In my first post about forming and communicating a view, I spoke about how my presentation was going to address the need for talent development programmes in the arts for young people in Cardiff. I also mentioned that my research had taken my thinking in a slightly different direction and here’s why.
Whilst researching, I emailed an industry professional who has worked extensively within the arts in Wales. Although he agreed, that there needs to be more support for young practitioners in Cardiff, his opinion is that ‘Its important for a younger generation to do it themselves’. The reasoning behind this is particularly interesting and it challenged my original argument.
His opinion is as follows: If we rely on existing organisations to support such programmes for us, we as the younger generation, can become indebted to established groups and rather than rebelling against them to think differently, we continue to work within the same parameters of what has been already been established. We’re more likely to work within such organisations than establish our own. This results in too little criticality and too much backslapping.
Preferable to this is for something to come about by a new group of people who have identified a lack or failure in a given system. However, for this to be sustainable, Arts Council Wales needs to be more supportive of new groups and projects from younger applicants.
This viewpoint encouraged me to reconsider my original statement and I think that perhaps what Cardiff should invest in, is the new ideas of young people, rather than only training for organisational models that already exist. That said, I’m learning so much on this programme and I think it can do only good for other people to have the same opportunity, so long as there is the freedom to take what you learn and challenge the parameters that have been set.
The group had quite a bit to say on the topic. Rosy put forward the notion that you firstly need your foot in the door with an arts organisation to see what’s missing. To this I said that although yes, a foot in the door gives you an insight, we all have insights into industries/art forms by being interested and participating in them as artists/readers/viewers/creators etc. Sam asked whether young people have the confidence and skills to take on their own projects without programmes likes Future Producers, which I must admit is something I question too. Hannah said that perhaps programmes like this are the stepping stones we need and I’m inclined agree; I think that we need programmes like this in Cardiff but it’s key that we don’t become too over reliant on them if they are successfully developed.
Presentation slides:
