Creative Scotland's launch party at the Roxy in Edinburgh last Thursday featured music from Idlewild's Rod Jones, clarsach suprema Corrina Hewat, and spectacular, heart-in-mouth acrobatic and aerial performances from Suspended Motion, sandwiched round a Q&A session chaired by Kaye Adams. Billed as "An Audience with Andrew Dixon and Sandy Crombie", questioners came from all areas of the arts and were not pre-selected, judging by the tenor of many of them.

A networking tea followed, with strawberries, and not only the two headliners but also the three creative directors (Iain Munro, Vena Dhupa, and Caroline Parkinson) circulated freely. The general feeling amongst those I spoke to was enthusiasm for the new organisation. Despite the threats to funding levels, there's a feeling that what funds remain will be used wisely and imaginatively, that the application process will finally be streamlined, and that the organisation will have a heart - as demonstrated by Dixon's story from his time in Newcastle when there was £10K left in the coffers at the end of the year. It would have been prudent to add it to the reserves - but instead they handed it to choreographer Liv Lorent, to use it to make a difference. (SDT's Janet Smith, who's commissioned Lorent more than once, nodded her head enthusiastically at this point).

Iain Munro, talking afterwards over tea, said that when Creative Scotland moves to its new premises in the old GPO building (opposite the Balmoral Hotel and the General Records Office, very handy for Waverley) in December, they'll be operating an open doors policy, very probably with hotdesking facilities - great news for all those who till now have had to spend time seeking libraries, cafes and galleries with free WiFi. The idea of a regular networking evening was raised and the word 'fun' was spoken - heady stuff after these taxing years of indecision.I also had a very enjoyable conversation with Venu Dhupa who's promised to try to get to the PAN forum in Ullapool; hope she manages it. She's a breath of fresh air.  There were so many lovely folk to talk to that it was impossible to speak to them all; managed to have a quick chat with a few including our lead officer at Creative Scotland, Susan Hay, PAN patron Gerry Mulgrew, Gerda Stevenson,  Elspeth Murray,Tricia Munoz, FST's Jon Morgan, who's going to be our guest chair in Ullapool, HIE's Iain Hamilton, and Phyllis Martin, who came to the last PAN forum in her capacity as DGAA's arts officer.

Phyllis is now working on a project with Suspended Motion and said there was a theme to the pieces they performed, which seemed to be about working together in order to survive and achieve grace and harmony - certainly co-operation and sharing resources were the themes that Dixon returned to again and again in his answers. They're also, possibly coincidentally (but possibly not), the themes that Jim Mather, Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism, waxed eloquently on at a recent Destination Loch Ness event at the Town House in Inverness.

Hope to see you in Ullapool in October,

Jennie Macfie, Chair

PS  Congratulations to the team who organised the Roxy event - smooth operators.

PAN's an AmbITIon partner organisation - working towards modern web-based IT solutions; to find out more about what this means, there's a webinar (webcast seminar) on July 27th, in Glasgow from 2.15pm - 5.15pm; at

GO Group
George House
36 North Hanover Street
G1 2AD Glasgow
United Kingdom

or you can attend the webinar online, from 2.30-5pm, wherever you are!

Register at:

http://getambitionweb-4gla.eventbrite.com/?ref=ebtn

It'll also be available as a download from www.getambition.com

The Source Project team would like to invite you to join them at one of three upcoming forums taking place in Glasgow, Perth and Edinburgh.
 
The Source project is now is in its 2nd year, working with 42 arts organisations across Scotland. The Source is a collaborative project between the Federation of Scottish Theatre, Culture Sparks and The
Audience Business.
 
Since its inception, the project has provided participating organisations with audience data reports, training and development.
 
The Source works closely with Experian to deliver Mosaic Scotland audience data analysis to arts organisations participating in the project. At the upcoming forums, Experian will discuss ways in
which other sectors have used Mosaic profiling to their benefit – so that we in the arts and cultural sector can benefit from their knowledge!

 The forums are open to anyone operating in the arts and cultural sector in Scotland, not just those involved in the Source project.

