Bandstand Marathon
May 27, 2009
BFBB, together with the organisers of the Cultural Olympiad, is supporting the music development agency Superact to bring together brass bands, and other musicians, in a Bandstand Marathon.
The Bandstand Marathon first took place on the weekend of 27/28 September 2008 as part of the launch Open Weekend of the Cultural Olympiad. Throughout the South West of England, 50 concerts took place on 50 bandstands and performance areas from Cheltenham to Penzance and Bournemouth to Guernsey; showcasing great music in particular brass bands.
The Bandstand Marathon will take place over the years leading up to the 2012 Games and beyond. The Cultural Olympiad is a celebration of the cultures, people and languages in the UK and around the world; its four year programme kicked off on 26-28 September 2008 with a huge range of inspirational activities across the UK. While the Bandstand Marathon is primarily aimed at traditional brass bands, music from many other cultures will also be included. By 2012 it is hoped the whole country will be enjoying the experience that is the Bandstand Marathon.
All Party Parliamentary Group
November 22, 2008
The newly formed All Party Parliamentary Committee on brass bands is gaining pace with its second meeting taking place earlier this month in the Houses of Parliament
The British Federation of Brass Band’s Chairman, Robert Morgan MBE was in attendance along with Treasurer, Nigel Morgan and myself. The group’s Chairman, Jeff Ennis, MP for Barnsley & Mexborough welcomed a good gathering of MPs and members of the House of Lords.
Robert Morgan explained to the delegation that following advice from Arts Council Yorkshire and a meeting organised by Jeff Ennis, the BFBB were now putting together an application for further funding to engage another full time employee to liaise with all the regional arts regions and to assist bands with the preparation of lottery applications. Arts Council money is available for bands and bands need to progress applications next year.
The meeting decided that next it was a good time to question the BBC over its support of bands and it is planned that a delegation from the parliamentary group led by Jeff Ennis, will question the BBC on its input to brass bands and support from the BFBB’s member bands will be gained as discussions continue.
Further meetings of the parliamentary group will take place in the next 12 months along with a possible concert to showcase bands in Portcullis House.
Commenting on the success of the meeting, Robert Morgan said: “This was an excellent meeting and an opportunity for the BFBB to present a united brass band voice to the all parliamentary group. I do feel that this group of influential people can open some doors for us; Arts Council first, the BBC next! The opportunity given to us by Jeff Ennis is one to be nurtured during the next 12 months and bandsmen and women throughout the UK are urged to encourage their MPs to become a member of the group.”
With the support of the parliamentary group and the co-operation and hard work of the BFBB, new doors are being opened for the brass band movement, including possible further funding for brass bands from the Arts Council.
Whilst I was in London with Jeff Ennis MP for the formation of the Parliamentary Brass Band Group, we took the opportunity to meet with Peter Wanless, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund. Brass band’s applications for funding from the Big Lottery Fund meet with about a 50% success rate. Last year bands received £109,663 and this year, until the end of June, they have been granted £53,902 from the fund. In addition to this the National Youth Band of Great Britain has received £573,000 of Big Lottery funding over the last five years through Youth Music and this figure increases year on year. Peter Wanless explained that two of the current funding schemes will be of interest to brass bands:
Awards for all
Awards for All is a Lottery grants scheme aimed at local communities. The fund awards grants of between £300 and £10,000 in a simple and straightforward way. You can apply at any time and the application form is short and simple.
Reaching Communities
Reaching Communities will give grants of more than £10,000 and up to £500,000, including a maximum of £50,000 for capital grants. The fund has set a maximum overall project size of £750,000 and £200,000 for the total capital element within a project. They will fund projects for up to five years
I asked how brass bands may better access the Big Lottery Fund and we discussed the possibility of BFBB becoming a ‘helper organisation’ for bands that wish to access funds, however, more discussions will need to be had in order to establish how this idea might work in practice. The 2012 Cultural Olympiad and the legacy trust were also discussed and further discussions are likely.
Our Creative Talent
July 3, 2008
A major national conference, entitled ‘Our Creative Talent’ was hosted at the Barbican centre, London on 1st & 2nd July 2008 by DCMS, ACE and VAN. The focus of the event was to launch new research that looks in detail at the size make-up and impact of the voluntary arts sector and its potential for growth. On the agenda were also discussions and presentations about the significant contribution that participation in the arts makes to local communities. Of course brass bands are right at the heart of many of our communities and that is why I attended the event.
The keynote speakers were Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Minister for Culture; Alan Davey, Chief Executive, ACE; Robin Simpson, Chief Executive, VAN and Feargal Sharkey, Chief Executive, British Music Rights.
