view – the value of things. How do
you place financial value on what you do, on your time?
Understanding the potential role of new technologies, and their limitations.
These perceived needs are mapped against the course modules in the appendix. There
are a number of existing models for the mapping of employability skills against course
content (see, for instance: http://www.ssv.uce.ac.uk/Careers/car-staff-employ.htm).
However these tend to be generalized and focus largely on transferable skills. This
mapping exercise sets out to evaluate proposed provision against a set of criteria which
more closely match specific industry needs. The mapping of transferable skills is, of
course, a valuable exercise; nonetheless, enterprise and employability within the
performing arts involve some very specific sets of skills and knowledges, and the method
employed here aims to reflect that situation.
The skills and knowledge identified need to be mapped into module and course delivery
through a range of delivery modes including: stand-alone sessions; sessions within
modules; and group tutorial sessions. Some of the suggestions for content and delivery
have clear implications: the use of professional input may need to be increased, greater
emphasis may need to be placed on practice and work-based projects, live briefs and
placements. Indeed, some respondents suggested that third year work on final projects
needed more structure, focus and guidance on how to use the final project as a launch
pad for work. They also felt that more contact with artists, arts officers and relevant
people in the region was needed in the final year.
The responses also seem to indicate that the assessment of professional practice needs
to involve practical activity – the filling in of application forms, the opportunity to
respond to live briefs, and to create work for client groups. It is not seen as adequately
effective to work on hypothetical projects; students are less motivated and/or construct
projects that they see as easy to complete. Students should be encouraged and/or
required to design projects that they really want to do, then think about funding.
Designing projects and applying for funding have greater educational purpose when they
are not undertaken simply as a task or chore, but when they represent and embody the
16
student’s personal aspiration and artistic vision. Hypothetical projects are seen as failing
to empower the student to see beyond ‘ticking boxes’.
Is Professional Practice enough?
Part of the rationale behind the removal of a ‘golden thread’ of modules in professional
practice and the embedding of these skills and knowledge into relevant course modules
has been the recognition that it is not enough simply to provide discrete skills sessions
in project management, company structuring, marketing and administration. These skills
and knowledge are only as good as the product they are aiming to produce and sell.
Entrepreneurship is more than a bundle of skills, it can be seen as a way of life (Onstenk,
2003: 76). Beyond the knowledge of effective business practice, students need also to
develop motivation, flexibility, confidence, independence, creativity, originality, initiative,
risk-taking and endurance (ibid.).
Discussion with artists and arts administrators has highlighted the importance of the
development of creativity, and the nurturing of bravery, integrity, ambition and passion
for an art form. Creative engagement with an art-form is central to establishing value as
an artist, to providing a constant flow of enterprising ideas, to establishing a niche as an
artist, and to staying at the leading edge of practice. No amount of business and
enterprise knowledge can replace inspiration, passion and creativity.
Clearly we need to ask ourselves what support we can we give students in generating
creative, innovative and/or productive ideas, in learning to understand their worth and
value, and in converting those ideas into viable business opportunities. On one level,
nurturing creativity and understanding its role in developing enterprise and employability
should be a core concern of any performing arts degree that includes practical work. If
creativity is core to industry success in theatre, dance or music, then it should be core
to the relevant courses.
The exploration of creativity and innovation is not simply a tool for encouraging
students to engage intellectually with their practice. It also offers a locus for students to
take control of the way in which they want to engage with their art form, and through
that to convert enterprise and employability from a chore to something profoundly
connected with their studies and practice.
Teaching and assessment of the creative elements
There is a common conception that ‘assessment can be a major inhibitor of creativity’,
that it does not ‘permit failure’ (Jackson, 2005). The modular system has long been held
to blame for encouraging students to focus on the outcomes the tutor desires rather
than what they would like to achieve or what might be possible. The reality of course is
that tutors can play an important role in pushing students to achieve things through risktaking and moving beyond their own boundaries. Tutors can do much to help students
recognize creativity and innovation, and to understand its cultural, social and economic
value. On a more personal level, that knowledge can then be used to help students
17
reflect on their own creative practice. As Jackson states, ‘evaluation is critical to the
very idea of creativity (…) Deliberate contemplation is integral to the self-awareness
that is necessary to harness creative capability and to understand why something is
creative.’ (Jackson, 2005)
Models of creativity and their possible application in the world of work need to be made
available for exploration and examination. Through critical engagement with the creative
processes and practices used by professional artists and tutors, students can develop an
appreciation of the nature of creativity and refine their own critical skills. Higher
education can be well placed to provide students with an international perspective on
their practice, an understanding of the networks of production and practice which drive
market change and trends. By coming to understand the frameworks that currently exist
they can have a more accurate sense of how and when they might move beyond them.
Jackson (2005) suggests that the teaching and assessment of student creative practice
and enterprise can be enhanced through the following:
The involvement of professionals within the field in the planning, teaching and
assessment of key elements of relevant study.
Use of placements and internships as learning opportunities.
Open discussion between tutors, students and professional artists of what it
means within a field to be creative and successful.
Opportunities for formative assessment as well as summative, allowing for the
development of risk-taking, and learning from failure.
Careful consideration of grade criteria and marking schemes.
Use of case studies to encourage understanding of creative practice and
enterprise.
Use of reflective processes to surface personal creative processes.
Use of ‘crit’ sessions to develop students’ ability to give and respond to
feedback.
Ensuring that the development of creative practice and enterprise is a continuous
thread through course design, and through teaching, learning and assessment.
Ensuring that assessment is evidence-based and not viewed as overly subjective.
This list has a close correlation to the list of skills and knowledges suggested by artists
and arts administrators for undergraduate students. This indicates that a close
relationship between effective teaching and assessment of creative practice and the
teaching and assessment of professional practice and enterprise skills is possible, and
indeed desirable.
Creative process is harder to teach and assess. Such processes typically ‘pursue a sense
of direction rather than a preordained pattern and specific criteria’ (Jackson, 2005).
Tutors need to ‘help students recognize and understand their own creativity and help
them express it and make claims against the evidence they feel is appropriate’ (Jackson,
2005). The messiness of creativity does not make it easy to assess, but it does make
18
assessment and evaluation valuable. Effective assessment and evaluation should form a
key part of making valuable connections to the students’ career aspirations.
Jackson suggests that assessment might include:
Portfolio or practical presentations of products which evidence risk-taking and
innovation against current conventional practice. Can the student evidence
solutions to problems, individuality, new insights, new products, re-working of
ideas. The amount and quality of new ideas might also be taken into account.
This could include initial assessment of the product’s market potential.
Demonstrations or documentation of processes which evidence risk-taking and
innovation against current conventional practice. Can the student evidence
relevant behaviours, flexible responses, attitudes, thought-processes, reflections,
individuality, sense of ownership of idea/project? These behaviours can be
evaluated against industry standards.
Assessment might happen through reading, listening, witnessing, observing, or watching.
Clearly wherever possible, more than one tutor must be involved in assessing creative
practice and creative enterprise. It will not be possible to remove subjectivity
completely, but shared assessment will go a long way to ensuring open-minded and fair
assessment. Evaluation and assessment should ideally occur not only at the end of a
project, but should also be on-going. Tutors and students should identify key phases in
projects when evaluation could take place, and establish possible indicators of
success/failure and creativity/cliché.
Students can develop their creativity through:
Devising interesting approaches to presentations.
Learning to recognize creativity in themselves and others.
Identifying how, why and when to take risks.
Working on unsolved (even insoluble) real-life problems.
Re-positioning knowledges and skills in new contexts.
Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of process.
Evidence could come through:
Performances and presentations.
Evaluations of presentations, events, performances against agreed SMART 2
criteria.
Portfolios – that provide context, evidence, process, decisionmaking/justification, outcomes.
Annotated scrap books and sketch books
2
SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-specified.
19
Blogging and on-line discussions.
Concept maps.
Reflective writing and creative journals.
Vivas, and ‘crit’ sessions during which students defend their process, opinions,
performances, ideas, etc.
How do students learn to use failure constructively?
