London Seminars
The Third Sector Research Centre is holding small lunchtime seminars on the third Wednesday of every month. These will give people a chance to discuss some of our latest findings with researchers.
Seminars will take place between 2 - 3.30pm
Venue: NCVO, Regents Wharf, 8 All Saints Street, London N1 9RL. See map and directions.
Seminars are free, but places will be limited. Please let us know in advance if you would like to attend. Contact Naomi: n.landau@tsrc.ac.uk / 020 7520 2421
Upcoming seminars:
21 March 2012, 2 - 3.30pm
Amateur arts and civil society
Dr Jenny Phillimore, TSRC and Robin Simpson, Voluntary Arts
Civil society organisations have been increasingly in the spotlight of policymakers over the past decade as Government looks to civil society to provide solutions to a range of social and economic problems, from a local to national scale. In particular small, so-called "below the radar" (BTR) CSOs have been highlighted as having great potential to meet need at local and community levels. This seminar looks at a specific sub-sector of BTR civil society activity, that of grassroots amateur arts groups.
Despite constituting a large proportion of small CSOs, amateur arts have received scant attention from academics and policymakers. While claims have been made about the potential for arts activity to meet a wide range of social, economic and cultural goals there has been little consideration of exactly what impacts amateur arts activities might have on communities. Using data collected from a review of the academic, policy and practice literatures and findings from workshops with amateur artists this seminar explores what is known about the impact and outcomes of amateur arts on society. It highlights the importance of grassroots arts activity for the health, happiness and well-being of individuals and communities alike.