A follow up to our previous post about the university project looking at shared cultures in fishing communities ... news reaches us that Penlee House in Penzance and the National Maritime Museum Cornwall are engaged in a joint project with Brittany celebrating the culture of the two fishing communities. Their combined budget, I am told, is somewhere around £25,000.
The original university project said 'Plans include photographic exhibitions exploring life in fishing communities and a demonstration project of fishing heritage-led regeneration at the fishing village of Arnemuiden, in The Netherlands.'
So that's the photographic (and art) exhibitions done for them free of charge. They can now spend all of the their Euros 4.6m over four years on the 'demonstration project'.
Thursday 29 March 2012
Wednesday 28 March 2012
The Country House
Let's go off in another direction for a moment ...
We recommend A Man of Parts, David Lodge's story about H G Wells. Apparently Wells lived at Uppark when he was a boy as his mother worked there. This encouraged him to become a leading Fabian in later life. At one point Lodge says:
'The country house, with its army of servants, its deferential tenants and villagers, and its extensive acres of land, stolen, requisitioned or enclosed in the distant past, inherited by the privileged few and owned as if by divine right, was the clue to England. It embodied a civilised but rigidly stratified social system that had hardly changed in the last two hundred years, and assumed it would go on for ever, unconscious that its foundations were being sapped by social and economic change. He [Wells] had begun to brood on the idea of a novel which would examine the destabilising impact of the new industrial and commercial oligarchy on the traditional land-based aristocracy and gentry, but it would be some time before he managed to write it.'
The echoes for our apparent passion for Downton Abbey are obvious: 'the clue to England'. The similar popularity of Upstairs Downstairs, whose script, production values and acting is sadly nowhere near that of Downton, suggests that we are just as attracted by the lives of the upper classes on the verge of World War II. Are we nostalgically walking backwards into such a society or would we do better to spend time with Niall Ferguson examining the paradoxes and conundrums of modern China?
We recommend A Man of Parts, David Lodge's story about H G Wells. Apparently Wells lived at Uppark when he was a boy as his mother worked there. This encouraged him to become a leading Fabian in later life. At one point Lodge says:
'The country house, with its army of servants, its deferential tenants and villagers, and its extensive acres of land, stolen, requisitioned or enclosed in the distant past, inherited by the privileged few and owned as if by divine right, was the clue to England. It embodied a civilised but rigidly stratified social system that had hardly changed in the last two hundred years, and assumed it would go on for ever, unconscious that its foundations were being sapped by social and economic change. He [Wells] had begun to brood on the idea of a novel which would examine the destabilising impact of the new industrial and commercial oligarchy on the traditional land-based aristocracy and gentry, but it would be some time before he managed to write it.'
The echoes for our apparent passion for Downton Abbey are obvious: 'the clue to England'. The similar popularity of Upstairs Downstairs, whose script, production values and acting is sadly nowhere near that of Downton, suggests that we are just as attracted by the lives of the upper classes on the verge of World War II. Are we nostalgically walking backwards into such a society or would we do better to spend time with Niall Ferguson examining the paradoxes and conundrums of modern China?
Wednesday 14 March 2012
European money
Another press release lands on my desk and I am once again staggered to see the amount of money that universities seem able to be extract from funders. Can you see anything in the following which suggests either that they know anything about the subject or that they are actually going to do something practical? Oh yes,'Plans include photographic exhibitions exploring life in fishing communities and a demonstration project of fishing heritage-led regeneration at the fishing village of Arnemuiden, in The Netherlands.’
Geography of Inshore Fishing and Sustainability
Researchers at the University of Greenwich are leading a €4.6 million INTEREGG 4a 2 Seas Programme three-year project helping to regenerate coastal fishing communities on both sides of the English Channel and the southern North Sea.
Focussing on towns and villages with traditional small scale fishing fleets, they will look at the ways local inshore fishing contributes to the identity of places and their communities, as well as seeking new sustainable opportunities to boost regeneration and economic growth.
Sounds good so far.