In addition, the Source project team will present the Scottish arts attendance benchmark to date, so you as a practitioner can gain valuable insight and intelligence about arts attenders both
nationally and regionally.

DATES FOR THE DIARY: The Source Forums, July/Aug '10

West:      27th July '10  Venue TBC, Glasgow, 10:30am - 12:30pm
North:     28th July '10 Horsecross Arts, Perth, 2 - 4pm
East:       24th Aug  '10      Venue TBC, Edinburgh, 10am - 12noon
 
Please RSVP  with your choice of forum to Nina Honeyman 

e: nina@culturesparks.co.uk 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Best wishes,

The Source Project Team

Department of Culture, Media and Sport is asking for feedback

"This consultation document seeks views on the draft Order to enact a change to the shares going to the National Lottery good causes of arts, sport, heritage and charitable expenditure, health, education and the environment."

Arts organisations who have benefited from lottery funding should let DCMS know their good news stories and why such funding makes a difference.

All the documentation is here

http://www.dcms.gov.uk/consultations/7070.aspx

Please send your comments or if you have any queries about this consultation to:
lottery@culture.gsi.gov.uk

Closing date 21st August sounds like a long time ahead but it isn't. Please tell them what you think,

The latest Touring List is being sent out today to paid up members only.

If your copy doesn't arrive in your email inbox, but you think you should have been sent one,  our apologies - please email the administrator.

Creative Scotland up and running

From VOLUNTARY ARTS SCOTLAND

Wanted - your stories on how the arts has a positive effect on society - posted: 01.7.2010
The Scottish Parliament Finance Committee has just announced a new inquiry on how public spending can best be focussed over the longer term. They want to look at preventing, rather than dealing with negative social behaviour. We would like to use this opportunity to prove to them that the arts can have a positive effect on those taking part in it, and divert people away from anti-social actions (e.g. young people given the opportunity to take part in arts/crafts, rather than hanging around street corners). If you have any examples of how your work has made a difference in this way, please get in touch - so we can let the Finance Committee know how important funding the arts really is!

Please email your stories to fiona@vascotland.org.uk or tel: 0131 225 7355.

Following the laying of the necessary orders in the Scottish Parliament on 08 June 2010, Creative Scotland will come into existence on 1 July 2010, with the National Lottery distribution powers of the predecessor bodies.

On 11 June 2010 the Minister announced the appointment of Sir Sandy Crombie as the new chair of Creative Scotland and of Steve Grimmond, Barclay Price, Gwilym Gibbons, Robin Macpherson, Professor Gayle McPherson, Ruth Wishart, Dr Gary West and Peter Cabrelli as Board members.  The news release can be found here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/06/11110303

Andrew Dixon, the new Chief Executive of Creative Scotland, has announced his senior team - more details can be found here: http://www.creativescotland.org.uk/index.php/2010/06/creative-scotland-announces-senior-creative-team/#more-654

Thanks to those who attended the most recent Dialogue Event on 25 May 2010 at The Briggait in Glasgow. A summary of the main points raised during the three table discussions can be found in the link below. The summaries and the full record of the table discussions have been passed to Creative Scotland to assist their policy development.  (NB Please let us know if you would like us to send you a copy of the full record and we will email it to you). Here is a link to the summary of the table discussions, video and audio of  the event:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/ArtsCultureSport/arts/CulturalPolicy/creative-scotland

You may be interested to see that Creative Scotland is inviting anyone interested to sign up to the new Creative Scotland mailing list on their website for more information and for regular updates about Creative Scotland- www.creativescotland.com

[Note: if you tried it previously without success, this link didn't actually work till the afternoon of July 1st]

Northern Scottish Touring Fund
2010-2012
Information Day for Theatre and Dance Companies
Friday 25th June 2010 at Pitlochry Festival Theatre
2.30pm - 4.30pm
The Northern Scottish Touring Fund is a consortium led interactive fund which not only awards production and touring grants to performing companies but also supports the selected projects with services of marketing (social networking, printing and distribution) and tour dates
.
The NSTF managing consortium consists of the Highlands and Islands Theatre Network, (HITN - a network representing 23 theatre and dance companies and venues) PAN (Highland Promoters Network) NEAT (North East Arts Touring), and HI-Arts (Arts promotion agency in Inverness).

