Southern Culture
Did You Know?
Nice and Nasty
the Goodwin Sands lie off Deal and the strong winds and powerful currents ensure the sands are always shifting. Almost two thousand ships have met their deaths there. On the bright side, in summer at low tide there is an annual cricket match played on them.
Inflencing Policy
The Value of Arts
The National Campaign for the Arts promotes the value of the arts to government, and campaigns for the arts to be adequately resourced as a key element in our national culture. They have published an independent manifesto on the arts, and work together with agencies within the arts to influence national and regional policy.
http://www.artscampaign.org.uk/info/Arts%20Manifesto%20Jan%2005.pdf
The NCA has also produced individual manifestos for specific art forms, including:
Music - http://www.artscampaign.org.uk/campaigns/education/musicmanifesto.html
Arts and Disability
Government policy recognises the importance of the contribution to our cultural life made by disability arts, and the right of disabled people to have access to the arts.
The National Disability Arts Forum explains that Disability Arts is the creative expression by disabled people of what it is to be a disabled person. This expression, which usually aims to create change, can be undertaken on a professional or amateur / voluntary basis: whatӒs important is that it is by disabled people about being disabled.
The Forum supports the work of disabled artists and disability arts agencies, brings them together in a network, and promotes the value of art by disabled people.
www.ndaf.org
NDAF also maintains Arts Access UK Ԗ an online database giving disabled people access to the arts www.artsaccessuk.org
Arts and the Criminal Justice System
The DCMS part funded the 2005 "Doing the arts justice֔ report, which showed that arts projects in the criminal justice system make a difference to offending behaviour from personal responses and relationships, through to access to work and education.
There are sound economic reasons as to why the Government should invest in this area - it currently costs ֣65,000 to reconvict and 35,000 for each year an offender is in prison and the prison population has risen by 48 per cent in the past 10 years.
The Anne Peaker Centre in Canterbury is nationally recognised for its work on art in the criminal justice system. It has set up a searchable database of artists, organisations and projects.
http://www.joiningthedots.co.uk/site/
Arts and Business
The government is keen to foster good relations between the arts and business sectors and the organisation Arts and Business helps business people support the arts and the arts inspire business people.
They provide financial support, professional development, advice, training, networking and consultancy on a wide range of issues to business and the arts.
Arts and health
Government policy recognises the impact the arts can have on an individual֒s health, on healthcare environments, and on the delivery of health promotion messages.
The DCMS has joined with the Department of Health to fund research into the impact of arts projects on people with mental health problems.
The Treasurys Invest to Save initiative is also funding two arts and health projects, including one in the South East region.
The Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS and Primary Care Trust is using arts programmes to improve health opportunities, focussing on three key health groups: obese and overweight children aged 5-7 years, adults aged 18-65 with mild to moderate mental health needs, and stroke survivors and their carers aged over 55. The initiative will compare the cost and effectiveness of arts treatments with traditional models, and develop new ways of working.
The National Network for Arts in Health has details of organisations involved in this collaborative area of work.
http://www.nnah.co.uk/membership/links_arthealth.html