Introduction

The course is structured to be delivered over a period of nine months between October 2008 and June 2009 during which time each student will formulate and develop their own project.

There will be 4 required days of attendance throughout the semester

Tuesday 28th October
Induction Day                                               

Thursday 20th November
Masterclass One
( focussed on the theory of cultural planning)

Thursday 12th March
Masterclass Two
(focussed on cultural planning in practice with examples from different parts of the world)                                              

Thursday 14th May
Masterclass Three
( focussed on the opportunities for and obstacles to the delivery of cultural planning in Scotland)                        -

Presentation
The final event takes place in June 2009 at the Scottish Parliament where certificates are presented.

Induction Day

Hosted by the University of Strathclyde, at their Jordanhill campus, the induction day will provide students with details of the course, copies of the course handout, book lists, an introduction to library use and an indication of the amount of reading and private study required between each session in preparation for the next one.
There will be an introduction to the use of the website where lecture notes, reading materials, work from past students, video presentations and a section to debate and discuss topics raised during the course can all be accessed on line,
The induction day is an opportunity to get to know fellow students, reflect on your own practice and look at how the work of the course may support/develop that practice. You will  also hear about future higher education possibilities beyond this course.

Master Class Sessions

Hosted by organisations using cultural planning methodology which are based in different parts of the country (previous years have visited Out of the Blue in Edinburgh, The Bridge and Royston Road Project in Glasgow, and  Dundee Centre for Contempory Arts).
On the site of an existing project, each master class session will be delivered in 3 parts. The first part is in lecture format delivered by national and international experts in cultural planning like Dr Franco Bianchini and Lia Ghilardi or Stewart Murdoch from Dundee. The second part is a tutorial where, in a small group, students can discuss their progress and project development.

Finally, during each masterclass you will go on a field trip with your masterclass lecturers, your tutor and fellow students. You will visit projects adopting cultural planning approaches.

Project Work

Central to the course is the students own conception and development of their own live project.  On a complementary timescale to the masterclasses, with ongoing advice and guidance being provided between sessions by a designated tutor, you will develop your own project underpinned by cultural planning methodology. This may be something you are working on anyway or it could be a project which you will design now for delivery in the future. Previous students have used the course to develop their business plans, feasibility studies or, in some cases, to take their project right through to actual delivery on the ground.

Follow Up

The end of the course does not signal the end of your on going growth and development in cultural planning theory and practice. You will continue to be a member of the national cultural planning forum, to access the ncpf, steering group business, website and discussion fora. You can access on going mentoring from the relationship you develop with your tutor, you can attend the masterclasses and tutorials by revieiwing the course in future years or by dipping in and out of masterclasses. You can join field trips/tutorial sessions in   future years and you can use the services of Fablevision to help you deliver your project on the ground.

Some feedback from students and national cultural planning forum members:

"The Cultural Planning course and the follow on support from the NCPF have been hugely important to me in my professional development and practice. The cultural planning approach is in my view one of the most important policy areas in community regeneration, planning and policy and encourages fresh and innovative thinking. "
Mark Langdon, Culture and Sport Glasgow

"Being involved with the cultural planning course is best summed up in the type of opportunities it could potentially bring.  They include closer partnership working, a wider knowledge of what other organisations are doing, closer ties with local expertise and good opportunities for forging links between projects to their mutual benefit."
Deirdre Craddock, Development and Regeneration Services, City of Glasgow Council
 
"The big insight for me is that, while community development is focussed on organisations, and cultural policy is focused on 'sectors', cultural planning is focussed on the whole territory under consideration and its culture in the widest sense.  For me this means that people can work from a base of valuing what they already have and use it creatively as a resource for change, building capacity and making a good life."
David Francis, City of Edinburgh Edinburgh Council                                              

"Doing the cultural planning course has given me a vocabulary for the approach I have adopted in my work over the past eight years. Importantly this year it has helped me to articulate where I differ in approach to my
work from a new colleague who is from an arts development background. By being able to do this I have been able to discuss these differences rather than simply be left with an uneasy gut feeling for which I did not have
words. It has definitely helped us to work together."
Rachael Smillie, The Village Storytelling Centre

"Cultural Planning gives me a structure within which to argue for cultural activity as a core part of a wide range of initiatives and strategies rather than as an add-on"
Charles Bell, Arts Manager, Culture and Sport Glasgow

" I have a notion that I worked in a 'cultural planning way' anyway, however what being involved has meant is that I now have a name for this 'model' and I can use it too convince others that this is the way to go!"
Carolynn Cruickshank-Gray, Lorkin Consultancy

