Pitching, connecting and sharing in the West
Whilst the London Fellowship have been taking the lead in their highly successful Reboot events, where Fellows share a range of innovative and exciting Fellow-led projects, I have been running Ideas Cafe style events in the West.
The most recent was held in Bristol at the Create centre, where we had a room full of Fellows – some pitching their projects and ideas towards tackling social problems, others assisting with connections, expertise and local knowledge to help develop ideas.
Some of the most valuable outcomes of such sessions can be the connections you make and it seems like this worked well here.
Here is a taste of the ideas pitched on the evening, which demonstrate the strength and depth of the Fellowship –
Richard Guise – The paved street heritage - Richard believes there is a skills deficit for people who can lay traditional paving materials; and that it is worth developing apprenticeships for people to learn this skill and generally to raise awareness and interest in the heritage of our streets. Bristol offers the ideal street environment for this project Contact Richard
Jon, Sam and Dave – Bristol Story Lab – Children have incredible imaginations, they just need somewhere to unleash them. The Story Lab’s writing workshops let childrens minds run riot, while they build confidence, self-respect and communication skills. The Lab follows the model established by www.826valenica.org and www.ministryofstories.org, which has been proven to do all of this and improve academic performance. Contact Jon
Bristol Story Lab in pitch mode
Penny Hay – Artspace for Bath – An encounter with the city - their vision is to create a vital contemporary arts space in Bath that encompasses an art/gallery/workshop/café/studio: a place of serious creative play. Contact Penny. In follow-up to this, Penny will be presenting to Fellows in Bath at their May networking event to see if any local Fellows are interested in getting involved.
Alex and Jamie – New Dawn Traders – they hope to lower the carbon footprint of long-distance transport through raising public awareness creatively – including sailing voyages across to the Caribbean to fair-trade products. Contact Alex, if you are interested in getting involved they are holding an event on Wednesday 12 June in Bristol about one of the projects they are involved in.
Deepesh Patel – Deepesh is keen to connect university students to small enterprises and charities, to help find solutions to social problems within the local community. Contact Deepesh
Laura Pictor – Trowbridge Town Hall - Laura works on a team to develop the creative space in the heart of the community, “introduce, involve, inspire”, our vision - to reconnect an iconic building to its original purpose; providing a cultural hub to its community. The Town Hall will become a place where the arts are accessible to all; introducing new experiences, involving everyone, inspiring and enabling people to learn, share, create and play. Contact Laura, her and the team involved in the Trowbridge Town Hall project have recently linked up to share learning from Ed Whitelaw (Fellowship Councillor at large) at the Real Ideas Organisation’s Devonport Guildhall, which stemmed from a similar project and is a social enterprise hub and cultural venue for the community of Plymouth.
@attikdance meet @wfcap_laura & @townhallarts downtown @dguildhall#plymouth. #frsa mash-up thanx to @loumatter twitter.com/EdWhitelaw/sta…
— Ed Whitelaw (@EdWhitelaw) April 26, 2013
Francesca Wakefield – The Ideas Arcade – Francesca envisions an online collaboration hub, looking at creative ways to inspire people to live better and understand the links between the big issues. Contact Francesca
Some of the most valuable outcomes of such sessions can be the connections you make and it seems like this worked well here. There are also avenues available to apply for seed funding, through the RSA’s Catalyst scheme and West seed fund.
I am hoping to hold some more ideas cafes in the South West region in the next few months, please get in touch if you are interested, or have other project ideas you would like to discuss.
If you are interested in running an Ideas cafe type event, below are some simple tips, and if you need support for your Fellows’ meetings, network or projects? Go to the Fellows’ tools & techniques page - for guidance, how-tos and other support.
- identify thematic areas that are of interest to attendees
- ask attendees to gather around tables they are interested in the themes of, think about the overarching question – “What themes/ideas are coming out of the this region that Fellows can take forward” – how can these be taken forward by Fellows?
- Facilitator finish with future steps, make sure there is a follow up to the event sent round to attendees, ask for people interested in leading in projects/ideas, facilitie connections with other Fellows regionally/nationally
Lou Matter is the Programme Manager for West and South West. You can follow her @loumatter
Challenging issues around health and well-being in Bristol
Health and well-being is very much on the agenda in Bristol right now with several RSA activities happening in the city.
I recently joined a mixture of Fellows, health professionals and interested parties who had come together to debate the priorities and challenges for the health of the city of Bristol. The session was the first in a series of discussion events titled RSA Bristol – Making our Futures, organised by the RSA Bristol Network and aimed to create a neutral platform for those across the sector to learn from each other.