Creativity and innovation require risk-taking. As a result, failure is always only one bad
decision away. Tutors need to help students deal with and recognize the value of failure.
All concerned need to be able to identify when failure is likely, when it has already
happened, and/or how it may be avoided. Tutors and students also need to be able to
differentiate between different kinds of failure. Protecting students from failure (through
‘soft’ grading criteria, for example) is counter-productive; students only learn that failure
does not matter. It is more effective to provide students with opportunities for
formative assessment which allows and encourages them to recognize and deal with the
immanence of failure. Learning to deal with the uncertainty which the possibility of
failure creates is a key attribute for the aspiring entrepreneur, and a vital life skill for the
professional performing artist.
Originality is the flip-side of plagiarism – students also need to be ‘aware of the ethical
dimensions of making claims for creativity that is not their own’ (Jackson, 2005).
Identifying plagiarism in respect of performance practice is a complex issue, with less of
the clarity already established with respect to plagiarism within academic writing.
Nonetheless students need to understand the relevance of intellectual property rights
within this field, as a key part both of their business knowledge and of their
responsibilities as professional artists. Plagiarism, in one sense at least, represents a
failure to take risks and value newness. It also provides a useful introduction to the
ethical aspects of enterprise activity.
The criteria for assessing creativity need therefore to be carefully considered. To what
extent is it possible to include notions of risk-taking, innovation and originality, or
willingness to change and adapt to new ideas? Can students a) recognize these qualities
and their value, and b) employ them effectively in their own work so that they can
produce evidence? It may be possible for students to be involved in negotiating these
criteria – referring them to their own career aspirations and enterprise ideas? How
might assessment recognize valuable failure?
Ultimately, it is valuable to recognize that not all problems have a solution. Occasional
failure may therefore be an inevitable outcome of creative endeavour. Students would be
helped by the production of a broad set of grade descriptors that embody for a
particular field the holistic characteristics of being creative. At the heart of such activity
is a recognition of the need for students to become adept at identifying behaviours and
outcomes that are associated with creative enterprise, and with success or failure.
20
Recognizing success
Just as important is the ability to recognize success when it happens. Specifically, in the
context of this report, it is important that tutors and students work together to
recognize the entrepreneurial value of successful projects. This kind of recognition is of
course in addition to the academic value that might be placed on a piece of student
work, and is focused primarily on the potential of the work for income generation,
development as a performance product, marketability, commercial viability, and its
relationship to current professional practice. Academic and industrial/commercial value
need not necessarily be incompatible, though differences and distinctions should be
made explicit by tutors. Nonetheless students will benefit from placing success in a
variety of appropriate contexts, each valid in different ways.
The development of a critical understanding of success goes hand in hand with a
complex understanding of creative enterprise that doesn’t limit students’ visions of what
successful entrepreneurship might be. Such understanding can be developed through
opportunities to engage with professional performing arts practitioners and discuss with
them their notions of success (and failure). Tutors can help students to place such
notions in the larger socio-cultural context, and to reflect on the assumptions behind
their own notions of success.
Implications for recruitment
An effective and imaginative integration of business knowledge and creative skills has the
power to continue to strengthen the courses’ market profile. These aspects need to be
considered for their value in course marketing. At the point of recruitment, evidence of
student success, opportunities to hear graduates talk about the courses, and evidence of
industry links would be worth highlighting to applicants.
In order to encourage students to see this area of their studies as having personal
relevance, it would be valuable to have a mechanism to identify what skills and
knowledge incoming students come with. Students may not realize how much existing
knowledge they already have.
Integrating creative and business skills should also help to change students’ and
applicants’ negative perceptions of classes in business skills. Aligning this work with the
development of the students’ Personal Development Portfolios should also function to
bind their learning experiences together in ways that they find revealing and
motivational.
Institutional developments – Coventry University’s Add+vantage scheme
What is particularly interesting about the current position at Coventry University is that
the developments in Performing Arts are taking place alongside an institutional initiative
to place Coventry at the forefront of student/graduate entrepreneurship. The University
21
has committed itself to designing courses that enable students to become ‘enterprising
and entrepreneurial graduates’ (CU – ‘Developing Student Capabilities in Add+vantage
modules – draft’ Jan 2006). The key themes identified as core to achieving this aim are:
innovation, creativity and productivity.
At the start of the project to launch Add+vantage, nine capabilities or skills were
identified for mapping employability:
Learning to learn
Working with others
Problem solving and innovation
Numeracy
IT and Online learning
Communication
Career management
Information management
Personal development planning
From this list, the proposed generic capabilities to be developed through Add+vantage
were identified as:
Problem solving skills
Action planning and organizing
Written and oral communication
Questioning and listening
Team work and working with others.
Key personal qualities to be developed included:
Achievement orientation – result driven approach.
Initiative – taking action unprompted, pro-active in putting forward ideas.
Self-confidence – making decisions and taking action.
Reflectiveness – reflecting evaluatively on own and others’ performance.
Adaptability – coping with change.
Influencing – expressing self effectively and influencing others.
Career management skills – self-awareness, opportunity awareness, decisionmaking and managing transition.
At this stage, Faculties within the University were invited to propose Add+vantage
modules which might address the delivery of these generic capabilities, and enhance
students’ entrepreneurial skills and their employability. The Personal Development
Portfolio was identified as a key tool to help bind the various skills developed together
and integrate them with the subject specific knowledge students acquired in their main
degree programme.
The Add+vantage modules proposed and managed by the Performing Arts department
(i.e. Arts Funding and Enterprise 1, Arts Funding and Enterprise 2, Creative Enterprise 1,
Creative Enterprise 2, and Creative Enterprise 3, Capturing the Creative Spark, Into the
22
Dragon’s Den: How to Pitch, Five Life Skills Right Now) were designed to complement
the main programmes within the Performing Arts degree courses. These modules offer
a form of elective ‘golden thread’, whereby students can focus on at least some
enterprise skills and knowledge which is more closely related to their field of study.
There is also the opportunity for students to take modules from a wide range of areas,
drawing on relevant expertise in other Faculties. It will be interesting to track take-up of
Add+vantage modules by Performing Arts students, and to evaluate the extent to which
general modules in broadly transferable skills prove successful in developing students’
employability and enterprise. It will also be important to monitor the extent to which
tutors and students are able to integrate the skills and knowledge acquired through the
Add+vantage modules into the rest of the programme. One potential danger is that
tutors and students will assume that the Add+vantage modules are where all enterpriserelated activities happen. Personal Development Portfolios may have a significant role to
play in encouraging students and staff to look at learning across the programmes of
study and in relation to the development of their enterprise skills.
Details of Add+vantage modules can be found in the University’s on-line module
directory (MIDS), located at: http://mid.coventry.ac.uk/ .
Non-Descript – ‘A Tale of Competition’ (2006)
23
Postgraduate
Innovation and Creative Enterprise (ICE) Academy
In 2003 Coventry University commissioned research into the employment destinations
of graduates from the School of Art and Design. The report identified that a relatively
low proportion of graduates were progressing into jobs related to the nature of their
studies. As opposed to more formal, professionally accredited degree programmes,
where graduates may enter established careers (e.g. law or medicine) or set up business
with relative ease, setting up as a self-employed artist or setting up a small creative
enterprise can be a particularly daunting prospect for a graduate. One of the conclusions
from this report was a recognition of the need for more proactive encouragement of
graduate enterprise in arts and creative industry related areas.
Initial plans included proposals for a Creative Village Incubator for Coventry (in
partnership with University of Warwick Science Park, and several other key regional
agencies). A feasibility study was commissioned which recognized the potential for such
an initiative, but which also raised questions over location. In 2005, a further feasibility
study was commissioned to examine the potential for the ICE academy as a Coventry
University initiative. The feasibility study aimed to examine the following key issues:
How could creative enterprise and postgraduate learning be combined
effectively?
What market might there be for such an academy?
What level of competition already exists?
How sustainable would a project such as ICE be?
How would the academy select and recruit students?
What disciplines should be offered within the ICE academy?
What sort of scale should the project operate on?
How would such a project best be managed?
How would business support and mentoring best be arranged for graduate
enterprises?
