Arts Group Chair, Kit Friend, appeared on the BBC last weekend to defend the rights of interns to proper pay and treatment, highlighting specifically the issues with equality and diversity that the current lack of enforcement encourages.

To see the Arts Group’s recommendations on internships read the Emerging Workers Report here

Arts Group Chair, Kit Friend, met with representatives from the Arts Council England, Skillset, Creative & Cultural Skills (CCS) and Skillfast-uk, to discuss progress in the area of graduate internships. With our “Emerging Workers” paper due to launch soon, outlining our proposed direction in this area. We were grateful for the warm reception from these bodies, and look forward to a productive relationship ensuring the broadest possible benefit to those beginning their careers in the Creative Industries, free from exploitation and with an appropriate value attributed to their labour.

Arts Group Chair, Kit Friend, attended the HE Networking Meeting at the Arts Council England (ACE – www.artscouncil.org.uk) to discuss progress to be made around the issues of internships and graduate employment. The draft copy of our Emerging Workers Policy was discussed, and future developments look set to be in the pipeline soon – watch this space!

Kit Friend, Chair of the Arts Group, was invited to attend the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Conference in Manchester as part of the first ever student panel, aimed at engaging students in the HEA’s work.

As part of the vigourous discussion put forward by the panel on the theme of the best and worst parts of the student experience, Kit spoke in particular about the inequality of the graduate premium, the need for the NUS’s funding blueprint for an alternative to top-up fees to be backed, and serious consideration given to the issues with the IELTS testing and international recruitment practices as a fair preparation for students. Both the ADM and Palatine subject centres were enthusiastic about the prospect of working with the Arts Group in the future to ensure a sustainable voice for students of the Arts.

Kit also visited the meeting of the CHEAD executive to present the Arts Group, and we look forward to working with this and other organisations in the HE sector in the coming months.

HEA website: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/
HEA Conference information and resources: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/conference
CHEAD Website: http://www.chead.ac.uk/

Report from the Chair of the Arts Group, Kit Friend:
Apologies for the delay in posting up – after much discussion with the committee and others around employment issues, the debate kicked off properly at the Roundtable discussion on Internships and Bursaries chaired by Munira Mirza, the Mayor’s Director of Policy for the Arts, Culture and Creative Industries.

Much interesting discussion was had, with particular emphasis from Dani Salvadori and myself on how to develop better standards of pay and reduce the exploitation of unpaid interns and emerging workers in the Creative Industries. I will continue to push for progress from the discussion in this area, and in particular to get more private sector representatives to the table to enable us to truly move forward in ensuring fair employment in the industries Arts students will enter after graduating, and to widen access to those from all backgrounds – not just those who can afford to live unpaid for months or years.

Other attendees of the discussion included:

Dani Salvadori, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design
Fiona Davidson, London Museums Hub
Junna Begum, Culture Strategy, Mayor’s Office
Kit Friend, UAL Students Union Campaigns Officer
Libby Anson, Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication
Manick Govinda, Artsadmin
Mark Greco, Cultural and Creative Skills
Sandy Nairne, National Portrait Gallery
Sonya Dyer, Hackney Visual Arts Cluster
Tom Cambell, Culture Strategy, Mayor’s Office
Vilma Nikolaidou, Tate Gallery
Matthew Gansallo, British Museum

‘NUS Services is owned by Students’ Unions and the National Union of Students. Our mission statement is to; ‘Create, develop and sustain competitive advantages for member Students’ Unions –reducing costs and maximising commercial revenues’ ‘ (nussl.co.uk).

Kit ran on the slogan “Get a Friend in a high place!” with the following areas of interest emphasised:

Relevant services for FE and non-traditional students.
• Support the changing needs of evolving unions.
• Making eco and ethical affordable!
• Encouraging collaboration between unions.
• A genuinely useful NUS Extra!

Founding chair of the Arts Group – a voice for small and specialist institutions and FE | Fighting the exploitation of work placements and internships | Supporting the campaign for fairer funding | Proven track record of leadership | Creative Director of the charity “With Feeling”

As part of the NUSSL board , Kit hopes to encourage a diversification of income to provide a better range of services and opportunities for a broader spectrum of students. In particular those who make up many of the Arts Group membership (small, specialist, FE etc.) need to be better served by our National Union’s commercial wing.

For more information about NUSSL visit www.nussl.co.uk

Photo: Kit Friend, Chair of the Arts Group, Outside No.11 with staff from University of the Arts London’s Innovation Centre, Credit: Robert McColgan

Fresh back (relatively) from Whitehall and it appears the future of the Arts in the UK might not be so grim after all… though Mr Darling himself was absent, the great and the good (and 2 secretaries of state!) turned up on Tuesday morning to discuss the “New Deal of the Mind”, and collection of ideas on how the creative industries can innovate their way out of recession proposed by journalist Martin Bright in the New Statesman.

The guest list was truly stunning, and though there was little conclusive planning of action, funds were tabled by various attendees (and a good deal of thinking on where more money should come from to fund development).

On behalf of the Arts Group, the Chair (Kit Friend) emphasised the relevance of the students of the Arts mobilising to form representation during these tough times, called for an end to the (even pre-recession) exploitation of arts students and graduates as free labour, and for an appreciation of the full breadth of disciplines in the Creative Industries (much of the discussion was concentrated around writing and fine arts). The concept of a national database of case studies to inform workers in the Arts about the value of their work was also introduced, a project currently entering the planning stages as a collaboration between ECCA and SUARTS.

More info on the :New Deal of the Mind” is at www.newdealofthemind.com

Lynne Featherstone MP’s less abridged account of the event is here