The information day offers theatre and dance companies the chance to hear how the fund will operate and meet representatives of the management consortium, funders and promoters from the tour regions. The Northern Scottish Touring Fund offers a ground breaking opportunity for theatre and dance companies, and rural venue promoters to work together to deliver high quality small scale touring performance in the North of Scotland. The Fund will tour work initially in rural areas (under 3000 people) in Highland, Moray, Cairngorm and Aberdeenshire. In the second year this may extend to Argyll & Islands and the Western Isles.

This fund offers awards up to a maximum of £45,000 for small scale touring performance. The application form and guidelines will be
available from the 25th of June 2010. contact Muriel Ann Macleod muriel@hitn.co.uk, text:07789117740, Tel :01851700475 

PAN board member Gwilym Gibbons has just been announced as one of the board members of the new Creative Scotland organisation. Don't worry, he says he'll "always have a smidgen of time for PAN".

Full membership of the new CS board on the link below

Vena Dhupa, Iain Munro, and Caroline Parkinson to be the three directors of creative development. More details from the link below

HI~Arts baseline Survey results can be downloaded from the link below:

If you're not a member of Arts and Business you may not have seen this:

A&B The Big Arts Give
May 21, 2010

Arts & Business launches The Big Arts Give, in partnership with the Reed Foundation and The Big Give.

What is The Big Arts Give? The Big Arts Give is a new challenge fund scheme to help arts organisations build and develop the income they receive via individual giving. Through this scheme, which we have devised with The Reed Foundation and The Big Give, we aim to see £3million donated to the arts by Christmas.

Why is this important? Our research shows that individual giving is a significant and vital source of private income for the arts in the UK. Building on this research and our experience of the sector, we have recently been consulting on our Private Sector Policy for the Arts. The establishment of a challenge fund to stimulate individual philanthropy for the arts is one of our five priority recommendations contained in the policy.

How can arts organisations unlock new giving from individuals? The Big Give has already helped raise £millions from individual donors for charity, however, The Big Arts Give is the first time that a dedicated arts and culture challenge fund has been established. In this pilot year, we aim to promote this new approach for the benefit of organisations wishing to develop new relationships with givers.  It is not about ‘quick-fix fundraising’, but should be used by arts organisations to help foster a culture of life-long giving.

How does it work? Together with philanthropist Alec Reed, we have established an initial challenge fund of £500,000.  This fund is to be used to encourage a further £2.5million from existing networks and the public. There will be on online ‘challenge’ starting in early December promoting arts projects and organisations for the public to support. Applications to join the scheme may be made up until 9 July.

Find out more
The Big Arts Give is open to UK registered charities and we are calling for arts and cultural organisations of all scales and from all parts of the UK to take part. We are holding free events around the country to explain more and we will be posting more information and details on how to apply in the next couple of weeks.

We are launching the scheme in London on Wednesday 26 May (preferential booking for Arts & Business Arts Members).
*Edinburgh* Thursday 3 June, 2pm
Scottish Book Trust Sandeman House, Trunk’s Close, 55 High Street, Edinburgh
To register email scotland.arts@artsandbusiness.org.uk

Click the link below for the helpful new list of available funds compiled by Highland Council's wonderful Jeannie Graham - not just for arts and culture, of course.

More cause for optimism in the Highlands about Creative Scotland!

Creative Scotland is putting £300K into the Highland Strategic Board of Culture to support the arts and culture in the Highlands, with HIE and HC adding a further £100K each. Read all about it at the Hi Arts website (link below).

We'll be talking to Andrew Dixon later this month and will take the opportunity to explain how PAN's network of skilled local promoters are a part of the delivery of quality music, theatre and dance  across the Highland area.