ART AT THE HEART: WHO CARES

WITH MAXIMUM RESPECT: to the person, a country director in one of the world's largest, and to some most contentious* companies who just posted on LinkedIn about the effectiveness of their 4 day work week strategy and the trend for it among others. He even cited one of their most ruthless competitors as an example (anything goes on 20% day ;-)

(* contentious given views by some on tax paid as well as their role in fuelling of copyright theft and worse, but to me an essentially good, visionary and 21st century company that has been very generous over the years and never sought credit so none they will get here or I'll give the game away. As far as I'm concerned regulatory bodies set tax regimes and corporations operate with them, I am a man on a mission according to The Guardian and will work with nearly anyone who shares our vision and values - we've worked with and been grateful for support from companies as diverse as BT, Lego, IKEA, Barclays, Google, National Grid, etc)

4 day week? Well, it's actually a 5 day week as in that the 20% time, those empowered, creative and generous staffers usually come up with ideas that go on to power their companies even further forward, either with new products, brand ideas or even the black oil, of CSR.

Easy when you're a big cog in a mega corporate machine and it's not clear if agency staff like cleaners get it but as far as I'm concerned, being a one man band is an 8 day a week job on a quiet week, 8 days and 5 nights as 3 are often sleepless! 

Many people in the school communities we work at STEAM Co. with, dream of a one day week.

#OURART19 Week

I am in Liverpool this week running the #OURART19 Week - a collaboration with The RSA, The Guardian, The Black-E arts centre and dot-art Schools to campaign for, inspire and action creativity in schools, work and lives. It's been a great week, inspired in no small way by one of my favourite artists, Keith Haring who has a mind blowing show at Tate Liverpool that finishes this weekend, sponsored by our other partner Liverpool John Moores University, whose support enabled their staff and students to go but sadly its about ￡25-30 for a family to go.

It was heart breaking then work, for free, in a very challenged school across the Mersey the last day of last term, in sight of the Tate where not one child or adult has been to the Haring show in its three or so month run. And were unlikely too.

I was blown away when the children in that school sang and danced The Farm's Classic anthem 'All Together Now' for me. You had to be there. Once day you might because kids like that need carers like you via our community engagement STEAM Co. Day model that sees staff from companies work with schools in this way.

Because STEAM Co. connects our kids with their art and our communities with their schools.

Imagine their delight when I showed them this 3D gallery I have made of the show on cardboard VR glasses with an old smartphone I'd picked up on eBay.

We'd also used them on a week of activity days we delivered with a small grant from Google, another company who support us and indeed made the very first STEAM Co. Day here in Liverpool possible at which Sir Ken Robinson (of No 1 TED Talk fame) spoke

Any company like Google that fund work like this doesn't spend it but invests it in children's futures. All our futures.

Find 60 seconds to watch this wonderful moment of how one young boy in a school in King's Cross, 500m from Google's HQ helps another child confront her fears

When was the last time you or a colleague experienced a moment like that in your day job, let alone on your paid day off?

Yes we like Google and one woman there in particular has been a rock to us, and many others, I know in her 20% time.

GIS A JOB

It was short notice and today we hear if we get a much needed Arts Council Grant to put the icing on the cake of the #OURART19 weekend here in Liverpool, but we won't get that if we can't match fund it and since applying for the grant our funder has had to back out due to their own internal issues (there's a lot of it about)

Don't tell Great Thunberg but I was giving out flyers on a cold wet evening last night in the city centre and a homeless guy sat shivering on the floor in a doorway asked me for a pound.

I'm not really able to give money to anyone at the moment but I am desperate in my own way too so  gave him ten pounds and said he had a roof tonight as that was his. Additionally I asked if he'd mind giving a few flyers to people passing by but that he could bin/recycle them if he wanted to.

His look was of utter insult. Who was I to accuse him of dishonesty. He insisted on taking all the flyers I had to prove his honesty.

He hugged me and kissed me.

He asked for my number and I asked why. He said he could do any job - painting, plastering, he was a good tiler apparently. And that he had a wife and kids at home to feed.

