ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND
Minutes of the London Area Council Meeting held on
27 November 2014 starting at 2.00pm at
21 Bloomsbury Street, London
Members
Present:
Veronica Wadley
Andrew Burke
Bradley Hemmings
Councillor Flick Rea
Councillor Florence Eshalomi
Councillor Guy Nicholson
Councillor Kevin Davies
David Hall
James Conway
John Middleton
Marcus Davey
Munira Mirza
Sally Tallant
Chair of London Area Council
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
London Area Council Member
Apologies:
Robert Dufton
London Area Council Member
Present
from Arts
Council
England:
Moira Sinclair
Executive Director, London and
South East
London Area Director
Director Music, London
Director Theatre, London
Director International, London
Director Visual Arts, London
Senior Manager, Advocacy and
Communications, London and South
East
Senior Manager Operations, London
and South East
Assistant to London Area Director
(minutes)
Joyce Wilson
Helen Sprott
Neil Darlison
Nick McDowell
Peter Heslip
Natalie Jones
Paul Cunningham
Michelle Wei
Guests:
Brian Ashley
Sophie Lancaster
Director, Libraries and Nottingham,
Arts Council England
Relationship Manager, Libraries,
London, Arts Council England
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1.
WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
1.1
The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Councillor Kevin
Davis who had been nominated by London Councils to join the London Area
Council.
1.2
It was noted that Cecilia Wee and Robert Dufton had stepped down from the
London Area Council. Area Council sent its’ thanks to Cecilia and Robert for
their contributions over the years.
2.
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
2.1
The Chair reminded Council that it needed to keep its declarations of interest
up to date.
2.2
It was noted that Councillor Kevin Davis would submit a Declaration of Interest
form to the Arts Council post meeting.
3.
MINUTES FROM THE LAST AREA COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON 10 and
11 JUNE 2014
3.1
The minutes were agreed as a true and accurate record.
4.
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE LAST AREA COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON
10 and 11 JUNE 2014
4.1
It was noted there would be two presentations from the executive at the next
Area Council meeting in early March – a presentation about the London
literature portfolio, and a presentation about craft from a national perspective.
5.
ARTS HIGHLIGHTS FROM COUNCIL MEMBERS
5.1
The Chair asked everyone present to highlight one of the arts events they had
attended since the last meeting.
6.
CHAIR’S UPDATE
6.1
The Chair asked Council to note that Marcus Davey and Munira Mirza had
both been re-appointed as Mayor’s nominees for the London Area Council. An
open recruitment process is underway to fill the other two Mayoral vacancies
following the resignations of Cecilia Wee and Robert Dufton.
6.2
The Chair also talked about the change in leadership of the Arts Council with
Alan Davey and Moira Sinclair’s departure in the near future. The Chair
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thanked both for their support of her work as Area Council Chair since her
appointment.
6.3
Area Council noted that the new Chief Executive would continue to play a
crucial role in rebalancing Arts Council investment intelligently. The Arts
Council has begun the process of separating out its budget for national
activities and considering how it can be clearer about what area benefit
actually means, and also how it might more effectively measure impact.
Council stated that the Arts Council needed to have a clearer focus on the 10
year strategy, especially on building the infrastructure needed to develop and
sustain talent in all areas. Council also felt that the Arts Council needed to talk
about its work more in the context of the visitor economy, and take a more
proactive approach to promoting equal partnerships across the country instead
of just reacting and trying to explain the relationships and out of London
benefits in response to Rebalancing Our Cultural Capital report and the CMS
report.
7.
DIRECTORS’ UPDATE
7.1
Area Council noted that all Arts Council staff designated as London based had
moved to 21 Bloomsbury Street this summer.
7.2
Joyce Wilson and directors updated Council about the progress being made
on negotiating funding agreements with National Portfolio Organisations and
the work carried out with those NPOs which had received significant cuts in
the NPO application round. Area Council noted that there had been no formal
complaints about the investment process from London based organisations.
7.3
Area Council discussed the National and Area Council summit in October in
Birmingham and reiterated that Area Council members would like to be more
engaged in Arts Council work in between meetings. They were particularly
keen to help promote and demonstrate the value of the arms-length principle
and the wider impact of public investment in arts and culture across England.
