Philip Freeman on the involvement of young people

Reading the discussion paper that has been issued to inform the debate surrounding the  preparation of a Children & Young People's Arts Strategy I was struck by a notable omission.

While the ideas for involvement of young people in the arts outlined in the document are laudable, I think they don't go far enough in addressing the importance of the infrastructure in developing an engagement with the arts.

Arts activity doesn't take place in a vacuum, and the nature and type of arts activity will be affected by the places and projects it relates to. Understanding that is a crucial part of developing new and vibrant art practice in the future. Look back twenty years and there would have been no Angel of the North to inspire public art projects of the kind that the public can relate to; look back thirty years and Community Arts was largely restricted to inner city communities; look back forty years and Festivals were few and far between; look back fifty years and folk clubs were only just evolving from skiffle and jazz clubs.

We need to make available ways in which engagement with forms and structures can take place, as well as content, and need to balance - as in other areas of young people's development - the freedom to explore and experiment with concern for keeping them safe. I would like to see elements of administration, finance, health & safety, marketing and communication added to the ideas for actual artistic activity, in order to develop the next generation of artistic entrepreneurs.

You wouldn't design and make a pair curtains without thinking about the room you were putting them in. We should at least do the same for the other arts.