[speaker001:] I'm going to tell you a little bit this morning about South East Arts and it's support for the visual arts in the South East here. South East Arts is one of fourteen publicly funded regional arts associations in England and Wales, whose brief is to stimulate and extend the practice, understanding and enjoyment of the arts among the people of the region. Now, in our case that means Kent, Surrey and East Sussex. We seek to achieve this in three ways: by offering specialist advice and information on all aspects of the arts; by initiating certain schemes, projects and promotions of our own; and by subsidizing professional arts activity and arts organizations. And to put this activity into some sort of financial context, we have to help us a budget of roughly half a million pounds. That's mostly Central Government money, but partly Local Authority money, of which, to put my talk into perspective, some forty-eight thousand is available for subsidizing the visual arts in the region. It's this allocation that I'm responsible for administration, as Visual Arts Officer, with the assistance of an unpaid advisory panel of specialists, and subject to the approval of an Executive Committee which represents the public we exist to serve. Now, our visual arts policy could be summed up as follows: It's our main concern to bring about a social financial climate more conducive to the health of the visual arts than that which we find ourselves in at present. That means working to change things for the better. That in turn means concentrating our limited resources on fewer and carefully selected targets where we can, over the years, bring about change and effect medium and long-term and far-reaching improvements, as opposed to merely and inadequately propping up the status quo. Hence, the emphasis of our work which, broadly speaking, is concerned with helping either organizations, by which I mean galleries and arts centres, or individuals, in other words artists, craftsmen, photographers, and is increasingly directed to the former in the belief that if we can help them, these centres and galleries, towards adequate levels of staffing and expertise, they in their turn, and much less artificially than we, will be able to help the individual artist. With regard to galleries, then, we aim to support a number of strategically placed centres in, say, Brighton, Farnham, Canterbury, Folkestone, St. Leonards and Eastbourne, sufficiently for them, each doing their own thing, in due course to be able to service a touring exhibition network, made up of themselves and the other regional galleries, be able to offer the artist whose work they exhibit or promote a fair deal — that means paying them for their transport, insurance, publicity costs and perhaps a fee for exhibiting their work in public— and finally to organize appropriate marketing and education back-up to their own exhibitions programmes, which both pulls people in to the gallery and reaches out to them in, for example, schools and industry. Now, meantime, until this happy state of affairs has been reached and we can devolve these responsibilities, we continue to support individual artists directly ourselves, through a variety of schemes, all of which I like to think relate to making more of them accessible to the public. These schemes, then, can be summarized under the following heads: we run residency and award schemes, we run grants to artists and craftsmen and photographers, we run an artists in school scheme, which involves placement of and artist for two weeks or so in a local secondary school, we offer payments to artists for exhibiting in certain galleries, something akin to the public lending right, we also provide assistance for the purchase and commissioning of contemporary work, and finally we run an artists' register, which is a slide register of work of artists within the region, which is accessible to anyone who wants to come along and look at it, whether they are organizing an exhibition or thinking of commissioning a piece for their own living rooms, or perhaps a piece for their town hall or public library or whatever. Now, that's more or less as far as I've got, I mean I can go on.
[speaker002:] Making Good — A New Craft Exhibition. Making Good is an exhibition with a difference. The majority of the works in the show are so new that some were only delivered the day before the exhibition started. It is the first major craft exhibition that South East Arts, your regional arts association, has organized. The concept of the show is slightly different. The organizers have asked exhibitors to keep photographs, drawings, source materials, etc. and these will be on view as part of the exhibition. It is hoped that the inclusion of these items will give you, the public, the opportunity to understand why and how craftsmen create such beautiful and, in some cases, controversial items. Not all crafts are represented, but all the exhibitors have been carefully chosen by a very experienced selection committee, including the art critic of the Financial Times. Each craftsman was commissioned to produce one or more works especially for the exhibition, hence the tight schedule. All the exhibitors grasped the opportunity of the commission to push forward the boundaries of their craft. The results are very interesting. The crafts on show include pottery, embroidery, furniture making, book binding, weaving and silversmithing, a very wide range of crafts which we hope you will take the opportunity of seeing. If you live in Canterbury, Brighton, Farnham, Southampton or Portsmouth, the exhibition will be coming your way. Listen to your local radio for Making Good details. I've mentioned South East Arts as the organizers of Making Good. Hopefully you know something about this organization, or at least have heard the name. South East Arts tries to bring you the most interesting events in music, drama, literature and the visual arts. If you see the words South East Arts linked to an event in your area, there will be something of interest for you and your family. Why not start with visiting the Making Good Exhibition and you may find there are many more events of interest to you. If you want to know more, write to South East Arts, Crescent Road, Tunbridge Wells, or if you are particularly interested in crafts, either as professional craftsman, or as a member of the general public, contact me, Frances Smith, at Tunbridge Wells four one double six.