What kind of spaces, facilities and resources would be both affordable and
suitable?
The key aims of the ICE academy were that it should:
Enable postgraduate students to develop creative business ideas while pursuing
their study in a uniquely supportive and creative environment.
Improve graduate retention rates in the sub-region.
Enhance the reputation and profile of Coventry University as a centre for
innovation and academic excellence in art and design.
Enhance the profile and image of Coventry as a creative and innovative city.
Improve the prospects of creative graduates in following the careers of their
choice for which they have been trained.
24
Encourage better links between higher education and industry through a
mentoring and championing scheme.
Original aspirations were that the cost to student entrepreneurs should be as low as
possible; that the location for ICE should offer a distinctive creative environment; that
there should be some public services and facilities; that the academy should be selfsustaining. The intention was to supply office space, studio/rehearsal space, meeting
rooms, social space and exhibition space, relevant to the needs of the various disciplines.
Research undertaken by Advantage West Midlands, the regional development agency, in
2004, indicated that the West Midlands region has ‘the best evolved clusters’ of creative
industry activity (ABL, 2005: 9). A SWOT analysis revealed that the region is rich in
successful and competitive companies delivering within the broadcasting, games and
music industries. The potential for regional growth is clearly there, although possible
inhibitors include the relative proximity to London and the relative scarcity in the region
of key brand leaders (leading international artists and organizations).
An important difficulty in designing provision for graduate artists is the problem of
tracking industry needs and monitoring the provision against those needs. The higher
education sector is not well equipped to measure and respond to the needs of the
creative industries at this level, where activity is often fragmented and multi-directional.
A key challenge for the development of ICE lies in the design of course routes which are
flexible enough to match the graduate student companies’ needs. Indeed, the ABL
report notes that:
Practitioners have found existing provision to be inflexible in terms of content
and delivery, and pedagogic approaches and packaging and timing of provision are
often insufficiently adapted to the needs of people in demanding professional
careers, especially where people are self-employed. (ABL, 2005: 10)
What is currently lacking, and where ICE can provide a regional and national lead, is in
the provision of programmes which blend learning and business development, and which
seek to build real links between graduate companies, local artists, and industry agencies.
The proposed link-up between work-spaces, business development and postgraduate
training would be innovative and meet a gap in the current market.
Coventry University has taken the decision to commence the ICE project. The
University has taken up the lease on the Oyez-Straker building, formerly home to a
printing business, situated between the University Technology Park and the main
campus, and only a short walk from both. The intention is that the academy will open in
2007, with tenants moving in over the year and MA programmes in Performing Arts and
other related areas running by October 2007. The building will have 24 hour secure
access, car parking, and facilities for eating and drinking. There will be exhibition spaces,
rehearsal spaces, multi-purpose spaces, meeting rooms, office spaces, work-spaces and
on-site technical support. ICE will be run by a Director of the ICE project, and staff will
include a Project Officer and two technicians. The Director will be responsible for
25
taking the concept forward and generating funding for expansion. Clearly this post will
be of key importance to the success of the project as a whole. The ideal appointment
will have a national profile relevant to the post, experience of managing major projects,
experience in bringing in significant funding, experience of working in/with both creative
arts industries and higher education, the ability to lead in course development and
management.
ICE will be run by Coventry University Enterprises Ltd, with the School of Art and
Design as a key client providing postgraduate qualifications, along with other clients such
as professional artists and companies, and the Centre for Media, Arts and Performance.
The graduate companies will be recruited from performing arts, fine art and media
production in equal measure.
Why an MA?
The MA award represents a clear measure of achievement which is internationally
recognized. More conventional practice-based MAs still tend to do relatively little to
support the student in converting their studies into career opportunities; this MA will
offer unprecedented levels of support as an integral part of the programme.
One PA graduate who has successfully established her own creative arts business
thought that support over first three years of trading was very important for emerging
companies. The combination of business support and space for learning and experiment
within the ICE MAs would give students a special opportunity to try ideas and practices
out, and to (re)discover and explore their creative voice, in a new, challenging and
professional environment.
Resident artists/agencies – why and who?
‘In Coventry’s creative industries, there is a high level of interest in the ICE concept’
(ABL, 2005: 18).
A key part of the ICE concept is the location of resident artists, companies and agencies
within ICE as a core part of the infrastructure which will aim to nourish new businesses.
Clearly the criteria for the choice of tenants need to be explicit and strategic.
Possible/desirable criteria might include:
regional/national profile, and indications of appropriate quality of work,
commitment to ICE vision,
mentoring experience,
experience of partnership working,
evidence of good practice in running workshops and other class-based activities,
potential for contribution to development of ICE (regionally, nationally and
internationally),
potential for relevant contributions to post-graduate programmes,
evidence of innovation and enterprise,
26
quality and nature of arts practice blends with CSAD practice and expectations.
Making the right choice regarding resident artists will be very important – in terms of
the public profile of ICE, how it is perceived by the national Arts community, its
relationships with the local/regional Arts scene, and in terms of its attractiveness to
postgraduate students (including international students). At present discussions have
taken place with a number of established regional arts businesses with a view to
potential residencies within ICE. These businesses include:
A+MT (Arts and Media Training) (www.amtcc.org.uk)
Theatre Absolute (www.theatreabsolute.co.uk)
Talking Birds (www.talkingbirds.co.uk)
As current ACE Regionally Funded Organisations these three have the potential to bring
to the project specific experience of fund-raising, touring, marketing and project
management.
Consultation with ACE and with Coventry City Council’s Arts and Heritage Service will
be essential to ensure that their vision of resident companies’ future development is in
line with relocation to ICE.
High profile artists and creative entrepreneurs, with national/international profiles may
not be willing to relocate to Coventry, nonetheless there could be enormous benefit
from researching funding streams to allow for significant figures within the field to be
appointed as Visiting Fellows in Creative Enterprise, functioning as role models, advisors,
ambassadors and offering occasional master-classes and surgeries.
Why is this important for the University?
The MA represents a clear point of intersection between the University’s aims to
maintain its place as a centre for applied research and as a leading provider for the
teaching and training of young artists and entrepreneurs. A commissioned report
(Bingham, 2004), identified the close match between the proposed ICE project and the
University’s strategy for enterprise and employability within its course delivery. The
students will receive valuable business support, but this will be underpinned by
questioning, critical thinking and reflection, and by research and experiment.
The ICE project should also be supported by and itself support traditional research
activity. Its profile and effectiveness would surely be enhanced by developing traditional
research which investigated cognate areas such as: local and regional cultural policy
development, regional creative industry development, knowledge transfer opportunities
within the performing and creative arts, and possibly by initiating practice-based
research projects and PhD studentships. Opportunities might exist for collaborative
PhD studentships (possibly with the Arts Council), and for aligned research projects in
collaboration with other local, regional or national agencies, businesses or institutions.
The University could have an important role to play in developing applied research
27
within this area, for example through the building of a coherent picture of the regional
creative sector – its size and composition, its needs, its potential for development, its
trends. The presence of CeMAP within ICE should be important in terms of adding
applied research activity to the portfolio of ICE activity, and facilitating research practice
around the themes integral to ICE and its activities. Both will gain added credibility from
the relationship, particularly in relation to media production, but this should be
expanded to embrace a more active relationship between CeMAP and ICE with regard
in particular to art practice and performance.
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MA Performing Arts Innovation and Enterprise
Highly Sprung – ‘Candyfloss’ (2004)
Current position
The linking of a postgraduate qualification to the development of a new creative
enterprise is an innovative feature of the ICE concept. The challenge, as with the
undergraduate provision in Performing Arts, is in balancing the theoretical with the
practical, and with designing a curriculum structure and pedagogy which best responds
to the needs of the industry in general and of the various graduate artists in particular.
The course of study should facilitate entry into the industry, not act as another bar to it.
The connection to ‘real world’ business practice is clearly important to ICE, and central
to the design of the overall project. The practical and administrative requirements of
running a small business are undervalued in the majority of courses 3 .
3
This position is however beginning to change. Projects such as PACE have functioned to widen
awareness in the Performing Arts sector.
