Enabling Cultural Diversity Lancashire

Enabling Cultural Diversity Lancashire FINAL REPORT February 2003 1 North West Arts Board – Gateway 1 Final Report Enabling Cultural Diversity - Lancashire Arts About Manchester INDEX Page No. 1. Context 3 1.1 Project Partners 3 1.2 Assumption 3 2. The Process 4 3. Aims & Objectives 7 4. Outcomes 8 4.1 Audit 8 4.2 Ambassador campaigns 8 4.3 Diversions 9 4.4 Cultural Awareness Training 9 4.5 Database 10 4.6 Press and Media work 10 4.7 Streering Group 10 5. Evaluation 12 6. Issues 13 7. Successes 15 8. Recommendations 17 8.1 Project Structure 17 8.2 Ambassador work 17 8.3 Venues 17 8.4 Elements of Lancashire Ambassadors 17 to retain/develop 2 North West Arts Board – Gateway 1 Final Report Enabling Cultural Diversity - Lancashire Arts About Manchester Report written by Kim Haygarth, Project Co-ordinator (AAM) 3 North West Arts Board – Gateway 1 Final Report Enabling Cultural Diversity - Lancashire Arts About Manchester 1. CONTEXT 1.1 Project Partners Arts About Manchester (AAM) managed the project and appointed a Project Co-ordinator to oversee the delivery of the Enabling Cultural Diversity – Lancashire element. A partnership was established with Mid-Pennine Arts (MPA) in Burnley. MPA is the arts networking agency for East Lancashire. The Steering Group members included: Arts About Manchester (overall project co-ordination / advisory role) Mid Pennine Arts (local project deliverer) Preston City Council Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Action Factory Spoton Rural Touring Company A variety of venues and organisations in Lancashire also participated in the project. 1.2 Assumption Blackburn, Preston and the East Lancashire (Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley, Rossendale) areas are very culturally diverse. Significant Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi communities are found across the whole region and significant African and Caribbean in Preston. Prior to the Lancashire Ambassadors project there had been no generic attempt by arts organisations across this region to reach these communities. There was a history of venues / organisations struggling individually to make links with them. And despite the size of the culturally diverse communities, there was little available information about them (where they lived, which languages they spoke, how old they were, cultural sensitivities etc) which aided this process. Arts About Manchester’s Arts Ambassadors Unit (AAU) had achieved great success in reaching African, Caribbean, South 4 North West Arts Board – Gateway 1 Final Report Enabling Cultural Diversity - Lancashire Arts About Manchester Asian and Chinese audiences in the Greater Manchester area. The Lancashire Ambassadors project was developed to pilot some of the successful elements of the AAU with the hope of replicating similar success. From the outset if was recognised that different politics, issues, geographies and barriers existed for Lancashire’s often rurally located Black and Asian communities and the project aimed to learn more about these. 5 North West Arts Board – Gateway 1 Final Report Enabling Cultural Diversity - Lancashire Arts About Manchester 2. THE PROCESS The project was a jointly co-ordinated venture between Arts About Manchester (AAM) and Mid Pennine Arts (MPA), Burnley. MPA is the arts networking agency for East Lancashire, an agency with a strategic role in developing the arts across the East Lancashire area. MPA offered itself as local delivery co-ordinators for the project as it is well placed in the region, has many community and arts based contacts and had been working with South Asian communities for a number of years. A Steering Group of interested parties was established in summer 2001. This group was committed to the aims of the project. Members represented venues, local authorities and participatory arts projects. All members had some experience of working with South Asian or African Caribbean communities but their experience of attracting people to events had been extremely difficult. At first it was anticipated that the project should focus around the local Mela and Carnival events. However, it became clear very quickly that this activity was already well-supported by members of the Black and Asian communities and generally well promoted and attended. It was particularly mainstream venues programming South Asian and African Caribbean product that needed support in reaching diverse communities. A Co-ordinator from the Asian community was appointed in October for auditing work between October and December. The auditing work was to ground the project solidly in the needs of the local communities and to act as a valuable resource for steering group members and others involved in the project. It was to cover: 1) Information on Black and Asian communities: language spoken / written, age, where they lived, religion, key cultural issues, existing community groups 2) Information on Black and Asian programming, where and when it was being programmed 3) Lists of Black and Asian artists living / working in the area 4) Lists of Black and Asian press / newsletters in the area. 6 North West Arts Board – Gateway 1 