ACM2012/13-A2 /
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Meeting held on Tuesday, 29th January 2013
Members: Terry Kavanagh (Chair), Nick Slater, Susie Cattermole, Marsha Meskimmon, Andrew Cooney, Elaine Hobby, Paula Powditch, Kevin Ryan, Caroline Walker, Jon Walker
Apologies: Sophie Sanders, Margaret Tomlinson,
In attendance: Amelia Beavis-Harrison
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1. / ApologiesApologies were noted. / Action
2. / Minutes
ACM2012/13-A1
The minutes of the Arts Committee Meeting held on 23rd October 2012 were amended with one correction.
Elaine Hobby (EH) also updated the committee on the poetry competition mentioned on page three, adding that the competition will also fund a poet in residence and will launch on September 19th 2013.
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7. / Matters arising from the Minutes and not appearing elsewhere on the Agenda
The committee noted that there were no further developments to report on the re-development of Martin Hall square and the inclusion of public art.
Chairs Business
a. Art space development
Terry Kavanagh (TK) reported that a quote for the facade of the Loughborough University Arts (LUA) building had come in at £120k which is around £50k over budget. Peter Upton believes the quote could be reduced but it is likely that LUA will still need to approach the Cope Trust to make up the shortfall.
Nick Slater (NS) updated the committee on plans from Loughborough College to build a new theatre for their performing arts courses. The theatre would have an internal focus for staff and students and will be in place for 2014. They are not planning to deliver a public facing programme of arts events. The College have also expressed an interest in collaborating with LUA in the future as part of the events programme.
b. University Strategic Plan
TK informed the committee that the Vice Chancellor was encouraging all staff to feed into his strategic plan for the University. He stressed the need to have the arts included within the plan and asked the committee to highlight the importance of the arts on campus and within the community during their discussions about the plan.
The committee agreed to make this a future agenda item for the next meeting.
Nick Slater to report on:
a. Business Plan
NS introduced the LUA Business Plan mentioning that it reflected the current climate with new initiatives focused on student engagement and diversifying the arts programme to accommodate different types of events.
EH commented that within the vision LUA could also look to support activity being undertaken by staff, and students, outside of the University, both in the UK and abroad.
TK commented that the mission could broaden LUA’s remit by reaching beyond Loughborough and supporting the Universities international strategy.
Kevin Ryan (KR) noted that the University should take more credit for the support of Charnwood Arts for which it has supported to grow over the past 20 years, noting this could be included within the plan.
Jon Walker (JW) noted that he thought the plan was good and supported the Universities aims, mentioning that ideas such as the lunch time concerts were reflective of the changing staff and student structure on the campus.
The committee endorsed the business plan subject to a few minor adjustments which they agreed should be circulated swiftly.
b. Directors Report
NS introduced the director’s report which covered the autumn season of Radar activity, Home/Land, which invited four artists to respond to themes being addressed in the School of Arts, Lens of Empowerment Group. NS also introduced the forthcoming programmes Public Domestic and Questions of Value.
Public Domestic is a large scale commission to artist Emma Smith which will explore domestic environments of University life and will result in a symposium, performance and permanent work. Workshops with students engaging with their domestic environment in campus halls will begin next week.
The Questions of Value programme began with a research visit from Norwegian artist Marianne Heier who came to meet with the Politicized Practice Research Group. Marianne is interested in developing a piece of work that observes a transitional period between ownership as shops open and close. Working with empty shops in Loughborough dancers would perform during the transitional period when pubs close on a night, the shop windows would contain vinyl text relating the dance’s origins.
Sylvia Wright has invited NS to attend the Love Loughborough Committee which has responsibilities for the empty shops in Loughborough.
Radar are working with Dan Watt in the English and Drama department to further the Object Theatre programme held last year by commissioning an artist to work with a writer.
The Loughborough Arts Forum recently hosted their inaugural meeting to talk about cross promotion across venues in Loughborough. The forum also highlighted a shared interest in literature which could be further explored at a later date.
NS reported that the New Zealand String Quartet concert was successful despite the snow which slightly depleted audiences. The next concert will be the Royal String Quartet who will also be holding a workshop beforehand with a student society and local school students. NS also reported the guitar tutor John Carson has handed in his notice and LUA are seeking a replacement.
NS reported the spoken word activity continues to be a success, with one event being hosted each term. The success is due in part to the student involvement within the event meaning they actively learn whilst finding it engaging. The Ian McMillan performance attracted a medium sized audience; NS is considering reducing future literature performance events tickets prices in the future.
TK noted that the Saturday Morning Art Club is due to start in the Autumn; it will use widening participation money to work with local schools.
EH commented that the English and Drama department are working with local schools through SOAR, she expressed the importance of all school outreach activities relating to one another so that they are cohesive and that there should be communication between initiatives.
JW stressed that it was important to work with a diverse selection of schools as the widening participation agenda is aimed at schools with low engagement with the University.
The committee agreed a reoccurring agenda item could be ‘Links with Schools’.
NS reported the collection has nearly all been collated on the new collections management software. For the next committee meeting NS will bring a policy about collections management for the committee to discuss. This policy needs to be bought into by the University and Facilities Management (FM).
NS showed the committee an image of one of the Vice Chancellors portraits that had been damaged due to inadequate storage and handling. NS reported that the Space Allocation Committee were not sympathetic to the collection needing adequate storage and that the collection had to be sorted into categories for sale and retaining purposes. A meeting about this will happen at the end of February. Storage will still be needed for the remaining collection and handling of art work needs to be addressed to avoid further damages.
JW noted that the works in the collection needed a clear reason to be kept.
Caroline Walker (CW) noted the responsibility of the collection was Nick Slater’s but that FM needed to commit to a way of working with the collection. TK further added a member of FM need to have a responsibility within their department for the collection.
NS reported on a new initiative to offer student societies workshop opportunities with professional companies and organisations which will begin in February.
NS reported the new LUA and Radar websites are close to being launched subject to a few amendments. He further commented that the websites should be seen by others as a porthole for University wide events.
TK informed the committee that the Vice Chancellor will use the National Youth Jazz Orchestra concert as an opportunity to entertain guests, further adding this could be an annual occurrence.
Any Other Business
TK thanked Caroline Walker for her time and commitment to the arts during her time in post, this was her last committee meeting before leaving the University.
Date of Next Meeting
Tuesday 23 April, 12.30: Council Chamber, Hazlerigg
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