Culture Commissioning: Mobile Arts Unit

Overview

Overview:

The Mobile Arts Unit is a multimedia high-tech vehicle, which converts into a space for arts activities with drop-down walls and extending floor sections. It has disabled access. Since 2007, Birmingham City Council’s Culture Commissioning Service has managed a range of arts projects using the unit, touring directly in communities and bringing participatory arts activities to residents throughout the city. These projects have also supported professional artists in developing and strengthening their participatory practice and developed residents’ experiences of local cultural and arts activities.

The Mobile Arts Unit helped to address recognised barriers regarding access and participation in arts activities for some residents; for instance inappropriate facilities, cost and feelings of exclusion. 

Since the inception of the Mobile Arts Unit in 2007, the Culture Commissioning Service has introduced other initiatives in order to facilitate Birmingham residents’ engagement in a high quality participatory arts experience. The Culture on Your Doorstep commissioning scheme supports activities that ensure residents have access to good quality and relevant cultural opportunities in their neighbourhood, along with the Local Arts Fora and Art Champions Scheme whose aims are to increase local participation through promotion and coordination of arts activities. Such initiatives are seen as a more sustainable way of delivering at District level, enabling and strengthening the development of a local arts infrastructure, and integrating local arts into different types of community spaces. Please see the attached information for more details.

Why your views matter

The current Mobile Arts Unit is fast approaching its depreciation value and there are no funds available to purchase a new unit, and limited funds for ongoing maintenance and running costs of the unit. The Culture Commissioning Service perceives that there is no longer such a strong requirement for the Mobile Arts Unit.

Options for Consultation

Therefore the Council are consulting on the following two options:

1. The mobile arts unit is released, and any income is invested in other Culture on Your Doorstep activities (such as those mentioned in the overview).
2. The mobile arts unit is released via community asset transfer. An agreement will be made with a Birmingham-based not-for-profit organisation to use the unit for the original ethos of the Arts on the Move scheme.

Please complete the online survey below to have your say.

What happens next

Culture Commissioning welcomes comments on the cessation of the Mobile Arts Unit as a facility via the two options.

*This proposal will be subject to Birmingham City Council's corporate Equalities Analysis process upon reciept of customer feedback.