The Public - West Bromwich - money n' innovation gone bad

Arts Council pulls funding for troubled West Bromwich arts centre
£500,000 annual grant withdrawn with centrepiece gallery still not working seven months after building opened

West Bromwich's arts centre: the most ill-judged building since the Dome

What looks like a magenta fish, cost £52m and closed before it opened?
The fate of the Public arts centre in West Bromwich should make us re-evaluate the worth of publicly funded buildings

It’s not what West Bromwich needs and it’s not going to kickstart regeneration, says Tony Ward; while Sally Luton argues that it will provide a centre for innovation and creative expression

The 50 most influential movers and shakers on the welsh arts scene - according to the Western Mail

1 Ruth Jones
2 Russell T Davies
3 Duffy
4 John Fisher
5 Bryn Terfel
6 Michael Sheen
7 Katherine Jenkins
8 Matthew Rhys
9 Alun Ffred Jones
10 Andrew Davies
11 Nick Capaldi
12 Judith Isherwood
13 Peter Florence
14 Tessa Jackson
15 Michael Tooby
16 Peter Stead
17 Michael Bogdanov
18 Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan
20 Pauline Burt
21 Steven Moffat
22 Owain Arwel Hughes
23 Mari Beynon Owen
24 Terry Hands
25 Chris Ricketts
26 Ann Sholem
27 Geraint Talfan Davies
28 Tim Rhys-Evans
29 Cefin Roberts
30 John E McGrath
31 Thierry Fischer
32 Peter Finch
33 Tim Baker
34 Karl Jenkins
35 Sir David Rowe-Beddoe
36 Gruff Rhys
37 Peter Doran
38 Pablo Janczur
39 Gareth Jones
40 Rebecca Evans
41 Kathryn Gray
42 Dannie Abse
43 Doreen O'Neill
44 Llyr Williams
45 Gillian Clarke
46 Aled Jones
47 Catrin Finch
48 Peter Gill
49 Rhod Gilbert
50 Roger Burnell

Disclosures

Today I attended Disclosures, a project by Gasworks.

Disclosures seeks to scrutinise the notion of openness across fields of cultural production at large. A first reading of openness refers to situations in which the viewer, reader, listener or internet user becomes emancipated through egalitarian participation, collaborative authorship and/or the breaking down of hierarchical and social boundaries.

I didn' attend Saurday's presentations with seminars on Node.London and Open Congress. Instead I opted to attend sessions on 'Blue Skies, Grey Skies' to explore the limitations of FLOSS as a tool and as a model. I went to the morning seminar, presented by Toni Prug from LSE and attended a Resource Camp held by Critical Practice with the aim of drafting a set of guidelines for open budgeting.

The ResourceCamp will explore the ‘elephant in the room’ of open organisations and art institutions – the management of money and more generally the administration of resources. Through presentations, discussions and dissent we aim to draft ‘open’ budget guidelines for all.

The camp was similar to an open space technology event with participants setting the agenda for the sessions. Together the group explored issues concerning 'Opportunity Cost', generosity, exploitation, transitional practice, case studies of open budget participation, definition and balance of resources, issues of defining value.

Peter Dunn gave a presentation, providing some pragmatic advice on managing distributed budgets. I supported Peter when he mentioned measuring in-kind income/cost incurred during a project so that a 'real' monetary value is assigned to project budgets. The group concurred that if we gave value and budgeted for in-kind generated income the institutions we work for would be burdened with a heavy debt. Interesting thought ;-)

Jem McKay pointed out a useful report: open budget evaluation by Harrow Council. This sites Influence, Information, Diliberation, Feedback, Independence as the upholding principles for open budgeting. With this in hand Jem and Peter offered a a much needed practical view point.

A mailing list will be started with the aim of distributing notes from the days discussion, and carry it on - perhaps towards the stated aim of creating the guidelines. Lets see.

I just found an interesting report at infonomics.nl looks like it's also worth a read in the perspective of working with transactions that are not traded in monetary system.