Written evidence submitted by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

 

 

Executive summary:

  Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is a leading independent funder working across the UK.  We support charitable work in the arts, children and young people, environment, food and social change sectors.  The Foundation makes around 400 grants per annum totalling £40million.  Additionally, we have a social investment fund (£45 million) which makes investments in our areas of funding which have a social as well as financial return.

  As a funder we see social impact as an integral to the arts. We believe in the power of culture to bring communities together and give opportunity and visibility to people who may otherwise be marginalised.  

  We have focused our response on the questions which relate to the work we fund, ie on the impact of arts and culture on social mobility, education, community engagement and diversity.

  On the positive social impact of participating in culture, we recommend the work and findings of the Cultural Learning Alliance, Sistema Scotland, The Sutton Trust, ArtCity Stoke, Hull City of Culture, Black Cultural Archives, Migration Museum Project, Battersea Arts Centre’s Collaborative Touring Network.

  On improving diversity in access to cultural professions, more can be done to remove geographical and financial barriers so that high quality art is available to a far wider range of people; as audiences, visitors or participants.  This means building audiences, artists and a workforce that is more representative of the UK population with a focus on communities that are under-represented e.g. BAME communities, people with disabilities, those with financial barriers.

  We endorse the four recommendations made by The Creative Industries Federation in their 2016 report Social Mobility and the Skills Gap Creative Education Agenda.

  We note that, for artists with disabilities, there are specific challenges around receiving payment for their work, claiming benefits, and long-term financial security.

  On venues boosting access and social impact, we emphasise the challenges those venues are experiencing following local authority funding cuts, highlight some examples of positive local authority policy on culture (Stoke and Hull).

  Against a background of cuts to income, many venues are exploring and taking up new models of income generation. Social investment is one potential model, and we describe our Arts Transfer Facility and recommend the Arts Impact Fund.

  We link to  the Museums Association’ s Museums Change Lives project which gathers together evidence of, and gives advice on increasing, the social impact of museums on: health and wellbeing; creating better places to live and work; and inspiring engagement, debate and reflection.

 

Question    Which programmes best demonstrate the positive social impact that participating in sport and culture can have on the five central themes of this inquiry?

  1.                                 On education, the Cultural Learning Alliance is gathering a bank of evidence http://culturallearningalliance.org.uk/evidence/ on the impact and effects of cultural learning for children and young people. This evidence is being developed in response to a decline in provision and take-up of arts subjects in schools, coinciding with the introduction of the English Baccalaureate. According to Joint Council for Qualification figures, there has been a 28% drop in arts GCSE entries in England from 2010 to 2017. Department for Education figures published in 2015 showed a decline of 10% in the hours arts are taught in schools, and 11% in arts teachers in schools from 2010 to 2014.
  2. We think all children and young people should be entitled to meaningful access to high quality arts and cultural learning – not just those from more privileged backgrounds. Sistema Scotland’s Big Noise programme https://www.makeabignoise.org.uk/sistema-scotland/ has been running for 10 years – providing an intensive orchestral programme for school-age children and young people regardless of ability, with the primary aim of changing their lives. Scottish Government evaluation in 2011 found “evidence that Big Noise is having a positive impact on children’s personal and social development, including increased confidence, self esteem, a sense of achievement and pride, improved social skills, team working skills and expanded social networks”.
  3. On social mobility, fellow funder The Sutton Trust have been concerned with this for 20 years and their 2017 report Life Lessons states that “Unequal access to opportunities for developing life skills plays a role in the over-representation of those with independent school backgrounds of the UK’s top professions. Giving young people from all backgrounds a greater opportunity to develop those skills can therefore be an engine for opportunity and social mobility.” 70% of teachers in the Life Lessons study said that performing arts, including music and drama were key to building life skills. 90% of the most advantaged state schools offer performing arts activities, but just 68% of the least advantaged do so. https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/life-lessons-workplace-skills/
  4.                                 On community engagement, the arts are a critical tool for community cohesion and regeneration across the UK. There are many examples of arts organisations working together with local authorities and business to bring together local communities. ArtCity Stoke http://artcity.org.uk/  is a consortium of local arts organisations who banded together to hold events in spaces that are otherwise left un-occupied and unloved in Stoke-on-Trent. Working together with Stoke City Council and Staffordshire University, ArtCity has led to Stoke’s bid to be UK City of Culture in 2021 and to The Times including Stoke-on-Trent in its list of '20 best cultural places to live'.
  5.                                 The civic pride which accompanies a first-class cultural offering can be hard to pin down, but the University of Hull’s research into the impact of Hull’s year as UK City of Culture 2017 looks likely to make Hull a blueprint for cities considering cultural investment as a tool for urban development. Interim findings for just the first three months of the year found extraordinarily high levels of cultural engagement: 9 in 10 residents attended or experienced a cultural event or activity as part of Hull UK City of Culture, compared to 36% of residents participating in the arts in 2013, before the city’s bid. Residents’ pride to live in Hull has increased – in March 2017, 64% of residents said they would speak positively about the city to someone not from Hull (compared to 55% in December 2016).
    http://www.hull.ac.uk/Work-with-us/More/Media-centre/news/2017/city-of-culture-impact-findings.aspx
  6.                                 On diversity, Black Cultural Archives is a heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain. Its first three exhibitions received over 34,000 visitors, with just over half being from BME backgrounds. However the impact of their work goes beyond visitor numbers and workshops delivered. A huge sense of pride and importance has attached to the centre, particularly by the local community in Brixton. The Archives have become a community hub, and a focal point for conversations around race, heritage, community regeneration and youth engagement.
    https://blackculturalarchives.org/
  7.                                 Migration Museum Project has been working in partnership with venues like Southbank Centre to increase knowledge of Britain’s migration story, and reach non-traditional museum visitors from migrant or minority communities through its events, exhibitions and workshops.
    http://www.migrationmuseum.org/about-our-project/
  8.                                 Battersea Arts Centre’s Collaborative Touring Network produces diverse events with the aim of feeding an appetite for culture in communities across England. Partners based in Hull, Darlington, Gloucester, Thanet, Torbay, Wigan, Peterborough and Medway support and develop artists locally, and have presented work in 170 different spaces including parks, shopping centres, boxing gyms and nightclubs. The Network is nurturing a new generation of theatre-goers, and providing opportunities for people of all ages to engage in cultural activities on their doorstep, with young people aged 16-24 making up24% of their audience as opposed to the UK norm of 14%. https://www.bac.org.uk/content/42851/create_with_us/collaborative_touring_network/collaborative_touring_network

