The Culture Works Collective

Over a period of 3 months, there were 6 planning meetings held, involving 31 artist-sessions with freelancers attending on a rolling basis and paid at £50 per session. There were also wider conversations about the planning and production process at open F13 meetings, with discussion shaped by questions and input from attendees. Reports from these meetings detailing planning progress were shared throughout to the F13 emailing list of 300 individuals.

This process was held/convened by Janet Vaughan, who works part-time at Talking Birds and is also a freelance creative practitioner. Talking Birds is artist-led and is part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio, so the company was also represented in a series of meetings of the city’s NPOs in the wake of the City of Culture Trust collapse.

As convenors of the F13 network and freelance artists in their own right, Talking Birds’ staff strongly advocate for the small scale and freelance sector. It is this, combined with F13’s response to the collapse of the CoCT, Creating the Conditions, which led directly to F13 being commissioned to plan and produce The Future Works event.