curious patterns #7
Tales of arts policy failure, national financing infrastructures for CCIs, and the secret sauce for cultural data stories.
Toolkits over toolkits and a bunch of reports. The past month was full on, wasn’t it? And while I had my head stuck in all these pages, I knew I needed to get out of my little bubble. And so I did - to a certain degree anyway. I went to my first vogue ball cheering from the sidelines, learnt more about the circular economy, and read a book about Māori mythology. How do you cleanse your mind?
A big welcome to all new readers from AEA Consulting, Creative Community Builders, culture Solutions, CreativityWorks, Alyce Myatt Consulting, Americans for the Arts, Forecast Public Art, Susan Chun Consulting, Manchester Museum, Goethe-Institut, WolfBrown, On The Move, FACE, the cities of Seattle and Albuquerque, and the universities of Ghent and Coimbra. And for those who have been forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up right here:
🇦🇫 Afghanistan’s education ministry tried to ban girls from singing in school. But the people were not having it. Now, all kids are banned. A tale of policy failure.
🌍 The European Commission wants fresh eyes and ears. A consortium including KEA, B&S Europe and Cumediae will advise EU international development on culture.
🕊️ 2020 wasn’t a good year for artistic freedom. Freemuse has got all the stats on who got harassed (or worse) and where. Digital cases are on the rise.
🦠 In COVID-related news, UN Special Rapporteur Karima Bennoune assesses the pandemic’s impact on cultural rights. Equally disturbing developments, but also hope.
🇳🇬 The Nigerian government hands over the National Arts Theatre to the Bankers Committee for transformation into a creative centre. What could possibly go wrong?
🌎 In Central America, new cultural and educational cooperation projects to stimulate youth employment are on the agenda after the OEI and BCIE signed an agreement.
🇦🇪 Have the UAE bought their way to global cultural credibility? And in definitely entirely unrelated news, the UAE announced a new creative industries strategy.
⚖️ Peace or resistance? Conflicting ideologies make access to funding for cultural production in Palestine a dangerous balancing act. A rich read by Nili Belkind.
🇹🇿 Development partners in Tanzania meet quarterly to discuss support for culture goals of the country’s national priorities. Could this work elsewhere, too?
🏛️ If you needed any persuasion: Heritage can be incredibly relevant in sustainable development. ICOMOS has one case study for each SDG for us. Great effort!
🌊 De-curate your life
One of the reasons you have subscribed to curious patterns is probably to find useful news, tools and thoughts for your work somewhere between culture, impact and development. You want to find signal in all the noise out there. But who determines what is noise and what isn’t? Think about what playlists you listen to on Spotify, what books you pick up at the library, who you follow on Twitter, what cuisine you order for takeout, and what news(letters) you consume. Behind these admittedly rather macro curations is either an algorithm optimised for profit-making (or deliberate social engineering) or a human with limited experiences and knowledge. How can we expect to learn and grow if all our cultural consumption has been chosen for us?
Measuring Love by Shiree Teng and Sammy Nuñez is what got me thinking. The authors establish that to be able to measure love, the colonial mind needs to move beyond rational and data-focused ways of knowing and acknowledge feelings, intuitions and ancestral/spiritual knowing, too. In a recent design session, I was also introduced to embodied knowledge, which probably falls somewhere in the latter categories. Alright, let’s open up to more ways of knowing and trust that there is more than pure obsession with quantitative data. That’s the how - but I also want the what.
Your cultural consumption is heavily influenced and pre-curated for you depending on who you are, where you are, even how you are. If I wanted to be more open to what is outside my echo chamber and expand my experiences, I might have to de-curate my life within certain parameters. As an evaluator, I feel it is my duty to constantly push myself outside that familiar comfort zone, out of knowing zones, and embrace that learning needs to take place. And yes, there might also be a tad bit of capitalist critique in there.
The key question is how can I learn knowing when I am not confronted by it? Could randomisation instead of curation be that very confrontation? Artist and software engineer Max Hawkins has taken this to the next level and let a randomised computer algorithm decide where he’ll live, go and socialise. He also developed a randomised music playlist, a tattoo generator, a diet club and a voice-chat app that randomly connects you to other people (who have signed up, of course) across the world. Of course it doesn’t necessarily change the way he is receiving knowledge, but it does turn his general consumption patterns upside down, which might lead to an embrace of other forms of knowing.
Perhaps we should experiment to be more intentional in being unintentional.
Perhaps just a little.
IMPACT
😎 Get your red pens out, it’s time for donor grading. Vu Le from the excellent Nonprofit AF blog co-developed a scoreboard for funders based on how equitable their grantmaking is. You give unrestricted grants? You accept proposals prepared for other funders? You disburse approved funds within one month? Congratulations, you might just be a pretty cool grantmaker.
🚧 If the humanitarian sector wants equity, it must design at the margins. That’s one of the five equityXdesign principles to decolonise the design process. Jessica Oddy applies this concept to the humanitarian sector with a flow of reflective yet hands-on ideas that are much needed but disturbingly obvious at the same time. Think recurring power assessments, enabling silenced forms of expression and knowledge, and prioritising co-design and collaboration over capacity building.
