Lambeth Arts Forum

The Lambeth Arts Forum is a new sector-led forum for creative individuals, organisations and businesses based or working in Lambeth. Providing regular opportunities for networking across the borough from the Southbank Cultural Quarter in the north to Streatham Festival in the south, sharing best practice, collaborative working, professional development and capacity building, information on funding and training, profile raising and more.

Inaugural meeting minutes 18 June 2008, Lambeth Town Hall

1. Kate Mason presented Southwark Arts Forum (SAF)

• SAF is supported through Southwark Culture Service.
• SAF have a board and constitution, and hold networking events, smaller events and focus groups.
• A forum offers opportunities for networking and discussion. It is also a platform where partnerships, consortia and mixed funding packages can be developed.
• There is potential opportunities for cross-borough working with SAF and therefore more opportunities for increased funding and dialog
• Geographical boundaries are not as important to organisations and individuals who identify with both boroughs.

Advice / things to consider:

• It is important to address and clarify how the forum will be different from the services already provided by Lambeth Arts
• What the governance structure of the forum will be
• How this will be facilitated
• Need to be careful that the forum does not compete with its members for funding etc
• Need to have strategic and political buy-in from the executive that is matched by resources
• Traps to avoid:
• The forum should be wary of being funding led as in SAF’s experience this can lead to a fragmented vision and no core purpose
• Be aware of the potential conflict between the needs of the members and the needs of the forum.
• Be sure that LAF’s place is not to make creative choices or deliver programmes but to support, develop and offer out opportunities to members.

2. Discussion and actions

• CMB asked if anyone had been part of the previous arts forum and if so, could they talk about it
• The previous forum was set up in 1999 and the focus was Arts and Education / Schools based working.
• A dedicated officer (Lorraine Lawson) facilitated the forum for a time but then the council decided it should be taken on by the organisations but they did not have the capacity or the political leverage to do this long term.
• Julia Lawrence explained that she now has the remit for working with schools and communities, providing support for schools developing arts provision, training for teachers and brokering links between schools and outside organisations
• JL wants to ensure an equality of entitlement in schools and is working with LA and SOWF to ensure that we are targeting vulnerable groups and young people, and that this connection should be maintained and sustained.
• They also hope to access funding and work on joint bids.
• To contact Julia, email:
  julialawrence@lambethclc.org.uk
• Member: Explained the difficulty of surviving as a small voluntary organisation with little or no help from the Council
• CMB: Responded that Lambeth values the contribution of smaller organisations and would like to speak to the member during the networking part of the meeting
• Member: Advised that we need to learn from the demise of other forums eg: the Brixton Area Forum. There was a bottom down injection of energy for these but it couldn’t be sustained.
• Member: Will Council Officers to be on board?
• Answer: Lambeth Arts would administrate and facilitate for one year or so, we have not considered being forum members, but we welcome your opinions on this. We would then set the forum up as an independent organisation and council officers and members would then follow the progress and show commitment.
• Member: Agreed that Officers / buy–in from the council will be needed initially in order to make decisions which can then be supported by others down the line. Would also recommend that quality impact assessments are needed at this stage
• Member: The Forum needs to cover all arts provision. It should be development and process lead. Also need to be careful that political agendas change and the forum should not follow political agendas.
• Member: Would there be funding for the forum beyond the first year?
• Answer: Agreed that there would need to be funding for the forum to develop beyond the first year after the processes become more consistent and natural. Lambeth Arts are talking to the Arts Council at the moment re. supporting this
• Member: The council needs to promote and support culture in Lambeth more. How do we encourage diversity and different age groups to engage with the Arts?
• Answer. We will devise a marketing strategy for the forum with the aim of reaching more people across the borough and eventually levering in more funding into the borough.
• The forum will help to raise the profile of the arts in Lambeth. This is the start of the process to enable the arguments for increased funding to take place.
• Question: Will the forum have a directory with and email newsletter etc?
• Answer: We need to look at a communications strategy for the forum – to look at the possibility of the forum having a stand alone website etc but at the moment Lambeth Arts already have something like this in place, there is a page on the Lambeth website and we also provide several email bulletins.

Action: A steering committee should be created as the first step

3. 2012

SB explained that she is responsible for the UK Cultural Festival in London. 

The 10 projects will be officially announced in September and there will be opportunities for organisations to have their own projects branded under the 2012 banner.

Non-commercial projects can apply for the Inspire mark. Inspire has been designed specifically for Arts and Culture projects, there is no funding attached to this but support is provided through increased marketing opportunities.

Projects need to have funding secured before they apply.

You can contact your borough officers and SB for advice before applying. When approaching SB you need to have concrete plans and ideas in place, SB will then be able to advise you before you make the final application.

UK Cultural Fund

• The Cultural fund will be launched in September with the first funding round in November
• There will be £1.4m available for projects in London
• Targeting grass routes programmes that engage with the community
• Grant applications will be welcome between £20,000 - 50,000 and the LDA are working with the Arts Council to administer the programme

London Councils will also be extending their 2012 funding programme to coincide with this and will focus on building skills, employment etc

Feedback from the members:

• Question: Urban photography idea – creating an on-going 4 year record of the construction of the games, including building the infrastructure and the people involved. Not sure how to take this forward.
• Answer: Approaching the ODA would be the first port of call for this type of project
• Question: BOSI were asked for ideas over 2 years ago but since then have had no-one to talk to about this, would now be a good time to re-start the discussions?
• Answer: There are now people in place to discuss ideas with so yes, this is a good time to start talking
• Question: Springforward is an arts and well-being project in Lambeth that is already established. Would this fit into the Cultural Festival criteria?
• Answer: SB would be interested in seeing a wide selection of different projects funded and marked. She is already talking to a number of arts and health groups
• Question: Spread the word has an existing programme called City of Shared Stories that they would like to develop for the Inspire mark. What is the timeline for making an application?
• Answer: Inspire is a rolling programme but allow 3 months before the event takes place to submit your application
• Question: The Florence Nightingale Museum explained that they already have funding in place for a project that they could apply to the Inspire mark for but expressed concern over ACE administering the fund in relation to the wider climate of reduced funding available to organisations
• Answer: SB explained that a representative from the LDA will sit on the decision panel for the fund.

Next meeting to be arranged for September.
Please let us have any ideas and feedback: lambethartsforum@lambeth.gov.uk

For further information on Lambeth Arts Forum, please contact Lambeth Arts:  020 7926 0763.