New Writing SouthGreat! But was it any Good?
Disability Arts Critical Writing Masterclasses 2007
New Writing South was invited by Arts Council London to run two linked masterclasses for artists and writers in Disability Arts.
“Excellent course. Really enjoyed the two days and certainly learned a lot”
Overview and ways forward
These
masterclasses were originally organised in part to test the
water as to how an organisation like New Writing South could
work collaboratively with DAO and the Disability Arts sector.
It has transpired to be an extremely fruitful partnership,
resulting in excellent skills-sharing and greater understanding
on both sides. We feel that everyone involved learned
a great deal.
The aims were to:
- Deepen the understanding of the role of the professional critic
- Debate this role in the context of the Disability Arts sector
- Impart professional critical writing skills to a selected group of artists working within the sector.
These aims were certainly achieved, and the feedback from participants attests to this.
We feel something important has begun, with a cohort of well-trained writers who are aware of the key issues in arts criticism. They are uniquely placed to comment not only on Disability Arts in all its forms, but also to offer a different and valuable perspective on mainstream arts. We suggest that it’s vital not to lose momentum now this project has started. The participants involved are all keen for further masterclasses. In addition, an idea proposed at the start of the project was to host a conference discussing the important role of criticism in Disability Arts in enhancing quality and professionalism. The time is now right for such a gathering. It is to be hoped that the various players who helped make this project such a success will be able to meet soon, and talk about how to take forward the excellent work already achieved.
Summary of the masterclasses
The two half-day masterclasses took place in September and
October 2007, at the accessible Women’s Library in
Aldgate.
The classes were led by Carole Woddis, a theatre critic who has written
features for the Guardian, Independent, New Statesman and the Stage, among
many others, and is visiting tutor in journalism art Goldsmiths College.
Carole was supported by Allan Sutherland and Colin Hambrook
from the world of Disability Arts.
Guest
speakers included critic Mark Shenton, actor Caroline Parker,
and Andrew Dickson, Editor of Guardian Arts online.
The classes went extremely well and participants commented
how useful they found them. They expressed strong interest
in further classes, including improving one’s writing,
mentoring, working towards publication and having a follow-up
day. All comments in blue in this report are direct quotes
from participants’ evaluation forms.
“Relished the opportunity to
meet such different and varied a
selection of writers”
Publicising the masterclasses
The masterclasses were advertised widely, in the following
places: Arts Council London, Arts News, Creative Capital, Dao,
Dada South, Disability Writes, Graeae, LDAF, New Writing South,
Shape, Soho Theatre, Tower Hamlets Arts, Writernet and Events
and Writers Guild.
Thirty individuals were also contacted directly at the recommendation of Colin Hambrook
Participants
Enquiries
were received from 28 people, and finally eleven applicants
were accepted on the basis of a covering letter and short
review.
Some of the participants were very experienced writers, and others had worked for many years in Disability Arts. Others were fairly new to Disability Arts but wished to pursue writing or arts in this arena.
Masterclass 1
The first class took place on 12th September, and covered the
following topics:
- Writing experience and aims of participants
- Principles of arts criticism
- How these principles apply to people working in Disability Arts
- Examination of reviews of Graeae’s ‘Peeling’
- Talk from Mark Shenton on the role of the critic
- Analysis of recent critiques
Colin Hambrook wrote a transcript of the key events of this first class (see Appendix 2).
“Thanks to everyone involved. It is so rare to find a safe accessible environment to try out one’s skills”
Assignment
There were six weeks between the first and second classes.
During this time participants were asked to choose an arts
event from a list, then write two reviews of it: the first
as if written for the Guardian in 500 words; the
second for Time Out in 280 words.
(See Appendix 1 for two sample short reviews submitted by participants.
Masterclass 2
The second class took place on 24th October. During this class,
participants were given detailed comments on their reviews,
and three were chosen for general discussion. Also in this
class, we had two guests: actor Caroline Parker came along
to talk about her experience of being on the receiving end
of criticism, and the kind of reviews that she finds helpful
and encouraging. And Andrew Dickson, editor of the Guardian Arts
website and blogs, spoke about how he makes commissions and
the kind of writing he looks for.
The class concluded with a discussion of magazines, papers and websites to approach for reviewing work, and detailed information about how to pitch to these places was given out.
Colin Hambrook offered participants the opportunity to pitch
a proposal to Dao for an article on why better critiquing in
Disability Arts is important. The writer chosen will be commissioned
to write a thousand word article for publication in Dao, plus
a fee.
Again, Colin wrote a transcript of the key events of this class
(pending).
“A very fine class. Tutors and guests were excellent”
Participants’ feedback
Participants were asked to complete an evaluation form. They
were asked whether they agreed with six statements, as follows:
- My critical writing skills have improved
- The masterclasses improved my understanding of what critical writing is
- I am now more confident about the process involved when criticising Disability Arts and artists
- The sessions were well organised
- The timing and venue were appropriate
- I would like a follow up to these classes
All participants agreed with all of these statements (except one person who disagreed that the venue was appropriate, because of parking difficulties).
The statements ‘I am now more confident about the process involved when criticising Disability Arts and artists’, ‘The masterclasses improved my understanding of what critical writing is’, and ‘I would like a follow up to these classes’, were strongly agreed with by a majority of respondents.
“A really nice introduction. Would like more”
Suggestions for follow-ups
Participants said that they would be interested in attending:
- ‘Follow-up day in twelve months!’
- Targeting publications/outlets’
- ‘More writing exercises’
- ‘Publicising yourself’
- ‘Mentoring’
- ‘Technical stuff and more on visual arts
- ‘Balancing critical writing with a day job’
- ‘Objective analysis of one’s own work’
- ‘Practice at strengthening writing’
- ‘Short story and script writing’
- ‘Similar vein but more diverse than 500/150 word pieces’
- ‘Work on fiction’
- ‘Hope we can do more courses on all aspects of writing and possibly via email/blog forum’
- ‘Sharpening critical writing with individual feedback (online preferably’)
- ‘More on the peculiarities of critiquing disability arts’
- ‘Audience for writers – who to aim at’
Beth Miller
26th October 2007
