ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND REPORT
AUTHOR: MARY ROBSON, IN CONVERSATION WITH THE BLUE CABIN TEAM & ASSOCIATE ARTISTS DESIGN: NICOLA GOLIGHTLY
Funding from ACE enabled Blue Cabin to: Continue to employ 4 freelance Associate Artists, trained to work with care experienced children and young people and the adults in their lives, ensuring that their skill set and expertise were not lost.
ACE funding enabled Blue Cabin to consult with the core group of associate artists to enable the work to develop and continue in a safe space.
Artists were given the rare opportunity to let ideas ‘tumble and spin’. Those ideas fed into all project areas in the company, all anchored by prior collective learning and training.
The ongoing, collaborative, creative conversations between artists and the company have led to a deep, mutual understanding of the work.
Artists have felt nurtured and sustained in what has been a difficult time.
Research and Development time has proved crucial to their practice and is of nuanced benefit to all areas of the artist’s practice, beyond work with
It is evident that Blue Cabin is recognised as an exceptional employer by their associate artists in terms of the support given and collaboration encouraged.
The level of funding was liberating and distributed equitably between artists. For them, it meant time and space to research and develop their practice.
Funding from ACE enabled Blue Cabin to: Keep the organisation afloat. The funding supported core costs for 4 months so that the company continued to develop and advocate creative work with
The funding changed how Blue Cabin told its story, by being able to tell potential funders of how ACE trusted the company.
That vote of confidence in the company helped lever relationships with new and potential funders. Nearly £500,000 further funding has been raised as a result of that new-found confidence.
ACE funding was crucial and timely. It allowed Blue Cabin breathing space to think and develop and to make more funding applications.
The process of the application was collaborative, rigorous and enjoyable. It became an efficient blueprint for further application processes.
The funding resulted in regular team meetings and connections. These made working together more efficient and helped individuals to understand the wider work of the company.
Blue Cabin invites ACE to capture the learning from this exceptional round of funding. Whilst appreciating the need for checks and balances, trusting the organisation to do what is in its best interests can prove to be of exceptional value.
CECYP now and into the future directly aligning with the ACE’s Lets Create Strategy.
Working with care experienced children and young people is intense and demanding. Making and duplicating kits to send out as part of the digital response has made it more intense. Maintaining the balance between quality and energy levels has proved an exacting challenge but a worthwhile one.
Blue Cabin significantly expanded its offer by being able to take its work online. The numbers are striking: In face-to-face sessions, 12 young people would have benefitted. There are now 400 kits being prepared for the final phase of a project funded by The National Lottery. That funding was raised as a result of the learning generated from ACE funding and provided space for artists to develop digital and physical creative packs for care experienced children and young people.
Funding from ACE enabled Blue Cabin to: Respond digitally and virtually. ACE funding enabled the company to develop and adapt its delivery further, with the potential to roll out the resource to every Virtual School in the North East.
The increased amount of online work has demanded different and emergent kinds of support for all involved.
Consequently, new ways of working were developed. Associate artists were working on remote projects that would happen out-with their presence. They will never be in the room when the kit is opened. So, how to best support children and carers to have the best experience possible involved thinking through the details and giving instructions that were enabling rather than controlling.
Partners now have a fuller understanding of Blue Cabin’s creative work and have therefore become advocates for it.
Strong partnerships with key Local Authorities have meant that they can describe what Blue Cabin does in their own professional language. Through those close working relationships, Blue Cabin has been able to work alongside Local Authority staff in a collaborative bid writing process and unlock significant funding.
Those close relationships and knowledge gained through them have given Blue Cabin the confidence to challenge other Local Authorities.
Funding from ACE enabled Blue Cabin to:Continue to advocate for arts and culture for care experienced children and young people.
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