Big Society Arts

At the moment it feels like we are being bombarded by rhetoric. Rhetoric ranging from an age of severe austerity to one of big society revolution - from the burden of our financial woes being shouldered by the man on the street to the time when finally that same man can shape the policies and participate in the running of his local community. Of course the rhetoric is generally coming from the centre ground of our political landscape, not the margins, but we have to imagine that our political leaders are grappling with how to build our communities for the future.

If so its a wonder why are we focussing primarily on how much it costs instead of on the kind of society we would like to build? It is commendable that the current UK government has at least advanced the argument of a more engaged civil society - but it is still unclear if it will judge itself first by how big the society is or how small the deficit is. These do not need to be mutually exclusive goals but settling on a primary focus seems essential. The Republic of Ireland government finds itself in much more straightened and chaotice circumstances, and with imminent elections future policy is at best uncertain.

So it is in this context that the voluntary, community and professional arts across the island of Ireland are being asked to play a part. In Northern Ireland the current ask is for how much can you save, how much can you provide for less money? The round of departmental meetings on the budget organised by NICVA as part of their Smart Solutions campaign has been very informative and what the meeting with the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure made clear is that the budget for the arts is taking the largest cut. That is perhaps not a surprise despite the Northern Ireland government's recent rhetoric - there's that word again - on developing a creative economy. It is probably not a surprise either that the meeting with DCAL was almost exclusively attended by members of the arts community even though the department covers a range of areas including angling and sport. At one point the department representative did ask if there were any representatives of organisations other than the arts so wide ranging and persistent were the questions from the arts.

It struck me at that meeting that the department struggles to understand how such a small part of the government budget should have such a diverse and vocal lobby. Essentially government departments are used to dealing with big sectoral bodies and therefore a small number of influencial people usually at the top of hierarchical organisations. The arts community is in fact made up of a range of organisations - mostly small and entrepeneurial - and individual creative artists all focussed on their practice. They can be professional or amateur and they don't obey the normal rules of engagement. It is a much more organic structure.

To a certain extent this is mitigated by the representative role played by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland - the department's arms length body. The Arts Council has the somewhat impossible task of trying to balance the needs of the department and the needs of the sector. The department is its paymaster and the Arts Council is the paymaster of many of the arts organisations - not an ideal lobbying position. Is it the case that the Department imagines that it is engaging with the sector by engaging with the Arts Council and that the arts community imagines it is influencing government policy by engaging with the Arts Council? If so then there are gaps and perhaps we ought to build on the relationships by putting in place other additional means of communication that allow a more regular and free flowing conversation. There is a danger too that the arts community only sees its work in relation to the work of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure when in fact many of us work with a range of other departments on social, health and education projects.

In the Republic of Ireland the arts budget has already been struck and after some severe cuts in previous rounds seems to be at least stabilising for the moment, although the impacts of local authority spending cuts are yet to be fully felt. In Ireland we can also see a very strong move by government to support the current European Year of Volunteering 2011 with a national programme of activity that has engaged all sectors of society and has made connections across the border in Northern Ireland. Having the president Mary McAleese as the patron for the year is sending a very strong and positive message.

Voluntary action is very powerful. In Voluntary Arts Ireland we can see the evidence of this on a daily basis - with over 5000 voluntary arts groups across the island of Ireland. Every week people get together to make art and crafts together, to explore new skills and meet new people. They do this whatever the government policy is - provided it enables freedom of expression - and most do it without thought of payment. Does that mean that it doesn't cost anything or that people who develop high level of skills and want to make a career out of it shouldn't get paid? No and it would be very wrong for policy makers to assume that because its voluntary or that professional people driven by their passion will do it voluntarily that it doesn't require investment.

However, when we think about the Big Society perhaps it is already here - we can certainly see plenty of evidence of it in the arts? Is it possible that the radical part of the call for a policy shift towards the Big Society is more of a call to governments, departments, quangos and local authorities to reconfigure their working practices to support more local involvement and empowerment? If so perhaps it would be more fruitful for the arts community to find ways to open out the eclectic, multi-faceted, diverse and frankly bewildering world of the arts - make it easier for people to get involved, to understand and to invest in. In a sense enable the above bodies to see a way to connect in more diverse ways with their communities through the arts. Might the two worlds then be more likely to meet and to work together for the common good?

Not an easy challenge and perhaps not an appealing one as it requires more than rhetoric to achieve.