Issue - meetings

To receive a presentation on the development of the Arts in Epping Forest.

The Epping Forest Arts gave a presentation on the current state of the arts and art development in EFDC to the Panel. Debra Coates-Reynolds the Acting Arts Officer, Joanne Thompson the Dance Development Artist, and two Community Artists, Sofie Layton and Sonja Zelic, presented the audio, visual presentation. A copy of the presentation is attached to these minutes. At the end of the presentation the Panel was supplied with a pack of facts and figures. Also in attendance were three visitors who are intimately involved with the arts in the district. They were: Linda Tona, Arts/Activities Co-Ordinator at Sherrell House; Chris Burns, Head of Ongar Music School and composer/musician; and Katherine Jackson, manager of IC Youth Dance Group at Ivy Chimneys School. They were available to talk privately to the members of the panel during the interval of the presentation.

Following the presentation the panel asked the following questions:

Councillor Murray asked how the Epping Forest Arts specifically engaged with the “culturally impoverished” children of the district. He was told that they worked with pupils from the Pupils Referral Unit and Youth Services and not just work with  ‘A’ level students. However it was accepted that there is a need to readdress the work that the Arts Team do with young people. Next year Epping Arts will be starting a new project called ‘Homeline’, which they hope will involve a lot of young people and their parents.

Councillor Mrs Smith asked if the West Essex Dance Partnership was a new thing. She was told that it has been established for some time and works in conjunction with Epping Forest Arts, The Playhouse Theatre and Essexdance.

Councillor Haigh asked about the demographic changes occurring and now that more and more elderly people live on their own – how do Epping Forest Arts plan to reach them. The section was looking to develop this area of work, they had identified that a big issue was transport and were looking to work with Community Transport to progress this area of work.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse asked about the costs involved and how were they prioritised. He was told that their aims and objectives in the BVPP set priorities. Some of the funding was match funded at Government and County level. The Gross Expenditure was just over £320,000 with a net expenditure of between £270,000 and £275,000.

The Arts team wanted to point out that they were not running with a full team currently and arts projects were labour intensive; whenever they start one project there is always another one on the go, and so it snowballs. Their projects, by necessity, have an intensive staff to client ratio.

Councillor Harding thanked the group for their interesting and informative presentation.