Fungital

First meeting with Pete, Roxy, me and Tony went well.  Long chat about what went well last year and what we can do in the future.

Not this sort

My analysis is that we have some great community activists, some great artists, organisations but lack any effective kind of meeting (real or hyper-real).  When we do meet either the stronger voices can drown out the others, or the group is so divergent in its interests, its hard to have an effective, inclusive discussion, people loose interest and go their separate ways.

We all agreed HGA meetings had not worked last year, and questioned whether the more formal meeting structure really worked.

More like this

What to do? - Fungital!  No, not the spanish athletes foot treatment, but a series of 'surgeries' for funding, digital stuff and networking across our huge and divergent region bringing people who share a vision for their community, artistically and culturally, together - develop existing invisible networks, through meetings and digital means, to support existing and new arts events with advice and funding opportunities, workshops, activities across our region.  We want to be transparent - what this blog is a part of - info people can dip into, contribute to, find what you want.

We want to put artists and community activists/leaders in touch with each other and with funding opportunities.  I want to develop  effective communication between Hall Green artists and Hall Green communities.

I think this is something we (as a playgroup and community centre), me (a community art worker), Drum (our arts champion), Pete and Roxy (representing our Council) are in a good position to support.  We will, of course, be at events too,  but it'll be about supporting people running their own events, not running them ourselves.

Venues for surgeries can happen can vary from arty cafes, community centres, libraries, schools, and representation at the many arts events across our region.  Part of the work of the surgery will be to map activity, groups, individuals, developing a living resource which will be updated by the activists and artists in our region, rather than centrally administered.  It's a big ask, from a small budget, but with a little help from our friends...