The Arts Alliance
Do I Get A certificate for this ?
The Arts Alliance conference
Wednesday 18th november 2009, 9.30am-5.00pm
The Resource Centre, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA
The event will:
- provide a unique opportunity to experience the work of the country's finest exponents of arts based practice in criminal justice settings including Clean Break, Dance United, Good Vibrations, Fine Cell Work, Koestler Trust, Music in Prisons, Rideout, Safe Ground, Writers in Prisons Network, Synergy, TiPP (Theatre in Prisons and Probation)
- highlight for prison and probation practitioners, policy makers, funders and media the restorative impact of arts on offenders and those at risk of offendining.
The event is free and lunch will be provided.
The Programme
(Details concerning the timing will follow soon)
The conference is an artist led event with parallel workshops, presentations, films and discussions running throughout the majority of the day. The day will conclude with a plenary session at 4.30pm. This timetable allows visitors to attend throughout the whole day or for any part of it.
Synergy Theatre Project
Morning sessions (9.30am-1pm)
Synergy Theatre Project will be running an ex-offender led taster workshop to provide an active insight into the work for young people and those at risk that the company offers to schools, YOTs and youth groups. Utilising the first-hand experience of the ex-offenders, the workshop will explore the themes of knife and gun crime and gang culture. Accommodating up to 30 participants, the session will run for 60 minutes.
Through its new writing programme, including national prison script writing competitions, accompanying courses and ongoing script development opportunities, Synergy cultivates plays and playwrights from within the criminal justice system alongside professional commissions. Script-in-hand readings of extracts from plays received through this initiative will be performed by ex-offenders.
‘The Rains of Fear’, a short film of the winning script from Synergy’s first prison script writing competition, will be screened throughout the day.
Rideout
TALK/SHOW
TALK: A series of four interviews with remarkable individuals from the world of art, architecture and criminal justice. Chris Johnston will be discussing with each interviewee a range of issues; personal, political and artistic.
SHOW: A showing of four film dramas made by Rideout with prisoners in the West Midlands. All films were made using chroma-key techniques and shot in four prison days followed by extensive editing.
9.30-10am. BROTHER’S KEEPER (HMP & YOI Onley)
10.15-11pm INTERVIEW with Johnnie McAvoy. Johnnie has had a remarkable
career over six decades as a thief. (“I started when I was three or four..”). In his later years he took up painting and is now an accomplished artist. During the 60s and 70s he mixed widely with gangsters, politicians and celebrities while organising major thefts in London and elsewhere. An extraordinary storyteller, this is the first time he is talking fully and frankly about his life and times as a thief-come-artist. (Johnnie McAvoy is not his real name.)
11.15-12pm. THE PRICE OF SILVER (HMP Birmingham)
12-12.45pm INTERVIEW with Roger Graef. Roger is a writer, filmmaker,
broadcaster and criminologist. Roger won a BAFTA in 2003, as the Producer of the Flaherty Best Documentary, Feltham Sings!
Among his more than eighty films, he is best known for his pioneering
work in gaining access to hitherto closed institutions ranging from
ministries and boardrooms to police, courts, prisons, probation and
social work.
12.45-1.15pm BREAK
1.15-2pm BARS (HMP Dovegate)
2-2.45pm INTERVIEW with Will Alsop. Will is Design Principal at RMJM’s
European flagship office in London, and one of Britain’s most
renowned architects - widely considered to be a leading light in the
profession. He won the Stirling Prize in 2000. He also worked with
Rideout on The Creative Prison, a unique project where prison staff
and prisoners worked with Will on designing a prison from scratch.
The resulting exhibition toured nationally.
2.45-3.15pm IN THE FRAME (HMP Brinsford)
3.30-4.15pm INTERVIEW with Marina Cantecuzino. Marina ’s background is
journalism and in 2003 – in the lead up to the Iraq War - she started collecting personal stories of atrocity and terrorism which drew a line under the dogma of vengeance. The stories led to Marina founding The Forgiveness Project, which explores forgiveness and reconciliation through individual real-life stories, and promotes alternatives to violence and revenge.
4.15pm. END
The Rideout Room will be exhibiting work by Johnnie McAvoy during the time of the Conference.
Writers in Prison Network (WiPN)
9.30am Writers in Prison Network presents…
Presentation with sample DVDs, CDs and print handouts
exploring the range of arts activities that the Network offers in
residencies and special projects within the Criminal Justice System.
10.30am Let Me Tell You a Story
Oral storytelling offers the perfect introduction to the arts for those
with poor literacy. This interactive workshop explores a range of
activities and shows you how to work with a group to create
characters and a story out of nothing. No writing involved. Free
Resource Kit included.
11.30am Life Story
Everyone has their own story to tell. This interactive workshop shows
you how to use autobiographical activities to kickstart creativity with
offenders. Free Resource Kit included.
