Many arts officers work isolated from other officers in the same field, and local councils put great emphasis on properly training their staff. You will find a number of “in-house” courses that help your knowledge of issues such as health and safety, legislation, child protection and budgeting for example. You will also have a personal training plan, agreed with your line manager, and linked to your annual development interview, so you should agree a package of internal and external training events, as part of your plan.

Within the personal training plan, try and ensure that on-the-job training is included. Nalgao sees this rightly as an important aspiration for council-based arts officers, and it would include being able to go to regional networking meetings, seminars on issues that appropriate to your work, run by different agencies, and mentoring. nalgao, with the support of ACE Northwest, are developing a Mentoring programme Pilot for local authority arts officers in that region, which it intends to roll out nationally over the next 5 years.


F.2 Guide to useful publications

Ambitions for the Arts and Ambitions into Actions are the key publications that define the Arts Council’s priorities (and therefore for Grants for the Arts); they are available from www.artscouncil.org.uk.

Also - from the Arts Council of England site -

Local Government and the arts – a vision for partnership. This sets out the priorities for partnership between local councils and the Arts Council, as:

• The creative economy
• Healthy communities
• Vital neighbourhoods
• Engaging young people

These are, therefore, the priority targets for the first phase of Partnership Agreements between local councils and ACE – see C.1 above.

There are a number of magazines that are useful for keeping in touch with other projects and trends in the arts development sector. Some may be subscription-based, but are well worth it. In particular:

Mailout (www.e-mailout.org)
appears every 2 months, and is the only national magazine, which aims to celebrate participatory and community arts. A number of special issues in the past work as a national snapshot account of key projects – arts and social inclusion for example, in June 2004, or arts and health in April, 2005.

Artist Newsletter (www.a-n.co.uk)
a key source of information in the visual arts and craft field, including guidance on commissioning and contracting, and sourcing artists in the sector.

Arts Industry (www.artsindustry.co.uk)
carries jobs, news articles and analysis on the visual and performing arts scene. Useful for recruiting staff, as well.

Arts Professional (www.artsprofessional.co.uk)
acts as a cross-artform vehicle for sharing good practice and an invaluable source of information. A fortnightly publication offering readers a diet of news, views, reviews and case studies. The magazine reaches across the entire spectrum of professional arts activity, being read by chief executives as well as managers, marketers, administrators, academics, policy makers, funders, consultants, freelances, students and commercial suppliers to the arts and cultural sector.

Icarus and smaller sculptures Lumos Burning Desires Festival. Iamge: Robert Rathbone

F.3 List of websites for further reference

Office of Deputy Prime Minister – www.odpm.gov.uk
The Office is primarily concerned with Sustainable Communities, which can be delivered via arts programmes, so the site is worth going through for government funding advice:
Sustainable communities are about things that matter to people: decent homes at prices people can afford, good public transport, schools, hospitals, and shops; people able to have a say on the way their neighbourhood is run; and a clean, safe environment.

Dept of Culture, Media and Sport – www.culture.gov.uk
DCMS is the Government department responsible for all matters relating to culture development. Arts development is administered by the Arts Council – on the “arms length” principle – whose funds are derived from DCMS.

The Local Government Association (LGA) – www.lga.gov.uk
formed on 1 April 1997, promotes the interests of English and Welsh local authorities - a total of just under 500 authorities. These represent over 50 million people and spend around £74 billion a year on local services.

The Improvement and Development Agency - www.idea.gov.uk
works in partnership with all councils, to enhance the performance of the best, accelerate the speed of improvement of the rest, and develop the sector as a whole.
Directory of Social Change – www.dsc.org.uk – training support and organisational development for the voluntary sector.

National Network for Arts in Health – www.nnah.co.uk
A useful reference for projects and advice on arts programmes aiming to work in collaboration with the Health sector.

nalgao – www.nalgao.org 
nalgao is the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers, providing networking and information with local authority arts officers in 325 councils across the UK.

Arts and Business – www.AandB.org.uk
works to develop creative organisations, and strengthen links with the business sector, including advising on sponsorship opportunities and campaigns.

European Funding - www.euclid.co.uk.

Youth Development - www.artswork.org.uk
an independent youth arts development agency committed to developing creative opportunities for young people aged 12-25.

Further useful links on the Arts Council England website (http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/links/index.php ).

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