Data

A project collating the diversity of arts and humanities research infrastructure in the UK is underway.

The Mapping the Arts and Humanities Project is being conducted by the School of Advanced Study, a postgraduate institution of the University of London.

It plans to capture the institutes, centres and networks supporting arts and humanities research across the country, to produce an interactive tool that will allow researchers to connect with potential collaborators outside of their existing networks.

The project teams also hopes the interactive tool will be used by policymakers to locate where policy-relevant expertise is concentrated, and external organisations to identify academic partners.

Dean of the School of Advanced Study and Chair of the Mapping the Arts and Humanities project board, Professor Jo Fox, said that despite having access to more information than ever before, research networks in the arts and humanities can still be hard to find.

“Our new map will provide a consolidated source of information that will help us all to find and connect with research activity more easily, and boost visibility for research infrastructure across the country.”

The project team have already collected hundreds of pieces of research infrastructure across the country but say they “have only just scratched the surface”. 

The final map is expected to launch in November this year, with the project team planning to share interim findings and insights from the mapping process on the project’s blog. 

A new archive project will see thousands of music recordings dating back to 1973 digitised and made publicly available online.

The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester will be delving into its vast archive of recordings for its Throwing Open the Concert Doors project.

The RNCM plans to conserve and digitise performances spanning a 50-year period, including everything from student recitals to full-scale opera productions.

As well as being available online, there are also plans to install a public listening booth at the college’s Oxford Road site.

Heather Roberts, RNCM Archivist, said: “The RNCM’s story is of great significance to Manchester’s cultural heritage, but it is ultimately a ‘hidden gem’ in terms of public awareness.”

She added that many of the older recordings are in danger of being lost due their deterioration over time.

“Due to the ravages of time, these [older recordings] are steadily and irreversibly degrading and, without conservation and digitations, will soon be lost forever.

Throwing Open the Concert Doors is supported by a £206,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It will be delivered in partnership with Manchester Digital Music Archive – a volunteer-run online community archive – and Manchester Central Library’s Unlocking Our Sound Heritage initiative.

A UK-wide Museum Data Service is to be established to pool records on millions of objects so they can be shared for research and public use.

The initiative, a three-way partnership between Art UK, Collections Trust and the University of Leicester is scheduled to launch in autumn 2023.

Art UK, which already brings more than 300,000 artworks, from 3,400 collections, to an online audience of more than 4.5 million people each year, said the new data service will allow it to scale up its operation adding millions more artworks over time.

The work, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, will also involve the creation of a new state-of-the-art e-commerce platform which it is hoped will support Art UK collection partners to substantially grow commercial income from their image assets.

Andrew Ellis, Director of Art UK, said: “The benefits to our audiences and participating collections will be significant in terms of the growth in artworks joining Art UK and the growth in commercial income. 

"But the real excitement here is to be working with Collections Trust and the University of Leicester on such a transformational initiative for the wider sector, one that will do so much to reduce silos and grow knowledge sharing”.

Rising energy and food costs are severely impacting the viability of writing as a career, a new survey has found.

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) surveyed more than 250 writers, among whom 55% cited the cost of living as “impacting on their ability to sustain a writing career, severely impacting livelihoods and the cultural industries which depend upon their skills”.

Writers across TV, film, theatre, audio, books and videogames responded to the survey, with 67% stating that they had to rely on savings in order to manage day-to-day expenditure and 37% saying they were forced to rely on their partners’ earnings.

More than 70% of those surveyed had earned £18,000 or less for their writing work in the last financial year.

Over 80% described themselves as freelance writers, highlighting the precarious nature of self-employment for the screenwriters, playwrights, authors, audio dramatists and videogames writers represented by the union.

“The UK faces a [serious] loss of writing talent and this risks pulling the rug from under our world-beating cultural industries, which contribute over £100bn to our economy and enjoy an enviable global profile,” said Ellie Peers, WGGB General Secretary.

“We will be working with our industry partners to address the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on writers, we will continue to campaign and lobby and we will defend our members against poor practice wherever we find it.” 

Problems reported by survey respondents including having less time to work as a writer or apply for funding and development schemes, an industry-wide dearth of opportunity, real wages failing to keep pace with inflation, late payments, shrinking production budgets and reduced audience sizes. 

Many also expressed anxiety about how the cost-of-living crisis would affect the creative industries, fearing that shrinking demand might force organisations to close.
 

A new survey has been launched as part of efforts to improve conditions for creative freelancers.

The Redesigning Freelancing survey has been launched by creative industries network Creative UK working in partnership with nine combined local authorities in England.

Creative UK hopes to gather information that will help it address issues such as the economic uncertainty that comes with freelancing.

Caroline Norbury, CEO of Creative UK said that current difficulties “means we risk losing the next generation of creative freelancers – particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds”.

She added: “It is our collective responsibility to ensure more is done to protect our freelancers, integrate them with organisations in order to build better partnerships, and make sure there is a fair and equal playing field.

“This survey will help us to identify the key priorities that need action now.”

The survey can be completed here.  

More than 85% of British people believe music is an important part of maintaining positive mental health, a survey has found.

The survey, conducted by the app FREE NOW also found that two thirds of those polled see local grassroots music venues as a vital part of the cultural make-up of their hometowns.

Half the people surveyed said that music was a reason for their closest friendships and almost 84% said they had at some point been moved to tears by music.

Music was also seen as a key component of many people’s romantic relationships. Almost a third of respondents said that they had met their partners though a connection with music and 38% knew what song they wanted to play for the first dance at their weddings before even meeting their partners.

“The importance of music was never in doubt but it’s great to see confirmation of just how vital it is to people’s daily lives”, said Mariusz Zabrocki, General Manager of FREE NOW.

“We know more than most that live music has had an incredibly rough few years with the pandemic and incoming cost of living crisis.”

The app is set to partner with the Music Venue Trust for 120 gigs aimed at supporting struggling music venues across the UK in the next year.

“The grassroots music sector is facing incredibly tough times with the energy crisis and the cost of living challenges compounding the impacts of the pandemic,” said the trust’s CEO Mark Davyd.

“This survey demonstrates again how important these venues are and how much it matters to people, and it’s great to see companies like FREE NOW recognising that value with direct action campaigns bringing more music opportunities to more people.”