The Media Workshop

In Search of Cultural Democracy Originally published in the October 1985 edition of Arts Express, Owen Kelly wrote in response to Roy Shaw's essay on 'Arts for All.' Shaw, a former General Secretary of the Arts Council, argued for the democratisation of culture. Kelly argues that debate lies with an alternative idea, and this article became a rallying call for many community artists of the time.

We came across this on Jubilee Arts site (now The Public) their site has been revamped and the link to it has been lost and so we have created a page on this site with the article on. Kelly wrote 'Community, Art and the State' (Comedia 1984) which is still a much quoted book when it come to community arts theory.

Looking for a Brand New Beat: Making a Case for Community Arts 1999 Mark Webster. From Finding Voices, Making Choices: Creativity for Social Changes, edited by Mark Webster, is a book of essays by practitioners who have worked with Walsall Community Arts Team.

Again we first seen this on the old Jubilee Arts site. Mark raises some good points and is well worth a read.

MAiLOUT
Is the only national magazine featuring and celebrating all aspects of participatory and community arts. It started 14 years ago in the Midlands before 'going nationwide' in 1991, with a new issue every two months.

The Camerawork Essays serves up some of the evidence. What had began as an alternative magazine by photographers for photographers is here edited in abstruse academic language as an anthology by scholars for scholars. Fourteen essays by twelve contributors. The editor, Jessica Evans, offers to "recover an historical understanding of Camerawork's motivation for encouraging a democratising practice in photography."

The CameraWork Essays reviewed by Peter Marshall

Community Arts Network
The Community Arts Network (CAN) is a portal to the field of community arts, providing news, documentation, theoretical writing, communications, research and educational information. Headquartered at its Web site on the Internet, CAN is a program of Art in the Public Interest (API), a nonprofit organization based in North Carolina, USA.

Merseyside ACME
support and develop the Creative Industries Sector on Merseyside.

Bath Arts Workshop who started in 1970 was run in the style of the Arts Lab of Drury Lane, London.

The Toolkit is a website for individuals and groups who are developing creative enterprises and community arts projects in Manchester. It contains up-to-date information on organisations, networks, training and funding that can help you to make your project a success. The site is simple to use and includes information on arts and creative sectors, development agencies, networks, training, unions and festivals, as well health and safety, and child protection.

Dartington College of Arts is a university-sector college with a national and international reputation for contemporary performance and creative arts practices and their relation to changing social and cultural contexts.

Valley and Vale Community Arts
Community arts organisation based in Wales.
www.valleyandvale.co.uk

Common Ground is internationally recognised for playing a unique role in the arts and environmental fields, distinguished by the linking of nature with culture, focussing upon the positive investment people can make in their own localities, championing popular democratic involvement, and by inspiring celebration as a starting point for action to improve the quality of our everyday places.
www.commonground.org.uk

Voluntary Arts England seeks to promote participation in the arts and crafts by supporting the development of the voluntary arts sector. Primarily by facilitating the development of a strong infrastructure, strategic thinking, and good practice across the sector. We are an initiative of the Voluntary Arts Network (VAN) which links us to similar bodies in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
www.vaengland.org.uk

Community Arts North West - CAN
An artist led organisation, with main priority to create access to cultural production for people that are excluded or on the fringe of mainstream cultural resources. CAN is essentially an organisation which is about action - working with people to turn ideas into reality.
www.can.uk.com

Arts Express
Community projects in visual art
Commissions, workshops and events
www.arts-express.org.uk

Charnwood Arts
Is an independent community arts and media organisation based in the Borough of Charnwood in the East Midlands of Britain.

The Public
Formerly known as Jubilee Arts, has been carrying out pioneering community arts work for nearly thirty years in West Bromwich and the surrounding area. The Public is now taking this experience forward in an exciting project to create the Public Building, the largest community arts development in Europe. The Building will be a place to dream and realise your creativity in an inspiring, hands-on arts space, as well as somewhere you can learn, be entertained and relax.

