Rose Bruford College is pioneering a new community initiative with partners in North Nottinghamshire. Young graduates have been working, as an ‘Emerging Artists residency’ in an area of deprivation in the Midlands, based on a school and community arts partnership.
Following on from the conclusion that ‘deep’ projects yielded a better response, the College had been developing a partnership with The Brunts School in Mansfield, based on the progression partnership model of the National Arts Learning Network. Each spring the College brings a workshop in audition technique, plus another ion technical theatre to the school. Several students have been inspired to apply and have been accepted; in their turn they have become ambassadors and returned to relate their experience.
The school is a Specialist Performing Arts college, and runs a range of courses in theatre and performance through to A-level and BTec, including technical theatre skills; traditions of Forum theatre, used extensively in theatre in education; and leads on developing the 14-19 Creative Diploma consortium, with the other secondary school in the town. Mansfield is a former mining area, with a strong and close-knit working class community; but low progression rates to HE, and relatively high unemployment. The school is at the heart of its community: many of the staff have strong local connections; and activity is developed through ABC Community Arts, based in the area as creative producers. The link with the College goes back to the 1980’s when community theatre performances were toured to the area, resulting in students progressing to the college.
Brunts and ABC had been looking for arts organisations based in the area to deliver a series of projects designed to inform and inspire their students with creative ideas and access to arts practice. However, there was a feeling that the projects that were on offer tended to be ‘off-the-peg’ solutions, and lacked being grounded in the life of the community. Teachers from the School had visited the College to a Learning and Teaching networking opportunity during the annual Research symposium, where students were experimenting with and showing a range of ideas, the concept grew of the emerging artist residency. The concept grew through conversations, face to face and by phone, of trying to inspire Mansfield students by exposing them to some of the innovative work on show.
The College then invited recent graduates who were being mentored by the Knowledge Transfer department to tender for a year-long contract, at 50% attendance, to work with the school, its feeder juniors, and the local community. The College would be the employer, and through a service agreement undertook to keep the arrangement going. This was as a guarantee to the school, given that emerging companies sometimes have problems which might have got in the way; and to add another layer of quality control on top of that provided by the mentoring from ABC Arts and senior staff in the school. ABC Arts would also use their best efforts to help the company find additional work in the area.
In November 2009, two graduate companies made their pitch to a group of teachers and sixth-formers in a practical workshop: the contract was awarded to Coruscate Theatre, who had had previous experience working with young orphans at a school in Nepal.
While not without teething troubles, the residency has been useful in providing a constant reminder to school students that the arts, and arts education, have a real and material value. The theatre company have added new meaning to the School’s production of “Oliver” by performing in puppetry, the front and back half of Bill Sykes’s dog. They have been running puppetry and mask workshops in the school and with two local feeders, and undertaking sessions in physical performance, based on the work of such companies as the Gardzienice company in Poland. Some work has been done within the English curriculum, and also as external directors on another school production, working in particular with the technical students. All of these projects have been developed in cooperation with the school as bespoke items. Feedback from students and staff in the school has been very positive; the main issue has been to create a clear separation between the role of the artist and the role of the teacher. The company meanwhile have been developing their own project, which will be performed at the school and in the town. There is discussion around extending the project into 2011. As new arts practitioners, this is all really valuable in helping the artists to establish their work, and giving it a genuine locus.
Why is this project important? While there is a cost consideration at about the same rate as a classroom assistant, the value of the input is immense to the school in raising aspiration. The College can also demonstrate a reciprocity to the school and the community, not just taking the bright young people away to the metropolis, but returning arts workers to the region, and showing clearly how the arts can function in that setting. One of the major issues with widening participation is to open a window on the world beyond the immediate neighbourhood, while giving due respect to the values of the community. To be able to have an exchange between a world view which includes Nepal and Poland, while talking about Nottinghamshire and its local realities is really valuable. The project demonstrates too how all the agendas of higher education, when brought together in close co-operation, add value to the widening participation agenda: innovation in learning and teaching; research into new content; informed by the professional development agenda creates something rather wonderful.