A varied series of speakers were given 5 minutes each to lay out their specific challenges and comments on the health of the city. We were taken through a full spectrum of the history of healthcare in the city by Janet Maxwell, Director of Public Health in Bristol, which helped in to give an understanding of the background picture. I was surprised to learn that over 100 languages were spoken by people living in Bristol. The social enterprise where Ejaz Ahmad works, Health Links, works to improve access to healthcare for adults and children whose first language is not English, but he highlighted that more needed to be done. Marvin Rees, Programme Manager at NHS Bristol emphasised that good mental health and well-being was core to the cities progress.
Peter Mathieson commented “never waste a good crisis” and linked the current economic crisis to giving us the opportunity to progress issues and think differently
The room had the general feeling that this was the right time to reignite discussion around health. Peter Mathieson commented “never waste a good crisis” and linked the current economic crisis to giving us the opportunity to progress issues and think differently. He also highlighted a Tedmedlive event on health issues coming up in Bristol, which hopefully might take forward the discussion.
The evening left people with a lot to think about and there will be further connections made and more events will be held on this subject in the future. The RSA Bristol network are planning their next event in the Making our Futures series, which is going to focus on the future of Bristol as a city on Tuesday 23 April, more information will be available soon. The series was funded by the West Venture fund and has a number of events lined up for the rest of 2013 and beyond. To apply to the West Venture fund please see this webpage
On a practical level last week I attended the first drop-in session for ‘Social Mirror’, a new RSA project which has recently been launched, and is based in Knowle West in Bristol. Social Mirror is a digital tool designed to help people understand their social networks, and direct them to activities in their area that will improve their health and well-being.
The session I visited was in a doctor’s surgery in Knowle West and there was a good level of interest in the project. The pilot project will work with GPs and other health and community workers to use the software for ‘social prescribing’. This involves linking people to appropriate community resources, organisations and networks of individuals that will benefit their mental, emotional and physical health.
The tool will be trialled with disengaged young people and isolated older people in Knowle West – watch this video to find out more. To find out how to get involved email david.amesbury@rsa.org.uk. You can also follow progress on twitter @socialmirrorapp or by signing up on the Social Mirror website.
Lou Matter is the Programme Manager for West and South West. You can follow her @loumatter
Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth as a model for social change
Guest blogger Ann-Kristin Glenster FRSA – coordinator of the Fellows Artist’s Network – reports back from the recent Fourth Plinth tour and debate which was hosted by the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) and organised by the Fellows Artist’s Network and RSA London region.
Trafalgar Square is one of the most celebrated tourist attractions in London and the RSA has its own involvement with the visual history of the Square. The Fourth Plinth project grew out of the RSA in the 1990s, the plinth has subsequently hosted some of the world’s best contemporary art. In light of this connection a group of Fellows visited the recent ICA exhibition which encompassed the development and controversies of the Fourth Plinth programme.
We followed the visit with a lively debate helped along by some insightful words from the guest speakers, Kirsten Dunne (Greater London Authority) and Jocelyn Cunningham (Arts and Society), we then launched into group discussions on the merits of the artworks on the plinth, and whether or not they were appropriate in such a prominent public space as London’s Trafalgar Square.
Jocelyn spoke of the RSA’s Arts and Social Change programme in Peterborough, and how at a time when city council’s feel they have no choice but to cut the arts altogether (as in Newcastle) or sell off work (as in the recent case of the Henry Moore in Newham),it is urgent for those of us who care about this to consider new ways of art having a living value where we live. There is more on this on the RSA’s website.
it is urgent for those of us who care about this to consider new ways of art having a living value where we live
Surprisingly, as I summarised the deliberations, I found that we did not pursue the many controversies that have sprung from the Plinth Programme. Instead, there was feeling that artworks that were banal had no place on the plinth. Even more revealing was the general sentiment that the public, not experts, should choose the artworks, yet the individual participants were not prepared to impose their personal taste on the rest of the room. We were not quite ready to claim personal ownership of our public art!
After a couple of short hours, we trickled out into the cold January morning. Yet somehow the sky did not seem quite as grey as we generally agreed that we had had a great wake up session with “friendly”, “thought-provoking” and “inspiring” debate. Exactly the sort of ideas exchange the Fellowship is meant to stimulate, see the storify for a summary of the discussions.
And what’s next on the plinth? A 14 foot blue cock!
FRSA London Region Development Plan: read, review, contribute
This event was co-organised by the RSA London region and they need your help to realise their ambitions, to refine and deliver a programme of Fellow-led activities in London. Download the plan here and share your views via their online discussion here.
Ideas on tap in the west
The RSA has around 50 networks of Fellows across the UK, networks that can provide opportunities to build momentum around new ideas and create innovative solutions to today’s problems.
This was demonstrated to me recently in Bath, when Fellows based in the West region came together for an ideas workshop.
