Contents

This is a list of all the reports on this site. You can also see lists of the sessions not yet reported on here, and some pictures of the event here

This is what we talked about over the two days:


01 Is a Creation Centre really going to make us more creative?

02 How will the Creation Centre be curated/managed?

03 What World Class Creation Centres does London already have?

04 Any ideas/interest in a prototype 5 year creation centre in Hackney Wick?

05 What would we not have or miss if we did not have a Creation Centre?

06 How could we best use the Olympic Broadcast Media Centre after the Games as a “world class creation centre”?

07 Who will pay for it? How do we continue to work if/when funding disappears/decreases? Could a creative centre help?

08-09 build it

10 What actually is a creation centre and what makes it world class?

11 Create a space for carnival arts with in the centre

12 Why do we need a creation centre?

13 Grabbing the cultural legacy of 2012. Is a world class creation centre the best/only way to do it?

14 Who will Build it? And why?

15 Who will use it and can they afford it?

16 What is creativity? If we define it, do we lose it?

17 How can we use China resources (Space and Speed) for London Creation Centre?

Pictures

The Build It session made a world class creation space out of cardboard! To see pictures of it, click here

Issues raised, but not reported on (yet)

If you would like to send us your report you still can- email it to office at improbable.co.uk

Where in London might we have a creation centre?

The Sawmill, Area 10, Peckham? [visual theatre & contemporary circus]

Can London 2012 make this a reality?

Does size matter?

How can we have world class creation processes without a centre + bricks + mortar

Do we value + support what we've already got? And how?

Supposing you already had it, what world class creation would you make in it?

Let's get practical

17 How can we use China resources (Space and Speed) for London Creation Centre?

Converner: Li E Chen

Participants: Billy, Rose English, William


Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

We discussed the possibility of using China's resources (its vast and inexpensive space and the speed at which work is done) for the creation of a London Creation Centre, which could establish a "London brand" in China.


Notes:

-To have the space with "London brand" where the centre is operated by London and showed/made works by London artists.
- if it is a collaborative creation space or sole owned creative development space, or if can be both, that open to more possibility.
-UK and China have a different view with size and speed, and if two different attitutes can be combined and created for running the creation space.
- To look into different creation centres, such as Robert Wilson's Watermill centre in US, xxx in France, xxx in China.
-Limited of space and speed: creativity should not be restrict by the size of spaces (if it is on the back of a van or a large building) or scale of the works (if it is small, solo or large scale, thousands of people) or speed of making the works (if it is fast or slow)


more notes will be updated later online.

16 What is creativity? If we define it, do we lose it?

Convener: Jan

Participants: Jan, Debbie, Phelim, Marcella, Matilda


Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Grow a building
• Converse with it
• Let it be warm
• Let us see the sky and the landscape
• Let us be cold
• Let people come in and out of it as they wish.

We can’t pre-empt the outcome or product of creativity.
Imposing a structure (imperialistic model) may not be the most effective model of nurturing creativity.

Are we talking about creativity as a product for an industry i.e. a piece of art?

Formal education and teaching plays its part
We operate in a culture of vocational learning, where the true meaning has been lost or forgotten.
We could embrace skills (doing), meta-skills (feeling) and foster a culture of learning how to learn.
No one fails.

The concept of creativity is currently perceived as a subject (art) in schools, rather than seeing it as a fundamental human element and will be with us in all our learning and understanding of the world.

Managing creativity
As people responsible for artists and creative work - we could look at how we manage processes/products that hold the values of Open Space.

Some questions
• Do the people or building come first?
• How do we challenge the dominant cultural models that are output & evidence-based; especially when our funding relies upon us playing that game?
• Can we together say ‘no’ to funders and challenge their perception of creativity and allow it to be organic?

15 Who will use it and can they afford it?

Convener: Peter Mount

Participants: Mike, Charlotte, Alex, Margaret, Kiki

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
1. Based on a broad definition of creation centre then yes, there are users.
2. Many venues/facilities operate successfully only because they run a mixed range of users – from local with limited funding through to the large, corporate, strong brought in to provide “commercial” income. The strong will prosper, and are needed to fund the weak, and can “control” the time they use, the spaces, etc.
3. The time used and investment of resource to raise funds, and make an organisation viable, can be very counterproductive for the success of users – they can’t afford the space, or for a limited time. Lot of energy from the users and space suppliers just goes on just trying to get into the space. The process of getting users for a space, and finding a space, can be/is overwhelming.
4. There is no “free” space, letting users get on full-time with creating. There is no equality of opportunity for the weak – the strong win!
5. Was the older funding model in times past different? Have things really got tougher, or has it always been tough?


Bad
Freedom to work and create…
is compressed and limited by the time and resource investment to sustain viability
= imbalance

Good
Freedom to work and create…
is promoted and expands if it is at the centre and is supported through fully accessible resources, and supported by real significant investment
= balance

Conclusion
Yes there are the users, at the right price

14 Who will Build it? And why?

Convener: Clive Lyttle

Participants:
Mark Morren, Ajay Chhabra, Becky Thomson

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

LOCAG – practical question of who should build it

Does an organization exists that can take the lead?

Then build it

Capital question – where does it come from?

Infrastructure

Big contenders who runs it – responsibility – needs to be instigated by an existing authority.

Who is in a position to say this will happen?

ACE

LDA – has a history of Land development

Need proof of need for such a centre

ACE does it establish need through events such as this open space.

Who will fund it

Need to be built in two years time for 2012

Responsibility of sectors

Why are people not taking responsibility?

LDA – Hackney wick building

Dragons Den – need to involve entrepreneurs or corporate bodies

Lord Sugar?

Richard Branson involved?

Top down or bottom up approach to development

Benefit of partners

Is 3 Mills the right site?

Could it be developed on other brown field site?

LDA – Purchase site

LOCAG / ODA bricks and mortar

ACE – what goes on inside ?

3 Mills thought to be an ideal site because of its isolated location i.e. surrounded by water, lee valley etc

Why?

Commitment to legacy

Public money

Animate space of Olympic park

Dress space

Barcelona out door art park/event

Use by festival

Watch out for problems that happen in millennium dome and celebrations etc