Block 5. Cultural Opportunities

The English-speaking cultural and entertainment world?

Purpose: isn’t it obvious?

1. to immerse you in an English speaking environment
2. to show you how things perhaps differ from France in terms of culture, arts, heritage and entertainment
3. perhaps to broaden your career horizons
4. to give you some choice relating to your particular interests….. on the basis that you are likely to be more interested and motivated.
5. to improve your presentation & communication skills

There are a number of stages to the Block:

• general introduction from me
• individual (or possibly small team-based – as directed by me)  research into the structure of arts and culture and their organisation in the following sectors in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand:
  • public
  • private
  • voluntary
• Oral presentations based upon the use of cue cards or outline-only Powerpoint / Prezi slides where you have something in front of you to trigger the memory but most emphatically NOT to read….

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TASK. SO…. don’t just copy me with the list below… consider what you might like to do in the English speaking cultural world and look for and organisation for whom you might like to work….. it shouldn’t be that difficult: you have the USA, English-speaking Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland etc….. to choose from. Then prepare a presentation of no more than 4 or 5 minutes, in your own words on the organisation  supported by only the following:

• 2 x ‘Bristol’ cue cards WITHOUT any narrative (just key phrases/titles/dates)    OR
• 2 x Powerpoint / Prezi slides  (but do NOT take us off-powerpoint with links)

I will be marking the following inter alia:

• your confidence and clarity
• ability to communicate rather than to read
• ability to interest and continue to engage with your audience
• simple structure for your presentation (beginning + middle + end)
• your cue cards or printed copies of your slides

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To get you started, let’s look at England:

PUBLIC BODIES

• DCMS – the Ministry with responsibility for a broad portfolio including: Culture, Media (inc film), Heritage, Sport, Tourism, Arts, Theatre and the National Lottery.
  • range of agencies operating under the aegis of DCMS…. those of primary interest (among MANY others) being:
    • The Arts Council
    • The British Broadcasting Corporation    BBC’s own site
    • The Sports Council ‘Sport England’   /  UK Sport
    • Visit Britain    Visit England
    • British Film Institute
    • English Heritage
    • British Library
    • Heritage Lottery Fund and National Lottery Commission
    • The National Museums:
      • British Museum
      • Natural History Museum
      • Science Museum
      • V&A

• Local Government:
  • Bournemouth Borough Council’s leisure, culture and Tourism site  and the arts and culture section thereof

Voluntary Organisations / Charities (illustrative only – the UK has a massive range of such bodies for just about any area of interest).

• The National Trust
  • volunteering  and unpaid internships/ placements
  • jobs
• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
• The Third Sector (network hub for the third – i.e. voluntary [after private and public] sector).   Not just cultural….. all major charities and charitable trusts.
  • Quite a lot of JOBS – yes, even for placement / work experience ‘stage’ students….
• Fair Trade Towns.  Garstang in the UK was the first town to declare itself ‘fair trade’….and now the concept has gone viral internationally, but very slowly it would seem in France.
• Tourism Concern. A UK based body that is concerned about the impact of mass Tourism upon indigenous cultures.
• The Screen Actors’ Guild UK.    There is also a parallel body in the US
• Equity: the actor’s union for the UK
• Musicians’ Union 
• Arts Development UK – a professional association for those working in the arts
• Royal Shakespeare Company
• Amateur Athletics Association
• Amnesty International
• Leonard Cheshire
• Oxfam
• The Prince’s Trust

Hybrid Public / Private /voluntary organisations.

A good example here are the Regional Tourist ‘Boards’ which are to some extent like the Tourism Bureaux in Alsace BUT they have a rather unique status: commercial companies limited by guarantee.  They are extremely commercially minded (somewhat in contrast to the regional tourist offices here in France which are largely publicly funded).

• they receive a very limited (and fast diminishing ) proportion of their income from the state via national NGOs like Visit Britain /Visit England
• they offer paid ‘memberships’ to both local government and the private + voluntary sectors:  « Join us and your subscription includes x + y + z »
• the vast majority of their income, however, is earned income: money from commercial research projects, training courses, promotion and PR opportunities (advertising revenue) etc.

One such example would be the South East England Tourist Board:

• SEETB’s members’ site (restricted access)
• SEETB’s tourism promotion site for visitors
• Welcome to Excellence: a training programme available to ALL people working in the Tourism industry, leading to nationally recognised awards and even degree entry. Note the site extension is .co.uk…. it is commercial.  It is run by the Tourist Boards but is unashamedly a commercial enterprise.  Although almost anything to do with Tourism could be said to be ‘cultural’, do see the following:
  • Welcome All (about disability / special needs awareness)
  • Green Edge – concerning sustainability in theory and in practice with case studies on feasibiliy and viability etc….

Commercial Bodies (just a few examples)

• the Comedy Store Players
• The Globe Theatre
• Cameron Mackintosh
• Ticketmaster UK
• Creative Cultures : a consultancy

Unique!

• the British Monarchy: THE cultural institution!