🍜 The secret sauce for cultural data stories? Be proudly niche. Mick Yang and Isabella Chua from Kontinentalist take you on a well illustrated tour of conceptualising and designing data stories of unique cultural experiences. If you’re intrigued by culturally specific data visualisation, inspired to own your niche (go deep, not wide) or simply want to learn more about Southeast Asian chilli sauces, do yourself a favour and watch this 20mn video.
😶 And a quick one: Do your emotions always feel accurate? In writing, that is. If you work with quantitative data, you might have struggled to find the adequate emotional vocabulary to describe people’s reactions. Spice it up!
🌏 It’s Complicated: Cultural Policy in SEA
Backstage: Managing creativity and the arts in South-East Asia
(2021: Sunitha Janamohanan, Audrey Wong Wai Yen, Sari Sasaki et al.)
Hot off the digital press and packed with loads of important insights on a rather under-researched region when it comes to cultural policy: Backstage: Managing creativity and the arts in South-East Asia is your companion to learn more about the policy environments in Southeast Asia that enable the cultural sector to thrive (or do f*#$ all in some cases). Originally, this study set out to map what financing instruments are available to CCIs in the region and to take pulse of how these very organisations hustle to make ends meet. This was in 2019. Due to COVID and the ensuing hardship for many cultural actors, the focus of the publication has shifted a little and now also shares their coping mechanisms. How do I know that? Well, I was personally involved in this research project led by the wonderful Sunitha Janamohanan and Audrey Wong in collaboration with the UNESCO Bangkok office. Thank you for the opportunity 🙏
The key message: It’s complicated. There are vast differences in funding instruments, incentive schemes and tax regimes between the nine Southeast Asian countries surveyed. What most countries have in common is the understanding of cultural and creative industries as a driver of national economic development while cultural policy development is shaped by a notion of ‘culture’ as national identity and unification.
Get ready for some very, very, very, very brief research highlights (= rants):
🇰🇭 Insane tax burden and ever-increasing rent in Phnom Penh. Arts organisations in Cambodia are very entrepreneurial and leverage development and tourism industries, which also makes them vulnerable. No meaningful support from the government, though.
🇮🇩 Struggling with low pay and low willingness by folks to pay for art. The Indonesian government isn’t exactly helping with over-bureaucratisation. This probably drives the prevalence of informal art collectives. Cool stuff: artwork is accepted as collateral in financial dealings.
🇱🇦 Boy, where do we start? Practically zero government support unless you have a cousin. The market is where the magic happens, and well, Laos isn’t exactly the most wealthy or most visited country in the region. Hang on, sisters and brothers!
🇲🇾 Financial sustainability is a major concern for CCIs in Malaysia. Then again, only half actually do business planning due to a lack of skills. And while many organisations do receive some form of government support, they are not always sure why. Also, censorship.
🇲🇲 What an absolute patchwork of a policy environment, if it can even be described as such. Trying to register as an NGO in Myanmar requires A LOT of patience. And in some cases, registering is not even desirable because censorship. Problem is that international donors usually require some form of charitable status.
🇵🇭 The Philippines consist of 7,000+ islands. Now, imagine how you would make sure your funding opportunities are advertised and processed everywhere equally. Exactly, pure chaos and far, far away from equity. Other than that, solid policy framework.
🇸🇬 There are only so many people who can buy a ticket to a show in Singapore. And while there are a bunch of government grants (even seed funding - damn), getting philanthropists on board is tough if you’re not a children's hospital. Not to mention the ridiculous costs of doing business.
🇹🇭 Thailand has probably the most integrated creative industries strategy in the region. That doesn’t mean that policy making is coherent, especially if different ministries decide for themselves what CCI actually stand for. Rejoice, there is legal recognition for social enterprises.
🇻🇳 Most CCIs are commercial enterprises, and sadly often with unsustainable business models. Why? Go ask the Communist Party of Viet Nam and their opinion on registering NGOs. Limitations of receiving foreign funding might also have an impact on funding diversity.
This all reads very negative, I know. But do not despair! We’re only talking about the policy environment and other mitigating factors here. There are an incredible number of bright stars operating in these countries defying all obstacles and creating kickass art. Watch these videos to get an idea of who is out there, and how the pandemic is challenging them.
And, hold the applause, the country summaries will also be available in all the majority local languages of the region to foster more intra-regional knowledge and exchange. I'll let you know when they're available 😎
MEDIA
🗞️ Did you know that UNESCO has their own culture and policy publication? And it’s good, too. Monthly cultural policy updates from around the world and some data-heavy think pieces - colour me impressed. Now, Tracker, please go fix your terrible design/UI, and I shall be your most loyal reader.
I’ve been wanting to give a shout-out to all my favourite free newsletters for a while now. I subscribe to a lot of them, but these few never make it out of my inbox unread. You might see a few familiar pieces here and there. Because cross-pollination. Enjoy!