1.30pm Writers in Prison Network presents…
Presentation with sample DVDs, CDs and print handouts
exploring the range of arts activities that the Network offers in
residencies and special projects within the Criminal Justice System
2.30pm Let Me Tell You a Story
Oral storytelling offers the perfect introduction to the arts for those
with poor literacy. This interactive workshop explores a range of
activities and shows you how to work with a group to create
characters and a story out of nothing. No writing involved. Free
Resource Kit included.
3.30pm Life Story
Everyone has their own story to tell. This interactive workshop shows
you how to use autobiographical activities to kickstart creativity with
offenders. Free Resource Kit included.
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WARNING: These sessions may contain FUN!
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Good Vibrations
taster sessions
45minutes sessions running from 10.00am till 4.15pm
Gamelan is the Indonesian bronze percussion orchestra, and the instruments range from large gongs to metallophones, drums and xylophones. It's easy to pick up the basics, and the overall sound is soothing and resonant. No previous musical experience is necessary, just the willingness to take your shoes off, sit on the floor and have a go!
Good Vibrations runs gamelan workshops in prisons, secure hospitals and probation settings, to help people develop crucial skills such as communication, teamworking, creative thinking and concentration. Participants also increase their self-confidence and motivation to engage in other constructive activities. Gamelan is particularly suited to achieving these aims: extremely accessible, it requires no prior musical training. And it is the ultimate communal form of music: the group as a whole shapes the music and players have to fit their parts in with everyone else’s. Good Vibrations has worked in 26 institutions around the UK, specialising in working with’ difficult’ and hard-to-engage offenders.
Music in Prisons
STRICTLY COME SONGWRITING!
At 9.30 – 10.15, 10.45 – 11.30,12 – 12.45, 1.45 – 2.30, 3 – 3.45
Each 45 minute session is self contained and will give you a concise example of MiPs everyday work, condensing the typical 5-day process into one session. You will write, perform and record a song, allowing you to experience first-hand the challenges faced by the men and women MiP works with. As with a project, you will guide the direction of the music and will also be given a CD of your music to acknowledge your newly found skills.
The Irene Taylor Trust ‘Music in Prisons’ runs intensive high-quality music projects in prisons throughout the UK to provide positive experiences for prisoners and help in the process of rehabilitation, education and the forming of life skills. The focus of every project is the creation of new and innovative music, drawing out the ideas and influences of a group of individuals who rarely, if ever, get such an opportunity to engage in the arts.
Koestler Trust
Visual Arts and Mentoring workshop
10am-10.45am, 1.30pm-2.15pm
Koestler Trust is the UK's best-known prison arts charity. For the past 47 years they have awarded, exhibited and sold artwork by offenders and detainees. With over 5,800 entries to our 2009 Awards – Koestler demonstrably helps inspire large numbers of offenders to take part in the arts, work for achievement and transform their lives each year. Our UK exhibition now also attracts 10,000 visitors a year - showing the public the talent and potential of people in secure settings. With the recession set to see prison numbers rise, they are more determined than ever, to show offenders the positive paths in life that are possible through the arts.
The aims as a charity are:
1.to help offenders, secure patients and detainees lead more positive lives by motivating them to participate and achieve in the arts.
2.To increase public awareness and understanding of arts by offenders, secure patients & detainees.
3.To be a dynamic, responsive organisation which achieves excellent quality and value for money.
Fine Cell Work
The programme of Fine Cell Work will include a workshop, DVD screening, Q/A session. The cushions, rugs and quilts made by prisoners for Fine Cell Work will be displayed in the main conference hall throughout the day.
10.30-11.15, 11.30-12.15, 3-45
Fine Cell Work is a social enterprise that teaches needlework to prison inmates and markets their products. The prisoners’ embroidered cushions, rugs and quilts are sold to English Heritage, the V & A and top interior designers. They do the work for an average of 20 hours per week when they are locked in their cells, and the earnings give them hope, skills and independence. The training is done by 52 volunteers working in 26 prisons throughout the country. Prisoners are also involved as volunteers in teaching each other and helping to run classes.
Our mission is to rehabilitate prisoners by giving them the opportunity to earn and save money and the chance to reflect on and rebuild their lives through craft and achievement. Prisoners do Fine Cell Work for an average of 3 years: the benefits can therefore be profound. Some are now leaving prison with hard-earned nestegg of several thousand pounds to start their lives afresh.
Clean Break
“Clean Break is a theatre, education and new writing company. They use theatre for personal and political change, working with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system. We believe passionately that engaging in theatre can create new opportunities for these women and develop their personal, social, artistic and professional skills."
Clean Break is a women’s theatre company set up by two prisoners in 1979 who brought the hidden stories of imprisoned women to a wider audience. Still the only company of its kind today, Clean Break has remained true to these roots and continues to inspire playwrights around the complex theme of women and crime. Integral to the company’s artistic programme is our theatre-based education programme, which enables women in prisons, former
offenders and those at risk of offending in the community to develop personal, social, professional and creative skills leading to education and employment.
At the conference we aim to explore all aspects of the companies work, highlighting the ways in which our artistic and theatre based education programme addresses the particular issues affecting women involved in the criminal justice system.