Dr X says: “Inshore marine fishing is at the heart of so many places, whether they have just a few small fishing boats pulled up on a shingle beach or a harbour that is the centre of activity for a larger fishing fleet. You cannot think about places like Whitstable, Brixham or Newlyn without recalling fishing and local seafood. Inshore marine fishing is central to their identity as communities and places.” Let's ignore, for a moment the fact that Newlyn houses rather more than a 'traditional fishing fleet'.
Project leader Dr Y says: “We will be building on valuable research we have already been doing in fishing communities. Working with researchers in France and Flanders gives us a cross-cultural perspective and opportunities to share ideas and solutions to common problems – not least how the sense of identity within fishing communities can make a significant contribution to regeneration and sustainable economic growth.
"Our findings will help to provide the information people need to develop new activities on the ground to regenerate their communities and feed into policy decisions which will ensure a sustainable future. We are hoping to help to create a sense of shared identity in fishing places across the region.” I am not sure you could teach an East Coast fisherman anything about 'shared identity' with a fisherman from the Netherlands. Is a 'shared identity' something that can be created in this way? And it helps how?
Plans include photographic exhibitions exploring life in fishing communities and a demonstration project of fishing heritage-led regeneration at the fishing village of Arnemuiden, in The Netherlands.
At this level of expenditure I would be hoping for rather more than a 'demonstration project' (what is this and why only one when it is a cross-border project?) and a photographic exhibition. Anyone who is following Monty Halls' exploits in Cadgwith will, I am sure, feel that the fishermen there will be delighted to know about photographic exhibition and the amount of money it has cost. They might, however, prefer a new boat which could be paid for from this bid's petty cash.
Geography of Inshore Fishing and Sustainability
Researchers at the University of Greenwich are leading a €4.6 million INTEREGG 4a 2 Seas Programme three-year project helping to regenerate coastal fishing communities on both sides of the English Channel and the southern North Sea.
Focussing on towns and villages with traditional small scale fishing fleets, they will look at the ways local inshore fishing contributes to the identity of places and their communities, as well as seeking new sustainable opportunities to boost regeneration and economic growth.
Sounds good so far.
Dr X says: “Inshore marine fishing is at the heart of so many places, whether they have just a few small fishing boats pulled up on a shingle beach or a harbour that is the centre of activity for a larger fishing fleet. You cannot think about places like Whitstable, Brixham or Newlyn without recalling fishing and local seafood. Inshore marine fishing is central to their identity as communities and places.” Let's ignore, for a moment the fact that Newlyn houses rather more than a 'traditional fishing fleet'.
Project leader Dr Y says: “We will be building on valuable research we have already been doing in fishing communities. Working with researchers in France and Flanders gives us a cross-cultural perspective and opportunities to share ideas and solutions to common problems – not least how the sense of identity within fishing communities can make a significant contribution to regeneration and sustainable economic growth.
"Our findings will help to provide the information people need to develop new activities on the ground to regenerate their communities and feed into policy decisions which will ensure a sustainable future. We are hoping to help to create a sense of shared identity in fishing places across the region.” I am not sure you could teach an East Coast fisherman anything about 'shared identity' with a fisherman from the Netherlands. Is a 'shared identity' something that can be created in this way? And it helps how?
Plans include photographic exhibitions exploring life in fishing communities and a demonstration project of fishing heritage-led regeneration at the fishing village of Arnemuiden, in The Netherlands.
At this level of expenditure I would be hoping for rather more than a 'demonstration project' (what is this and why only one when it is a cross-border project?) and a photographic exhibition. Anyone who is following Monty Halls' exploits in Cadgwith will, I am sure, feel that the fishermen there will be delighted to know about photographic exhibition and the amount of money it has cost. They might, however, prefer a new boat which could be paid for from this bid's petty cash.
Thursday 8 March 2012
The way forward?
A recent proposal said:
The project acknowledges the breadth and complexity of knowledge and opinion that helps us make sense of a profoundly changing world and our increasingly uncertain place in it. While scientific knowledge underpins our understanding of the systems upon which life depends, how we must change in response to that knowledge is a profoundly cultural question.