Question                            How can access to cultural and sporting professions be improved to enable greater diversity? How can the Government build a pipeline of talent?

  1.                                 We believe that everyone should have access to the benefits that art can provide. More can be done to remove geographical and financial barriers so that high quality art is available to a far wider range of people; as audiences, visitors or participants.  This means building audiences, artists and a workforce that is more representative of the UK population with a focus on communities that are under-represented e.g. BAME communities, people with disabilities, those with financial barriers.
  2.                             Both the CBI and the Creative Industries Federation have identified the importance of creative skills for future employment in the UK.  The Creative Industries Federation’s 2016 report Social Mobility and the Skills Gap Creative Education Agenda makes four key recommendations for training and skilling-up the next generation:
    1.        Drop the 90 per cent target for the EBacc.
    2.        Limit ‘outstanding’ to schools that teach at least one creative subject, in lesson time.
    3.        Audit the skills gap. The Department for Education should conduct a proper audit of the skills and education needed by the creative industries as part of an industrial strategy.
    4.        Adopt proper careers advice. The Government should work with industry to launch a sustained national campaign demonstrating the range of jobs in the creative industries and the subjects that lead to them.

https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/sites/default/files/2017-06/Education%20Report%20web.pdf

  1.                             Arts Council England’s increased focus on diversity has been welcome, and is having a positive impact on the organisations we fund. Heart n Soul, which creates opportunities for people with learning disabilities, has seen an increase in demand to share its model and partner with others. However, for the artists with learning disabilities it works alongside, challenges remain. Artists deserve to be paid for their work, but payment for a short project impacts on benefits, and could challenge artists’ long-term financial security.

Question                            How can museums, galleries and other cultural venues boost access and social impact? 

  1.                             The venues that we support have suffered significant funding cuts due to a decline in local authority funding. Arts Professional recently estimated the drop at £236m (equivalent to 17%)from 2010 to 2015. Learning from our own grants highlights the following issues:
    1.        Most arts venues and museums are losing funding and cutting back staff and services.
    2.        This doesn’t just affect those venues and their local areas or audiences, it affects all the other community groups or smaller arts organisations which depend on using those spaces. The ripple effect is bigger than an initial cut would suggest.
    3.        Cutting staff stifles innovation and improvement  – “ you can only skill up staff if those staff exist”.
    4.        Collaboration and partnership working is more attractive/necessary, but organisations have little capacity to set up new collaborations.
  2.                             Some local authorities are taking positive action to boost the local cultural offer. As Hull City of Culture and Stoke’s ArtCity have demonstrated, the greatest social impact can occur when the local authority makes a commitment to support culture through its strategy, funding, and use of resources.
  3.                             Against a background of cuts to income, many venues are exploring and taking up new models of income generation. Social investment is one potential model. Through our social investment fund, we have offered loans to some subsidised theatre companies which they use to invest in the transfer of their show to a commercial production company. This enables subsidised theatre companies to be more financially ambitious, and to benefit more from the potential returns. We are also a partner in the Arts Impact Fund, which brings together public, private and charitable funding to demonstrate the potential and impact of social investment in the arts. https://www.nesta.org.uk/project/arts-impact-fund?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqbG4h7i52QIVDRIbCh21ggFTEAAYAyAAEgLHJ_D_BwE
  4.                             The Museums Association is doing great work on this issue through its Museums Change Lives project https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-change-lives/the-impact-of-museums . We recommend its 2017 report, which gathers together evidence of, and advice on the increasing, the social impact of museums on: health and wellbeing; creating better places to live and work; and inspiring engagement, debate and reflection. (https://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=1218885 )

Please do get in touch if you want to discuss any of the issues further.

Caroline Mason
Chief Executive

 

February 2018