Twenty-six more primary and secondary schools across England are to become “Schools of Creativity”, to spread further the development of creative teaching and learning practices.

They join the 30 announced last October as “the leading edge of a… national creative learning programme”.

“We want to support young people to develop the right skills fit for the 21st century world of work, and to place creativity at the heart of young people’s learning” said culture minister Barbara Follett. “These schools will be at the cutting edge of what can be achieved when schools are supported to be creative, right across the curriculum.”

The programme is part of Creative Partnerships which, since the first round was announced, has become part of the new and independent Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE).

Over the next two years each school will receive £40,000 and an education consultant to help develop and promote creative learning. Some schools will have to restructure timetables to ensure that all lessons provide opportunities for creativity “within a safe risk-taking environment”. Others will develop existing projects such as improving children’s literacy through film-making and using outdoor learning spaces to spark innovation and creativity.

The programme’s task is to help raise educational standards and develop skills in students that employers need, such as the ability to question, make connections, innovate, problem solve and reflect critically.

Paul Collard, chief executive of CCE, said: “Our education system needs to reflect the ever changing society we are in. All young people must leave school with good qualifications and a range of skills designed to equip them for the working world – whatever this may look like in the future. The Schools of Creativity will not only progress with their own journey of transformation but their work will help local schools to develop their practice and influence the national agenda.”

Arts Council England has announced the last details of the new structure that will save £6.5m a year, meeting the government’s requirement of 15% of savings by the end of tine financial year.

The principal changes include:

· an overall reduction in staff numbers across the organisation of 21 per cent

· nine streamlined regional offices grouped in four areas – North; Midlands and South West; East and South East; London

· a smaller head office, which will also co-locate with the London regional office

· a smaller executive board – nine members instead of 14

· a centralised grants for the arts process based in Manchester.

Changes will begin immediately with the new structure fully in place by April 2010.

The proposals were announced in February and approved by the national council last week. They will allow the sharing of resources and knowledge more flexibly across the organisation and simplified processes. Regional staff will be focused on customer-facing activities, while the streamlined head office and smaller executive board will be more strategic.

“This is no mere tinkering” said chief executive Alan Davey. “It is about transforming the way we work and requires a significant change in our culture. I have confidence in our people’s ability to step up to that challenge – to operate as one organisation, with responsibility and openness, to achieve our mission of great art for everyone.”

News focusRedmond plan to copy Liverpool get go-ahead
The government is to go ahead with plans for a UK City of Culture every four years, with the first in 2013, the year after the London Olympics.

But culture secretary Ben Bradshaw warned that there will be no extra funding for the scheme. Costs will have to be met from existing resources.

TV producer Phil Redmond, cultural director for Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2008, originally suggested the idea, and the decision to proceed follows a feasibility study by Redmond.

He said the successful cities could expect to see economic and social benefits flow in, as Liverpool had, leaving a lasting legacy.

But the successful bidders need not be cities, Bradshaw said. Bids would also be welcome from closely linked urban areas, provided there is a clear central focus to the area. London, or any part of London, need not apply, at least for 2013.

“Culture is something that we are incredibly good at in the UK. But excellence and innovation in the arts does not begin and end inside the M25 and I believe we have been too London-centric for too long in our cultural life. So this competition aims to find a city or area outside London that has the wow factor, with exciting and credible plans to make a step change in its cultural life and engage the whole country.

“Liverpool’s success last year brought pride, confidence and real economic regeneration to the area. Their triumphant year shows that the title of City of Culture will be a prize very much worth having, with a huge amount to play for.”

A selections committee has yet to be appointed, but Redmond said he was prepared to be its chairman, but he said success of the scheme would much depend on the support of the media, the BBC and local TV and radio stations. What had helped Liverpool last year was high profile media events such as the Turner Prize, the Brits and the Stirling Prize being shifted there from London.

“Liverpool benefited tremendously in 2008, from simply having a badge of authority that allowed people to work collaboratively together to enhance and maximize every event throughout the city” he said. “It also acted as a focal point for every cultural economic and social agenda – including permission to enjoy themselves.

“Culture is not an amorphous concept: it is at the heart of everything we do. To bring about any step change you need to bring about cultural shift and that is where cultural practitioners can help by introducing new ideas and new ways of doing things.”

How it will work
Bidders for the mark have until October 16 to submit outline applications online, with December 11 as the deadline for initial bids. A shortlist will be announced dearly next year, with final detailed plans for the short-listed submitted by May 28. The Secretary of State will announce the winner later in 2010.

Bids will be expected from partnerships from a city or area, including local authorities with a lead organisation to channel communication during the process.

The definition of “city” will be loose, the requirement being that a substantial programme can be delivered to lead a step change in an area.

The only area precluded for 2013 is London, partly because the Olympics will have occurred there the year before.

