ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND
Minutes of the Midlands Area Council Meeting
held on 19th February 2014 starting at 1.00pm at
The Library of Birmingham
Members
present:
Peter Phillips
Cllr Roger Begy
Tim Desmond
Mick Gallagher
Mike Layward
Lisa Meyer
Cllr Cecilia Motley
Cllr Tony Skipper
Cllr Doreen Stephenson
Chairman
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Apologies:
Sarah Brigham
Stuart Griffiths
Skinder Hundal
Cllr Ian Ward
Uzma Johal
Liz Roberts
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Midlands Area Council Member
Also Present:
Peter Knott
Brian Ashley
Amanda Roberts
Laura Dyer
Area Director, Midlands
Director, Libraries & Nottingham
Director, Diversity & Birmingham
Executive Director, North, Midlands & S.
West
Senior Relationship Manager
Senior Manager, Operations
PA to Area Director (Minutes)
Dawn Ashman
Wendy Parry
Maureen Gaynor
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1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES
1.1 The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.
1.2 Apologies were noted.
2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
2.1 Members were asked to complete their declarations of interest forms and return to
Sue Elwell or Maureen Gaynor. Members are required to keep their declarations
up to date. A copy of the register will be available at all future meetings.
3. MINUTES OF THE LAST AREA COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON
19 NOVEMBER 2013
3.1 Members reviewed the minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2013 and
agreed them as an accurate record with an amendment to 6.1 which should read
‘Wolds Words’.
4. MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
West Midlands Arts Trust
4.1 Peter Phillips updated members on the meeting of the Trust which took place on
31 January 2014. As mentioned previously, two Trust members were questioning
whether the Trust’s objectives were being met through the activities of its tenant
(The Arts Council). These same members are using the recent report ‘Redressing
Our Cultural Capital’ to demonstrate that the Arts Council is disproportionately
allocating funds in favour of London.
4.2 The two Trust members stressed that they were concerned that they were not in
compliance with the West Midlands Arts Trust’s lease. Although two other Trust
members felt that we were in compliance.
4.3 To address this Amanda Roberts produced a paper which was circulated prior to
the meeting of the Trust on 31 January; She felt that its contents had not been
taken in to account by the two members in question.
4.4 At the meeting the Trust were informed by the Arts Council that we needed
security of tenure, as the Arts Council had invested money in the building and
plans to invest further.
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4.5 Peter reported that the Trust want to obtain legal advice to see if they can offer
security of tenure, but the two members are still insisting on some form of
monitoring with continuity of tenancy depending on the outcome. The Arts Council
seek a relationship based on trust and want clarity as to whether or not the Trust
actually want them in the building.
4.6 Peter informed Council members that, whilst discussions continue, we are also
considering alternative available options for premises for the Birmingham based
Team.
5. CHAIR’S UPDATE
5.1 The Chair informed members that he had attended an Ex-Cathedra concert, an
Ashmolean workshop which was also attended by Baz, and will be giving an
address on Philanthropy at the Lakeside in Kendall.
6. MEMBERS UPDATE
6.1 All members gave a roundup of recent cultural activity that they had seen, curated
or participated in. Highlights included: ‘Words Without Walls’; Zoe Partington’s
‘Sound Canvas’ piece at the Hive which will go to mac next year; performances of
‘the Mouse Trap’ and ‘Wicked’; ‘Artful Dodgers’ Boys Dancing project; ‘My Judy
Garland’ at Nottingham Playhouse; ‘Chicago’ at the Curve; and ‘Unmythable’ at
Derby Theatre.
6.2 Cllr Cecilia Motley mentioned the opening of Shrewsbury Museum on 20 March
and said she would like to invite Midlands Arts Council members there for a future
meeting.
7. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR / AREA DIRECTOR’S UPDATE
7.1 Laura Dyer spoke to her report. She informed members that the Designation
Scheme review will come to a future meeting when it has been through National
Council. There is also an update on the Arts Council’s website.
7.2 Laura updated members on our work with LEPS.
7.3 The Chair asked what the feeling is with local authorities and their relationship
with the Arts Council. Peter Knott responded that relationships with different local
authorities were not consistent. In some cases we are having constructive
conversations. In some cases morale had affected officers. He did not see this as
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a crisis but more a reality of the times.
