If I am hypothetically looking for funding for a project that will be located in the renaissances cultural 'old town' area of carlisle, working with aims that both correlate, support and contribute to the Cumbria economic strategy and the northwest’s regional plan; the carlisle renaissance, ACE criteria, European funding and are part of the cultural sector so should therefore come under or relate in some way to the Cumbria cultural forum...

Who do I apply to? In what order?

As I understand it the NWDA's regional arm is Cumbria vision, two arms or partners of Cumbria vision are the cultural forum and the Carlisle renaissance. (Does the county council match fund the renaissance?) Ace like match funding and local authority support but ACE want to see audience impact and Cumbria vision/NWDA want to see economic impact and GVA (gross value added?).
One wont jump before the others and all warn about double funding coming from the same pot, but NWDA is government money? ACE is lottery, CCC is government or tax payers, Cumbria vision is NWDA supported by CCC to ensure that the CS fits in with the CES and to confuse things, hypothetically I’m applying as a CIC working on a FSP together with a NFP and a CI.

Help?

Mark Hodgson of Cumbria Vision’s reply to Christian Barnes is quite interesting.
As he says as a public sector organisation it’s inappropriate and infact impossible for them to talk directly to individual artists and find it more expedient to talk direct to Culture Cumbria as the “Cultural voice of Cumbria“.

Maybe a representative of Culture Cumbria would be available for questions. If so I’d like to pose one.

According to The Drum “Coleman Getty Scotland has won a thirteen month tender for Culture Cumbria, the formal representative body for the cultural sector in the county of Cumbria”.

Apparently “they will focus on one key event, theme or venue and four secondary events, venues or activities per month“.

I’m curious to know how this will work. Who decides which events , on what criteria and what level of contribution the event instigator will have.

Geoff

Bruce / Kate et al

Thanks for pointing me towards the discussion forum, I’ll try to make best use of this opportunity, and perhaps take some of the 'heat' off Bruce! I note a couple of comments directly about Cumbria Vision, and I’ll reply to these separately, but if I can firstly give an overview of Cumbria Vision's Role -

Cumbria Vision (CV) is the Sub-Regional Economic Development Partnership for Cumbria, responsible for providing strategic direction on economic development in the county to the Public, Private and Voluntary sectors. Until this year, CV and it's predecessor Rural Regeneration Cumbria were a grant-making organisation, however this role is now shifting to one of pure strategy development, and we have no further funding to allocate to projects. We do, however work closely with the North-West Regional Development Agency and make recommendations to them as to where we feel their funding is best directed within Cumbria.

As you will see from the Cumbria Economic Plan (www.cumbriavision.co.uk), the Digital Cultural and Creative industries are recognised as one of the 6 key 'sectors' that drive the Cumbrian Economy. The sector has been identified in recognition of its value not only from the jobs and income provided by the direct business base, but also from its contribution to the visitor economy, and finally from the role of culture in making the county more attractive as a place to live, work and do business.

It is therefore clear that we are fully supportive of businesses and organisations within the sector. This is reinforced by the wide range of projects and programmes that we have both funded in the past (for example the Cumbria Events and Festivals Fund operated by the County Council), or are currently helping to develop, with a view to their seeking future funding from external sources (for example the Culture Cumbria Cultural Economy development fund).

Bearing this in mind though, it is important to note that we are an Economic Development Partnership - I won’t go into the details of 'Gross Value Added', but basically our interests lie in developing growth in the value returned by the Cumbrian Economy, rather than supporting other activities for their intrinsic value.

In practise, this means that when developing strategy for our key sectors, and indeed the county as a whole, we have to always consider what activities will provide the maximum £££ to 'Cumbria PLC' in return for public sector investment. In this respect, cultural projects often have a difficult time when placed against more 'traditional' economic development methods. As a theoretical example, a grant to an engineering company for £20,000 to buy a new machine can (and has in the past!) then enable them to win a £500,000 contract and take on another 10 employees into comparatively well-paid jobs. This return on investment is often very difficult to match within the cultural sector, even with the indirect benefits of image and visitor spending taken into account. But this is not to say that Cultural projects haven’t delivered excellent returns in the past, and we are very welcoming of any future projects that can display competitive economic benefits.