The members who attended the summit praised Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair of
Arts Council England, who delivered a passionate speech at the end of the
summit, and asked if this could be placed online.
Action: Natalie Jones to check if the video is available and could be shared
online.
7.4
Area Council noted the progress of current strategic funds and the proposed
design and implementation of new programmes for 2015-18. Council
expressed concerns about announcing so many programmes against a
backdrop of economic pressure and asked for a full list of strategic funds.
Council also asked if Arts Council officers were fully briefed to talk about all
the different strategic funds and to make organisations aware of their
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existence. Joyce Wilson explained that an announcement of strategic funds
was made quarterly, largely through the Arts Council’s website, as well as
being mentioned at the recent briefing events. The Arts Council would expect
applications from a comparably small number of organisations to support
ambitions that the NPO and Grants for the Arts funding streams could not. The
Arts Council was considering whether to refine the criteria for Exceptional
Awards, International commissions, Outdoor Arts and Regional Ambition
Funds and combine them under one title to make it easier for organisations to
apply in future. Council thought we could support organisations more in
tackling philanthropic giving and ask organisations that have a successful
fundraising strategy to share their knowledge and expertise with the sector.
Action: Michelle to send a full list of strategic funds proposed for 2015-18 to
Council.
8.
NPO / MPM INVESTMENT PROCESS AFTER ACTION REVIEW
8.1
Area Council noted the terms of the NPO / MPM Investment Process after
action review and was asked for input to the review.
8.2
John Middleton reiterated that he thought the Arts Council’s summary
assessment for the NPO / MPM applications should be more precise and
helpful to enable Council members to make decisions.
Action: John Middleton to be put in touch with Guy Purdy to discuss the
summary assessment in the context of the after action review.
8.3
Council would welcome clearer objectives next time.
8.4
Council felt it would be helpful to ask Jenny McIntosh to review the 2014
investment process rather than reviewing it internally.
8.5
Council was unclear what year or stage we were in, in terms of delivering the
Arts Council’s 10 year strategy framework - Achieving great art and culture for
everyone. Council was informed the strategy ran from 2010 to 2020, and we
were just under half way. Council would welcome a mid-point review of
progress.
9.
9.1
LIBRARIES
Brain Ashley, Director of Libraries and Nottingham, and Sophie Lancaster,
Relationship Manager, Libraries, London, were invited to the meeting to talk
about the Arts Council’s work with libraries and lead a discussion with Area
Council on raising sector awareness about our role.
9.2
Area Council made the following comments and suggestions:
 The sector would welcome more creative new partnerships between
libraries and artists / arts organisations
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Council would welcome an in-depth review of libraries and the Arts
Council’s development role
The Arts Council should enable strong and open dialogue with libraries
to make them more engaged with the arts and audiences
Council would like to see more case studies on successful Grants for
the Arts applications from libraries
The Arts Council should promote the use of digital media in libraries
and the diverse use of library resources
London Boroughs can help by recognising the impact of libraries on
health and wellbeing
Council suggested it could hold a future Council meeting in a library or
invite a library to present at a future Council meeting
10.
AREA PLAN
10.1 Joyce Wilson presented the draft London area plan which will be regularly
reviewed and updated by the Area Management Team.
10.2
Area Council was invited to comment on which areas we should be prioritising
to effect change, and to comment on what the Arts Council planned to do to
bring about those changes. Area Council’s priorities were:

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To be clearer about diversity and equality
To prioritise Goal 5 more
To build funding capacity and help small organisations in outer London
To better communicate good news stories and successful programmes
and projects
To list the human and financial resources next to the tasks outlined in
the area plan
11.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
11.1 Area Council discussed data sharing between venues and touring
organisations and suggested that the Arts Council could publish some case
studies about touring organisations and their impact to positively influence
relationships with venues.
Action: The Arts Council executives to feedback to Simon Mellor, Executive
Director, Arts and Culture.
11.2
The Chair thanked the Council members and the Arts Council officers for their
valuable time and input to the meeting.
The meeting closed at 4:45pm on 27 November 2014
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