Spring 2001

 

 

        

 

Strange, strange gethering of tribes. . .

Well, it's not quite Woodstock but, if you wanted to, you could draw a line from that first summer of love and its celebration of youth (and youthful thinking) all the way to the Youth Arts Odyssey, a double-headed conference happening this June. Both feature an inspired and motley crew on a journey from all corners of the country to celebrate the founding of a nation, or - if not quite a nation in the case of the this year's gatherings - at least a place on the map.

The generation who witnessed the muddy bliss of 1969 is now in government. Maybe it is not too fanciful to trace New Labour's mantra of 'social inclusion' back to the communitarian idealism of the 1960's. Indeed, much of the politics over the last thirty years can be seen as a battle over the values of that decade, and for the current government the social movements launched then and in its aftermath, from women's lib to green politics, may well be more influential than older, class-based philosophies. In the arts, we can see the same social revolution working itself out. Although amateur arts had long been part of the cultural scene, it was not until the social experiments of the period between 1965 and 1975 that community-based arts practice as we understand it today really took fire. Arts work with young people - youth arts - is heir to and part of that more inclusive and participatory approach to culture that has now finally breached the citadels of high art, including the Arts Councils themselves.

 

As a result, access and excellence are no longer two sides of a dialectic, one favoured at the expense of the other, but exist through each other, so that excellence has no meaning unless people - any people - can enjoy it, and access has no value unless it opens up for people the best that is possible in any given arts practice. This democratisation of the arts has meant that its authority is no longer centrifugal but dispersed. Although the solution currently proposed by the Arts Council of England - to absorb the ten regional arts boards - may appear to be a return to centralism (and post-war arrangements for arts administration), it can be read instead as the logical outcome of a process of decentralisation. The regions, whatever practical structures are finally agreed on, will in future have more resources at their disposal than ever before, and what the centre holds (it hopes) will be the weighing of national strategy rather than tightly grasped purse-strings.

This, then, is the wider context for the conferences that are happening in June. They are about youth, about young people's creativity and how it can be encouraged and harnessed for a better future, in and out of formal institutions. They are about social inclusiveness, about how young people, however disadvantaged, can be drawn into the world and adulthood through the arts. And they are about decentralised practice and shared strategy, drawing together anyone involved professionally in arts work with young people to two locations at different ends of England for a common purpose - to set the course for the next stage of evolution. That purpose is suggested by the cinematic reference in the full title of the conference: 2001 A Youth Arts Odyssey.

Be there.

Richard Ings, Editor.

2001 A Youth Arts Odyssey can be attended at the University of Northumbria, June 17th - 19th, or at the University of Plymouth, June 24th - 26th. For a leaflet giving full information about the conference, call 023 8023 6806 or email: odyssey@resource-base.co.uk

 
 



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