This year’s Arts Development UK Conference takes place 16-17 October at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, and will take ‘Arts for Life’ as its theme.
Building on a concept developed for last year’s event, the programmers have once again chosen several food related analogies to describe the agenda – delegates will be able to ‘pick and mix’ to create their own conference ‘recipe’, and choose from a ‘menu’ of training and case studies options described as ‘Information Takeaways’ .
The conference will open with a keynote presentation by Peter Stark OBE, cultural policy analyst with GPS Culture and chair of Voluntary Arts. Stark will reflect on the work of both organisations in addressing opportunities and imbalances within overall cultural policies and funding practice.
Across the conference there will be keynote presentations from Laura H Drane, a Cardiff-based arts and cultural producer, consultant and project manager, who will discuss the value of local arts development, and Professor Dai Smith, chair of Arts Council of Wales.
New for this year is Zest for the Arts, an open forum for debate and discussion facilitated by Paul Birch of Vision Juice. This will be an opportunity for delegates to raise and discuss key issues and topics that affect arts development in the UK. The session will be recorded by Fran O’Hara of Scarlet Design who will be drawing and scribbling throughout to produce a large scale graphic.
Information Takeaways
Information Takeaways sessions will be spread across both days of the conference with delegates able to choose up to four options. Day 1 training sessions include: Working with the funding sector, with input from Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland; Being Prepared, with AD:UK’s Chair Jayne Knight offering advice on how to survive and thrive; and Touring Exhibition Development, with Alice Lobb of Tate Britain.
On Day 2, WeDidThis founder Hen Norton will lead a session introducing delegates to the principles of crowdfunding. This session is supported by a-n as part of the Granted programme of professional development, bursaries and training and will offer practical advice on marketing creative work, building relationships and networks, and developing audiences.
New to the Information Takeaways format is a number of case studies options. These include: Kevin Jakeway, Inside Out Cymru project manager, on promoting wellbeing through community arts; Nathalie Camus discussing the Arts Council of Wales’ Ideas, People and Places regeneration project; and Lucia Masundire highlighting Leicestershire Museums and Arts Service’ Click, Connect, Curate, Create programme.
Arts Development UK Conference: Arts for Life takes place at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, 16-17 October 2014. For full programme details and booking information see artsdevelopmentuk.org
