The newsletter for arts organisations working in criminal justice | February 2014
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In this month's issue...
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Arts Alliance news
Write to be Heard practice sharing events
The Arts Alliance's arts and education project, Write to be Heard, has worked with Geese Theatre Company, Prison Radio Association and creative writers to deliver 28 creative writing workshops in prisons across the UK. We are now hosting two practice sharing events to take forward the learning points of the project and explore how arts organisations can work with prisons and education providers to improve offenders' literacy and life skills. The sessions will be of interest to education providers and those responsible for curriculum development, prison staff and others working directly with prisoners. There will be two practice sharing days, one in London (6 March) and one in Manchester (12 March). Click here for more information.
Future Planning Day and Annual General Meeting
Many thanks to everyone who made it along to our Future Planning day on 13 February, we will make the notes available soon in the Members Area of the website.
Our Annual General Meeting followed the Future Planning Day, and we are pleased to announce that we have four new Steering Group members. We would like to welcome Ben Jarman from Fine Cell Work, Sarah Colvin from the University of Cambridge, Esther Baker from Synergy Theatre and Anna Herrmann from Clean Break. They join our existing Steering Group members: Tim Robertson (Koestler Trust), Toby Lowe (Helix Arts), Cathy Eastbun (Good Vibrations), Rob Lynden (Dance United), Andy Watson (Geese Theatre), Sara Lee (Music in Prisons), Nina Champion (Prisoners Education Trust) and Clive Hopwood (Writers in Prisons Foundation). Our co-opted members include: Professor Lorraine Gamman (Design Against Crime), Damian Hebron (LAHF), Naomi Delap (Media for Development), Abdul Shayek (Independent) and Russ Haynes (Independent). A big thanks to everyone who applied to be part of the Steering Group.
Click here to see our Annual Review 2013-14.
From the Evidence Library...
'Musical Pathways: an exploratory study of young people in the Criminal Justice System, engaged with a creative music programme' is the result of a three-year research project, funded by the BIG Lottery Fund, across eight youth justice settings in England and Wales. The study investigated the impact of participatory music making on health, wellbeing and rehabilitation of young people in justice settings. The report found that creative music has the potential to engage 'hard to reach' young people, delivering positive learning experiences and enabling them to forge new identities. Click here to read the full report.
Live Twitter discussion - the impact of Transforming Rehabilitation on arts interventions
On 31 January we ran a live Twitter discussion focussing on the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda, and what this might mean for artists and arts organisations working within the Criminal Justice System. Questions were answered by Ellie Cumbo; Clinks' Policy Manager. See what happened here. Nicola Drinkwater, Clinks' Policy Officer, gives this update on TR: "Thirty bidders to become Tier 1 providers have passed the first stage of the competition in the Transforming Rehabilitation reform programme. The Invitation to Negotiate stage has now commenced and a new Target Operating model and an outline of the payment mechanism have been published, along with a draft Industry Standard Partnering Agreement. This document will govern future subcontrating arrangements with the Ministry of Justice and was out to consultation until 20 February." For more information and to see the Clinks consultation response that will be published shortly, click here.
Survey results
Many thanks to all of you who completed our member survey in January. We have collected some really useful information from your responses and are hoping to implement some of your suggestions in the near future. Click here to see the survey results.
If you have anything you would like included in next month's newsletter, please send it to kate.davey@clinks.org by 14 March.
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Events & Training
From Page to Stage: Stand or Fall
4 March 2014 | John Stripe Lecture Theatre, University of Winchester | £5 - £8
Following on from a successful screening of From Page to Stage: Stand or Fall in December, the University of Winchester will be repeating the event. This broadcast standard film follows the journey of 13 prisoners in West Hill, HMP Winchester, as they rehearse the play Stand or Fall by Brian Wolland in 2008. The director will be at the screening along with the film makers (LaunchPad Productions) and the ex-prisoner who played the lead in the show. Email Annie McKean for more information.
Criminal Justice: Supporting Ex-Offenders
4 March 2014 | London | £90 - £125
Homeless Link are running this one day course to provide participants with a greater understanding of how the Criminal Justice System operates and the implications that this has for the homelessness sector. The course is suitable for new frontline staff or experienced professionals who want to update their skills, and will cover how offending behaviour should be seen as a specific need that should be met and how the homelessness and criminal justice sectors can work together. Click here for more information.
Legal support and advice workshops from Clinks
11, 12, 13, 14, 21 March 2014 | Various locations | Free
'Subcontracting - the legal implications for voluntary sector organisations' is a series of Clinks workshops delivered in partnership with Russell-Cooke Solicitors, that will provide an overview of the new Industry Standard Partnering Agreement (ISPA) - the contract that Tier 1s (Primes) will be required to use when subcontracting with their partners under Transforming Rehabilitation. The sessions will consider the implications of the contract, including risk and insurance, governance structures, TUPE and Pensions, HR implications and data protection. This will be followed by a Q and A. Find out more and book your place here.
Psychosis and the Arts
27 March 2014 | Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre, London | £25 - £110
This one day conference supported by Tate Modern will bring together clinical and non-clinical speakers to examine the myths that persist in the field of psychosis and the arts. Confirmed speakers include visual and performance artist Bobby Baker, the award-winning writer Martin Gayford, the psychoanalyst David Bell and the psychoanalytically-informed arts scholar Meg Harris-Williams, together with arts therapists, service users, their family and friends and other specialists working with psychosis. For more information, click here.