"Having the network for cultural planning and Kirsty (Duncan) doing the course has allowed me, at a strategic level,  to help elected members and other senior officers see the concept of re-generation  in a different light and one that is far more relevant to a place like Perth and Kinross. It links so much better to the aspirations in out community and corporate plans than previous ways of thinking and gives an excitement to thinking about how we develop our cultural assets"
Maria Walker, Depute Director, Education and Children's Services, Perth and Kinross Council

"Involvement with Cultural Planning theory and seeing some pieces of work in action, broadens your thinking about how pieces of work can be approached more creatively and  holistically.
For instance I suggested recently to the Community Planning Officer responsible for Community Engagement that a solution to some difficulties she was having with partners working together and having a shared understanding Community Engagement may be to take a Cultural Planning approach and bring in an arts facilitator. At a subsequent meeting we had an introduction to a project (one street)in the South East where a Cultural Planning approach is being taken to unite and develop this street."
Wilma Moore, Culture and Sport, Glasgow

"Being involved in the cultural planning training course and understanding some of the distinctions of cultural planning has affirmed my instincts about the importance of taking a strengths based approach starting with the development of an asset map of the community. This has increased my confidence in terms of taking this approach in the project I am currently working on.

Doing the course has also provided me with a framework and a language that has made it easier to communicate a community lead and creative way of transforming communities that was previously more instinctual. I have found that having clearer language and distinctions makes a big difference in terms of better engaging in the debates around community empowerment and community lead regeneration"
Di Jennings, Co-ordinator, Local People Leading

"My work in community planning involves engaging with partners from other sectors who can each bring their own idiosyncratic organisational approaches to dealing with our shared issues. my exposure to cultural planning approaches has helped to remind me that we must take the time to map existing structures, processes and relationships; that we must support and encourage a truly participative, 'bottom-up' approach; and that we must allow for an element of unpredictability in our work - if
we are to build a robust analysis of social issues and if we have any hope of effecting lasting and sustainable change."
Milind Kolhatkar, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations' Council

"Developing a theoretical understanding of cultural planning has crystallised the importance of community involvement in optimising cultural assets and resources.  It has also been affirming in terms of the recognition that is given to the contribution that culture can make to a wide range of policy issues - if only wider partners had this vision!

The course itself provides an opportunity to re-energise and be inspired - it is great to have the opportunity to discuss and debate ideas with others who are alive to the potential of culture in this way.  The visits to existing projects have also provided a positive opportunity to see how relatively simple changes in approach can have a significant and lasting effect, whilst also highlighting some of the practical challenges of bringing partners on board."
Bridget Sly, Culture and Sport, Glasgow

(One sentence about the difference that being involved in cultural planning  has made in my professional practice)
"Listen to the People"
Jim Sweeney, Youthlink Scotland

"Being involved in the cultural planning course has enabled me to cross professional borders/ disciplines and to see or explore the possibilities of bringing theories of critical pedagogy (Freire/Giroux etc) to a range of different settings, places and spaces.  It has helped me see the cultural perspective (in the broadest sense). It has made a difference to my thinking by helping me to see the multiplicity of lenses through which conceptions of 'community' may be viewed or contested.. and to questions whether this concept has utility in contemporary society. I believe that it does and see cultural planning as one name for the professional field I have been engaged in for over twenty-five years.
Being involved in developing this work, in partnership with others in the team, has strengthened the value base from which I operate, it has increased my capacity to think across professional disciplines and to break down theoretical boundaries that get in the way of meaningful dialogue. It has increased my confidence in being able to  frame problems around my own professional field and to be more open to collaborative possibilities."
Annette Coburn, University of Strathclyde

"Being involved in the cultural planning course has enabled me to consider the ways in which I work across Scotland. I currently project manage LGBT History Month across Scotland. This involves working with a wide range of organisations and individuals, to empower them to work with LGBT equalities. Having an understanding of the works of Gramsci, Bianchini, Ghilardi and Friere provides me with a better understanding of communities and ways of engagement.
I have been working with Community Planning Partnerships, regeneration projects and equalities for a while now, but having theory to underpin this work, provides me with a greater sense of confidence. I have found the course really useful, and have really enjoyed learning from the trainers and other participants. I feel that as more organisations and Councils understand the nature of Cultural Planning that there will be wider consultation and more effective services and delivery."
Ann Marriott, LGBT