Finally, if I can put in a good word for Culture Cumbria - Cumbria Vision is fully supportive of the organisation, particularly with its recent surge in membership and obvious shift to a more strategic focus. In future, Cumbria Vision will be seeking to use Culture Cumbria as it's conduit into the Cultural industries, and in general will be unable to deal creative / cultural organisations on an individual basis. The reasons for this are twofold - Firstly we simply don't have the resources to deal with everyone individually, but more importantly, we need to ensure that all activities and investments into the sector are driven strategically, and reflect the widest range of views within the sector as is possible.

Apologies for this lengthy response!!

Mark

dear Bruce
I hope you are well. I would like to raise awareness with you again of LYC at the banks. Cumbria has within the county one of the most important gallery/creative spaces that has ever existed in europe if not the western world and is not doing anything to secure its artistic heritage. To be honest by the time cumbria actually gets around to LYC it will be gone. I appreciate that it is very difficult to work with a trustee board based in London but has there ever been any contact with them, EVER. If a gallery existed anywhere else in the western world which was responsible for developing artistic careers of the calibre of Liliane Lijn, Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, Mona Hatoum, Mark Wilson, Winifred Nicholson, Donald Wilkinson,Paul Neagu, Lyn Curran, James Hugonin, Tom Pickard, David Medala, Gillian Tawardros and many many more.
Not To mention Li Yuan-Chia himself (whom Tate modern have been showing the work of for the past six months)you would think authorities would be climbing all over themselves to promote this internationally important cultural statement. But not Cumbria, Why. Lyc Foundation have just brought in Gill Headly to carry out another feasability consultation. But why is nobody within Cumbria (from Authority where it matters) helping them. Its not only LYC's pedigree and history the buiding (which is in a terrible state of repair) is a major cultural statement in itself as it was built by the artist(one of the most important western chinese artists ever to exist). He built the furniture, the light shades his bed which is all still there, rotting, but still there in the place's that they were in when li died. Bruce what can you do. If Cumbria wants to raise its profile internationally why isn't it addressing this site and working with the trustee's. Help them !! because they need it. (before they die). To be quite frank Cumbria had an International artistic profile and its watching it crumble away, literally. I would like to point out that i personally have no connection to Li Yuan-Chia. I only have a very important awareness of the international art scene and have contact with most of the important players within it. If Cumbria wants to be part of that world it has to look after its Cultural heritage and show the world that that heritage matters to Cumbria. Why should artist's of vision base themselves in Cumbria when its authorities are blind to their cultural legacy. I was once told by an important artistic figure who wanted me to move to London not to stay in Cumbria when my own artistic career was taking off (which i obviously ignored) that Cumbria was the land of Cultural Necrophilia. That you had to be dead about 50-100 years before Cumbria would fall in love with you. If Cumbria waits that long for LYC it will have nothing to love but a memory of what could have been.

jeremy Latimer

Bruce: Welcome to the network!

On the Creative in Cumbria Website (currently 17 members) you are quoted as saying… “What we are trying to do, along with our partners, is to get the conditions in Cumbria right for the creative industries. Having a creative environment and a very attractive and rewarding place to live and work will pull in investment and create high-quality jobs and that has to be good for Cumbria.”

Good on you! Well, the place is certainly attractive to live in but what about rewarding work? I’ll have to be honest and say that what we achieve, we sometimes achieve in spite of rather than because of Cumbria. When we launched Vista Projects it was important to Lynn and I to signify that we were a Cumbrian company and while we have been successful in winning work the being Cumbrian bit has been a bit of a turn off. When I mention it to our clients (other than you) I can feel their interest waning! We have learned to play it down.