The criteria the panel will judge by are:

A high quality cultural programme appealing to a variety of audiences
Evidence of culture being used as a tool for lasting regeneration
A demonstrably significant economic impact to come from the programme
Credibility and track record, evidenced by key partners
An approach that maximises legacy and the ability to evaluate impact

Bath has retained its status as a World Heritage Site status, despite concern about development in the city. A team from the UN’s cultural body Unesco has given Bath the thumbs-up following an inspection last November. The inspection came after complaints that a major riverside development would damage Bath’s historic centre. Unesco said the historic sites of Bath were “very well managed” and its major buildings are in a “very good state of conservation and closely monitored”. It said the first phase of the riverside development would not affect the historic heart of Bath but suggested improvements to subsequent phases. Councillor Francine Haeberling, of Bath and North East Somerset Council, said Unesco’s report was “very positive”.
• Unesco has also added the Pontcysyllte aqueduct near Wrexham to the list of World Heritage Sites. The structure, built by Thomas Telford and William Jessop, is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain.

Creative Scotland, which will take over from the Scottish Arts Council next year will lose more than £300,000 because it has not been granted charitable status.
Scotland’s culture minister Michael Russell admitted that the new body to be formed from the merger of SAC and Scottish Screen has fallen foul of new rules governing charitable status.
It means that Creative Scotland will immediately lose £300,000 that would have come with exemptions from taxes and other regulations.
Ewan Brown, told a conference of arts delegates that “It’s money being mischannelled out of our system. I think it’s nutty that we are in this position, and it’s an absolutely unintended consequence.”
It’s another blow for the new body, whose creation has been held up by a series of mishaps since it was first mooted four years ago. Creative Scotland is scheduled to launch next spring after the passing of the Public Services Reform Bill.
Mr Russell also said that the culture department will also be preparing reports for the Scottish Parliament on the major national companies - Scottish Opera, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Ballet. “Parliament will get a chance to see what the national companies are doing,” he said.

* The Scottish Government has also announced details of £5 million in new spending under its “Innovation Fund” for Creative Scotland. It will include £1 million for artists who create “inspirational collaborations” across art forms.
Another £1.5m is earmarked for digital media ventures, £1 million for a support programme for start-up creative entrepreneurs and the Own Art scheme of interest-free loans for art buyers has received £250,000 in funding.

New research shows that while the public values free admission to museums and galleries, free entry is not itself enough to ensure that people will visit.
A report from The Art Fund and the Work Foundation shows that free admission to galleries was important in making the public feel ownership of the nation’s art but other barriers prevented people from visiting galleries and museums. These included a lack of knowledge about the art on display and a feeling of intimidation about the buildings themselves.
Other key findings suggest that museums and galleries could increase their efforts to make art accessible, that the public should be encouraged to ask questions and interrogate decisions made on their behalf, though they were happy to leave decisions to experts.
The Art Fund survey comes after new government figures show visits to national museums and galleries, at 40.3 million, are at a record high for the third year running. Since free admission was introduced, visits to previously charging museums have more than doubled.

More than 400 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) in English Heritage sites are being balloted on possible strike action over pay. The PCS says new pay proposals will divide staff into two classes and will lead to lower wages. Catherine Craig, PCS negotiations officer for English Heritage, said, “English Heritage is already recognised as a poor payer. Rather than raise pay rates to acceptable and fair levels across the board, the visitor operations staff are being asked to foot the bill for better pay rates for others. This is demoralising.” The ballot ends on July 10.
The PCS has also condemned the British Council’s plans to cut staff by 40% over the next two years and consider offshoring work to India. Union general secretary Mark Serwotka, “We have been given very little consultation over these proposals.”
English Heritage denied that the pay deal would lead to job cuts and said all staff would get a 2% rise. A spokesman said the other staff union, Prospect, had accepted the offer. As talks were still going on, the strike vote was “premature.”

One in seven of England’s 9,300 conservation areas is at risk, according to English Heritage, suffering from neglect, decay and damaging change.

Launching a campaign to save the nation’s neighbourhood heritage, EH chief executive Simon Thurley said that in the first ever survey of conservation areas as part of compiling the Heritage at Risk register, among the worst perpetrations was the use of plastic windows of doors, which has affected 83% of conservation areas.

“People think that by using plastic, or UPVC, windows and doors they are saving the planet” he said. “There’s no evidence that they save energy, they look wrong, and while they are supposed to last 50 years they won’t last for more than 20 and many will have to be replaced after seven.”

Other key issues are badly maintained roads and pavements, street clutter, loss of front garden walls and hedges, unsightly satellite dishes, the effects of traffic calming, alterations to house fronts and roofs, and unsympathetic extensions.

“Problems fall into two main areas: what owners do to their properties and what councils do or fail to do to the streets, pavements, parks and public spaces” he said.

He called on councils to make more use of guidelines to advise on protection of details, to get council departments to work together to improve public areas, and to get local people involved through civic societies and residents;’ groups.

Thurley also announced that the winner of the national award for local authorities which have done most to improve their conservation areas is Stockton-on-Tees.

News focus
A right of centre think tank is calling for Arts Council England’s national office to be abolished, and for the nine regional arts councils to be directly funded from DCMS, because a “managerial culture has poisoned the Arts Council”.

