Watch this space

21/02/12
After contemplating the day spent at a seminar on developing digital arts I realised just how much we are doing right. At first I was a little impatient with the event as I felt it was aimed a lot lower than my current knowledge of the area. But after a very inspirational talk by Esko Reinikainen I am left feeling “Yes! We are on the right track!”



Image, courtesy of Adrian Barber
As an organisation we rejected the typical hierarchical structure most businesses employ. This was a risk because often the first question people ask is “who is the company manager?” or “who is your CEO?”. When you reply “we are non hierarchical organisation we have no manager”, you can see first confusion, then scepticism on their faces.


For the past two years as an organisation we have been trialling an agile structure with shared responsibility. Although agile enterprises by definition include numerous, constantly co-evolving and moving parts, they do require some structure. We work to our strengths with each staff member having an overall responsibility for different aspects of our work. This work is then shadowed by a second staff member providing support and the sharing of knowledge. So far it’s working well but we know we have a lot further to go in convincing the general populace of it’s dynamic value.


Esko Reinikainen 's talk and a recent radio 4 piece on similar socially aware business models made me realise that it may be risky to innovate but it’s worth it if you know it’s the right thing to do.


As a new team in an old organisation we have a lot to do and a very short time to prove ourselves, so watch this space.

So much to do

Since the New Year things have got really busy at Action Factory. There is so much going on, much of it revolving around taking Action Factory to a new level. It’s this year that our funding from the Arts Council ends. We are very sad that we are no longer part of the Arts Council’s regularly funded portfolio, but you know I think it’s doing us good.

It’s meant that we have had to take a good long hard look at who we are and what we do. It’s meant that we have had to explore other ways of bringing in income that sits well with our charity status, and it’s meant that we pull together as a team like we have never done so before. And we are not doing too bad and I for one am enjoying it!

Alongside writing a very important bid application and the refinement of our programme of work, my role has been developing a new website for Action Factory, one with a fresher look and a bit more relevant content. The intention is that we will blog about our work and projects so that other people can make comments and also so they can be easily databased using the categories and tags available on blogs. It will be down to you the reader to see if that works.

The bid is coming along nicely. Lucy has really stuck her teeth into it and is moving it along at a pace. We’ ve met with the arts officer at our local authority to go through it and put in some long hours on the development of the content. We will deserve some days off when it is done.We have also been talking to various people about taking space in the Action Factory. Nothing to announce yet, but we are hoping to share the building with some new people soon. Anyone who would like to join us – work space and office space is available.

Our work continues alongside. Kerry is a never ending whirr as she dashes from commitment to commitment, and Nicole has been continuing her drama with literacy work as she starts another term with a new year group. The Action Factory Youth Theatre has started up again, and are working towards a performance at the end of March.Plans are now afoot for a week of activities to celebrate World Community Arts Day later this month, kicking off with a love theme for stall at Radio Lancs on Valentine’s Day. 

2012 is going to one of the most challenging yet for Action factory, but the team is working together like never before, ready to take this organisation to the next stage in its development.