There are several pressing issues I think need to be addressed by County regarding the arts but only one that I’d like to raise in this forum at the moment - the representation and status of the arts in Cumbria (Strategic PR Issue)

Vista Projects was part of a team that won the £25m Big Lottery Living Landmarks competition for Falkirk. We issued a press release to our local media along the lines that local creative business gets big win.

So what happened? For several months, we received no coverage. Until the Penrith-based Herald (thank you!) put in a nice bit about us months later - sadly by this time it was no longer news.

I am afraid that this is typical – artists and practitioners like us get limited work or recognition here in Cumbria and the powers that be don't seem to recognise us as being ‘players’. We live here, I'm from here, our inspiration comes from here, I see what's going wrong here (I think) and I'd really like to win good work here. I have a voice in other parts of the UK and I’d love to make that sort of contribution closer to home.

Although Vista does some work in Cumbria, I personally get to treat Cumbria like a dormitory because, except for a small stream of work in Allerdale and Lynn’s dance work for Cumbria County Council, all our public realm work is miles away in Falkirk, Accrington, Wigan, Tees Valley and London.

Why does this visibility issue matter to us? I could list some reasons …

Because, when Penrith MTI/Eden District Council won £500k (the richest pot in Cumbria) for arts and public realm it didn’t know it could talk to us about how to mobilize and, despite Eden Arts’ best efforts, by the time we got a look at it the project was in the wrong place for us to start from.

Because, when we moved here I wrote to RRC four miles up the road (several times). No one ever came although Freddy Markham responded brilliantly to our ‘builder’s market’ proposal for architecture week.

Because the Lake District National Park Authority doesn’t seem to understand that it is the largest cultural organization in Cumbria and has no cultural policy or strategy. A world heritage site bid is not quite the same thing!

Because no one from Cumbria Vision has ever been in touch about our public realm work despite the fact that WE ARE CUMBRIAN & WE HAVE VISION!

I would like to see Cumbria County Council take a lead in responding to this problem. So this one's pointed at you, Bruce. A strategic effort led by County targeted at raising the status of the arts in media representation in and of Cumbria, please - and please - could we try not to make it seem exclusive and high brow like food connoiseurship! Like football, it is far more important than that!

Thanks for the soap box.

Bruce

In reading some of your comments simply "passing on" things to other people doesnt work, it needs to be followed through and delivered. I am not sure you have any idea of what it is like to be a creative artist in Cumbria in 2008. Correct me if I am wrong.
Cloud cuckoo land springs to mind, sorry for being so forward.

Steve

We are aware that the county council has finite resources and needs to be strategic in the use of them, however, there needs to be a recognition that county council support can very effectively lever down additional funding.

There are a number of iniatives that are struggling to thrive because it appears that they lack county council support.

We need your stamp of approval to be taken seriously by nationwide and international funding bodies that rely on the local authorities to validate what we state as our aims and the relevance and impact on the area.

This support does not need to be vast pots of money, a little would go a long way, its symbolic, £500 would be sufficient.

There is also the need for support in kind, for asset maximization and greater recognition of the professional skills that creative practitioners offer.
Support in kind wise, consider business rates, parking spaces, and temporary usage of vacant buildings.

(A disproportionate number of buildings in our town centre are empty, this does not back up the vision of a vibrant and active commercial centres. If these building could be used as exhibition spaces, even if the viewer can only see through the window- it is a mutually beneficial enterprise.
We, as artists get to show our work to a wider audience, stimulating debate and cultural awareness that is sadly lacking, and the town centres do not look like ghost towns, potential commercial clients can see the potential of the location, visitors see only a thriving cultural sector.)

I would be interested to know how the county council measures and evaluates the cultural activity it does support. Is there a critically reflective and honest process which unsuccessful projects go through?

As practitioners, we see the unsustainable activities as robbing the whole community of valuable and scare resources.
I'm thinking of iniatives such as the cumbrian federation of artists studios,http://www.cumbriastudios.org.uk/
which enjoyed significant council support, and quite possibly now CA1? (There are numerous others but naming and shaming is not appropriate.)