7.4 Members discussed the situation with local authorities, expressing concern that
people with expertise were being made redundant and won’t be replaced. If any
arts service is running in the future in won’t have the same expertise or
understanding.
7.5 The Chair asked members who have relationships with local authorities to speak
to them in an effort to build relationships.
7.6 Laura Dyer’s update on lottery income informed members that the December
statement we received from DCMS in January shows income for the first 9
months of the year as being well behind projections. ACE estimate that if this
trend continues for the rest of the year lottery income will be £30m or 12% down
on our original forecast of £260m. Of this, £9m relates to the one off funds
diverted from good causes to pay for the National Lottery relaunch by Camelot
which is due to be repaid to distributors over the next 3 years. However, this
leaves an underlying fall in income of £21m or 8% for the year. ACE continues,
with other lottery distributors, to work with DCMS to understand the reason for this
fall and its potential impact on future year income.
7.7 Members received a copy of the outcome of our most recent stakeholder research
exercise. Key findings from the research showed increased public support for
public and lottery investment in arts and culture, and support among arts and
culture stakeholders for ACE to make the case for investment; and concern about
continuity and consistency of relationships with ACE staff and our future capacity
to deliver. Local government stakeholders being the most likely to report
worsening relationships.
7.8 Laura asked that members advocate for the work of the Arts Council in their daily
work. She asked if we were giving members enough information to help to do this
and suggested this could be discussed at a future meeting. Laura also informed
members that there would be a meeting of all Area Councils in October, which
would look at future funds and offer an opportunity to network.
7.9 Peter Knott talked to his paper which included an update on the 14/15 Area Plan,
staffing update, and an office update including the Nottingham move to The
Newton Building at Nottingham Trent University.
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8. NPO/MPM INVESTMENT PROCESS
8.1 Peter Knott talked members through the decision making process for the 2015/18
funding round and the role of National and Area Council.
8.2 Members received a paper to update them on the current investment process for
National Portfolio Organisations and Major Partner Museums. This included
statistics on balancing criteria for the two previous portfolios, and standards of
conduct expected of Council members in the run up to and during the decision
making process.
8.3 Laura asked members to ensure that their declarations of interest were up to date.
She also informed them that a legal representative will be at the meetings in May
and June.
8.4 Peter then gave a presentation on the ‘Investment process – the Midlands current
portfolio’.
9. INVESTMENT IN THE NATIONAL CULTURAL ECOLOGY
Laura Dyer gave a presentation on ‘Our investment in the national cultural
ecology’. The purpose of the presentation being: to update Area Council on our
approach to the debate surrounding investment outside London, which opened up
following publication of the Rebalancing of Cultural Capital report; to consider
what our data tells us about our investment from a geographical perspective; and
to discuss Arts Council’s narrative around building a national cultural ecology.
Laura encouraged members to make a submission to the CMS Select Committee
enquiry, the deadline being 24 February.
10. NATIONAL COUNCIL PAPER ON EVIDENC REVIEW AND HOLISTIC CASE
10.1 For information members received the above paper informing them of the
findings from our review of research on wider benefits of the arts and culture to
society. The paper also makes proposals about how we should take forward the
findings of this Evidence Review and the RSA paper ‘Towards Plan A: A new
political economy for arts and culture’ to inform our future research strategy. It
proposes how we should work with arts and cultural organisations and key
research stakeholders to generate robust evidence on the value, impact and
benefits that can inform our holistic case for arts and culture towards a new
Government and Spending Review in 2015, and beyond.
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10.2 Members noted the headline findings from the Evidence Review, and noted the
next steps made on the mechanisms by which we will work with the sector and
partners to building the evidence base on the value, impacts and benefits of arts
and culture.
11 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
11.1 Laura told members that she had recently attended a rural round table meeting
presenting a position statement on how the Arts Council will approach the
specific needs and aspirations of rural communities in order to deliver our
strategy. She referred members to the website to see the arts council’s position
statement, and informed them that there will be another round table meeting in
June.
11.2 The chair, noting that there would not be a meeting for another three months,
said he would inform members of anything major as necessary.
11.3 Members noted that the next meeting was on Friday 16 May in Nottingham and
at the Chair’s request agreed to an 11.00 am start.
The meeting closed at 4.30pm
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