I am beginning a year long project commissioned by Creativity, Culture & Education to analyse the roles that ‘Creative Agents’ – para-professionals usually with an arts or creative industry experience working alongside schools – play and to evaluate the impact of their work on the success and sustainability of Creative Partnerships and future CCE programmes. Agents possess a diverse range of skills and abilities it is how they translate their experiences to a process of school change or curriculum innovation which makes them a unique resource for the Education system. They could be said to represent the core ‘capital’ of CCE programmes.
This research project will produce an analysis of the functions, scope, histories, development needs and possible future roles of Creative Agents. More specifically , this includes:
- a descriptive study of Creative Agents as a subset of both the Creative and Education workforces including quantitative analysis of employment and regional patterns. This will be situated in a strategic analysis of both Education and the Cultural sectors’ workforce development polices and practices.
- a typology of Creative Agent roles with analysis about core and specialist functions. This will be situated in a context of professional development and career trajectories exploring comparability of the role across Area Delivery Organisations.
- an analysis of Creative Agent pedagogy and effective practice from differing perspectives. This will be situated in a wider study of models of Creative curriculum and project development and pedagogies.
The project will take place April 2010 – March 2011. It will involve:
- investigating patterns of employment, the diversity of the workforce, regional comparison through a series of surveys and detailed studies of the use of Creative Agents in three contrasting Area Delivery Organisations.
- A series of semi structured open ended interviews in order to explore values, pedagogy, experience, career trajectories, prior histories and possible futures of individual Agents
- Collating existing research and literature to understand Workforce polices and issues about curriculum and pedagogy.
The key purpose of this work then is to offer CCE a single overarching review of the work of Creative Agents framed within an analysis of salient concerns driving the wider ecology of Educational provision across England.
I am currently the Creative Producer of two City of Melbourne initiatives, ArtPlay and Signal; ArtPlay is a creative arts centre for children and families and since it’s inception five years ago has been extremely successful and has contributed to reshaping the landscape of creative arts for children in Australia. The work of ArtPlay has been developed in partnership with a research program by the University of Melbourne and now forms a flagship public program for the City of Melbourne. Signal is a new facility and program for teenagers that operates with the same core principle – that of engaging professional artists to work alongside children and young people as co-creators in creative arts practice. Both venues are right in the heart of the city and have high status within a very progressive City Council.
I came to Australia having established Kids Own Publishing Partnership in Ireland and also having been a key artist with The Ark in Dublin. Previously I worked in London and have given presentations about my work in the USA (and worked with CAPE and Urban Gateways), Europe and Asia.
I am coming to the UK to combine a family holiday with some research and investigative meetings. ArtPlay and Signal was recently in receipt of a substantial grant to broaden and deepen our work and this trip is giving me the opportunity to look at some interesting models or good practice.
As an artist I am especially interested in the role of the artist in the learning environment with children and families and so I was particularly interested in your latest area of research of “Creative Agents”. I would love to be able to meet up with you for a coffee while I am in London and have a chat particularly as I organising a symposium next year in Melbourne and I think this would be of great interest.
I am in London and could meet perhaps over the weekend of 30 July/1 August.
Would this be possible?
I look forward to hearing from you
Simon
Simon Spain | Creative Producer ArtPlay and Signal | Arts and Culture
ArtPlay | GPO Box 1603 Melbourne 3001
T: 03 9664 7900 | M: 0413 047995 | F: 03 9663 3440| E: [email protected]
http://www.artplay.com.au
You seen Clay Shirky’s new book on this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cognitive-Surplus-Creativity-Generosity-Connected/dp/1846142172/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279357016&sr=8-1?