🎼 Music World News by IMC: Industry news and updates from the wide world of music. Definitely check out The Pointy End with its more eclectic stories.
🖼️ Splice Frames by Rishad Patel: Light and refreshing with the odd burn. If you’re into design, UX, media startups or all of the above, this is for you. From Singapore.
🔍 Dense Discovery by Kai Brach: A lovely oddball of a newsletter that seamlessly swerves between philosophy, design and productivity. There are always gems inside.
🌰 ACORNS by IFACCA: This is for all the cultural policy nerds out there. Essentially, a policy and news roundup from arts councils and culture agencies around the world.
🇮🇳 Aspire through music
Are you familiar with Arjun Appadurai’s concept of capacity to aspire? In very, very short: poverty is a circumstance that hinders people from aspiring to more or better.
But here is the twist with the capacity to aspire. It is not evenly distributed in any society. It is a sort of metacapacity, and the relatively rich and powerful invariably have a more fully developed capacity to aspire
Why do I bring this up? Because instilling such capacity to aspire seems to be fundamental to the work of Music Basti. Founded in 2008 as an organisation that provides music education for underprivileged kids in Delhi. It's no coincidence that the basti in the organisation's name is often associated with the English term slum. These days, Music Basti is a programme of Enabling Leadership, and while the focus is still on music education for underprivileged children, the approach has become more systematic, cities have been added and the language has shifted over the years.
I initially heard about this programme from friends of mine, who were music students back then and volunteered their time outside of classes to teach children in urban communities that would rarely have access to music education. While there are very real issues of vulnerability and effectiveness, it turned out to be a classic win-win situation. The presumably more affluent music students got to practice their teaching skills and learnt valuable life lessons in light of stark class differences in their own backyard while the children received not only access to music education but were effectively introduced to an environment of opportunity and aspiration.
OPPORTUNITIES
18 April: UNESCO Silk Roads Youth Research Grant
🇨🇳 China is providing funds for young researchers to look into heritage and identities for creativity, cooperation and sustainable development in two or more countries along the Silk Roads. Focus is on exchange and interaction, and Silk Roads also include maritime routes. Shame on anyone who thinks evil of crafting new cultural narratives around the BRI.
23 April: Theatre and Development Partnerships (call for papers and more)
🎭 I rarely attend academic conferences these days, that’s partly because of Zoom-fatigue but also due to, well, how academia can be so frustratingly stuck. But here's hope. This conference on development partnerships for theatre at my alma mater welcomes not just standard papers but also experimental forms of presentation - yay! Themes look exciting and cover evaluations, histories, theorisations and decolonising approaches to partnerships of applied theatre in international development.
23 April: Local Authorities: Partnerships for sustainable cities 2021 (call for grant proposals)
🌆 The European Commission’s recently renamed DG for International Partnerships (now INTPA, previously DEVCO) put out a call for South-North partnerships between local authorities for sustainable urban development. A private body or university can also be in the mix. Encouragingly, the EU acknowledges that cultural heritage and cultural spaces are drivers of inclusiveness in urban development. Even a business incubator for CCIs seems possible under this grant. Take a look if you have any bright ideas and want to get your hands on these millions. (h/t Greta)
TOOLKITS
These past few weeks saw a lot of toolkits published. Or they’ve been out for months and years and I just happened to stumble across them now - who is counting? Here’s a temporary category so we all stay in the know.
🏛️ PATH - Peacebuilding Assessment Tool for Heritage Recovery and Rehabilitation by ICCROM: This very practical check-list and stakeholder mapping approach is designed to assess the role and vulnerabilities of built heritage in conflict and find an appropriate course of action to protect it. Lots to learn, but I also wonder whether the good enough approach really is good enough for such sensitive issues.
☔ Adapting Our Culture Toolkit by Cultural Adaptations: You might have guessed it, this toolkit wants to help your cultural organisation to adapt to climate change. Where most other sustainability lenses focus on the mitigation side of things (e.g. reduce emissions), in this instance we solely look at how you can prepare your organisation and cultural practice for the (hopefully not entirely) inevitable. Worth a deep dive.
🇮🇩🇧🇷 Creative Hub Leader's Toolkit by British Council: Business canvas, theory of change, stakeholder map, persona development. No rocket science, but all useful things and conveniently in one place. And now also available in Indonesian and Brazilian Portuguese.
💸 Guidebook on Alternative Funding Models for Civil Society Organisations in Africa by WACSI and I4C: I am a big advocate of funding diversity. And a good side-hustle shouldn’t be underestimated either. Take a look if you want to get some easily digestible inspiration how to prop up your organisation’s financial sustainability.
curious patterns is a monthly email newsletter on all things culture, impact and development, written by Kai T. Brennert (Twitter | edge & story).
Please forward this newsletter to a friend, and do reach out: kai@edgeandstory.com
Brilliant as ever. So much food for thought. The assessment of the national arts and culture policies in SEA was very informative.