Naz Koser is the Artistic Director of Ulfah Arts based in Birmingham. She has kindly written this post for Best Believe giving an insight into her recent  month long trip to the states on a programme for arts workers entitled ‘Promoting tolerance through Arts in the USA’.

Very few journeys in a person’s life leave an ever-lasting mark on one’s memory. I’ve just been on one and even though I enjoy coming back home after long travels, the emotions are much more mixed this time. My name is Naz Koser and I’m the Founding Director of Ulfah Arts a social enterprise based in Birmingham but working internationally developing artists and arts practices by engaging communities that don’t engage with the arts.
The journey in question is my recent trip to the Unites states of America as a part of an international programme – Promoting Tolerance Through Arts organized by United States department of State.

This three week program included meeting leaders of major art institutions, community arts organisation, museums and independent artists in Washington, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Texas and Los Angeles Starting in Washington on the East coast and finishing in Los Angeles on the West Coast, my journey lasted almost a month but felt like a lifetime of learning.

I was part of a 20 member strong contingent made up of other arts professionals , each representing a different country . There is no arts council in USA and no public funding so all arts organisations’ have to find other ways of existing and doing their work.  There was one good practice/excellence I saw in each city however majority of the time I ended up sharing my work based in Birmingham and received recognition for the contribution I am making. New York based City of Peace project developed a youth theatre production with young kids from foster care, giving an insight as to why some children end up in care.  It was one of the best youth productions I have seen, with a quality and humorous script, and having seen a Broadway show the day before I recognised some of the formula used and the potential of this work.  This stirred the ongoing debate in mind around how to close the gap between community/professional arts.

I’m convinced there are ways in which both the need for quality of art achieved through arts for arts sake and social change using arts as a tool can combine to have really powerful impacts on the various levels and audiences.  This is one of the driving forces behind my work in bringing different groups of people, perspectives together. Just thinking about this makes me so excited and almost being in the USA made it feel so easy and achievable.  Having come back to Birmingham I’ve realized that power and influence are also things needed to really help arts make an impact.  It requires a degree of working outside of my comfort zone in building a profile and associating myself with people who have power and influence who may not necessary know about the power of the arts. It’s a conflict because I personally want my work to speak for itself rather than me talking about what I’m going to do. I do it and it speaks.

For the first time I’m thinking about place and whether there is a place that is more conducive for people like me.  Where a city supports great ideas without compromising the artist, a place where exploration is appreciated and valued as even in the arts their are conventions and conforms that restricts creativity and it becomes exclusive.  The LA Gallery walk is one of my favorite memories.  Artists are invited to showcase their work in empty shop windows, other unusual spaces as well as restaurants and shops, everything from performances to visual artists in the process of making work.  The atmosphere was inspiring and as an artist contagious! It really felt like a city encouraging ideas and creativity.  There were thousands of audiences walking around the rough streets of LA.  A bit like Birmingham’s arts fest but less corporate and more rooted from an organic growth.

Taking a look at Arts News (Arts Council’s news email bulletins) I see this…

Education Arts Service West Midlands, the region’s new online resource for arts education has launched!

EAS West Midlands is an exciting new resource for the West Midlands region designed to support educators, facilitators, arts and cultural practitioners working with children and young people in both formal and informal education. EAS WM provides the tools to deliver opportunities for young people that foster wider participation in the arts, encouraging achievement and opening pathways into the arts, creative and cultural industries.

The website’s key resource is the Arts Directory where educators and youth practitioners can search for arts partners – all of whom carry current CRB disclosure checks and references. The directory is easy to use allowing you to search by artform, target group, curriculum area or even accreditation. Artists and arts organisations working with children and young people are invited to create a FREE arts directory profile promoting their work to an education audience.

The website offers practical support on setting up and delivering projects, regular news bulletins and a range of interactive features enabling users to comment and discuss issues, review artists, showcase projects, highlight best practice and advertise opportunities.

EAS WM is set to be THE place educators and facilitators go to when looking for help, inspiration and arts partners and an essential tool for any artists and arts organisations working with children and young people in the West Midlands.

Sign up now and join the EAS West Midlands community.

So I go to join up and the page says in website speak ‘computer says no’, I guess that page isn’t ready yet. So I take a gander round the rest of the site which is basically the new Aliss site, Aliss went defunct after it’s funding was pulled. Both serves those working in arts education, offering a listings service – a marketing opportunity for independent creatives and listings for anybody looking to find an artist plus some useful stuff on funding. However the Aliss site was managed in the region based at Belmont Arts Centre in Shrewsbury and this new site is managed by Winona eSolutions a web design and development agency based in Camden, London.

We work in a variety of sectors, with particular experience in education, arts & entertainment and ‘not for profit’.
We offer products and services covering all parts of a web project; including strategy, design, build, content management systems, databases, web applications, e-marketing, e-commerce, audio and video streaming, pod casts, hosting and support.
We work closely with clients to ensure that our solutions exactly meet their needs, and have a focus on usability and accessibility that guarantees the solutions are available to the widest possible audience.

Whilst mooching around this new site – EAS West Midlands (I keep reading it as East West Midlands which is confusing me) you find images of arts organisations and individuals from London and by clicking on the discussion board you are redirected to Lonsas which (yup, you guessed it) is also all about the big smoke.

In most cases here is Birmingham and the West Midlands you will find that the arts development agency for your specific artform have databases of artists which they use when fielding calls from schools that are looking for an artist for their project, for example DanceXchange the dance development agency for the West Midlands has a list of  dance artists on a PDF downloadable from it’s website, which as an artist you can join at anytime for free.

The EAS WM website says that it lists artists that hold CRB checks, but has a hefty disclaimer, as quite rightly CRB checks are met with ever changing and often conflicting policies and practices by potential employers. In the last two jobs I have had, the age in which a CRB is ‘out of date’ has been from 3-18 months where some employers say it’s fine if it is under 3 years old.

My point being a website like this needs both clever management and big marketing – how will the schools or Pupil Referral Units or whoever it is looking for an artist know to look here?

How will artists know to add their details? How will a company based in London be able to manage listings, discussion and arts news that are pertinent to our region?

My advice would be to sign up to Bright Space listings service, and get in touch with your own arts development agency…