[speaker003:] This time of the year is alive with nostalgia. At New Year television and newspapers are concentrating efforts on identifying the most important, or even the looniest events of the past year. Not so at South East Arts. From our tiny office in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, the officers, advisers and executive committee members have been using the Christmas weeks to look forward. To help ourselves we have not ignored the nostalgia trend, however, for we've been glancing back at nineteen eighty two to guess what we think will be the most significant arts ideas for nineteen eighty three. Using a system which consults all the staff and many advisers from all over Kent, Surrey and East Sussex, we have nominated five prize winners in very special competition which seeks to predict next year's most important people and places. In nineteen eighty two we have been very lucky to see an amazing patchwork of achievement, from major international exhibitions and international festivals' successes to local community enterprise. And nineteen eighty two may serve as a suitable reminder for us as we seek to identify those likely to make the most significant contributions in the future. What did we have in nineteen eighty two? Well, the Cliffhanger Theatre Company was the success of Edinburgh Festival. Channel Theatre conducted its first national tour with the three productions Sleuth, Entertainer and Dracula. A new director was appointed for the Epsom Theatre and we had agreement on the designs at last for the new Canterbury Theatre. A new gallery was opened in Margate, and nineteen eighty two was our first full year of the Polytechnic Film and T V Workshop in Brighton. Kent Opera's spectacular 'Beggar's Opera'opened at Tunbridge Wells, and the Picasso Exhibition highlighted the Brighton Festival. Dartford Theatre opened and 'Barefoot Video'has it's first year of full-time professional worker. The Rochester on Medway Dickens' Festival expanded significantly in this year, and Theatre Link, that collaborative effort between Guildford, Leatherhead and Farnham, did its first tour. The Kent Literature Festival expanded once more in nineteen eighty twothree and four new young musicians were appointed in an especially fine nineteen eighty two Young Musician of the Year competition. Hazel Kirkham undertook the Brighton survey of the arts, and the Old Market Arts Centre, so often a focal point of controversy in Hove, had a full report completed by Hove Borough Council and South East Arts. The Bletchingly Adult Education Centre saw visits from Kent Opera and Paul Patterson, and the Tunbridge Wells Trinity Centre had its first full season of live music and theatre. Glyndebourne's 'Love of Three Oranges' was one of the most spectacular productions they undertook in nineteen eighty two, and the Farnham Maltings' biggest production of the year was probably their version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 'Piaff'. We had two gatherings of businessmen in Brighton and London, attended by the Minister for the Arts, and a new director was appointed for the Lewes All Saints Community Arts Centre. All these and many more will be considered for awards in the following categories: Most impressive contribution by a major organization in the South East, most interesting contribution by a local organization in the South East, and most significant presentation in nineteen eighty two We have two further categories: the most imaginative idea developed in nineteen eighty two and the most promising project for nineteen eighty three. Follow South East Arts and you will be able to help judge these competitions next year, and if you're enterprising enough yourself in nineteen eighty three, you may even qualify for an award yourself.