The best stories to get others thinking almost always come from our brilliant Fellows themselves, so the event kicked off with brief outlines of existing locally based projects. Nicholas Garrick (Fellowship Councillor West Region), Director of Lighting up Learning, spoke about a project he is involved in called 80by18 (@80by18) a new city-wide project to mobilise Bristol’s resources to help young people to thrive- whatever the future brings. It focuses on 80 experiences that all children should have by the time they are 18, not necessarily activity led but around experiences like working to a budget or opening a bank account.
Then we heard from Arabella Tresilian, Director of Therapeutic Media Company, who spoke about her work on dementia friendly cities. Whilst it is in its early stages, work has begun on developing a framework to make things easier for dementia sufferers in their communitie
s.
Fellows then worked together in groups to discuss Nicholas and Arabella’s projects, to offer them fresh insights and a range of expertise. This vibrant session led onto a more general ideas session for the region, followed by a Catalyst surgery, where Fellows could learn about the RSA’s Catalyst scheme and the RSA West’s seed fund.
“The Ideas Cafe was great: to have a group of eager, thinking, creative people to add momentum to an idea within such a short period of time was inspiring. Comments encompassed areas of thinking that I had not even considered, from ensuring inclusivity of access of different groups of people to involving local artists and craftspeople; from engaging the scientific community to making links with local elders. As well as exposure to different avenues of thought, an expected range of commitment emerged with fellows offering time and expertise to get the project off the ground. This is what being part of the Fellowship is all about: catalysts of ideas.” Nicholas Garrick
Also in attendance was Martin Newman, RSA Digital Champion for the West – check out his storify of the event and uploaded photos onto the RSA’s flickr account.
Good ideas and potential collaborations emerging from the evening included ideas about how the RSA could get involved in a pop-up shop in Chippenham and a community arts projects in Wiltshire.
If you weren’t able to attend but have a project idea for the region please get in contact with me – I can offer help and advice. We are also planning a specific Catalyst themed event in the next few months, so keep an eye out.
Lou Matter is the Programme Manager for West and South West. You can follow her @loumatter
Talking religion, faith and local action projects
I have always been keen to stay connected to previous projects that I have worked on, and was pleased to be able to attend a recent conference on New Forms of Public Religion. The conference was an outcome of a 6 year research programme, Religion and Society, funded by the Arts and Humanities and Economic and Social Research Councils. Professor Linda Woodhead, Director of the programme says “The Religion and Society Programme has produced a huge body of new research on religion, and some of the new findings were presented at our Cambridge conference. There is so much still to learn from the research that we be will be presenting findings over the coming years in events like the Westminster Faith Debates, and on our website”
I had been involved in the programme from its inception through my position at the AHRC, and this conference was a chance for me to learn about the findings of the projects that had been funded. I was particularly interested in a project about the portrayal of religion in the media, led by Professor Kim Knott. She and her team replicated an investigation of media portrayals of religion first carried out in 1982-83. In 2008-09 she and her team analysed a month’s content from the same newspapers: The Sun, The Times and The Yorkshire Evening Post; and seven days TV from the same channels: BBC 1, BBC 2 and ITV. Using the same methods, they found that there has been increased discussion of religion in the British media. A full synopsis of the research and its results can be found here.
It also gave me an opportunity to catch up and meet people involved in this area of research. One academic I met told me about the work he does in his local community in Victoria, Canada, which is based around conducting lessons in empty shops and educating people within the community, an example that might be useful to the recently funded Catalyst project Leeds Empties, which is looking to transform empty shops/businesses in Leeds.
One academic I met told me about the work he does in his local community in Victoria, Canada, which is based around conducting lessons in empty shops and educating people within the community
The Religion and Society programme was so encompassing of subjects and research areas across the spectrum that I was interested to see a recent Fellow-led project on Faith and Disability that covers an important area that hadn’t been covered by research in the programme. The project is led by Dr Deesha Chadha FRSA and Philip Rosenberg of Faith Forum 4 London, and is based on the idea to create a learning opportunity for around 80 religious leaders to offer teaching on issues around faith and disability. Its aim is to flag both the challenges and the positive stories, with resources that communities can use to improve their inclusiveness and challenge prejudiced attitudes. If anyone is interested in being involved in this project, please contact Dr Chadha.
The interaction between research and projects that work towards a solution to tackle a pressing social problem that the RSA support through the Catalyst scheme is integral and I hope we can see more of this in the future.
Lou Matter is the Programme Manager for West and South West. You can follow her @loumatter
My West (Side) Story – one month as a Regional Programme Manager
After ten months of working at the RSA and just when I thought I’d got my head around everything that the RSA is and does, I took up a secondment based regionally and realised that I didn’t know the half of it! I have moved back to Bristol as Regional Programme Manager for the West and South West regions and have been amazed to find out all that is going on regionally.
