An international line-up of speakers including RSA Chair Vikki Heywood, Bigga Fish CEO Nii Sackey, National 9/11 Memorial & Museum Director Alice M. Greenwald, and Brian Gambles, Library of Birmingham Director, are among the first to be announced for the No Boundaries conference being held in Bristol and York in February.
The event is billed as an ‘open symposium that will explore the role of arts and culture in contemporary society’, and is a collaborative production involving Watershed, Pilot Theatre, Festival of Ideas, Spike Island, Bristol Old Vic, the Bristol universities and the city councils in the two cities. Supported by Arts Council England and the British Council, it forms part of the State of the Arts series of events exploring new ideas and concepts to shape the future of the sector.
Other contributors to the conference will include National Arts Strategies president Russell Willis Taylor, poet Luke Wright and Google’s Abigail Posner. Digital specialists xHumed, who adapt ideas from revolutionary thinkers in history to modern-day topics, will enable the thinking of architect Cedric Price to inform a PechaKucha-style presentation. Speakers will be based in both Bristol and York – each venue will be running its own fringe events around the core programme, but the main speakers will be broadcast at both locations.
The organisers are aiming to provide a fresh model for generating discussion among leaders and innovators in arts and culture, and to help find positive approaches to influence change and support the sectors’ growth. Conference Producer Jonathan Harper explained: “This conference is about much more than meeting the ‘right’ people – though many arts leaders and the senior teams from the Arts Council and the British Council will be there as participants, and very much involved in the debates.
“More importantly though, it’s about enabling a cross-section of leaders and emerging leaders to share and discuss ideas and opportunities that could lead to new directions for the arts and culture, an to encourage this we have set a tiered pricing scheme to make it affordable for those with smaller budgets.”
Delegates will be encouraged to submit ideas for debate before the conference, and to self organise informal discussions during the conference and feed ideas back into the formal programme. Watershed Director Dick Penny said: “Our objective is to frame a debate that places arts and culture in the context of society as a whole… our invitation is to join a lively debate where we collectively explore our opportunities and our responsibilities.”
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New Boundaries takes place simultaneously at Watershed, Bristol and The Guildhall, York on 25 and 26 February 2014. nb2014.org
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Originally published on Arts Professional
