MEETING
5.30 – 7pm
1st February 2011
Soar Centre
Present:
Alison Harris (VAMT) AH
Michelle Power (Communities First, Town and Park) MP
Gus Payne (Arts Development Officer/MTCBC) GP
Lis McLean (Menter Iaith) LM
Heather Murry (Merthyr Aloud) HM
Anne-Marie Carpenter (Soar Committee) AC
1. Apologies: Ceinwen Statter, Ken Long, David Jones.
2. British Tourism Week: A week-long Tourism/Collaborate initiative designed to highlight and celebrate different aspects of “Britishness”, running from 14th to 20th March. Activities and events will soon be posted onto the MTCBC website’s What’s On guide. Collaborate Officer Ryan Barry is leading on British Tourism Week.
Soar activities for British Tourism Week include: 17th Welsh Music with Gareth Potter, 18th Miss Merthyr Tydfil at Soar (English lang.) A number of activities will take place on the 19th including Blas Treftadiaeth (A Taste of Heritage) (bi-lingual), with sessions in the Welsh Harp and Tin Whistle, Cymdeithas Soar present “Hanes Ycha Fi” (Horrible Histories) (Welsh lang.), Women in Merthyr Tydfil (English lang.). A bilingual film will also be shown, highlighting the heritage of Merthyr Tydfil. And there will be a small photography exhibition of winners of a local landscapes competition.
3. Global Village workshops: GP has submitted the application to Arts Council of Wales for an application form for workshops leading up to the next Global Village festival. ACW should come to a decision later this month.
Plans are for this year’s workshops to link much more closely to the final event on 22nd May.
A new film company; Engine House Productions (who have links to Merthyr Tydfil College) is currently developing a film to counteract the recent negative Sky TV programme, which looked for the worst in Merthyr to portray as an average view of the town/borough. The film being developed will be designed to be more representative of the area, to be shown at the main Global Village event.
LM and HM emphasised their interest in being part of the Global Village project.
ACTION: GP to make sure Engine House Productions are aware of Merthyr Aloud and the Soar Project.
4. Audiences Wales: GP confirmed that MTCBC Arts Development will continue to support AW for the 2011/12 year. The group need to decide what would be the best use of this resource.
LM informed the group that Soar now have a very good Marketing Committee set up for the Soar Project.
Ideas discussed concluded that there was a need to develop and Arts Audience considering:
o Soar and other current opportunities
o The Old Town Hall proposed development and other future opportunities.
o We need to be aware of the steps needed to address this issue of audience development
o We need to be able to understand and see descriptions of the outcomes of any proposed training session/day
ACTION: GP to contact Nick Beasley at AW to discuss a proposed training session(s) in relation to the above.
5. Arts Connect is a partnership proposal between 6 local authorities: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil and Torfaen led by Rhondda Cynon Taf. Arts Connect will be a combined local authorities shared arts service. Unlike H4A (which is an arts company, separate from, but accountable to the relevant local authorities and Arts Council of Wales) and unlike the now obsolete Creative Communities proposal (which was for community groups rather than local authorities). RCT, as lead have passed Arts Connect’s Business Plan at cabinet level. This is now being discussed with the other local authorities, including discussions between finance and Human Resources teams to move the process forward. The current expectation is that the project will be ready to begin sometime during the 2011/12 year.
6. Merthyr Express column: The Merthyr Express’s new editor has decided to remove the weekly Arts Forum column (together with the Memories feature on the same page) from the paper. GP has been asked to continue sending the information, which will be spread throughout the paper.
Soar Arts Centre: Work at Soar Arts Centre and Y Ganolfan Gymraeg is set to be completed on budget. Extra funds have also been sought from Coalfields Regeneration Trust, who have agreed £47000 for sound and lighting equipment.
The Management Committee set up in October and related Sub-groups have been working very well, with members showing a great deal of support and good will towards the project.
The first event at Soar Arts Centre will be Les Miserables, which will run from 28th February until 3rd March (including schools only performances).
A dignitaries and celebrities evening on 1st March will pre-empt an official launch in June.
Events currently planned or being developed include; Glyn Wise, Aesop’s Fables, Youth Theatre, together with plans for dance companies and a comedy circuit in both Welsh and English. (Plus the activities mentioned above during British Tourism Week).
7. Zoom Young People’s Film Festival will be returning on March 9th until the 11th with young people’s films shown across the valleys, including Bishop Hedley School (via 3Gs). To contact Zoom for further info visit www.zoomcymru.com to send a message or call 02920 885505.
8. New Dance Classes for young people are being held at The Catholic Club Dowlais on Wednesdays. The classes will be based on competitive dancing, with goals to compete in the next competition at The Dowlais Dance Festival and for young people to take their medals in The Associated Board of Dance. There will be two categories; under 11 years and under 16 years in Ballroom & Latin American Dancing. Each class will last for an hour and will cost £2.50 per person. Visit www.dancewithsimon.co.uk for further info.
Classes start on Wednesday 16th February.
9. AOB:
o What’s On Guide: The group requested whether non-MTCBC events could be added to the MTCBC website What’s On guide. GP explained it is NOT MTCBC policy (due to staff time and possible legal implications) to add external events but he can add events for those he is working in partnership with, assessed on an event by event basis, time permitting.
o ACMF attendance: AH suggested we need to reconsider the ACMF’s purpose and whether to continue in its current format due to poor attendance in relation to past years. The group discussed changes over the last year or so which have not increased attendance.
LM pointed out that the Soar Management Committee is made up of many of the previous ACMF attenders and maybe those people have needed to choose one meeting or the other due to lack of time.
MP mentioned using Mentro Allan.
The original ACMF focus was considered;
• To get an Arts Officer in post
• To get a designated arts venue
• To work with partners to deliver the October Arts Festival
GP pointed out that the third point; the October Arts Festival wasn’t sustainable with the funds available, together with other initiatives. One of those initiatives effectively replacing the October Arts Festival was Global Village, which is very successful however attracting attendance at Workshop meetings has also been difficult.
o European Day: Taff Bargoed Regeneration Project are holding a European Day on Sunday 15th May 2011 from 10.00 until 2.00 in Parc Taf Bargoed. They are hoping to have some car boot sellers (about 5) and businesses selling their products, ideally mainly antiques and arts and crafts.
o H4A: MP informed the group that H4A have asked her to be a community based representative for H4A, attending quarterly meetings focusing on community participation.
HM also explained that she will be working on projects with H4A
o Jill Shuker: The group expressed its sadness at hearing of the untimely death of Jill over the Xmas break. Together with being a kind and friendly personality, Jill was a strong advocate for the arts and for the ACMF within MTCBC during her time as a Director and was instrumental in securing the current Arts Development Officer post.
LM added that Jill was also very supportive and professional in the early days when the reality of what we now see as the Soar Arts Centre was an embryonic vision of what could be.
10. Next meeting: 5:30pm, Tuesday 22nd March, Civic Centre.
16/03/2011
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