Notes
Yorkshire Regional Arts Council
Meeting No. 38
Date
Time
Location
Friday 20 November 2009
10.30
Hepworth Room, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
Attending
Janet Barnes
Sohail Khan
David Porter
Stephen Purcell
Cllr Mike Pye
Geetha Upadhyaya
Cllr Christian Vassie
Andy Carver, Executive Director
Ivor Davies, Director of Performing Arts
Sally Dowell, Head of Finance & Business Support
Cluny Macpherson, Head of External Relations
Ann Wallis, Head of Development
Apologies
Cllr John Fort
Leila Jancovich
Cllr John Procter
Cllr Christine O’Sullivan
Adrian Friedli, Director of Visual Arts & Literature
Note Taker
Abi Cattley, Executive Assistant
Action
Date
The meeting began with a tour of the new Crucible
Theatre with Dan Bates, Chief Executive of Sheffield
Theatres.
38.1 Attendance and apologies
The Chair noted the apologies.
Council members recounted details of their recent arts
experiences.
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Action
Date
38.2 Minutes of previous meeting and
matters arising
The minutes were approved as a true and accurate
record of the meeting and were signed by the Chair.
38.3 Declarations of interest
Andy Carver advised regional council that this paper
would now become a standing item on the agenda, to
ensure that council member’s declarations of interest are
kept up to date, and to ensure that any declarations of
interest which are relevant to the current meeting are
noted.
Action: Council members to advise Abi Cattley,
Executive Assistant, of any changes to their declarations
of interest.
Council
members
38.4 Regional arts council terms of
reference
Andy Carver advised regional council that this paper
provided an update on the review of current governance
structures which was currently being carried out by the
Chair of national council, Liz Forgan.
Council noted the paper, and discussed the proposed
changes. They noted concerns about reduced numbers
of meetings in relation to the volume of work and
agendas, but also felt that the opportunity to sit on subcommittees would be interesting as it would enable them
to be more involved in the decision making process.
38.5 Update from national council
The chair provided regional council with an update from
the recent national council meeting, held on 29
September. Item discussed included:
 National engagement campaign
 National arts strategy
 Sustain
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Action
Date
38.6 RFO relationship protocol
Ivor Davies provided some background information on
this paper, which regional council have been invited to
comment on.
Sohail Khan noted that he welcomed this paper, but felt
that the tone of the paper implied a number of things that
were not clear.
Cllr Mike Pye also welcomed the paper, but noted that
any change in criteria would need to be fully explained to
regularly funded organisations. He felt there were
currently no issues in this region around communication,
but as this is the first time these relationships have been
articulated, it would be important to have clarity of
communication.
Cllr Christian Vassie noted his concerns over issues of
sustainability. He feels it is important to look at the long
term future of regularly funded organisations, and engage
with training and outcomes to ensure long term
sustainability.
Stephen Purcell advised that although the protocol did
need to come into being, he felt this was a difficult
document where some fundamental issues needed to be
addressed. He felt that the tone of the document was not
right, and that the balance between evidence and
judgement, discourse of trust, and connectivity and
responsibility need to be discussed further. He also
noted that he felt the protocol did not feel right as a
document that would be used to broker dialogues with
organisations working in the arts.
Council agreed with Stephen’s concerns, whilst noting
there was a need for this document. It was felt that as a
document which addresses the balance between Arts
Council England and its regularly funded organisations,
further work was needed to address the issues
discussed.
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Action
Date
38.7 Stakeholder focus
Andy Carver gave regional council a presentation on the
results of the recent stakeholder focus research, which
gave stakeholders the opportunity to express their views
on their experiences of working and communicating with
Arts Council England.
Andy advised that these results were the first set of
results in what is to become a regular process. Council
noted the positive results for the Yorkshire region, in
relation to how we are perceived by those who work
closely with us, and that they were consistently higher
than the national average.
Council had a discussion around the results, discussing
how the framework of questions can impact upon the
answers given and the value of the results to the
organisation. Council noted they would be interested to
see and compare the results when the survey is
conducted again next year, after the organisational
review.
Action: Abi Cattley to forward an electronic copy of the
presentation to regional council
Abi Cattley
38.8 National arts engagement
programme
Ann Wallis gave regional council a brief introduction to
this paper, which provided an update on the National Arts
Engagement programme that was originally reported at
regional council in June.
Stephen Purcell advised that he felt there was some
confusion regarding our priorities and what the strategies
were to deal with these, and he felt this needed further
clarity.
Andy Carver advised that this paper represents a shift
away from the historical emphasis for Arts Council
England being on the supply side ie artists and arts
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Action
Date
organisations, and looks more strongly what the demand
from the public is.
Cllr Christian Vassie felt the list of audience research
could be challenging, and it will be important to match the
strategy and the outcomes. He re-iterated previous
comments that he felt art should be taken to where
people can discover it, and professional work could be
brought into venues and events that people are already
engaged with.
The Chair noted that as there is such a huge amount of
product in the sector, it is often just a matter of inviting
people in a way they feel confident they can access. This
could then lead to a network of people making contact
with new organisations.
38.9 Officers reports
The reports were noted and welcomed.
38.10 Financial reporting
Regional council noted the report.
38.11 Any other business
There was no other business.
The meeting closed at 12.30.
Next meeting to be held on Monday 1 February 2010 at
10.30.
Signed:
Janet Barnes, Chair
Date:
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