[speaker004:] After my first six months as Director of South East Arts, I've prepared an interim report with five main topics, which I wish to put forward for public consideration, and if anybody has any comments to make perhaps they'd let me know. The first of these points is to do with venue and Arts Centre development. I would like to encourage the association to build upon the initiatives already begun by the Association's touring programme. I suggest encouraging a limited number of effectively managed centres, selected in part on a geographical basis, and in part for their value and interest to more than one of the association's panels. A programme of this kind will be designed to operate within a national Arts Centre development programme, which is at present being discussed within the Arts Council. The second point is to do with major client support services. Throughout the region and important client group exists, whose basic funding is provided by the Arts Council and their local authorities. The association might encourage the development of shared publicity and marketing to ensure as much effective publicity and ticket sales promotion as it is possible to provide, both for those projects and those which we regard and cherish as our own. Thirdly, the devolution of South East Arts schemes. Conscious of the increasing demands in terms of time and routine administration, the concept encourages South East Arts towards passing over responsibility for existing South East Arts schemes to stable and well managed clients for their future operation and management within funds agreed between us. Fourthly, local authority funding consolidation. Already appreciative of the association's practice of encouraging, where appropriate, joint funding and partnership in the support of all South East Arts clients, the association still needs to secure the full membership of all local authorities in the South East area and develop a clear, joint strategy on the development of the arts for each of the three county areas. And finally a Medway focus. Consideration of funding in relation to population distribution and the needs of the region seems to indicate a low and decreasing ratio of support from South East Arts to those areas of North Kent which can generally recognized as the Medway area. A re-evaluation of our current and potential interests in the area would help re-balance our contributions in geographical terms, and it just might introduce us to some useful new artistic interests and commercial concerns.
[speaker005:] This last autumn South East Arts tried and experiment in Brighton and organized a series of five so-called fringe theatrical productions at the Pavilion Theatre over a period of two months. Each production played for two successive nights, with the co-operation and active encouragement of Brighton Borough Council it is hoped to extend the use of the Pavilion Theatre as a regular venue to provide an opportunity of seeing wide-ranging drama of a kind not otherwise available in Brighton. For example, the first season included shows suitable for all the family, such as Medieval Players and Trestle Theatre, as well as some controversial productions. About one of these 'The Vandalist'which was presented by ACT Theatre Company and which is an adaptation of, one reviewer in a national paper said that in a festival abroad it would be the talk of the town. The theatre already houses 'The Fringe'during the Brighton Festival and attracts large audiences then. At other times professional companies play there with varying fortunes, except for Cliffhanger, which is probably Brighton's most successful company, they always turn people away because they can't squeeze in any more. South East Arts will continue its season at The Pavilion Theatre early in the New Year. There will be companies from the Evonana Theatre at Guildford and the Redgrave Theatre at Farnham, with David Mercer's last play and Pinter's 'Betrayal'which was first seen at The National Theatre. And to round off the season, just before the Festival, the inimitable and quite unrivalled Moving Picture Mime Show. If you're interested is this type of theatre and if you wish to see it regularly in the centre of Brighton, come and see these shows. If you want any more information, contact me, Bob Henry, at South East Arts, on Tunbridge Wells four one treble six.
[speaker006:] Suitcase Circus will be visiting Brighton this summer, with their own unique brand of circus. Founded by Reg Bolton in nineteen seventy six, he has since established a number of children's circus groups throughout the country. In nineteen seventy four, Reg spent some time at the National Circus School in Paris, where he learnt, amongst other things, that the life of a circus performer was not for him. However, he was told that the best use of his talents was with children's work. His group, composed of professional circus performers, approaches each project in a manner whereby all members of the community are involved. During the week the company work with children and adults on various aspects of juggling, stilt-walking, clowning, unicycling, face painting, and the week culminates in a street parade and a performance in which all take part illustrating their new found skills. During the weeks before the event local playschemes, youth clubs and other community organizations have been preparing costumes and props in anticipation of the visit. Funded by Brighton Borough Council, Brighton Trades Council and South East Arts, the even is guaranteed to be colourful and lively event. All are welcome. It takes place at the Brighton Community Association on August the fourteenth to August the twenty fifth. Further details are available from South East Arts.