Final Report Enabling Cultural Diversity - Lancashire Arts About Manchester It became clear from the audit that “word of mouth” networks were working most effectively for community based events as each area has its own culture, needs, languages and cultural patterns. Work for Black and Asian audiences programmed into mainstream venues was being promoted through the venues’ usual methods such as brochures and regional press but not through community networks which worked for community based events. As a result it was agreed that the Ambassador approach used by the AAU was essential to the work. The project work plan was re-developed. Activity was focused on: 1) Delivering Ambassador marketing direct to the South Asian and African Caribbean communities 2) Producing some generic marketing material 3) Press and media work targeting South Asian and African Caribbean communities 4) Advice / support to mainstream venues programming culturally diverse work. A worker was engaged in January to manage the print and design process of Diversions - a newsletter dedicated to promoting forthcoming culturally diverse events. There were 4 editions mailed to individuals, community groups, venues, press, distributed around MPA’s runs and steering group networks and used as a tool for the Ambassadors. At first it was thought that the project should engage a Lead Ambassador for the South Asian community and a Lead Ambassador for the African Caribbean community. These 2 workers would be experienced in community liaison work and they would source and develop a pool of junior Ambassadors as well as undertake outreach work and be the key contact for information collation to inform the project. The project was unable to source individuals for the Lead Ambassador roles so in January sought to find junior Ambassadors who could undertake a variety of work. The Ambassadors job description was drawn up (see Appendix One). Key responsibilities were: 1) ongoing research into culturally diverse programming in the region 2) outreach work to communities: word of mouth networking and print distribution and building up contacts 3)providing community intelligence to venues 7 North West Arts Board – Gateway 1 Final Report Enabling Cultural Diversity - Lancashire Arts About Manchester 4)ongoing informing of Lancashire Ambassadors marketing strategy 5)data collection at culturally diverse events (to build information and mailing lists on audiences) Due to time and resource pressures recruitment was done on a recommendation basis, via the steering group and via posters in community centres. A team of 3 young South Asian people was recruited to begin work in March. 1 from East Lancashire, 1 from Blackburn and 1 from Preston. A young man from Preston’s African Caribbean community was also recruited. The plan was to promote 2 events per month with Ambassador campaigns until the end of the project. Events would be selected to reflect a variety of cultural backgrounds / artforms / geographical areas and would target events / venues that most needed support in building relationships with the communities. Ambassadors had one day’s training in the basics of audience development. One of the AAU’s Ambassadors visited the Lancashire Ambassadors to speak about her work as an Ambassador in Manchester: how she planned her campaign, how she persuaded people to give events a try, how she saw her work make a difference. Ambassadors were then set to the task of gathering information about programming. They undertook Ambassador outreach activity on “Home” at Darwen Library Theatre and Brierfields Community Centre in March and “Achanak” bhangra night at Burnley Mechanics in May. Due to various issues with Ambassador activity (see later in report) the project ceased working with the original 3 young Asian people in June. Unfortunately the young man from the African Caribbean community in Preston had to leave the project in the spring for personal reasons. Due to the timescale of the project (finish date for activity – July), rather than re-recruit Ambassadors the steering group decided that the focus at this stage should be on 1) data collection activity at Melas over the summer 8 North West Arts Board – Gateway 1 Final Report Enabling Cultural Diversity - Lancashire Arts About Manchester to build a useful mailing list 2) production of a summer Diversions newsletter 3) press and media work 4) Cultural Awareness Training for venues. A team of young Asian people were recruited to undertake data collection at Melas across the region. It had been intended that press work would promote the project from the Ambassador perspective but as the project “lost” Ambassadors the focus had to shift. Summer listings information was circulated to press and media lists including Black and Asian. A press release was also circulated about the Lancashire Ambassadors project and highlighted the summer Mela season. It was clear from the outset that staff in mainstream venues lacked knowledge about diverse cultures in their area. Asian Culture, Religion and the Arts: Cultural Awareness Training took place between May and September 2002 (see Appendix Two).

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