Symposium and Round Table Discussion

Rural Artistic Diversity: A Lincolnshire case study

Friday, 16 September 2016, 10.00 am – 5.00 pm

Lincoln Performing Arts Centre

University of Lincoln

As part of this project, the University of Lincoln is organising a one day symposium which brings together artists, cultural and community leaders, various organisational heads and schools (to name a few) in an event of gathering ideas and opinions, around the theme of rural artistic diversity. The symposium will provide opportunities for all its participants to express their view points on the ways in which rural artistic diversity can be addressed and enhanced, which, in turn, will contribute to making the Lincolnshire arts sector richer in texture and diverse in nature. Key points of the discussion from the symposium will contribute to the designing of strategies helpful in diversifying the county’s arts sector.

The central question of the symposium is: Is arts a useful medium for rural communities to engage in diverse cultures?

 The symposium will enquire this question through exploring the existing challenges in diversifying arts in rural counties such as Lincolnshire and designing possible solutions for addressing the challenges as identified.

The six key challenges as we identified in our initial discussions were:

  1.  Distance: Rural counties are often geographically vast, sparsely connected by transport networks. People in several villages in the county have to book a ‘call connect’ service to be able to travel for even their basic shopping. Does it have any impact on rural diversity in arts?
  2. Demographics: Lincolnshire has a total ethnic population of 2.4%, with a larger concentration of them around Lincoln, Boston and South Holland (2011 census). 21% of the county’s population is of retirement age, 5% more than the UK average, and the greatest fall in the number of persons over the last 10 years has been those aged between 25 and 39. It is worth thinking who our audiences are and whether the current demographics of the county a barrier or an advantage. Could demographics have an impact of people being able to pay to take part in diverse arts in the county?
  3. Infrastructure/marketing: How equipped are our arts venues, in terms of infrastructure to develop strategies and opportunities to host diverse arts? Are their marketing strategies helpful in informing people of such events? What support they get in advertising and marketing arts events, let alone diverse arts? If we are focusing more on venue-based activities would that be hindrance in diversifying the county’s arts sector?
  4. Cultural learning/Audience development: What is being done to attract audiences towards diverse arts? Several counties such as Lincolnshire do not benefit from the presence of diverse cultures as seen in Leicester or Manchester or Birmingham, disadvantaging our communities from any direct and immediate access to the knowledge and experience of intercultural artistic interactions. What are we doing to inform and educate our communities of diverse cultures?
  5. Funding/economics: Perhaps the most self-explanatory aspect among the six challenges as we identified would be funding. What national/local/international funding support can we claim to help us conceive ambitious plans to diversify our arts sector? How accessible is the ACE or Heritage Lottery grants for the rural counties such as ours to achieve the aims set out in the ‘Creative Case for Diversity’? What other funding streams are there that will help to diversify rural arts? Could any aspect of cultural and artistic diversity be achieved without such funding? Another key question here is whether the economic capacity of our community a barrier for their participation in diverse arts activities?
  6. Recognition: Rural arts activities, let alone diverse arts from rural England, hardly ever picture in national print and visual media. Not even the social media is capable of capturing and publicising arts coming from rural England. Why is this? What is your experience? Is it really true that nothing exciting ever happens in rural England? Could this have an impact on allocating funding for diverse arts in rural England? The seminar will be interactive in nature and thrust will be given for discussion and debates around the topic. We welcome your participation and contribution to this symposium, and it is an opportunity to voice your opinions on the topic. To discuss your participation further or for more information please contact:

Entry Free Deadline for registration: 26 August 2016

To register please go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rural-artistic-diversity-a-lincolnshire-case-study-symposium-tickets-26145541017

To discuss your participation further or for more information please contact:  Dr Arya Madhavan and Dr Sreenath Nair on amadhavan@lincoln.ac.uk or snair@lincoln.ac.uk

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *