Y Pwyllgor Diwylliant, y Gymraeg a Chwaraeon

Adolygiad Polisi: Cyfraniad y Celfyddydau a Chwaraeon at Adfywio Cymunedol

Rubicon Dance Contribution

Introduction A bit about Rubicon and where we are coming from Rubicon is the community dance development organisation for Cardiff and Newport. It was the firs t community dance organisation to be set up in the UK. How we are addressing access The dance development programme (lottery funded) was launched nearly 7 years ago in Cardiff and is in its 3^rd year in Newport. Targeting 7 areas in Cardiff and 7 in Newport (all being main areas of social disadvantage) we are now seeing the results of this long term investment not only in a huge increase in attendance figures (nearly 70,000 in 2002/03), or in the regular 148 sessions weekly, or in the permanently growing waiting list of groups wanting us to work with them, nut in the commitment, high standards, quality and progression of those who are now dancing who did not have access to dancing before. We have the case studies and the ongoing activities to prove it. It has been an extraordinary development process for us all at Rubicon. The results properly documented and presented would provide a real contribution to your policy review as a measure as to what can happen with one community arts organisation addressing access over a long period of time. I really believe this should be done.

1. The links between arts policy, sport policy, and community regeneration policy

"There is no area in public policy that doesn’t have a stake in the arts." Geraint Talfan Davies The links

• To make the world a better place for ordinary people by giving back expectations that individuals matter, that individuals can achieve, that individuals have some thing positive to contribute.
• To celebrate cultural diversity and shared identity.
• To value creativity.
• For dance and sport - addressing physical activity (lack of physical activity and poor diet being recognised as main reasons for poor health).
• Recognise the role of the arts and sports in education and lifelong learning - by nurturing skills through participation in arts and sport activities and by using the arts/sports as the vehicle for learning.
• How local arts and sports projects can contribute to community regeneration
• By knowing the people of the local community;
• By developing long term working relationships with them;
• By working in partnership with organisations who have direct contact with community groups and a particular aim that we can help realise. (Sure Start, BAWSO, Barnado’s etc.);
• By responding to need and by having the vision to see the need;
• By providing the progression routes in a safe, caring environment;
• By being close by;
• By only using highly skilled community arts providers who have the necessary skills to motivate a range of difficult groups in difficult situations;
• By bringing groups from different communities together in the same way as above;
• By providing employment opportunities;
• By using and therefore helping to keep local business running (post office, bank, shops etc.);
• By being something local people are proud of;
• By doing what they do with excellence.
• Support mechanisms for community regeneration-related arts and sports projects

These are:

• The partnerships and trusting working relationships as identified above* - good practice cannot happen without them;
• The training and ongoing professional development of our community dance practitioners - there is little that is good and the training needs have changed;
• Community arts being valued - it’s getting there.

Support for revolution in funding Give long term support for the provider organisations that are continually successful. They are not expensive, generally their budgets are peanuts compared with the impact of what they do. They are at the coal face and doing the work. But they are one minute running after this pot of money, then it changes and becomes something else and we can get a little bit from here and a bit from there. Keep us doing, don’t keep us from not doing, but keep us accountable. We are remarkably resilient but being constantly under threat is counter productive and unnecessary. Support for revolution in funding Let’s be imaginative about the communication of our accountability, come and see, come and talk, come and discuss, come and challenge, but let’s see and do and talk and not be permanently isolated at desks on the one side producing reams of paper and the other side receiving reams of paper. Let’s be creative about how we communicate.

1. Best practice in community regeneration-related arts and sport projects

Best practice is:

• Trying to understand and address what access really means. We know it is a marketing issue, i.e. the right time, the right place and the right cost etc. but it is far more than that;
• Taking a careful look at arts organisations and community arts organisations, seeing what they can and do best provide and what they can not and adjusting expectations accordingly, (horses for courses);
• Recognition that the best community arts practitioners have particular skills which artists and arts organisations do not, but recognising that artists and arts organisations can and should provide professional nurturing for young people with a particular skill in a variety of ways.
• Taking time to develop and always pushing out the boundaries access to high quality, access to consistency of provision, access to being able to achieve ones best, access to progression routes, access to excellence (not as a passive viewer but access to being able to be excellent) access to challenging opportunities where one can succeed, and not being set up to fail, access to expectations of success, that success only requires 100 per cent effort.
• The knowledge that community dance is not just performance and may not even include performance, that in best practice a performance may happen when a group is ready and able to give of their best. The requests for a project of a few sessions and a performance still come in. That is arguably about denying access as are those kind of projects that give a blast of opportunity, raise expectations, generate motivation then end as quickly as they came leaving disarray unless, of course, the high quality grassroots provision is already in place. Best practice is to get that in place first.

Ruth Till Director Rubicon Dance December 2003