29
Performing Arts plans to launch its own MA programme in September 2007. Currently
the department contributes to an MA Performance and Media Arts, which is
managed by the Design and Visual Arts department. At the moment the structure for
this programme is as follows:
September to December
M01PA Performance Concepts (Triple module)
M02INF Reactive Media Production (Double module)
January to June
M05INF Media Arts (Double module)
M03DVA Research and Development (Single module)
M10DVA Experimental Practice (Double module)
June to September
M07INF MA Project (Quintuple module)
The current design includes no explicit preparation for self-employment, enterprise or
employability. The course is however designed to respond to perceived market needs,
and there is implicit coverage of innovative creative practice, current market trends, and
opportunities to interact with professional practitioners. MA Projects can also offer
students opportunities to produce material which can be showcased in order to attract
employer/client interest.
New developments
Research by the ABL consultants suggested that key business skills delivered within the
ICE MA programmes should include:
Issues around tax
Applying for funding
Marketing
IT
Accounting
Copyright and intellectual property issues
Legal requirements
Support networks (art-form networks, Arts Council contacts) and networking
practices
Identifying future support (accountant, board membership) (ABL, 2005: 20)
30
Discussion with local artists, administrators and arts funders confirms the general
importance of these elements. In addition to the above, respondents also identified the
importance of:
Workplace experience
Students experiencing a significant period of time on attachment with a company.
Establishing good working practices – equal opportunities, disabled access, child
protection, health and safety, sustainability.
Working in the community – value, opportunities, networks (Creative
Partnerships), Ofsted, applied arts (social inclusion, prisons, educational) – the
pros and cons. How to run workshops and community-based or client-based
activities.
Personal development – careers, challenges, etc.
Learning how to map career trajectories and understand the implications of
career decisions. Managing the balance between creative development and
practical necessity.
Dealing with change, challenges, insecurity and evolution – emotionally,
organizationally and artistically.
Developing skills in collaboration and managing partnerships. Understanding what
it means to be part of a community of artists.
Further development of ability to deal with and understand new ideas and new
practices. Ability to recognize and critically engage with innovation, originality
and creative practice.
Project management
Managing meetings, managing time and managing roles.
Setting up and managing project teams.
Learning to present your vision, practice and background succinctly and
imaginatively, using languages and formats appropriate to the context, with
artists, funders, banks, clients, customers, service providers and other relevant
stakeholders.
Artists’ Contracts (e.g. ITC or Equity), employment law, national insurance,
company insurance, etc.
Business planning – forward planning for company and project development, and
integrating artistic vision, financial planning, marketing strategies, SWOT analyses
and budgeting. Pricing and costing. Understanding purpose of business plan and
need for review, revision and re-focusing.
Planning tours – venue relations, journey planning, venue contracts, technical
information and support, marketing factors, getting bookings. Event planning –
performances, showcases, launches.
Researching business location – where to hatch, where to fly to. Radius of viable
company activity.
31
Ways of tracking, recording, documenting and reflecting on/evaluating the
journey traveled. Annual report writing. Portfolio development.
Publicity and marketing strategies.
Market data – compiling audience/customer database, identifying and analyzing
markets for products.
Networking and information gathering
Developing your own ‘handbook’, tailored to your own needs, that collates the
course information relevant to your business and career needs.
Being able to view the ‘whole picture’ in regard to creative business
development, seeing your own practice in context, and working out how to
make your own opportunities within that field of practice.
Creative practice development
Space for the continued exploration and development of practical skills and
creativity.
Space to play – reflective and critical studies are important, but so are
opportunities to try out ideas without pressure. Space is needed to make
mistakes, so artists can learn and find out how to make sense of the mistakes.
Programme structure needs to recognize the time it takes to refine your own
style.
Masterclasses with leading figures in the field – ideal chance for feedback from
experts. This kind of input was seen as immensely valuable on many levels.
Formal modes of delivery (lectures and seminars) may be suitable for some elements,
but flexible and work-based study and teaching methods (e.g. on-line learning,
workshops, mentoring, sharing sessions) must be included as better fitted to the nature
of the subjects, and in order to allow for more adaptability and relevance for part-time
students. It is also perceived as vital that the creation of performance-based or
performance-related live or recorded material is core to the programme of study, as
this is the central motivating factor for student artists. The exact balance of formal
teaching, networking, skill-sharing and mentoring, and decisions about who delivers
what, will all need careful consideration.
Proposed new structure for MA Performing Arts Innovation and Enterprise
Discussion with relevant professionals indicates strong support for the notion that the
MA provision needs to be based around an innovative structure which enables the
student artists to develop a programme of study responsive to their needs. The
traditional MA structures as used for the recent MA Creative Arts linked suite of
programmes, including the MA Performance and Media Arts, were seen as too bound by
the traditional academic structures. Further, the ICE suite of MA courses would benefit
enormously from a shared structure across all areas that was flexible enough to respond
to the needs of each discipline, and of each student. It is clear from existing research
32
that business support for graduates must ‘engage with the individual and be directly
meaningful in terms of their contexts, their interests, their experiences and their
lifestyle’ (NCGE, 2006). For teaching and assessment on the MA course to be equally
valid and relevant to students’ needs, then the same criteria should be taken into
account.
Both the ABL report and the professional artists consulted for this report supported the
idea that the MA programme would need a clear thread of professional practice activity
and assessment. Such a thread would be required for the credibility of the course as a
space for the development of this kind of entrepreneurial activity.
The study mode should be flexible; it should offer both full-time and part-time modes in
order to allow for actual business activity, and for flexibility of study activity. Graduates
should also be able to access relevant undergraduate sessions, and to develop their
practice through working with undergraduate students if relevant and possible. Two or
three years is currently proposed as the length for a graduate company residency within
ICE. This would be long enough to allow the MA to be undertaken at a pace which
allowed the business to develop and grow. As one artist interviewed for this project put
it: ‘There is real value in sticking at your company. You get better by doing it’, and a
three year period would enable this process of development through practice to happen
in a meaningful and unrushed manner.
Modules
Based on the research undertaken, the suggested module framework is as follows:
September to December
M01PA Performance Concepts (Triple module)
Professional Practice Placement (Single module)
Small Arts Enterprise Marketing (Single module)
January to June
Performance Innovation (Double module)
Creative Enterprise Research and Development (Single module)
Performance Project Management (Double module)
June to September
Creative Enterprise Performance Project (Quintuple module)
Key issues for module/course delivery
Skill-sharing and networking
Shared workspaces and informal areas will be provided within ICE that will do much to
facilitate networking discussions, sharing of problems and practices, and opportunities
for interaction on a practical level. This would need to go hand-in-hand with a carefully
established culture of partnership and collaboration. Negotiation of the relationship
33
between resident professional artists and graduate companies must be handled with
sensitivity, and overseen by course leaders.
Showcasing
MA student work will benefit from the opportunity to be profiled appropriately. The
status of the MA programme and its association with ICE and the resident companies
would help to raise the profile for any showcase event, such as a festival of postgraduate
student performance work. This could take place alongside the existing undergraduate
CUPAFest (May/June), and/or with the Godiva Festival (July), and/or to a presentation of
work at a venue such as the Belgrade Theatre or Warwick Arts Centre.
Mentoring
It is vital that any mentor must have relevant subject expertise and be committed to the
programme and the ICE project (ABL, 2005: 21). Mentoring is not the same as tutoring
and the distinction again needs to be fully understood at all levels. Mentors should
typically have previous experience of mentoring (or commit to undertake training in
mentorship), as well as authority to practice, and this authority will make them valuable
confidantes for graduate artists. Mentors do not necessarily have authority to teach or
assess, though they may nonetheless be involved in both under the supervision of
module leaders.
Role of e-learning
There is a developing trend towards on-line learning, and the degree of independence it
offers is attractive to students who may need a flexible programme of study. The
development of skills and knowledge in respect of digital technologies also has business
value. E-marketing could be an ideal subject to deliver through on-line learning for
instance. E-learning enables students to collate and share reflections, evidence of
learning, examples of practice, critical evaluations, and resources. It will be important
that the facilities at ICE enable e-learning to take place, and to be developed as a tool
for mentoring, as well as for teaching, learning and assessing.
