Bigger and better

When you start talking about ‘Big Society’ there are three typical responses: nobody seems to know what it actually is; it’s just a cynical ploy to pass blame for the cuts; or we’re doing it already. There are so many definitions of Big Society being used by different ministers, government departments and agencies that it can appear that Big Society is whatever you want it to mean! Having been involved in an enormous number of meetings about it over the past few months, I particularly like the clarity of the definition offered by Belinda Pratten, Head of Policy at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, who, at a meeting last October, said: “The three principles of the Big Society are: more engaged citizens, more social action and more people doing things for themselves.”

Whether or not you believe Big Society to be a cynical ploy to avoid blame for cuts largely depends on your political standpoint. When I suggested to Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society, last November that lots of voluntary sector organisations felt they were already doing the Big Society, he said: “Anyone who thinks they are already delivering the Big Society has not understood the level of change that is coming at a local level. The measures being proposed in the Localism Bill being brought to Parliament by Greg Clark will lead to a situation where there will need to be many more debates at local level about what the priorities are. The sector can’t be complacent about this. Voice is going to be very important – and particularly important on behalf of those who don’t have a voice.”

Over half the adult population of the UK is involved in the amateur arts and crafts – those activities that people undertake for self-improvement, social networking and leisure, but not primarily for payment. Across the UK, approximately 57,000 amateur arts groups stage plays and operas, festivals and concerts, put on exhibitions and run classes and workshops every week. Amateur arts groups are rooted in almost every local community across the UK. They are almost all independent, local organisations established by their participants, self-financing and fiercely independent of national and local government.

Amateur arts activity makes a major (if often unrecognised) contribution to civil society in the UK. For many of the millions of amateur arts participants, their arts activity forms a significant part of their social life, helping them to make friends and build relationships. Amateur arts groups help to create community cohesion, drawing a variety of people together towards a single goal. The activity is often cross-generational and brings people together who would otherwise have little contact with each other.

The amateur arts undoubtedly has the potential to play a major role in the Big Society, but links between amateur arts groups and other civic and community activities in their locality are generally poor. With some exceptions, amateur arts groups tend to be very focused on their artform, their own regular participation or rehearsals, and performances or exhibitions. A major part of the work of Voluntary Arts is to encourage greater collaboration with other community groups and civic activities to realise the underutilised potential of the amateur arts sector. The sector contributes significantly to community cohesion, local pride and identity, health and well-being and many other aspects of strong communities, but these are all unplanned by-products of the artistic activity. The scale of the amateur arts sector provides potential for it to play a much greater role in strengthening communities throughout the UK.

Voluntary Arts and Arts Council England are currently exploring ways to connect amateur arts groups with other local arts organisations and community groups (and with each other) as part of a programme of work to demonstrate the contribution of the arts to the Big Society. We are keen to encourage more individuals to engage with the arts; encourage people to establish new arts groups within their communities; and create local networks to link arts organisations to each other, the local authority and other community groups.

We believe the most effective way to co-ordinate these networks might be to invite professional arts organisations, local colleges, libraries or museums to act as hubs. For professional arts organisations, as well helping to generate bigger and wider audiences for their work and demonstrating their contribution to the Big Society, their involvement in these networks might open up creative possibilities of working collaboratively with amateur arts groups.

The arts attract huge numbers of people who would not otherwise play an active role in their communities. They also provide a range of creative ‘tools’ that could be deployed to help communities with the collective decision-making that is central to the Big Society. By working together the professional and amateur arts have much to offer and much to gain.