The room will be managed by Clean Break staff and students and will include:
• Testimonies
• Extracts from student and professional work
• DVD screenings of recent projects
• Taster workshops run by Clean Break students.
There will also be leaflets, photographs and further information about past and
present productions and courses we currently run. The room will have open
access through most of the day but will be closed for short periods for the
workshops and performances
Geese Theatre Company
Presentation of Theatre Masks
Geese Theatre Company is a team of actors and group workers who present interactive theatre and conduct workshops, staff training and consultation for the probation service, prisons, young offender institutions, youth offending teams, secure hospitals and related agencies. The company has an international reputation for innovative work with offenders and youth at risk and since 1987 has worked in more than 150 custodial institutions and with 42 probation areas. During this time, we have worked with more than 130,000 offenders and 50,000 other individuals.
The company believes that drama is a powerful and effective educational tool in working with offenders and youth at risk. Liaising closely with Criminal Justice System staff, the company uses drama and theatre to encourage individuals to examine their own behaviour and as a catalyst for promoting personal development and change.
Geese is widely acknowledged as being one of the key organisations championing the role of the arts in the Criminal Justice System and the company’s work has been recognised nationally: it has been the subject of two nationally broadcast documentaries, received a BAFTA Interactive Award, a Barclays New Stages Award, and a Butler Trust Certificate for a theatre-based offending behaviour programme.
Dance United
Afternoon Performance
Dance United brings individuals and communities together to seek creative solutions to artistic challenges, triggering a process that develops social interaction and personal growth in participants. The company believes that dance has a unique quality that can, when delivered through a tried-and-tested methodology, create profound and life-changing experiences for those it works with.
Dance United's programme of work in England for the next three years focuses on the criminal justice sector, and includes working with women in prison and young offenders in the community.
As the work in criminal justice becomes more self-sufficient, Dance United will, from 2007, widen its project base to develop some large-scale work in the education sector.
TiPP (Theatre in Prison and Probation)
TiPP work from the belief that theatre and related arts have the power to transform people's lives. They develop and implement participatory arts projects and undertake training for artists and for professionals working in the Criminal Justice System.
TiPP are a creative hub, providing a regional and national focus for a range of creative arts projects in Criminal Justice settings. TiPP work closely with a range of Associate and Partner arts organisations, artists and agencies to develop and develop programmes, projects and training opportunities. Although theatre is their primary art form, operating as a hub allows them to draw upon a range of artform approaches in the development of their work.
Safe Ground
Safe Ground educates prisoners and young people at risk in the community. They use drama to help these groups resist the forces of social exclusion and institutionalisation.
Safe Ground practises the view that you can’t hope to motivate students unless you take care to see the world from their perspective. Any good teacher will agree, and the principle is as true of prisoners as of children.
the arts alliance - A DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE
Across the country, Arts Organisations and Artists are bringing the arts to offenders, using a wide variety of mediums to address a vast range of issues.
Yet beyond the diveristy of their work, each of these Project Leaders share a common ground in the challenges they face each day: difficult client groups, security regulations, and threats to funding.
We believe that there is much we can learn from one another. Previous to the inception of The Arts Alliance there was no structure in place to enable arts practitioners to do this: no means through which they could share information, offer one another advice on best practice, and collaborate over sector-wide issues.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE ARTS ALLIANCE?
The Arts Alliance is a coalition of arts organisations working in the criminal justice system. Its purpose is to improve communication and broker relationships between Artists and Organisations working with the Criminal Justice Sector, offenders and ex-offenders, prison and probation staff, and relevant government personnel.
The Arts Alliance is a representative body. It provides practitioners and service users with a voice through which to influence policy, a forum in which to exchange views, and a stand on which to promote and raise the profile of the Arts in Criminal Justice Sector.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The central body of the Arts Alliance committee meets frequently to discuss issues directly affecting the sector, and those to which we can offer our expertise. Through this the work of the sector is strengthened in several ways:
- By influencing policy and increasing political awareness of the arts as a means to engage and assist rehabilitation
- By representing the views and needs of the sector
- By building partnerships and brokering relationships between public bodies and voluntary organisations
- By providing guidance, training and professional development that supports artists, organisations, and those with whom they work
OUR ROLE
Anne Peaker Centre is the secretariat to the Arts Alliance. We facilitate the committee meetings of the Alliance body, and provide administrative support. Our role is to report outcomes and deliver feedback to the wider sector, while bringing the benefits of our experience to support strategy development.
Anne Peaker Centre has stood as the Umbrella Organisation for the Arts in Criminal Justice Sector for 17 years. During this time we have built up a strong membership body, implemented new strategies, and commissioned vital research. We have developed working relationships with professionals from government, funding bodies, the probation service, arts and social inclusion groups, and research experts.
We view the facilitation of the Arts Alliance as a natural application of our strengths. It builds on what we do best: using our unique position within the sector to support, promote, and advocate to create new opportunities for rehabilitation through the arts.