Formal tutoring
The Performing Arts department, like the rest of the School of Art and Design, is
fortunate to have a healthy proportion of academic staff who combine their traditional
teaching and research activities with professional practice and pedagogical expertise.
There is a wealth of knowledge and experience here which can contribute to the ICE
MA programmes. Such input will be particularly important with regard to:
Identifying originality and innovation and placing it in a wider context.
Supporting the development of skills in research and presentation.
Developing new pedagogies for the effective delivery of the relevant skills.
Linking undergraduate and postgraduate provision, and ensuring the
dissemination of good practice throughout the academy.
Providing examples of innovative and/or research-based practice, and in this
manner informing and engaging with ICE tenants’ practice.
34
As with the delivery of the undergraduate programmes, it is clear that at postgraduate
level the same emphasis on the development and application of knowledge and skills in
work-related situations is valuable and likely to be most effective. Students will benefit
from simulations, problem-solving exercises, contact with current professionals,
professional and work-related scrutiny of their work, collaborations with professional
artists, and live briefs.
Assessment
Clearly there will need to be some focus on the development of the students’ business
project in terms of the final assessment of the postgraduate award through the MA
project. The central issue is the negotiation of the criteria for success. Whilst profitmaking may be possible, it will not necessarily be attainable or in certain circumstances
even desirable. Many arts businesses survive solely though subsidy (e.g. Arts Council or
Local Authority funding), because their core activities are not aiming at producing profit.
Nonetheless, such companies may still be sustainable and offer real employment and
career-development opportunities for the graduate students concerned. Therefore,
while factors such as profit, turnover, and growth provide interesting indicators, they
cannot be used as sole criteria for assessment of arts enterprise.
The variety of possible graduate businesses is likely to mean that criteria need to be
flexible and developed in relation to the nature and potential of each business idea.
Discussions to establish criteria might include:
What is the nature of the market for the proposed activity?
How thoroughly has this market been researched, using what methodology?
What are its key features?
How has this informed planning?
How effectively has the business been monitored and evaluated, against external
criteria and against the business plan?
What research could students undertake in order to identify industry relevant
markers of success within the field?
How has the business developed?
How has the company balanced art and business imperatives, and on what basis
were decisions between the two made?
How has students’ practice evolved and developed, and how has this
development related to their business practice?
How rigorous, robust and useful is the project evaluation document?
What evidence could students provide to substantiate claims of success, viability,
commercial potential, effective management?
This kind of approach implies an assessment strategy which centres not on essays and
tests, but instead around portfolios of evidence.
35
The conventional model for an MA involves a significant element of research and a
dissertation. How would this work within ICE? One solution might be that the research
elements are contained within several compulsory pieces of evidence, and embedded
into the final project in particular:
case studies of relevant companies,
a business plan, and/or a marketing plan,
the collation of business information into a personal handbook for the future
development of student’s business/career
a reflective review of student’s own practice and process, with comparative
analysis against the work of others,
exploration of practical working methods and evaluation of their relevance to
students’ needs.
Final project evaluation; drawing on clear methodologies, identified benchmarks,
and identified sources.
How would the PgDip/MA split operate?
The split would have to fall at the point where PgDip students did not do the final
project – the setting up of the business. Inevitably this raises the question: who would
want to take this route? One answer may be that students who already had a business
could in this way undertake some or most of the programme of study without the need
to then (re)establish their own small business.
Recruitment
Clearly the MA PAI+E needs to build on the successes of and developments within the
existing undergraduate provision, and the postgraduate developments already taking
place within the School of Art and Design, as well as developing its own marketing
profile.
The match between undergraduate and postgraduate study is clearly important. There is
an expectation that Coventry University graduates will apply to join ICE and undertake
an MA programme within the project. The project is innovative and attractive enough to
recruit applicants regionally, nationally (and possibly internationally) as well. The
postgraduate programme will need to help entrants identify their existing knowledge
base and match this against what is offered within the programme. This stage should be
an important aspect of the process in recruiting graduate students.
36
The criteria for acceptance on to the course need to include academic ability, evidence
of creativity, initiative and independence, and ability to communicate initial ideas and
respond to questions with confidence. This might, for instance, be represented by the
following:
a (good or excellent) honours degree in a relevant subject (or evidence of
equivalent level of achievement);
Should the MA/ICE only be open to those with a first degree?
Would evidence of achievement in relevant modules be required?
Should the degree be in relevant arts subjects only?
a good creative enterprise idea, presented with coherence, clarity and evidence
of research;
evidence of ability to self-manage and work/study independently, and to
collaborate effectively with others.
The interview and application process needs to ensure that applicants are aware of the
contract they are potentially entering into: what will be expected/required of them,
what support will be provided, what responsibilities will be theirs/shared/the
University’s. The point of exit from the MA and from ICE will need to be clearly defined;
the students must understand that there will be a limited period of tenure.
Preparation for exit
Assuming successful completion of the MA course is achieved, how can students also be
best prepared for exit from the programme and from ICE? On one level this is what the
whole project should be about. One measure of the ICE project’s success may well be
the launch trajectory of groups leaving the project. There will be value in building
towards this point from an early stage.
Fundamental to a successful departure from ICE will be the setting up of a viable
business. However, ICE graduates can also further prepare for this moment in the
following ways:
Researching the experience of others launching new businesses out of this kind
of support network.
Developing plans for the first year after leaving which include financial
forecasting, but also a realistic assessment of the personal, emotional and
organizational stresses they are likely to face.
Researching the next level of support networking.
Establishing projects that take them beyond the period of tenancy.
Developing an ‘archive’ of work which is well documented, and a portfolio of
projects which are designed with departure from ICE in mind.
Negotiating new spaces and bases well in advance of departure.
Remaining mobile, flexible, responsive, and communicating well.
37
Establishing a clear and visible market presence beyond the immediate demands
of any course requirements. Developing the company’s identity and visibility.
Developing an audience, client-base, sponsorship contacts and network links.
Focusing on sustainability. Is the business low-cost? Is it responsibly managed?
What is the bottom-line for income generation? Will other part-time jobs be
required?
Organizing their business – the right team of people, the right contacts,
identifying strengths.
Regional agencies such as A+MT and Creative Launchpad could have important roles to
play in helping creative businesses to ‘fly the nest’.
Highly Sprung – ‘Pretend I’m Not Here’ (2002)
38
Overview
The MA Performing Arts Innovation and Enterprise, and the ICE project offer a unique
and distinctive opportunity for students to combine the further exploration of their
subject with realistic preparation for self-employment. ICE will be a project of national
significance in the support of new creative enterprises in the Performing Arts. This
represents a natural extension of the work Coventry University’s Performing Arts
Department has pioneered in developing professional practice as an important area of
study within the Performing Arts. The impetus provided by the ICE project has the
potential to re-invigorate this process and contribute to further valuable collaboration
between regional artists and Coventry University.
39
Conclusion
Recommendations
General
The Performing Arts Department has very good links with artists, companies, arts
organizations and networks in the West Midlands region. There is the potential to make
greater use of these connections and to generate a stronger synergy at various levels
between local artists, students and staff. There are a number of ways that this can take
place: ICE residency, participation in module teaching at u/g and p/g level (visiting
lecturers, workshop sessions, interviews, etc.), performances for students, informal
discussions with students, collaborative projects with staff, commissions for student
artists or groups, mentoring.
1. Recommendation: Identification of relevant artists and arts
organizations, and negotiation of nature of interaction with
department. Regular meetings organized with key
artists/organizations to ensure good maintenance of relationship.
2. Recommendation: Identify potential for improved professional arts
input across all PA modules.
3. Recommendation: Further research is needed into the influence of
socio-cultural and economic factors on graduate progression into selfemployment.
Undergraduate provision
There continues to be some reluctance within HE to recognize the value of enterprise,
employability and professionalism as areas of academic study. In part this is because the
arts have often positioned themselves outside, or even in opposition to, conventional
notions of business and enterprise. The challenge is to develop pedagogies which sustain
the traditional emphasis on iconoclasm, innovation and risk-taking whilst at the same
time developing a responsible and imaginative sense of what it means to be ‘professional’
and supporting new ideas towards some kind of financial stability.