We particularly like the the idea in the last sentence: that science may have defined the problem and have a mechanism for how it works but the solution is 'profoundly cultural'. So (see last posting) that is the film and dance about climate change then. Phew, I thought we might have to do something.
The project acknowledges the breadth and complexity of knowledge and opinion that helps us make sense of a profoundly changing world and our increasingly uncertain place in it. While scientific knowledge underpins our understanding of the systems upon which life depends, how we must change in response to that knowledge is a profoundly cultural question.
We particularly like the the idea in the last sentence: that science may have defined the problem and have a mechanism for how it works but the solution is 'profoundly cultural'. So (see last posting) that is the film and dance about climate change then. Phew, I thought we might have to do something.
Cultural Education looks up
Another gem of art vs museums:
Government announces £15m for cultural education in England
The Henley Review of Cultural Education was published on 28 February, along with the Government’s response and an announcement of £15m funding from the Department for Education (DfE) to pump prime cultural education initiatives. Darren Henley made 24 recommendations that he said would make England's cultural education 'the envy of the world'. The Government responded accepting most of the recommendations and said (some of) those it would address immediately are:
- A new National Youth Dance Company to provide opportunities for 30 young people every year (£600,000 each from ACE and DfE over 3 years); I make that £1.2m or £40k each over three years for 30 very lucky students. It is good to see them workingw ith so many
- A new film academy, led by the BFI to support film education for all children and young people (£3m over 3 years); while film gets a new £3m over 3 years
- Heritage Schools - English Heritage will work with schools to encourage them to explore historical sites in their local area (£2.7m funding over 3 years); and they did not already do this? This is probably the money that was cut off their budget at the last budget being given back to them (after lots of deductions for bureaucracy)
- Training and mentoring for new teachers and continuing professional development for experienced teachers to improve the quality of cultural education in schools (£300,000 over 3 years, supported by non-departmental public bodies); and what is anyone going to be able to do with £100k a year for the whole country?
- National Art & Design Saturday Clubs (£395,000 over 3 years); another tiny sum for the whole country
- Museums education – to encourage and facilitate more school visits to museums and art galleries; OK chaps, more of the same please: no new money
- The Bridge Network bringing heritage and film as well as arts, museums and libraries closer to every school; no resources it seems
Tuesday 6 March 2012
STEAM not STEM
What am I meant to make of this ministerial announcement:
STEAM not STEM - Minister recognises importance of arts and humanities research
Universities and Science Minister David Willetts MP emphasised the importance of arts, humanities and social science research in the UK’s overall research base in a speech at the Policy Exchange on 4 January. Declaring that he would not be shifting the balance of funding between the main disciplines, Mr Willetts described the UK's research community as "the most productive in the world…This broad research base emphatically includes the arts, humanities and social sciences. They are all part of the science and research ring fence." The Minister said he was attracted to the idea that "instead of just thinking about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths), we should add the Arts so it becomes STEAM."
There seems to be some confusion about the difference between Science and Arts. Oh yes, of course, Art is the new Science. Roll on the first nuclear power station, mobile phone, space rocket installation ... now what dance shall we do ...
STEAM not STEM - Minister recognises importance of arts and humanities research
Universities and Science Minister David Willetts MP emphasised the importance of arts, humanities and social science research in the UK’s overall research base in a speech at the Policy Exchange on 4 January. Declaring that he would not be shifting the balance of funding between the main disciplines, Mr Willetts described the UK's research community as "the most productive in the world…This broad research base emphatically includes the arts, humanities and social sciences. They are all part of the science and research ring fence." The Minister said he was attracted to the idea that "instead of just thinking about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths), we should add the Arts so it becomes STEAM."
There seems to be some confusion about the difference between Science and Arts. Oh yes, of course, Art is the new Science. Roll on the first nuclear power station, mobile phone, space rocket installation ... now what dance shall we do ...
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