I had a flashback to the desperate plight of the character Yosser Hughes in Alan Bleasdale's epic portrait of life in the last period of extreme austerity. It shows how he struggles to feed his family, as he drowns in bureaucracy and unemployment, begging for any job with a catch phrase 'Gis a Job. I can do that'.

#ART at the HEART

Tomorrow I have been offered the biggest buildings in Liverpool City Centre in a massive old congregational church in the city affectionately known as 'the Blackie' as it was once black with soot.

Over 50 years ago, with the philanthropic support of Peter Moore, then heir to the Littlewoods fortune it was purchased for a young woman and her partner to run.

I was delighted to be introduced to Wendy Harpe by the hostess at my AirBnB on the outskirts of the city. She told me how it had been at the heart of the city providing community arts before the word had ever gone on an Arts Council grant application form.

She told me how her husband Bill had worked with games in an art content to connect the community, writing books and making films on the subject and how he'd had a stroke recently and was bed ridden.

She then picked up her phone and made a call. And tuned to me,go and see Bill, he'll get up to meet you. She told me he lived on Huskisson Street, named after William Huskisson, the Liverpool MP who had been run over by the world's first passenger carrying train.

That steam train had been invented by a young Geordie, who had been illiterate ten years prior and working in a dark mine shaft ten years before that, at the age of five.

It's not rocket science

Anyone who knows anything about me will know I have a thing about steam powered Rockets like George's and STEAM powered rockets like Homer's.

That I recently wrote a book called Rocket Kid stories - nine short stories for kids to read 'with' their parents and other creative carers.

I say 'with' and not 'to' because the lad on the front of the book, who features in one of the stories, told me how his dad couldn't read but that he'd use the book to teach him, in front of the whole school at the books launch event.

Here's a film of his story with Elton John and couple of train sets

Art at the Heart of an Outstanding School Community

I met Bill and he agreed to let us use the Black-E (E for Education, Exploration, Enthusiasm) for the Friday and Saturday of our event. We'd hoped to do the Community Day in a derelict skate park but the weather isn't looking good (but is good for an indoor event ;-).

We also fancied The Florrie, but they have an LGBT circus in all weekend. They are another community arts centre in the city that does amazing work after the Duke of Cornwall/HRH Prince of Wales did some fancy work with some deeds his mother seems to have had in a drawer and it is now owned in trust by the community, not the city or local council but the community.

The Florrie is a marvel of what a community can do with sports, art and even home education and weddings too (see photo) thriving there slap bang in the middle of what looks like a pretty challenged estate.

I met one of the most inspiring people I've met lately (well since Bill Harpe) at The Florrie yesterday - a man called Anthony who I hope will join Bill and be part of a unique day, the #ART at the Heart of an Outstanding School Community Day.

Who cares?

STEAM Co. believes that few people really care about education or other people's kids. We believe we need to bring important conversations about how we educate our kids and how we need to educate some parents, teachers and other creative carers about the importance of art and culture, under increasing pressure and connect them with business and society as they are interlinked.

It's why we say we celebrate 'Art' - the killer combination of creativity, tech and people to inspire kids in their learning, create jobs and connect communities.

The #ART at the Heart of an Outstanding School Community Day at The Black-E will see teachers, parents,techs, artists and other members of the community come together for a day of Inspiring Keynotes, Short Talks, Performances and Workshops with local, national and international perspectives on this important conversation about art in our schools, work and lives.

We have the following line up with others still to confirm, yes, we're making it up as we go along because the plane took off before we finished building it. (There's never enough time is there).