"SURF's job is to positively influence the development of better regeneration policy and practice. My involvement with the Cultural Planning Forum has helped me conceptualise and articulate the wisdom and practicality of building community regeneration strategies based on the strengths and enthusiasms of the communities themselves. The practical examples allied to the well tested theory have been extremely helpful in promoting community led, creative based regeneration options to policy makers who more normally tend towards centralist strategies which have fairly consistently failed to produce sustainable regeneration in the past."
Andy Milne, Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum

"Working with arts and culture in the wider community it is necessary to have confidence in the importance of culture to people’s lives, education, economic factors, confidence, etc. So we need to have evidence to back it up. Cultural Planning helps this and needs to do more in this area. In regeneration, arts and culture play a vital role in so many areas, but especially in having confidence in your own culture, where you come from and thereby being able to develop and sustain a positive, ‘can do’ approach to making things better. I have worked with many groups across a spectrum of the community and without doubt, engagement in arts and cultural activities gets to parts other work can’t reach."
Sandy Watson

"The national cultural planning forum is a practical example of a partnership of thoughts that illustrates and advances the necessity for a joined up approach to planning and policy. The course is the essential transfer of knowledge to allow it to happen in practice"
Peter Minshall, Post Graduate MA Student, Arts in Social Contexts, RSAMD


"I work within an Arts Development team and the course did widen my perspective.  Getting the chance to hear about and visit other projects across Scotland was where the course helped me the most.  Coming into contact with people from different areas of work also had value for me - I imagine the discussions , which only just started on the course, is where things could really get interesting.  The course highlighted to me the need for more focussed discussion and understanding across sectors.  I also realised that there is a need to translate the fairly academic language used on the course into a plain and appealing description for cultural planning that Arts Development and other sectors can quickly make sense of, get a handle on and want to be part of."
Kirsty White, Culture and Sport, Glasgow
     
"I have always been a “community artist” even before I knew what that was although I am an artist first and foremost. I have struggled with short term contracts and after more than 20 years in the profession have little to show for my hard work: no pension, no savings no home ownership and very few holidays. Why did I do it? … love not money. I did keep thinking that one day I would get a decent job, but none exist.
It’s great to see that cultural planning is being adopted by planning and other professionals. We are still a long way from an integrated community and cultural approach to everything. So many people have been trained to overlook/under play their cultural and creative aspects. Cultural planning helps s to recognize that communities have culture and artists in them all the time."
Jayne Taylor, Caledonian University and Recycle Arts
                                               

" Senscot was established in 1999 with the intention of connecting up socal entrepreneurs across Scotland. Fablevision is a like minded organization with an equal commitment to transforming lives and communities. Fablevision is pioneering the creative methodology in this field called cultural planning: the most powerful tool in delivering community planning and community development at neighbourhood level as well as at national level in terms of regeneration, education and health. These approaches have, over the years, proved a great success. The cultural planning approach has shown that through a series of creative projects, communities (with the support of local and national agencies) can bring genuine and sustainable engagement, empowerment, vibrancy, training, employment and enterprise as well as regeneration, health, crime reduction and an on going learning environment.
It is for all these reasons that we are delighted to be members of the national cultural planning forum to support the promulgation of cultural planning methodology. We are also happy to support the participation of staff member, Colin Campbell in the cultural planning training course to learn more about the powerful methodology, theory and practice.
The idea of the creation of a centre for cultural planning is one that Senscot wholeheartedly supports. "
Lawrence Demarco, Senscot
                                                          
"Being involved in the Trans:form course has given me a deeper and more thorugh understanding of comunitiy ownership and the power that members of communities have to make a real difference in their area. This has helped my professional practice greatly as I work for Scotland’s Centre for Cultural planning, Fablevision and the more we understand about the methodology, the more we support them to do something about the social issues facing them in their lives."
Louisa Taylor, Administrative Assistant and artist, Fablevision       

"I am keen to support the sustainability and future growth of a national Cultural Planning centre or body of expertise.
Personally, I have benefited enormously from my participation in the course. As an organization, we have benefited enormously from our association with the national Cultural Planning Forum and its individual members who have provided us with research evidence and methodologies with which to strengthen the approach and evaluation of some of our work with the 32 local authorities.
Our partners within those local authorities and their Community Learning and Development teams are keen to learn more about this area of work and it seems to me that a national body is the appropriate position from which to offer them high quality training and good practice sharing events through which the authorities can develop their own improved practice."
Jacqueline Whymark, National Scottish Arts Council Creative Links Officer at Scotland's Learning Partnership