4. Recommendation: Continued institutional support for development of
pedagogical methods appropriate to the development of enterprise
skills.
5. Recommendation: Staff development to support tutors in generating
an environment which promotes and supports enterprise.
40
6. Recommendation: There needs to be a policy of regular review of
course design and content to ensure that the courses adequately
support the development of graduate enterprise. Module/course
audits should be followed by action plans to address omissions and
anomalies.
Employability and enterprise are becoming equally important focuses for schools and
colleges. Whilst there is a danger that this may lead to saturation of students with
enterprise skills before they even arrive in HE, there is also clearly a potential market
for developing and disseminating expertise throughout the education sector.
7. Recommendation: Examine potential for income generation through
delivering short courses for teachers.
Enterprise and employability is as much a state of mind as a set of skills. Students need
to be encouraged to perceive their work as not just a response to specific educational
requirements placed on them by their tutors – in which the objectives are often largely
educational – but also as having possible commercial value.
8. Recommendation: Tutors supported in expanding own knowledge of
current innovative practice.
9. Recommendation: Tutors help students to recognize the potential
market value and/or commercial viability of their performance work.
10. Recommendation: Tutors develop use of PDP and reflective practice
to encourage students to reflect on the links between coursework and
their career aspirations.
In addition to this, it is important to recognize the value of creativity and innovation in
relation to enterprise and employability within the performing arts industries. This is a
complex area, and it would benefit from further pedagogical research.
11. Recommendation: Further exploration of effective means to develop
and assess student creativity and innovation.
The module audit tasks undertaken have demonstrated that module re-design from a
‘golden thread’ model to an ‘embedded’ model needs very special care. It is all too easy
to lose valuable course content unless a clear mapping exercise is used to ensure
consistency and coherence. The audit identifies some gaps in the module re-design
which would benefit from further examination.
12. Recommendation: Mapping exercise used to ensure that any
omissions and gaps in provision are identified and addressed.
41
ICE/MA in Performing Arts Innovation and Enterprise
The involvement of regional/local professional artists and arts organizations in both ICE
and the new MA in Performing Arts Innovation and Enterprise is very important to get
right. Expectations and commitments must be clear.
13. Recommendation: The negotiation of service level agreements to
ensure clarity and consistency.
14. Recommendation: Establish accreditation for mentors to ensure
standards, and set clear criteria for assessing residents’ ability to
contribute to module teaching.
15. Recommendation: Investigation of funding streams for a Visiting
Fellowship in Creative Enterprise.
It is vital that ICE and the new MA are given an excellent initial profile. Together they
represent a significant opportunity for the University to achieve a lead position in the
HE market. ICE provides excellent resources, but lacks a showcase venue for
presentation of work.
16. Recommendation: Commitment to identification of suitable venue
and negotiation of format for showcase.
42
References
I recommend consultation of the PALATINE website for a comprehensive set of
resources, case studies, projects, reading and downloadable publications
(http://www.palatine.heacademy.ac.uk).
ABL Cultural Consulting (2005) Coventry University: Feasibility study into the concept of an
Innovation and Creative Enterprise academy (ICE) London: ABL Cultural Consulting
Bingham, E. (2004) Evaluating the Strategic Fit of a Proposed Academy for Creative Enterprise
at Coventry University Coventry: CUE
Birch, E., Jackson, C. & Towse, R. (1998) Fitness for Purpose Report – Dance, Drama and
Stage management training: an examination of industry needs and the relationship with
the current provision of training London: Arts Council of England
Brown, R. S. (2004) Performing Arts Entrepreneurship Lancaster: PALATINE (available at:
http://www.palatine.ac.uk/sitefiles/performing_arts_entrepreneurship.pdf)
Dunmore, S. (2004) An Actor’s Guide to Getting Work (4th Ed.) London: A & C Black.
ELIA (2000) ‘Life after graduation: ways to meet the employability needs of graduates in
higher arts education – A Thematic Network report’ in Toolkit for Innovation:
Thematic Network Higher Arts Education in Europe, Amsterdam: ELIA.
European Community (1999) Action Plan for Promoting Entrepreneurship and
Competitiveness Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European
Communities.
Gibb, A. (2006) Towards the Entrepreneurial University: Entrepreneurship Education as a
Lever for Change Birmingham: NCGE.
Jackson, N. (2005) Assessing students’ creativity: synthesis of higher education teachers’ views
London: Higher Education Academy
Moon, J. (2004) Learning and Employability 4: Reflection and employability York: Learning
and Teaching Support Network.
Moreland, N. (2006) Learning & Employability: Entrepreneurship and higher education: an
employability perspective York: Higher Education Academy.
NCGE (2006) ‘New Report on Career-making into Self-Employment’, available at:
http://www.ncge.org.uk/communities/newsdetail.php?id=69 . Accessed: 19/5/06.
Onstenk, J. (2003) ‘Entrepreneurship and Vocational Education’, European Educational
Research Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2003).
43
Pedagogy for Employability Group (2004) Learning and Employability 8: Pedagogy for
employability York: Learning and Teaching Support Network.
Porter, R. & Johnson, D. (2004) Subregional Dance Development Research Final Report for
the Sub-Regional Dance Partnership of Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire, available
at:
http://www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk/freedominfo/documents/375dancedeve
lop.pdf
University of Leeds (2005) The Business of Art: Developing skills for business start-up in the
arts and media (CD-ROM) Leeds: University of Leeds.
Wilson, N. & Stokes, D. (2001) Cultural Entrepreneurs and Creating Exchange Kingston:
Kingston University Small Business Research Centre.
Yorke, M. & Knight, P. (2004) Learning and Employability 3: Embedding Employability into
the Curriculum York: Learning and Teaching Support Network.
Yorke, M. (2004) Learning and Employability 1: Employability in higher education: what it is –
what it is not York: Learning and Teaching Support Network.
Coventry University’s Performing Arts modules in dance, music, music composition and
theatre are available at: http://mid.coventry.ac.uk/ – go to Art and Design, then
Performing Arts, and then click on ‘Get modules’. The University’s ‘Add+vantage’
modules are also available on the same site/links.
44
Online Resources
National
Arts Council – http://www.artscouncil.org.uk
The Artist’s Development Toolkit – http://www.a-n.co.uk/cgibin/db2www.exe/tour.d2w/input?section=4&topic=77174&id=168331&username
=&password=&textonly=0
Arts Marketing Association – www.a-m-a.co.uk
Arts Research Digest – www.arts-research-digest.com
Artswork – www.artswork.org.uk
Asian Arts Access – www.asianartsaccess.org
Business Link – www.businesslink.gov.uk
Creative Clusters – http://www.creativeclusters.com/
Creative Industries Development Agency – www.cida.org
Creative Partnerships – http://www.creative-partnerships.com
Department of Culture Media and Sport, Creative Economy programme –
http://www.cep.culture.gov.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewSection&intSection
ID=334
Equity www.equity.org.uk
Federation of Small Businesses – www.fsb.org.uk
Flying Start – online graduate support programme from NCGE –
http://www.flyingstart-ncge.com/index.php
Generator North East – music development agency for the NE –
www.generator.org.uk
Grantnet – online database of grants, loans and other initiatives in UK –
http://www.grantnet.com
Health and Safety Executive – www.hse.gov.uk
Home Business Alliance – www.homebusiness.org.uk
45
Independent Theatre Council – http://www.itc-arts.org
Inland Revenue – ‘Working for Yourself: The Guide’ –
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/startingup/working-for-yourself.pdf
Innovation Networks – http://www.2wm.co.uk/innovation-networks
Mustard.uk.com – http://www.mustard.uk.com/mustardFiles/index.asp
National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship – http://ww.ncge.org.uk
NatWest Bank business start-up course –
http://www.natwest.com/startuptraining
New Work Network – http://www.newworknetwork.org.uk/index.php
PALATINE – http://www.palatine.heacademy.ac.uk
Performance Initiative Network – http://www.perform.tv
Prince’s Trust – www.princes-trust.org.uk
Shell – Livewire – http://www.shell-livewire.org/
Small Business Service – www.sbs.gov.uk
Startups – online support for business startups – www.startups.co.uk
T-Shirts and Suits – Business and Creativity – www.t-shirtsandsuits.com
Young Enterprise – http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/ see: Graduate
Programme.
