Clean Canvas Public Meeting

All

James Corah (@James_Cottoncox) wants to invite everyone to the Clean Canvas Public Meeting to discuss how funding decisions are made for the arts in Yorkshire …

On Wednesday 14 November 2012 I am co-hosting the Clean Canvas Public Meeting in Holy Trinity Church on Boar Lane. For me, the meeting is to discuss arts in Yorkshire and how decisions about arts are made. One of the starting points for the meeting is the Artists Taking the Lead project. The meeting is open to everyone, it is a public meeting and I hope that the public get involved.

I have no conclusions about the outcome of the meeting. Going into it I have an open mind and a desire to share my views, which, without sounding too demanding, is what I expect of each and every person attending. If one has a closed view on something then there is no point of discussion, no point in sharing.

I could spend the next one-hundred odd words arguing the whys, where’s, counter-arguments. I could outline my thoughts on arts in Yorkshire and nationally, government policy towards it, and funding cuts to arts. I could discuss my thoughts on community, regeneration, connecting people, arts, libraries, public services, cities and retail. But if your thought is that the meeting on Wednesday 14 November 2012 has already made its conclusions, if you think that it is unwarranted, unnecessary, without merit, then what would be the point? If you do think those things then I would say just two things. Why? And, please come and share your opinions.

As I mentioned before, this is a public meeting. It is a chance to get involved. Before I lived in Leeds I did not think there were opportunities to get involved in the things I care about. I know better now. There is always need for discussion. Which is why I want to host this event. To open up the debate, listen to someone else’s view point, try to agree on common goals.

I would like to hold more events like this. Arts are not silos of interest, they are all inclusive reflections on life. Arts can do a lot for communities, for participation and for regeneration. Exclusivity in arts, that horrible, insidious ‘us and them’ sentiment, that should be a thing of the past. A beautiful landscape, for example, is not a privilege be it Brimham Rocks, J Turner or Utagawa Hiroshige. It is an opportunity for one person to discuss with another what it means to them.

This is my view and my desire for holding the meeting. I do not speak for anyone else, and I will not make assumptions or conclusions prior to the meeting. The meeting is open to the public and I hope that the public gets involved. I resist the top-down, participatory art model where the artist tells the participators what to do. This is an opportunity, I’d like you to take it and see where it goes.

So, come along and tell the meeting what arts means to you.

Post script. The meeting needs hosts. If you are coming and you’d like to put your name down as a host, please say so. All I ask as host is that you spread the word about the meeting. Also, if you’d like to talk about arts and communities, regeneration, that kind of thing, I’m happy to meet up for a cup of tea.

Clean Canvas Public Meeting, Holy Trinity Church, Boar Lane, Leeds, LS1 6HW, Wednesday 14 November 2012, 6:30pm

James Corah works full-time with students, enjoys Leeds and has been here two years. He says, “In my spare time I work with On The Edge, a community and cultural organisation based in Leeds. I believe in arts as a means to unite and regenerate communities. My opinions are my own and do not reflect those of my colleagues and employers.”

8 comments

  1. Well put James, I too am an individual going to the meeting with an open mind to hear what people have to say. It would be nice to think people didn’t judge me for simply going to the meeting.

    We all love and enjoy art in many forms so we essentially all want the same things don’t we?

  3. So, calling the meeting “Clean Canvas” is to encourage open mindedness?

    Really! Am I missing something here?

    So far my impression of this campaign has been bogus claims, flights of fancy, lousy journalism (yes, I’ve read the Arts Professional article, and laughed my bloody head off!) and, frankly, sour grapes.

    I mentioned my misgivings about Canvas years ago to many of the people going to this meeting. Why wasn’t the campaign started then? I also was pretty critical about the event when it happened, to plenty of the people involved. I didn’t feel this so called “climate of fear” that apparently many artists were suffering. I’ve been pretty harsh about it ever since.

    Look, I’ll say it here … Canvas wasn’t that good! I called it the third best zombie event in the Dark Arches that month. I stick to that assessment.

    Should I expect the Arts Council goons to come battering down my door at three in the morning to drag me away to some ideological reassessment centre? Come on Cluny, you know where I am, send around the boot boys, I’m ready for ’em!

    Really, maybe it’s time we all just bloody well grew up.

    Like most people interested in the arts, quite often I’ll have pretty strong opinions about decisions the Arts Council make, or more frequently do not make (I mean, why won’t they fund my 14 hour monologue, “Man Drinking to Oblivion in a Beeston Shed”? why? WHY!) But let’s face it, that’s their job. Like it or not they are paid to make those hard decisions about what gets the cash and what doesn’t. Do they always get it right? Ha ha, that makes me laugh more than an article in Arts Professional. Are they always gonna please everyone? Oh, yawn.