Check out their history follow the link Then & Now within the About us Section.

shed 22 is a media access centre based in Docklands, east London

Free Form is unique in providing the full range of arts and creative services for the built environment to place art at the heart of urban regeneration.

Welfare State International is a company of artists who pioneer new approaches to the arts of celebration and ceremony in the U.K. and internationally.

Heads Together has developed a distinctive way of working – Creativity with Purpose. The success of our work depends on the quality of the partnerships we make; with residents' associations, schools, youth workers, campaigning organisations, health workers…

Helix Arts specialises in the development of projects and initiatives, including artist residencies and commissions, which explore the role and potential of the arts in a social context.

Mantle Community Arts organises a range of arts projects in places where people live, work and meet. We are also a source of information, training, advice and support. Mantle Community Arts is based in Coalville in North West Leicestershire and works throughout the district and beyond.

Action Factory (Blackburn) works with people using participative arts techniques, to encourage them to become active partners in
cultural and creative activity
and build confident communities.

BRADFORD COMMUNITY ARTS will be celebrating its 30th
anniversary within the next twelve months. A good moment to
celebrate the past, from small beginnings with no premises -
working from the back of a van - and look forward to the future.

CAN (Collective Art Noise), Birmingham

Emergency Exit Arts, one of the UK's leading street arts companies producing celebratory events, participatory projects and unusual spectacle. A company of visual artists, performers, musicians, composers, puppeteers, pyrotechnists, designers and inventors.

SNAP aims to introduce young people, who are marginalised from traditional arts activities, by introducing them to creative experiences and facilities and offering them an arts environment which supports independent cultural expression, skills building and personal development motivation and enables the production of peer-aimed images.

Southampton Community
Organisations

Southampton Council for Voluntary Service
Southampton Voluntary Services (SVS) is the umbrella organisation in Southampton providing voluntary & community groups working in Southampton with independent support and an independent voice.

West Itchen Trust
The Trust is an independent company limited by guarantee, which means that it does not have shareholders – it has members. It operates as a business, but with social as well as financial objectives, and this type of business model is known as a social enterprise.

Training/Learning

Twics Southampton
It's object is to offer training courses a very affordable costs to volunteers and paid workers engaged or wishing to be engaged in voluntary or paid work in the local community Most courses are validated by the OPEN COLLEGE NETWORK and lead to NVQ qualifications.One day courses have a TWICS Certificate

European Social Fund
Ladder4learning
Learndirect
Learning and Skills Council
Link2learn

Becta's content search service.
This service offers selected links to quality assured resources on the internet, for use in teaching and learning. It is aimed at education practitioners who are working at all levels in the schools sector.

www.furtherfield.org
Furtherfield is an online platform for the creation, promotion, and criticism of adventurous digital/net art work for public viewing, experience and interaction.

Watershed's (Bristol) online showcase of digital creativity. dShed has been established to provide a platform for artists and media producers in the South West region and beyond and to act as a focus for distribution, discussion and learning about online creativity.

Rhizome.org is an online platform for the global new media art community. Our programs support the creation, presentation, discussion and preservation of contemporary art that uses new technologies in significant ways. We foster innovation and inclusiveness in everything we do.

Black History Month This site will celebrate Black History Month all year round. We will regularly update it and use it to educate, inform, and build confidence. Let's celebrate and share our African and Caribbean history.

Photographers

Paul Carter
Is a editorial photographer based in Southampton , Hampshire, UK. Delivering digital and traditional photographic services to a wide variety of magazine and corporate clients in the arts, the public sector , industry and commerce.

Redeye is the North West England Photography Network. It aims to make life easier for photographers and photography in the region and beyond, by providing information, opportunities, events, training and professional development. It is a voluntary sector non profit company. Anyone can become a subscriber free of charge.

Silverprint
Suppliers of traditional and digital photographic chemicals, papers and other supplies.

Kentmere, a British based and owned company, believes in working in partnership with its customers.

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