Regional
Arts & Business – http://www.AandB.org.uk
Artspages (directory of artists and arts organizations in Coventry area) –
http://www.artspages.org.uk
Coventry Music Network (support platform for those involved in music industry
in and around Coventry) – http://www.coventrymusicnetwork.com
Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Partnership – http://www.cswp.org.uk/
46
Creative Alliance – http://www.creativealliance.org.uk/
Creative Launchpad – http://www.creativelaunchpad.co.uk/
Emerge (online newsletter for arts in Coventry) – http://www.emergemag.co.uk
The Ideas Factory – http://www.ideasfactory.com/index.htm
Midpoint – (network for independent theatre companies in the West Midlands) –
http://www.midpoint.org.uk/
Red Teapot (online resource and network for artists working in Coventry and
Warwickshire) – http://www.redteapot.co.uk
47
Appendices
1
2 Module audit – review of pre-2006 CU Performing Arts modules against
proposed 2006 modules.
Mapping of industry needs against CU Performing Arts modules (post 2006)
48
Mapping of industry needs against CU Performing Arts modules (post 2006)
Funding, planning and finance
¾ Forward planning: what is a business
plan and why do you need one? How
to research and write a business plan.
Can you put on paper what you believe
in, and how does this feed the work
you do?
¾
¾
Arts funding policy and practice:
who is funded and why, what can you
get money for, how does funding
impact on your work, where does
funding come from – local,
government, lottery or Arts Council
funding, private sponsorship, etc.
Arts funding applications: required
data, how to complete the forms,
strategies for success, ‘applicationform-speak’.
¾
Budgeting and account-keeping –
awareness of legal responsibilities and
tax, when and where to get help.
¾
Flexibility – how to think laterally and
adapt your project without
compromising your vision.
Roles, structures and organisation
¾ Basic understanding of roles and
responsibilities within professional
arts organizations. A taste of the
various skills needed in your field (e.g.
lighting, sound, prop-making, design,
acting, etc.). Know your own skills and
how to develop and expand them.
¾ How to liaise with other companies –
what are the relevant hierarchies,
structures, roles and practices.
¾
Company status: what kind of a
business are you – limited, not-forprofit, collective, charity,
unconstituted, voluntary, etc.
Add+: Creative Enterprise 1-3.
Dance: (210DPA Dance Performance Projects 2)
Music:
Music Comp:
Theatre: (212TPA Touring Performance)
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: Arts Funding 1-3.
Dance: 210DPA Dance Performance Projects 2; 213DPA Dance
Practice and Composition 2.
Music:
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: 111TPA Theatre Manifestos
PA: N/a
Add+: Arts funding 1-2.
Dance: (210 Dance Performance Projects 2), 213DPA Dance Practice
and Composition 2.
Music:
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: (212TPA Touring Performance)
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: Creative Enterprise 1-3 & Arts Funding 1-2.
Dance: (114DPA Dance Performance Projects)
Music:
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: (113TPA Making Performance; 212TPA Touring
Performance)
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: Creative Enterprise 1-3, Capturing the Creative Spark.
Dance: 114DPA Dance Performance Projects
Music: N/a
Music Comp:
Theatre: 113TPA Making Performance; 212TPA Touring
Performance.
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: N/a
Dance: 114DPA Dance Performance Projects
Music: (120MPA Performance Seminar 1)
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: 113TPA Making Performance, 210TPA Theatre in Practice,
212TPA Touring Performance,
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: N/a
Dance: 114DPA Dance Performance Projects
Music: (120MPA Performance Seminar 1)
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: 113TPA Making Performance; 212TPA Touring
Performance; 310TPA Practitioner Production.
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: Creative Enterprise 1-3 (A+v)
Dance: 114DPA Dance Performance Projects.
Music:
Music Comp: (129MPA Composition Projects 2)
Theatre: 212TPA Touring Performance
PA: 310CPA Final Project
49
¾
Understanding of professional
discipline – promptness, attendance,
rehearsal conduct, cooperation.
¾
Understanding safe and good
practice – health and safety principles;
basic risk assessment; insurance; CRB
and child protection; relevant aspects
of the 2003 Licensing Act; duties of
care to participants, audiences and
employees; access and equality.
¾
Understanding responsible practice
– sustainability, ethical awareness,
cultural sensitivity.
Communicate and collaborate
¾ Ability to communicate,
collaborate and work with other
people. Build relationships with
partners, sponsors, funders and
audiences. Work as a group and take
responsibility for each other within
projects.
¾
Know how to describe what you do.
This is the starting point for selling an
idea. Explain clearly what stage your
project is at. What is your ‘unique
selling point’?
¾
Networking: knowing who is doing
what and where, and how they might
help you. Exposure – being seen in the
right places. Contacting agencies,
joining support networks, getting a
mentor, choosing graduate courses.
Talk to artists about their careers and
how to make a living. How to ask
useful and appropriate questions of
other artists.
¾
Managing self
¾ Awareness of own strengths and
weaknesses – peer evaluation, skills
audit, self-knowledge.
Add+: Five Life Skills Right Now.
Dance: 110DPA The Moving Body.
Music: 124MPA Performance Seminar 2.
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: 111TPA Theatre Manifestos; 110TPA Text, Space,
Performance; 112TPA Character and Rehearsal; 210TPA Theatre in
Practice, 212TPA Touring Theatre,
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: N/a
Dance: (114DPA Dance Performance Projects; 210DPA Dance
Performance Projects 2)
Music:
Music Comp:
Theatre: 113TPA Making Performance; 210TPA Theatre in Practice;
212TPA Touring Performance,
PA: 210CPA Stepping Out: Performing Arts in Community Contexts;
310CPA Final Project.
Add+: N/a
Dance:
Music:
Music Comp:
Theatre: 212TPA Touring Performance (?),
PA: 210CPA Stepping Out: Performing Arts in Community Contexts;
211CPA Performance, Politics and Culture;
Add+: Five Life Skills Right Now, Into the Dragon’s Den: How to
Pitch.
Dance:
Music:
Music Comp:
Theatre: 113TPA Making Performance, 212TPA Touring
Performance
PA: 310CPA Final Project.
Add+: Into the Dragon’s Den: How to Pitch.
Dance: N/a
Music: N/a
Music Comp:
Theatre: 212TPA Touring Performance; 111TPA Theatre Manifestos;
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: N/a
Dance: N/a
Music: N/a
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: 311TPA Professional Development (Theatre);
PA: 310CPA Final Project.
Add+: N/a
Dance: N/a
Music: N/a
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: 210TPA Theatre Practice; 212TPA Touring Performance;
310TPA Practitioner Production.
PA: N/a
Add+: N/a
Dance: N/a
Music: N/a
Music Comp: N/a
Theatre: 110TPA Text, Space, Performance; 112TPA Character and
Rehearsal; 210TPA Theatre in Practice; 212TPA Touring Performance;
311TPA Professional Development (Theatre).
50
¾
Early in course (first year?), students
need to get a taste of different areas of
specialism within their subject, and use
this as the beginnings of their career
planning.
¾
Confidence in experimentation and
innovation, knowing how to learn
from failure.
¾
Nurturing enthusiasm, inspiration,
integrity, imagination and bravery.
¾
Career management – the realities
of work in the performing arts: parttime jobs, short contracts, ‘snakes and
ladders’, work/life balance. Identifying
what you can control and learning how
to deal with what you can’t.
Recognising different levels of success.
Critical awareness of industry
¾ ‘Crits’ – gaining an understanding of
the value of your work and that of
others; gaining confidence in yourselves
and your product.
¾
Sense of art world and where
innovation is, what it is and its value.
Understand creative process of others.
Understand how to identify areas of
opportunity.