Much of Margaret Hodges’ presentation was centred on the recent MacMaster’s report and the notion of excellence. She made a welcome distinction between excellence and elitism and spoke about our nation’s social capital, support for the arts from ACE and local authorities, and the diverse ways in which we all communicate and network in this electronic age.
Both Robin Simpson and Feargal Sharky called for the recognition that arts groups, including bands, crave for, as well as asking the government for better communication and involvement, support with capacity building and improved innovation and challenges for the sector.
So what of the future? Emerging proposals for arts and culture in the 21st centaury are gathering around the provision of ‘informal adult learning’, that is, finding a balance between the provision for skills and qualifications and the funding of activities for community development. Government, both local and national will be searching for a framework of values that will include the broadcasting media, the use of public spaces and consultation with the voluntary arts sector. A further government report is expected in September 2008 followed by a policy paper that will set out the future vision for Informal Adult Learning.
This was truly an inspiring conference. VAN is certainly centre stage to represent the arts at national level, quite rightly so. The brass band sector should be in full support of VAN and congratulate them on a superb event. It was an important day for the voluntary arts, brass bands included, what a pity that none of our so-called band press were there to cover such a significant meeting. Such influential events are vital to the development of banding in the UK.
One Voice Conference: 14th June 2008
June 24, 2008
The BFBB One Voice Conference took place on Saturday, 14th June in Birmingham and delegates from all brass band associations throughout the country were invited to attend. The event was skilfully chaired by Paul Hindmarsch and over thirty delegates participated in the presentations and wide-ranging discussions.
The presentations covered a number of salient issues for brass bands and particularly focused on links with local authorities and local communities. Ian Carter from the Southern Counties Amateur Brass Band Association, Peter Fraser from the Scottish Brass Band Association and Louise Renshaw from Macclesfield Youth Band all spoke about the promising initiatives and developments in their associations and bands, while Alun F Williams of Greater Gwent Music Services and Steven Legg of Gloucester Music Services gave fascinating insights into their work and the connections that bands could make in this sector.
The evaluation forms for the conference have been handed to me and they make vary encouraging remarks, many congratulating the BFBB on running a superb event and asking for an annual seminar. I am happy to echo their sentiments. For those who attended, it was informative, thought provoking and constructive; for the BFBB, it was a successful event which should be repeated annually. A detailed report about the conference will be made available from the BFBB after further evaluation.
Arts Participation Manifesto Consultation Event
June 19, 2008
On Monday, 9th June 2008, I was in London with about fifty other people from a wide variety of arts organisations, local authorities and umbrella bodies to assist in the development of an Arts Participation Manifesto. Discussions focused around finding a way of getting more people to engage with the arts in a positive way over the next ten years.
The task of finding a consensus was not easy and took most of the day. Activities centred on small groups that then put their observations and opinions to the remaining delegates by combining themes through a process of assembling ideas.
Though a definitive manifesto has not yet been agreed, key goals and a means by which its aims might be met have been. The process of developing a full blown Arts Participation Manifesto will no doubt take another twelve months or more but a good start has been made. For once, a project that claims to champion participation has started off by sending out the right signals and, more importantly, involving people in its initial construction processes.
2012 Cultural Olympiad: The Inspire Mark
June 3, 2008
On Wednesday, 28th May 2008 I went to a briefing in Leeds about the new 2012 Inspire Mark. The meeting was hosted by Arts & Business Yorkshire and presentations were made by Francesca Canty, Kian Garin de Loach, both of LOCOG, and Tessa Gordziejko, the 2012 Regional Programmer for Yorkshire.
The briefing explained that an ‘Inspire mark’ had been produced as a part of the London 2012 brand family. It was emphasised that this branding is only for non-commercial projects. The mark will endorse the fact that a project has been ‘inspired by London 2012’ and that it reflects the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements. This is a first time a brand mark of this nature has been approved for any Olympic or Paralympic Games.
The LOCOG team said “The inspire mark will be awarded to exceptional non-commercial projects across culture, sport, education, environment, volunteering and business regardless of scale. Successful projects will be granted the right to use the mark on various project materials, such as posters, brochures and websites and will also be included in the Cultural Olympiad’s national publicity”. It was stressed that the mark will not be approved to appear near to commercial trade-names or logos. I asked how bands that are sponsored by commercial organisations and have the name of that organisation in their title were going to get approval for their projects. The LOCOG team were unsure of how this would affect such events and said that each project would be assessed individually.