• Inkie - world famous graffiti artist from Bristol will talk about street art and hopefully do a painting while he is in the city
• Frank Cottrell-Boyce - a talk by this top children’s author on the #AARTofBOOKS - building a culture of reading in schools and the importance of reading together at home. And hopefully some robots!
• Alan Gibbons - local artist/author/activist will present his insights into the power of culture, community and stories that make Liverpool such a special city - the #ARTofCOMMUNITY
• Bill Harpe - one of the city’s cultural legends, who with his partner Wendy Harpe almost invented the phrase ‘Community Arts’ and have been running the Black-E Community Arts Centre for over 50 years. Bill will talk about the #ART of GAMES
• Prof Caroline Wilkinson - an introduction to the work of Liverpool School of Art and Design by its Director, a world authority on face tech and STEAM.
• Prof Simon James - we are delighted to be able to include a talk by the lead researcher on the recently published Durham Commission report on art in education.
• Andre Anderson - this will be a fascinating talk and workshop on community publishing by the Head Teacher of the Freedom and Balance Art School.
• David Wearing - a school leader from Cheshire who rewrote his whole school curriculum around STEAM and creativity in 6 weeks - the #ARTofCURRICULUM
• Chris Tolson - we hope to get this amazing head over from Bradford to share his thoughts, dreams and fears as he embarks on a similar #ARTofARTSMARK journey to David Wearing, who is going to help and advise him
• Carolyn Murray - will talk about the inspiring work of their Dot Art Schools project and annual art competition for schools.
• Andy Cooper - Co-Founder of epic local digital/art/experiences agency to talk about cutting edge tech and skills it needs, role it plays will talk about the #ARTofCODE
• Jo Stokes - runs amazing local arts education team AsCreative and will talk about the #ARTofSTORYTELLING
• Paul Carney - brilliant artist/author from the North East and member of NSEAD Council
• Leigh Adams - Head of Education for the British Film institute (tbc)
• Patrick Otley O Connor - Head Teacher at North Liverpool Academy - to talk about the scooter shop/workshop they have in school

All Together Now

And that's just the morning for in the afternoon, we will have a conversation with Nile Rodgers who is in New York celebrating the 40th anniversary of We Are Family' the anthem he wrote for Sister Sledge.

And we'll also sing a special version of The Farm's Classic anthem 'All Together Now'.

You may as well listen to that now to get in the grove before we get to the the payoff.

Now we come to the payoff

As we say above we are in full on nail biting mode as we will hear today whether or not we will get a small Arts Council and National Lottery Grant to enable us to pay the artists in helped in the above (Nile is not charging us nor is the camera person in New York that we were introduced to).

But we need to match fund and are looking raise ￡15k today to enable us:

• To live Stream the event on YouTube
• To pay for tea, coffee, cake and sandwich lunch for everyone in the local community who can join us tomorrow and on Saturday
• To give everyone who wants one, one of the 750 t-shirts we have ordered on sale and return for them to design and print their own I LOVE ART logos onto
• To pay local dancers from community groups to come into a dance.
• To hold #DANCECONNECTS19 - a party Saturday evening at community dance at the Black-E
• To run a two week Twelve Days of (Creative) Christmas UK tour visiting 2 schools a day between Lands End and John O Groats after launch at the Eden Project

If your company can help please email us at [email protected] - every thousand helps.

If you want to help individually, become a part of the #ARTCONNECTS19 Festival by becoming a not a patron, but a #PARTron19 of it for as little as a penny.

We'll print your name in one of the next 5,000 newspapers we print. Here's the last one

Hope is Power : Change is Possible

The last bunch of names included lords alongside a lad and his mum and dad off housing estates in Leeds and was printed on a page The Guardian gave us

They're sending 200 copies of the paper to us on Saturday - who knows we may be in it a this rate!

We like The Guardian, well 80% of it anyway as this blog we wrote shows, it's not all good there either and we don't do #BinaryEdThinking even if DOminic Cummings and his cronies do.

The Guardian's latest brand campaign that we tweaked as you can see here, certainly inspired us got us over a hump the other week.

We don't do art!

Will you help us, we know one company who probably won't because a director there, who is doing a wonderful job with a Tech Literacy project we collaborate with and that is impacting millions of teachers and young people, told me "we don't do art"

But they connect don't they?

Will this?

Stand Up for What You Care About

Whether or not you can or will help, I ask one thing.

Please don't ignore me but please give me a 'yes', 'no, or 'maybe' in response to the odd email. It's not a lot to ask is it?

A smile to that man in Duke Street neither.

If you care about art, children and all our futures, we call you a creative carer.

Our kids need you.

So as Billy Bragg, Ai Wei Wei, Chuck Dee and Keith Flint RIP might say, stand up for what you care about.