EC PAPERS NOVEMBER 2017

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Liberating Arts opening a professional, paid-for account with a third party supplier such as Eventbrite or Yapsody. Location/Venue: Any future Liberating Arts events must be located in more accessible urban locations such as Manchester, Birmingham or London. Such locations provide both a local market and easy transport links to the rest of the country. In the future we should try to find venues with catering facilities on-site. At events such as Liberating Arts people value networking opportunities as much as the presentations, workshops, performances and discussions. Thus having simple catering facilities on site maximises networking 9 opportunities by keeping people on site throughout the day. Trade Union Engagement & Buy-In: Right up until the night before Liberating Arts I was receiving emails from creative activists and artists wanting to present or perform at the event. There was no lack of interest or engagement from the creative community. However, it is not much of an exaggeration to say that the trade union movement almost completely failed to engage with the event. 10 Only one union, the Musicians Union, sent delegates (3) and they didn’t pay the institutional price! There was a complete lack of interest amongst the big TUC unions such as UNITE and UNISON but also almost no interest from even the other GFTU affiliate unions, including the creative and leisure industries such as Equity, BECTU, WGGB and NUJ. I am sure the big TUC unions regarded Liberating Arts as the business of the GFTU unions and thus not their affair but ultimately I think the mistake was to present Liberating Arts to both the GFTU and TUC unions as a done deal that they didn’t have to engage with. Thus if the GFTU is to mount another such event as part of an on going cultural programme, it is vital to seek and achieve buy-in from the GFTU unions and the broader trade union movement before committing further funds and effort.

i.e. sandwiches, cakes, tea, coffee and soft drinks. 9

By which I mean the leaders, full time officials and employees of the unions. 10 14 Producer’s Report 06/11/2017