The Arts Council – Managed to Death, a paper written by Marc Sidwell for The New Culture Forum, also calls for the Crafts Council and Arts & Business to return to direct funding DCMS, and for a watchdog, OfArt, to be created.

“It is time… to abolish the Arts Council and start again, building a new settlement for the arts in Britain that takes account of the new realities of funding levels” the report says.

It wants national arts organisations - the “flagships” - to be funded directly by the government, with some of them being given greater independence to, for instance, set rates of pay “unhampered by civil service bureaucracy”.

At a time when the national ACE has been repositioning itself as a purely strategy-making body, the paper, launched in Westminster on Monday, wants to reverse the process to encourage a decentralisation of arts funding. It refers back the report two years ago of Sir John Tusa’s working party for the Conservatives that stopped short of calling for the abolition of the national Arts Council but recommended direct funding for the flagships, which the party at that time did not adopt.

‘The very idea of a central policy on the development of art should be anathema, both as a matter of personal freedom and in recognition of the many contested visions of artistic value among English citizens,’ the report says.

The 45-page report says that Ace’s administrative costs rose from 3.8% of the arts budget to 14% between 1994 and 2007, that an independent researcher reckons that the chief executive’s salary has risen by 93% in six years, that ACE has spent £700,000 on recruitment consultant in the last five years, and that the Arts Council employs 49 press officers, more than Sport England, UK Sport, the MLA and English Heritage combined.

It points to failures such as The Public arts centre in West Bromwich and Manchester’s B of the Bang sculpture, and says that more statues have been erected between 1990 and 12999 than between 1910 and 1989, “often bland community projects with very little real merit”.

The report calls on arts organisations to raise more of their own money from private sources, for education programmes to be focussed on audiences rather than schools, and says “DCMS should take on the responsibility of safeguarding artistic freedom as an explicit task”.

Davey dismisses ‘naïve
and inaccurate’ report

ACE chief executive Alan Davey has dismiss the New Culture Forum report as a “naïve recipe for bureaucracy” and “hampered and its analysis called into question by some serious and highly misleading factual inaccuracies… most worryingly of all, it seems to hint that cuts to arts funding would be a good thing”.

Among the errors, ACE says that running costs have been reduced rather than increased, standing at 6/6% of income and set to fall further to 5.5% by next April. And in another example, The B of the Bang sculpture by Thomas Heatherwick was not an At Council-funded project.

Davey says the report is worryingly old fashioned. “It proposes an expansion of the civil service, a removal of around £40m of education money from the arts to the education system, and a splintering of the Arts Council back into small regional pockets without national scale” he says. “That’s a naïve recipe for bureaucracy and for the creation of a complex net to tie artists up in – which is what the 117 funding schemes that existed prior to the merger of the Arts Council and regional arts boards did.”

He says that criticism of the Arts Council by the likes of Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Nicholas Kenyon quoted in the report was made seen years ago and had been taken on board and acted on in ACE’s subsequent restructuring.

“It is a pity that, in publishing their report, the New Culture Forum missed the opportunity for a proper analysis of arts funding and of the challenges that lie ahead” he says

“In order for excellence in the arts to fly, for genius and beauty to flourish, Arts Council England will need to make hard decisions about artistic priorities and how we fund ambition. That’s our job – one for which we will never be popular, but one which we are determined to do in a sophisticated, intelligent and economical way.”

‘Arts Council
safe with us’
says Vaizey

The Conservatives are expected to distance themselves from the New Culture Forum report. Speaking just two weeks before its publication, shadow arts minister Ed Vaizey pledged that a Conservative government would not scrap ACE, or remove the flagship companies from its funding control.

Speaking at the National Campaign for the Arts Future Britain where he shared the stage with Alan Davey, Vaizey said: “I want to put on the record that the Tories are not going to abolish the Arts Council.

“There is a huge opportunity for the Arts Council. We feel its independence has been eroded over the last few years. We want to see a thriving relationship.”

AI understands that Tony Hall, chief executive of the Royal Opera House and the former chief executive of BBC News, is to be the sought for “ringmaster” for the Cultural Olympics.

His appointment to the London 2012 organising committee (Locog), chaired by the Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe, was expected to be announced this week. He will then become chair of the Cultural Olympiad committee, with an almost new board expected to include major cultural figures such as Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, Nicholas Serota of the Tate and Alan Davey of ACE.

Jude Kelly, artistic director of the Southbank Centre who led the cultural bid that won the 2012 Games for London, is expected to step down as chair but to remain involved.

The International Olympics Committee makes a cultural element an essential part of bids for the Games, and it is believed that a programme of national cultural inclusivity in the 2012 proposals helped to ensure London beat Paris.

But since then there has been growing dissatisfaction with the lack of obvious focus for cultural input. In his last interview as chairman of the Arts Council, given to AI in February, Sir Christopher Frayling said the Cultural Olympics needed a “ringmaster” to raise the profile and give a new impetus. “It’s over complicated, too brand obsessed, and needs an arts person at its head to smack it into place, as Casson did with the Festival of Britain and Phil Redmond has done with Liverpool” he told us.