Lastly, there is an issue with new blood in Cumbria, we are aware of graduate retention issues, but there is also a perception that only the people currently associated with the creative industries, (the same ones that have been associated for the last twenty years) are valid. As the Cumbria Cultural Forum is now attempting to limit the number of stakeholders there must be recognition that this is not constructive; that the creative industries and cultural sector is an ever changing entity, it is fluid.

There must be room for new blood and new minds to come in to the forum and the wider cultural sector, to stake their claim on the cultural landscape, a recognition that when we choose to base our life and practice here, in a county where the average house price is more than 22 times the average income, that we are already stakeholders.

There is a presumption in society in general and even within the artist community that being an artist is not a financially sustainable occupation. We can only operate with public funding or we must have a proper job to pay for / subsidise what we do as artists. So in effect what we do is what other people do to finance their hobby. This being the case should we be surprised if people think what we do is the same as making model railways or plays football on a Sunday morning.

This might colour how promoters of culture in Cumbria see us and our place in society.

For twenty years I was a ceramic artist, I designed and made things then sold them to make a living. I was a micro business doing everything that large scale businesses do from research and development, through manufacture to marketing and sales. Being self employed I had no statutory holiday pay, no pension plan, no paid paternity leave and no job protection.

If I designed cars, if I put them together or if I sold them off the forecourt I would have a proper job. If I did the same with washing machines or lawn mowers or any designed and manufactured product the same would apply. Why then is it that if I make sculpture or paintings or any form of artwork I somehow don’t live in the real world. If I teach others to make sculptures or paintings; then I’m a teacher [ not an artist ] and have a proper job.

So how can Bruce help ?.

As a full time artist trying to bring up a family, purely on what I made and sold, the thing I needed most was access to a market for my work. A market big enough to sustain sales on a regular basis but also one that was to some extent artistically aware and could see some value in what I made. I needed a target audience.

Promoting cultural tourism - what does it mean ?.

To some it’s promoting Long Meg or Castle Rigg circle, Hadrians wall - Prehistoric, Iron Age, Roman, Medieval Cumbria - ancient culture.
Others think of Penrith Show, Skelton Show, Patterdale Dog Day, Lowther Horse Trials, Dalemain marmalade festival, Acorne Bank Apple Day, Appleby Horse Fair or farmers‘ markets - farming culture.
Brampton Live, Solfest, Lakeland Summer Music, Appleby Jazz, - music culture
Words on the Water, Sedbergh Book festival, - literary culture
Keswick film festival, Kendal Mountain Film Festival,
Fred, The Eden Open at Upfront, Langwathby Art Mart, Open Studios, Potfest, Printfest, Woolfest, Woodfest,

The list goes on and on - Cumbria must be the most culturally catered for county in the UK. So that’s OK then it’s all happening. If you want culture this is the place but what kind of culture.

Perhaps this is where Bruce can help identify the way forward.

Each cultural area should be identified and marketed to it’s own audience. People who like to see horses jumping don’t necessarily want to buy a painting or see a French film or a live band so why are they all lumped together as cultural tourists.

As an artist I would like Cumbria promoted WORLD WIDE as a centre of artistic excellence [even if it isn’t ]. Fred is already breaking new ground and should be heavily marketed as one of the most important art events in the UK - unique to Cumbria. What I don’t want is just a mention in the “what’s on” page on a Cumbria tourism website. After 15 years of trying to make Potfest one of the premier ceramic events in Europe featuring important makers from all over the UK, Europe and beyond, to see the tag line “ if your potty about pots etc “ in a tourism publication or see amongst a list of the dates of farmers’ markets I wonder if the promoters of “cultural tourism” [ who have proper jobs ] have any passion for their work or are just picking up pay cheques. If you think big, big things happen but you have to believe that Cumbria isn‘t a cultural backwater and go out and sell it hard.

Geoff

John,

We will get Upfront Gallery listed as soon as practically possible on Artefacts. We are happy to consider other sites who are not currently listed, but please bear in mind we have to maintain consistency.