Reprising the Conversation: Artists' Practice in Participatory Settings
1 April 2014 | Tate Britain, London | Free
This one day symposium from ArtWorks will bring together Higher Education and Further Education providers, artists and arts organisations to share findings from the development projects funded following the Changing the Conversation conference last year - as well as learning from the ArtWorks Pathfinders. It's a great opportunity to contribute to better collaboration and partnership working, increased knowledge of market demand, new thinking about student employability and the development of next practice. For the full programme and to book, click here.
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Koestler Awards 2014 now open for entry
The Koestler Trust is now accepting entries for the 2014 Awards. The awards programme for offenders, secure patients and detainees has been running for over 50 years, covering 61 diverse artforms including beauty, fiction, oil or acrylic, singer-songwriter, magazine journalism and drama. Every entrant receives a participation certificate and recognition for their work. The Koestler Trust give over 1,500 awards a year, with total prize money worth over £30,000. A selection of the entries will be shown to the public at their annual UK exhibition at the Southbank Centre in autumn 2014. For more information on how to enter, click here.
Legal support for the sector
The MoJ have awarded Clinks funding to provide legal support to voluntary organisations who are planning to play a role, as either Tier 2 or 3, in the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. Clive Martin, Director of Clinks said: "This important grant will allow voluntary sector organisations to access the support they need to play a full role in the rehabilitation reforms. We are eager to get this resource out to them to ensure their readiness for the next stages of the process." There will be more information available soon.
Better Participatory Video Practice
Better PV Practice is a series of webinars on Participatory Video (PV) co-organised by Open University, InsightShare, Web Gathering and Open Cinema between May 2014 and January 2015. The webinars are part of an initiative of the collaborating institutions to support and facilitate international networking and engagement with PV practitioners working with marginalised groups in the Global North and South as activists, facilitators and grass-roots development workers. You can keep up to date with their work by visiting the Better Participatory Video Practice blog.
Invitation to Tender - Arts Gateway Mentoring
The Koestler Trust; the national charity that awards, exhibits and sells artworks by offenders, have secured funding from the Rehabilitation Social Action Fund to add a new second pathway to their Arts Mentoring scheme; Arts Gateway Mentoring. This new arm of the scheme will target those who show initial potential and enthusiasm for the arts. In order to understand the impact of this new pathway, the Koestler Trust are commissioning a high profile, substantial external evaluation. The report should be approximately 25 - 40 pages and include recommendations for practice and policy in criminal justice, the arts and research. The deadline is 12 noon on Tuesday 18 March. Contact Sarah Matheve for more information.
The National Lottery Awards are open for applications
The Awards are open to authorised representatives of projects that have received Lottery funding at any time since 1994. The main beneficiaries of the project must be UK-based. Entries can be made in the following Award categories: Best Arts Project, Best Education Project, Best Environment Project, Best Health Project, Best Heritage Project, Best Sport Project, Best Voluntary/Charity Project. The winner of each category will receive a cash prize of £2,000, which can be put towards their project. The deadline for entries is 12 March 2014. Click here for more information.
Artsbox launches nationally
Artsbox enables children and young people working towards an Arts Award to create an online portfolio and to share their creative work and experiences with their Arts Award adviser, friends and others in their Arts Award centre. Young people can upload video, audio, photographs and documents onto Artsbox to showcase their creative work and a linked app means they can collate and share on the move. Artsbox has been nominated for an Education Innovation Award and is one of the finalists selected by a panel of industry experts. For more information, click here.
Incarcerated women and the transformational power of poetry
Leah Thorn's talk entitled 'Naked State: Incarcerated Women, Feminism and the Transformational Power of Poetry' was showcased at the TEDxWomen conference in Covent Garden recently. Leah Thorn is a spoken word poet, with autobiographical exploration of culture and identity at the heart of her work. For the past ten years, she has led 'poetry-for-empowerment' workshops across the prison estate nationally. As a result of a two-year prison residency, Leah compiled, edited and produced 'release'; an anthology of poems and life-stories by and for women in prison, exploring how expressive writing can help to address the emotional distress that underlies self harm. Click here to watch the talk.
More in arts and criminal justice
- How fair is arts funding in England? Arts Council England are preparing a submission to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee and they want your views.
- IdeasTap Top Up Fund for design is now open for applications. The fund provides a cash lifeline for innovative, creative projects, helping young people to realise design projects. Deadline: 5 May 2014.
- On 18 February, Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw spoke to probation staff about their fears for the future of partnership working on BBC Radio 4.
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Resources & Publications
Creativity in Care
The Creativity in Care programme was delivered by City Arts (Nottingham) and commissioned by Nottinghamshire County Council. The programme was built on a premise of creatively exploring 'whole' care home environments and investigating how we might develop approaches that best respond to the individual needs of older people. This piece of work set out to establish models of working that improved the engagement of older people in arts activities whilst also establishing a structure for supporting Activity Coordinators in delivering arts activities more confidently in residential care settings. Click here to read the full report.
World cities cultural report
The latest research on the impact of culture on major global cities has been produced. The World Cities Culture Forum, which incorporates 22 cities including London, highlights the widespread acknowledgement that culture is central to a city's health and economy. It also notes the particular impact of culture on regenerating communities and connecting all residents in a city. The report pays tribute to the impact culture has had on community development and wellbeing in cities such as Bogota and Johannesburg. Click here to read the full report.
Interim findings of a study into female offender services
As part of a Clinks study into the current experience of projects providing community based female offender services, an interim report has been published to highlight the key findings from interviews with women offender support projects in the South West of England and Wales. 'Run Ragged: the current experience of projects providing community based female offender services' highlights challenges and good practice during a time of policy change and austerity; and the impact that landscape is also having on service users. The final report will be published in May. The report author, Louise Clark, blogs about the report here.
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This newsletter is written monthly by Kate Davey.
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