    Right now the Arts Council is the system we have. Do we really think it’s helping the arts in Yorkshire by spreading spurious and ridiculous gossip – yes, mostly it is at the level of playground gossip – and undermining trust in yet another institution? Because, in the end, that’s all we are doing. We live in an imperfect world with limited resources and institutions are the way we administer public goods, and there’s no way around that. Do we want institutions to do what they are supposed to do, or get mired down in endless scrutiny and bureaucratic self-examination?

    Personally (and this is my personal opinion, nothing to do with Culture Vultures) is that this Canvas crusade is a bit silly. If you were serious, you’d have done something two years ago. It’s self-serving claptrap and if anything will have a damaging effect on the arts because it’s simply going to make decision makers even more defensive and tick-boxy.

    And quite happy to discuss this with anyone, anytime. I’ll be at the meeting. Let’s get it over with and move on, please.

  4. Thank you for that very interesting comment, Phil, I am definitely looking forward to your comments at the meeting. Your participation should make it all the very much nicer.

    The system is imperfect and the artists, communities, public should accept it? The more scrutiny, the more the desire for transparency, the worst the decisions become? The more one asks questions the more childish and of the playground one becomes?

    I don’t accept it. I want to know why. I want to know why it is so difficult to get people together to discuss the arts. I want to know at which point one goes from open to close mindedness. I want to know if this meeting is a campaign will I get to vote on the outcome.

    Oh, no, hang on, it’s an imperfect system in an imperfect world, no I don’t get to vote on the outcome. Or have a say.

    You are right, there is no way that a public body could be a renaissance body. It is not possible or ideal to be that. The body, the institution, the public, the artist, we all need to be practical about this. Decisions are made and they can be either for or against one’s wishes. It happens, I think one would have to have a very odd view of the world if they thought otherwise.

    What needs to happen, to help everyone go forward, is that discussion about the decision. If the event doesn’t meet its stated aims, what can be learnt from that. If an event goes ahead without funding and is claimed a success by the audience, what can be done to support it. If an artist has an idea that they wish to share with their audience, what can be done to help support that artist. Funding helps, but just throwing money at projects does not. Support, that massive network of people with ideas, that is what helps.

    If we can’t get together to discuss that, why?

    Personally, I’d like to see your 14-hour monologue “Man Drinking to Oblivion in a Beeston Shed”. I think Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ Jackson would be the best composer to help counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of whatever the monologue is about.

    Now, are we going to discuss this properly.

    1. Sadly the tone of self-righteous, worthiness is precisely what puts me off this whole “debate”.

      I have followed the whole thing on facebook and Twitter (even the bits that seem to have been tidied up) and haven’t felt less like participating for I don’t know how long. I don’t think I’m the only one.

      People who set themselves up as “the voice of the people” just piss me off. Don’t pretend they speak for me.

      I don’t know where the idea comes from that its difficult to get people together to talk about the arts – my impression is that you can’t shut the buggers up. You could go to a meeting about the future of the arts every day of the week in Leeds. And this particular debate is hardly new. Where have you been?

      I do think there’s an interesting discussion to be had about the role of institutions, trust versus transparency, and devolved decision making against direct democracy. But, on the evidence of what I’ve read and listened to, I doubt if this meeting will be particularly enlightening.

      To be honest I’m only going because I think it will be a bit of a pantomime and I enjoy a bit of light relief.

  6. I’ll be coming along in the hope that the background and context leading up to this event do not dominate the proceedings. I have personally kept out of commenting online not because I have felt ill treated by the arts council (and I’ve never submitted a G4A they’ve passed yet) but because the way in which the language around the subject of Artist taking the Lead has polarised people into taking sides or being in camps.

    Whatever the validity of the claims to date, the manner in which social media activity has been used to either point fingers or add credence to this, has been unsettling. I have felt a disquiet about committing anything online that could later be screen grabbed and stuck on Facebook out of context.

    To see this event as a clean slate is idealistic, so some honesty about the way in which it came to be would not harm

    We also have been very keen on developing a culture amongst DIY/individuals in the Leeds Art Scene, (we’ve hosted at least 6 massive cultural conversations free to attend) so think open space events framed positively are much needed. But we also work really hard to make sure that we invite the people to the events that NEED to be there. That’s why we suggested we host this event notification on the website rather than Facebook, which is not an inclusive space.

    My plea going forward is that we are already massively up against it in society in general, we need to find ways to create bridges at this difficult time, not burn them. Good people don’t always do things perfectly, can we start to develop a culture where we can work together to learn together rather than point fingers? I know that’s what you hope this event achieves and I want to come along, give my time to seeing that the background to this event does not mire the opportuntity to rebuild fragile trust.

    I fear we don’t do a good job of telling the world outside of the arts why we are worth investing in…let’s get a sense of what we can agree on please.

    I won’t be replying to this thread as I’m on holiday. But I do look forward to a positive meeting

Comments are closed.