Have travelled to Bristol Temple Meads station and am sitting in the glorious Cafe-Bar with Carol Carey, Development and Project Manager with Somerset Art Works.
We had a long phone call back in April, plus, for this meeting Carol had asked me to send her my CV, project proposal and links to blog, web-sites and recent project sites.
Am immediately completely overwhelmed by Carol’s generosity and an understanding of how focused she is in her response to the intensions we have for Smooth Space.
First comments are cautionary – we are making a huge step in scale from our inaugural project at Berry Head (funded by a small G4A of less than £10 000) to the 3-year programme we are now proposing which has 3 projects per year, each with 3 to 5 new commissions plus 1 or 2 small interventions (1 commission per intervention) per year throughout the programme. Total budget – massive! Carol’s feeling is that it would be a significant feat to convince funders when we have not yet established a track record. And our Smooth Space web-site is not good!
Then we begin to talk about Smooth Space presenting to TCCT, the Geopark and Torbay Council on Monday. Carol explains the Elevator Pitch – 1-minute max to say: who you are; what you are; what you do – ie, artistic vision and mission. Also recommends creating a business plan for the programme to look in detail at cash flow across the 3 years and to develop our timeline to include actions against specific dates. Carol explains that we need to translate our aims and objectives in to Actions which will show how we will achieve our outcomes. We also need to be aware that the Geopark partners have planning backgrounds – they know about concepts like vitality and engagement – and we need to convince them that our organisation can deliver these – this is the value or worth of Smooth Space.
We recently learned that Torbay Council and the Geopark successfully applied for a G4A to fund research into developing Torbay’s annual Geopark Festival. The Geopark Partners have appointed Situations (Bristol) to produce the report. I had contacted Claire Doherty from Situations when I was writing my proposal for the an Re:view bursary (before Torbay Council submitted their G4A application!) and Claire responded very positively with an offer of professional development support. So, my next Re:view meeting is with Claire at Situations on Friday – 4 days after our presentation to Torbay Council and the Geopark Partners.
Carol’s advice is to be courageous and talk directly to Claire on Friday about Situations’ recommendations/vision for the Geopark and to describe clearly the project Smooth Space is developing with the Geopark partners. Carol also says that we need to hear from Situations what their report will say about the role for artists who currently live and work in Torbay, and whether there is a place for local artists (ie, us). We need to sell our activity and vitality to Situations – we need to persuade them how lively the local arts economy is!
We spoke for more than 2 hours – and Carol’s experience and empathy make me feel as though a door has opened into a place I could never reach on my own.