Bruce

Hi Bruce

I've written more than planned so I hope you have 5 mins to spare! I am an established painter recently returned to Cumbria (worked in Barrow for 10 years and trained at Cumbria College of Art and Design)from Newcastle, where I did 2 degrees in fine art and established a professional painting practice. My wife and I decided to live in Cumbria when she got a job near Penrith and we eventually found a property with the potential to build a studio and small (tiny) gallery from which to launch an art holiday business. Largely by great good luck we were able to build a good size teaching studio from which to run Pennine Painting Art Holidays (www.penninepainting.co.uk) but we now lack the resources to market it properly having spent everything and then some on the build and the outfit.

We see ourselves as part of the cultural infrastructure of Cumbria able to offer courses in painting and drawing to all kinds of groups who want to enjoy the benefits of coming to a quiet but impressive upland location. In addition people who come here can see my art works (www.lionel.playford.net) and engage hopefully in cultural dialogue and perhaps take a piece of art home with them or commission a painting. Hence we took part last September in the excellent Art in Eden Open Studio event organised by Eden Arts. Our venue attracted 93 visitors, 30% of whom were from outside Cumbria and most of these from the South of England. Not bad for an unknown new studio away from the main tourist areas.

We are small in scale but a committed and highly experienced art venture which wants to become much more visible on the Cumbrian cultural map. Like any business launch we need all the help we can get! Unfortunately Business Link has not been able to provide any useful support so far and Eden Arts has no spare cash but we did get a small marketing grant from The North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Weardale.

Our geographical position (Garrigill near Alston) points both west towards the Vale of Eden and east to Northumberland, Tyneside and Durham. Culturally and economically the area has drawn people, their ideas and skills in from west and east. Our aim (and financial gamble) is that we can have the best of both worlds in appealing to visitors and participants who come from west and east as well as people from much much further afield.

I think the 'bods' at Cumbria head office can help the many varied small cultural businesses like ours by investing in really effective marketing that appeals to visitors who are actively seeking the cultural goodies of Cumbria. In Orkney for example we became aware very quickly on arrival of a network of private and public studios, galleries and museums that mapped out a really exciting cultural schedule for us. Our vistits made a strong impression on us about the island's culture and history and we bought a few high quality artworks which we now treasure.

In addition to cultural tourists we want to attract public and private sector organisations such as schools, colleges and companies to consider coming over for a bespoke workshop or course. A firm in Germany has already shown serious interest in this idea as has an LEA on Tyneside and an art club in Yorkshire. All appreciate the natural beauty and lack of traffic as well as the heritage of the area (lead mining, Roman fort, steam railway, sheep farming and grouse shooting). Again the County Council can look at resources like ours and both use them directly for their own benefit but also promote them within the circles of power within which they operate.

Clearly any visitor on a course at Rose House Studio is going to benefit the local tourist economy of post office, pubs, hotels and B&Bs and indirectly the farmers and other skilled conservation workers who maintain the drystone walls, footpaths and wildlife habitats which make the area visually and emotionally attractive.

One last point. In my conversations with local people about what we are doing (we have always tried to explain clearly what we are planning to as many as possible of our neighbours)I have become aware of a wider general support and a broader range of artistic talents than I had expected. There is almost enough in this small village to promote a Garrigill cultural sector alongside the traditional businesses of farming, hunting and conservation. We feel we are part of the answer to rural diversification as a way of maintaining the long term viability of these communities which are economically fragile.

Quite a bit to digest there but I hope this is useful feedback and I look forward to meeting you at Rose House Studio!

Cheers

Lionel Playford

view my art works at www.lionel.playford.net

He is indeed! Hunched over his computer and awaiting your constructive comments about how we (the public sector) engage better with you (the creative ones who make the stuff)and together try to make Cumbria more vibrant and attractive place to build creative businesses. I may not have all the answers but I may know people who do. Take a look at http://www.cumbria-artefacts.org.uk/ to see how we try and promote culture in Cumbria.

Bruce