My first week comprised mainly of attending both the West and South West AGMs; one in the beautiful setting of Dartington Hall, the second in the black room at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol. Both AGMs were well attended and it was a pleasure to meet Fellows and hear about all the projects and networks in the regions. The AGMs will give way next year to Annual Conferences, which will provide an opportunity for individual projects to shine and for Fellows to meet and network with one another.
Both AGMs were well attended and it was a pleasure to meet Fellows and hear about all the projects and networks in the regions.
I have also met a number of Fellows with fascinating projects and ideas in the making and who already have projects up and running. Recently Alan Boldon FRSA was awarded an additional Catalyst Grant for his project on Bristol Elders project which is focusing on creating spaces for elders and changemakers to meet to make their insights available to city governance and community building processes, the project will deliver a range of events in Bristol with partners such as Knowle West Media Centre, WOMAD Foundation and Bristol Green Capital Partnership to help deliver change in a city twice nominated Europe’s greenest. Part of my role is to support those of you who would like to apply for Catalyst funding – you can find out more about Catalyst here.
One of the challenges for the RSA regions is that there are lots of Fellows in rural areas who are not able to travel long distances to meet up with each other. Whilst this is an ongoing challenge, I hope to improve communications over the coming months by introducing quarterly newsletters to tell the stories of the region, and by improving our Regional web pages. Both the South West and West regions have a social network site or group, where all events and projects in the region will be posted, so if you’re a Fellow in the region you should take a look and get involved. What’s more, as of this autumn most of the RSA lectures are live-streamed on the RSA’s website and can be watched live, which gives us the opportunity to organise live streaming and post lecture discussions. If you’re interested in running one of these for local Fellows then get in touch.
Lou Matter is Regional Programme Manager at the RSA. Follow on Twitter at @LouMatter
Between the book shelves – a new way forward for libraries
My first foray into the world of work was as a Saturday girl at the library in my local town. No two days were ever the same and so many people came through the doors for one reason or another. It has saddened me therefore to see the decline of funding for libraries and the continued closing of them over the past few years. However, a couple of weeks ago I visited a library that has been bought back from the brink by a loyal band of volunteers.
This library has been bought back from the brink by a loyal band of volunteers.
This was New Cross Learning, previously known as New Cross People’s Library. The library faced closure in 2011, but thanks to a group of local volunteers (working with the support of local charity Bold Vision) it remained open and has become a vibrant hub within the community. In a blog last year my colleague Sam Thomas spoke about visiting the library, and the amazing work of the volunteers there.
The event was a celebration of the library’s achievements over the last year. The festivities included cakes, street dance performances, children’s storytelling, opportunities for catching up and meeting people and awards from a children’s poetry competition. The event truly demonstrated how the library has become a hub in the New Cross community. All these activities regularly take place in the library, and make use of the space available 
between the book shelves to give the whole place a vibrant feel.
A brand new entrance to the library on New Cross High Street is a participatory artwork in progress, funded by RSA Catalyst.
New Cross Learning has really restored my faith in the future of libraries – I’ll be back soon.
Fellows meet Fellows: new contacts, new beginnings
A number of New Fellows evenings are held throughout the year and provide a perfect occasion for recently joined members of the RSA Fellowship to meet and interact with other new Fellows, to meet staff, and find out more of the
the Fellows set about getting to know one another better with a whistlestop introduction by each attendee
We recently held the first New Fellows evening of 2012 and due to the renovation work currently going on in John Adam Street, it created an opportunity for the Fellows to meet in the Vaults, which provided an intimate and engaging environment for such an evening.
After short introductions from members of the RSA Fellowship team and Matthew Taylor, the Fellows set about getting to know one another better with a whistlestop introduction by each attendee. As a new member of the Fellowship Networks team it was amazing to hear from the diverse range of Fellows attending; from opera singers to entrepreneurs and it emphasised the variety of people from different areas, backgrounds and passions who make up the Fellowship of the RSA.
Fellows heard about ways where they could potentially engage with the RSA and the Fellowship, including the recently refreshed RSA SkillsBank, which is designed to bring together the expertise of the Fellowship and allows Fellows to contribute to some of the exciting work which is going on across the globe, and the potential for funding for Fellow-led ideas through the RSA Catalyst fund.
Hopefully the Fellows that attended left the evening with a better sense of the RSA and how they fit into the organisation, along with a collection of new contacts and potential beginnings, I certainly enjoyed my first taste of meeting and interacting with Fellows.
Lou Matter is RSA Fellowship Networks Coordinator.
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Four ways Fellows can engage with the RSA are as follows:
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