¾
Understand industry from financial
point of view – the value of things.
How do you place financial value
on what you do, on your time?
¾
Understanding the potential role of
new technologies, and their
limitations.
PA: Critical and Reflective Practice;
AD: 100AD Personal Development Planning
Add+: N/a
Dance:
Music: N/a
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: 110TPA Text, Space, Performance; 113TPA Making
Performance; 112TPA Character and Rehearsal.
PA: N/a
AD: 100AD Personal Development Planning
Add+: N/a
Dance: N/a
Music: N/a
Music Comp: N/a
Theatre: 110TPA Text, Space, Performance; 113TPA Making
Performance; 212TPA Touring Performance; 310TPA Practitioner
Production.
PA: 100AD Personal Development Planning
Add+: N/a
Dance: N/a
Music: N/a
Music Comp: N/a
Theatre: 110TPA Text, Space, Performance; 113TPA Making
Performance; 212TPA Touring Performance; 310TPA Practitioner
Production.
PA: N/a
Add+: Five Life Skills Right Now.
Dance: N/a
Music: N/a
Music Comp: 129MPA Composition Projects 2.
Theatre: 311TPA Professional Development.
PA: N/a
Add+: N/a
Dance: All modules.
Music: All modules.
Music Comp: All modules.
Theatre: All modules.
PA: Critical and Reflective Practice.
Add+: Creative Enterprise, Catching the Creative Spark
Dance: All modules.
Music: All modules.
Music Comp: All modules.
Theatre: All modules.
PA: 310CPA Final Project.
Add+: Creative Enterprise 1-3
Dance: N/a
Music: N/a
Music Comp: N/a
Theatre: N/a
PA: 310CPA Final Project
Add+: N/a
Dance: 114DPA Dance Performance Projects 1.
Music: N/a
Music Comp: Some elements of new technology involved in various
composition modules.
Theatre: 113TPA Making Performance
PA: 211CPA Performance, Politics and Culture (option module).
51
Module audit – review of pre-2006 CU Performing Arts modules against proposed 2006
modules.
Old modules
PP1
New modules – Year 1
Dance
Theatre
Music
Music Comp
1. Identify individual roles
and working practices
within the performing arts
industry.
2. Examine and evaluate
the relationship between
professionalism and the
performing arts
practitioner.
114DPA Dance
Performance
Projects
113TPA Making
Performance
(120MPA
Performance
Seminar 1)
129MPA
Composition
Projects 2
114DPA Dance
Performance
Projects;
110DPA The
Moving Body 1
110TPA Text,
Space,
Performance;
112TPA
Character and
Rehearsal
(122MPA
Ensemble and
Musicianship
Studies 2)
124MPA
Performance
Seminar 2
129MPA
Composition
Projects 2
3. Identify key concepts
within arts policy
114DPA Dance
Performance
Projects
114DPA Dance
Performance
Projects
111TPA
Theatre
Manifestos
111TPA
Theatre
Manifestos;
114DPA Dance
Performance
Projects
111TPA
Theatre
Manifestos
100AD
Personal
Development
Planning
111TPA
Theatre
Manifestos
111DPA Dance
Perspectives
111TPA
Theatre
Manifestos
4. Critically assess the
rationales for policy
interventions and funding
allocation
5. Discuss the complex
and interrelated nature of
identified areas within the
performing arts, including
such issues as the funding
system, arts institutions,
employment
structures/patterns,
audience/client profile.
6. Apply skills in
information technology to
present information, data
and/or images as
appropriate.
7. Communicate ideas and
interpretations in writing.
Add+vantage,
PA and CSAD
100AD PDP
Arts Funding 1
Arts Funding 1
129MPA
Composition
Projects 2
Arts Funding
1; Creative
Enterprise 1
100AD PDP
In addition, this module will provide opportunities for students to develop the following skills, although this will
not be assessed explicitly:
1. Apply knowledge to carry
out a range of tasks in
support of live performance
events.
114DPA Dance
Performance
Projects
113TPA Making
Performance
52
124MPA
Performance
Seminar 2
129MPA
Composition
Projects 2
Old modules
PP2
New modules – Year 2
Dance
Theatre
Music
Music Comp
1. Explain the principles behind
relevant project planning
requirements, budgeting practices
and funding criteria
210 Dance
Performance
Projects 2
224MPA
Performance
Seminar 4
227MPA
Composition
Projects 4
2. Assess the value and
importance of responsible
professional practice.
210 Dance
Performance
Projects 2
3. Analyse and evaluate the
professional life
experience/operational aspects of a
particular
artist/organisation/company/project.
(210 Dance
Performance
Projects 2)
4. Practice project management in
the preparation of a hypothetical
arts project.
210 Dance
Performance
Projects 2
5. Critically assess the key factors
determining specific career paths.
212DPA
The Moving
Body 2
(210 Dance
Performance
Projects 2)
6. Demonstrate business skills
including budget management,
marketing strategies, effective
organisation, use of IT.
210TPA
Theatre in
Practice;
212TPA
Touring
Performance;
Physical
Theatre
210TPA
Theatre in
Practice;
212TPA
Touring
Performance;
Physical
Theatre
(210TPA
Theatre in
Practice;
212TPA
Touring
Performance;
Physical
Theatre)
210TPA
Theatre in
Practice;
212TPA
Touring
Performance;
213TPA
Physical
Theatre
212TPA
Touring
Performance
210TPA
Theatre in
Practice;
212TPA
Touring
Performance
7. Practice a variety of research
methods.
(224MPA
Performance
Seminar 4)
Add+vantage,
PA and CSAD
Creative
Enterprise 2
Critical and
Reflective
Practice
(Critical and
Reflective
Practice)
224MPA
Performance
Seminar 4
224MPA
Performance
Seminar 4
227MPA
Composition
Projects 4
227MPA
Composition
Projects 4
Creative
Enterprise 2
Critical and
Reflective
Practice
Creative
Enterprise 2
Performance,
Politics and
Culture
Performance,
Politics and
Culture
8. Communicate ideas, both orally
and in writing.
53
Old modules
Collabs
New modules – Year 3
Dance Theatre
Music
Music
Comp
Add+vantage, PA
and CSAD
Creative Enterprise
3; 310CPA Final
Project – nonassessed
Creative Enterprise
3; 310CPA Final
Project – nonassessed
Creative Enterprise
3; 310CPA Final
Project
Creative Enterprise
3; 310CPA Final
Project – LO2
Creative Enterprise
3
310CPA Final
Project – LO4
310CPA Final
Project – LO5
1.
Formulate a project proposal that fulfils
the stated criteria, integrating business and
artistic concepts.
2.
Articulate the aims and objectives of the
project, arguing for its purpose and
viability.
3.
Apply skills and knowledge to formulate a
marketing strategy.
4.
Undertake and present creative research
as a basis for the collaborative project.
5.
Demonstrate awareness of target
310TPA
audience/client/participant need in the
Practitioner
construction, presentation and
Production;
documenting of the project.
Demonstrate the ability to generate,
310TPA
structure and present material, drawing on
Practitioner
discipline-specific expertise for a
Production;
performing arts project.
Manage a complex project, demonstrating
310CPA Final
practical and organisational ability
Project – LO6, LO7.
incorporating financial good practice, IT,
people management etc.
Synthesize a range of materials to
Documenting
document and evaluate the project,
Performance
communicating in writing, incorporating
Practice.
graphic and other visual materials as
310CPA Final
appropriate.
Project
In addition, this module will provide opportunities for students to develop the following skills, although this will
not be assessed explicitly:
1. Working effectively in partnership
310TPA
310CPA Final
with others at all stages of the
Practitioner
Project
module.
Production
6.
7.
8.
310TPA
Practitioner
Production
54
ISBN 1-905788-22-3
© PALATINE 2006
PALATINE
The Higher Education Academy
Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music
The Roundhouse
Lancaster University
Lancaster
UK
tel:
+44 (0) 1524 592614
e-mail: palatine@lancaster.ac.uk
www.palatine.heacademy.ac.uk
The
Higher PALATINE
Education Dance, Drama
Academy and Music
working together to enhance the student learning experience
