Creative Margins: Building capacity to widen participation in arts spaces and practices

这个网络投标建立在一系列会议的基础上，在这些会议上，艺术家、公共资助艺术机构的成员、专门从事青年和社区工作的学者，通过共同关注英格兰和威尔士艺术参与中持续存在的不平等，走到了一起。许多边缘化群体，特别是那些也生活在贫困中的群体，面临着社会孤立、药物滥用、自残和公民脱离参与的风险。过去15年来，越来越多的证据表明，参与艺术和以艺术为基础的活动可以在减轻这些风险方面发挥积极作用。然而，研究表明，边缘群体没有持续参与或从艺术的长期体验中受益，以改善他们的生活。我们的会议让我们提出了这样一个问题：“既然艺术的参与越来越多地被纳入包容性议程，为什么这些议程往往在实践中以无意的、排斥性的方式发挥作用？”该网络旨在通过多学科的视角，探索更多艺术机构和艺术家如何通过适应边缘群体的需求和知识来实现目标。迄今为止，关于扩大艺术参与的具体方法的辩论发生在彼此独立发展的领域内。例如，青年和社区工作领域利用以艺术为基础的实践来增强边缘化群体的权能，并发展了与处于社会边缘的群体交朋友和合作的技能。然而，虽然艺术学科努力使艺术民主化，但与在公共资助的艺术组织（如国家剧院、博物馆、画廊和艺术中心）工作的参与者进行的磋商显示，人们对艺术中不平衡的社会参与相当关注。继续教育学院的创意媒体课程的授课对象往往是被边缘化的年轻人。虽然艺术学科与社区和青年工作领域彼此独立发展，但分享不同观点来理解这一复杂问题的潜力巨大，这需要批判性辩论和多种观点的包容。为此，我们将建立一个网络，以方便迄今为止在艺术方面有不同方法和目的的孤立领域之间的边界跨越。通过一系列区域性多学科、多机构BarCamp （N=5）风格的交流空间，来自艺术学科的利益相关者以及那些在公共资助的剧院、博物馆、画廊和艺术中心工作的人将与来自社区和青年工作领域的学者和从业者聚集在一起，批判性地讨论参与、民主、企业、信任、街头工作和节日等问题。两个barcamp将由一个青年中心和一个社区中心主办，使边缘群体能够领导活动。活动的设计将通过制定、协调、倾听和辩论的过程，使多种观点成为可能。总的来说，我们的目标是开发新的方法来想象和理解边缘化是如何以通常难以察觉的方式发生的，并建立新的工作方式，利用边缘化群体的优势和创造性资源。一个网站将使人们能够在BarCamp活动中逐步收集见解并公开分享。长期目标是为那些正在努力应对文化白皮书（CM 9218）期望的艺术组织提供指导，该白皮书首次提出，所有接受政府资助的博物馆、剧院、画廊、歌剧院或艺术团体“应该向所有人伸出援手，无论他们的背景如何”。这里的挑战是开发有效伙伴关系的新模式，这些模式可以根据隐含的价值观在特定的地方社区进行调整，而不是通过诸如通过门数数字之类的表演行为。

This network bid builds on a series of meetings at which artists, members of publicly funded Arts institutions, and academics specialising in youth and community work, came together through a shared concern with the persistent inequality in arts participation in England and Wales. Many marginalised groups especially those who also live in poverty are at risk of social isolation, substance misuse, self-harm and civic disengagement. Evidence that involvement in the Arts and arts-based activities can play a positive role in ameliorating these risks has accrued over the past 15 years. Yet, research shows that it is marginalised groups who do not sustain their involvement or benefit from long-term experiences of Arts to enhance their lives. Our meetings led us to ask the question, 'Why, given that participation in Arts has come to be framed increasingly within inclusion agendas, do these often play out in practice, unintentionally, in exclusionary ways?' The network set out to explore what more arts organisations and artists can achieve by attuning to the needs and knowledge of marginalised groups through a multidisciplinary lens. Hitherto, debates about specific approaches to widening participation in the Arts have taken place within fields that have developed independently of each other. For example, the fields of youth and community work draw on arts-based practice to empower marginalised groups, and have developed skills for befriending and working with groups who find themselves on the periphery of society. However, while the Arts disciplines strive to democratise access to the Arts, yet consultations with participants who work in publicly funded Arts organisations, such as national theatres, museums, galleries and arts centres revealed considerable concern about the uneven social participation in the Arts. Lectures on creative media courses in Further Education colleges often teach marginalised young people. While the disciplines of the Arts and the fields of community and youth work have developed independently of each other, there is enormous potential to share different perspectives to understand this complex problem which requires both critical debate and the inclusion of multiple viewpoints.In response, we will create a network to facilitate boundary crossings between hitherto siloed fields that have different approaches and purposes in relation to the Arts. Through a series of regional multidisciplinary, multiagency BarCamp (N=5) style exchange spaces, stakeholders from Arts disciplines as well as those who work in publicly funded theatres, museums, galleries and art centres will come together with academics and practitioners from the fields of community and youth work to critically debate issues such as participation, democracy, enterprise, trust, street work and festivals. Two BarCamps will be hosted by a youth centre and a community centre enabling marginal groups to lead activities. Events will be designed to enable a multiplicity of perspectives through processes of making, attuning, listening and debating. Collectively, we aim to develop new ways to imagine and understand how marginalisation takes place in often-imperceptible ways, and to forge new ways of working that draw on the strengths and creative resources of marginalised groups. A website will enable insights to be gathered incrementally across the BarCamp events and shared publicly. The long terms objective is to create guidance for Arts organisations who are grappling with the Culture White Paper's (CM 9218) expectation for the first time that all museums, theatres, galleries, opera houses or arts groups that receive government money "should reach out to everyone, regardless of their background". The challenge here is to develop new models for effective partnerships that can be adapted in specific local communities based on the values implied, rather than through performative acts such as counting numbers through the door.