Should Auld Apprenticeships Be Forgot?

"we should be hovering around some megalopolis in Flash Gordon pants, all stresses and strains made redundant by a smooth transition ..." - a blog about Volunteer Farming in the Arts, obviously :-)

I’ve been simmering on this since the turn of the New Year, and in particular that moment when the bells chimed and we welcomed in 2012. What on Earth has happened I thought, surely by now we should be hovering around some megalopolis in Flash Gordon pants, all stresses and strains made redundant by a smooth transition into … hang on, since when did sci-fi predict a perfect world?

Truth is, it never did. Sci-fi visionaries tend to be doom masters, pondering human nature in the sceptical and following a path that no matter how much we try to alter, continues to promote the strong at the expense of the weak. They make fantasy out of reality, our reality, a place where the model of servitude exists and constantly looks to catch us off-guard.

There’s a broader platform for discussion here obv, but let’s look in particular at music and the arts. Let’s look at how the farming of volunteers is being touted as progressive and, dare we admit it, necessary to enable some projects to tick the box and help their embedded professionals to remain in post.

So we have volunteers, they’re here because they want to work in creative industries. Do we see them as potential leaders, guardians and educators, provide them with professional training, real opportunities and front-line responsibility for project delivery? Do we place them within creative teams and ask for their input, teach them the jargon and give them a tour of the professional landscape? Or are we looking for those who, given Facebook access to promote their band will design a flier, populate a database, find self-worth as the human answering machine and, most importantly increase schmoozing time for the regular faces

To get to the point, if we only look to bring in young creatives as triers and tea-makers, can we really call ourselves cultural ambassadors?

Please note in my defence, I have been brought up on way too much sci-fi :-p

Time for a rant methinks, let’s go - It’s my view that if there’s a career path progression from pay-to-play here it is: the Big Society dead end volunteer. A positive spin on ‘work experience’ in the shadow of the bright lights with rarely a promise of anything more than leave of absence from the unemployment figures, it’s often the equivalent of local band night: if you raise the bar, you get to play another local band night. Ok, there will be some success stories to pull out of the hat - kinda like when we get the disabled kids to smile for the photo before locking the music room for another week - but cheap cuts random volunteer farming, just like pay-to-play, is an extension of servitude, a political and social faux pas that stunts growth in the economy and chokes cultural pathways with cynicism.

I think we need to be very very careful right now but also very very determined. If there’s a desire to make and share music (or any artform) in human beings, we need to have open doors and real opportunities for each and every one to develop, share, and educate. We need ladders that people can truly aspire to climb. Not only on moral grounds, but for the better working functional society. We really do need to look after all the young people out there, to provide spaces and supportive environments for the arts without the catch on the door, and we need to ensure that those with the least skills, have every opportunity to grow and deliver alongside those with the most, to lead, share and educate. There is no shortage of children and young people who want to learn and take part, so let’s get everyone in our team, irrespective of status, voluntary or otherwise, involved professionally in the creative education process.

A voluntary work opportunity without genuine opportunity, is not an opportunity – it’s a lie.

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Comments welcome, especially if you have good examples of exemplary volunteer programmes and practice  

:-) dp xx