Agenda item

Report of Director of Learning and Engagement.

N.B. – to be read in conjunction with the non-public appendices of this report at Item 18.

The Board received a report of the Director of Learning and Engagement providing an overview of the Creative Learning Department’s strategy and planning, in the context of the Barbican and Guildhall School’s vision and mission.

The Director of Learning and Engagement highlighted that this report had also been submitted to the Barbican Centre Board for information. He went on to report that the recently launched Barbican Strategic Plan and recent revisions to the Guildhall School Strategic Plan had enabled Creative Learning to produce their own Strategic Plan for 2016-2020.

The Director went on to talk the Board through Creative Learning’s 5 strategic goals and spoke of offerings for under 18 year olds which were Pan London and across all art forms.

The Chairman thanked the Director for his presentation and inspiring report. He noted that much of the Creative Learning Department’s work had focused on East London to date and questioned future plans to expand this. The Director responded that there was still further work to be done in East London but that there were also plans to increase outreach to the West. He went on to report that there had been increasing interest from some of the outer London boroughs such as Harringey and Enfield but that Creative Learning wanted to ensure that they were not duplicating the work of others in these areas and would therefore be looking to co-ordinate efforts in these areas.

A Co-opted Governor congratulated the Director on plans to improve the range and scope of activity but went on to question what research or monitoring had been carried out to ascertain the difference that such offerings had made to targeted audiences thus far. The Director responded by stating that there was still a lot of work to do in this area in order to provide more sustained evidence.

Another Governor suggested that it would be useful, in future reports, to see a map depicting the reach of the work of the Creative Learning Department across both Inner and Outer London Boroughs. The Director undertook to provide this information going forward.

In response to further questions, the Director stated that Creative Learning were working towards a more cross arts approach in their work and that the Great Fire of London commemorations had recently enabled them to release their first cross arts Box. The Department would now be looking to do more of this work with a strong thematic approach throughout each box.     

With regard to the questions posed at the end of the report, the Director reported that these were still very much live questions. He reported that meeting the need for a dedicated Creative Learning space remained high on the agenda and that various possibilities were currently being explored. Governors were also informed that the Department continued to look for fundraising opportunities. A Governor suggested that the Director discuss the possibility of a learning space with the London Metropolitan Archives if he had not already done so.

In response to a final question from a Co-opted Governor, the Director confirmed that there was much appetite to approach Trusts and Foundations on the Department’s work going forward. He added that the strong models already in place in East London provided great scope for rolling out this work much wider. He added that the Department were already in conversation with the Arts Council and that the City Bridge Trust had already given extraordinary support to the Creative Learning Department.

RECEIVED.