DCMS Blog
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Watching some of UK theatre's top talent preparing for a major production of Macbeth, helping young people to fuse hip hop with Shakespeare and meeting The Queen - it's all in a day's work for Alix Manning since joining the Royal Shakespeare Company through the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries scheme. Here, Alix tells us more about her role as an Education Associate Practitioner.
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If you think forests are only for hikers and picnic-loving bears, it's time to think again. Bursary recipient Antony Mottershead explains how the Forestry Commission at Grizedale, in the heart of the world famous Lake District National Park, is using the forest as a very unique setting for innovative art projects to engage the public.
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I spent the first days of recess in Norwich, Ipswich, Swindon, Bristol and Bath, visiting organisations covering all areas of my brief.
Continue reading "Bookshelves, broadband and Bristol’s creative hothouses" »
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Leah Bartczak, who won a placement at Brighton Photo Biennial as a Projects Coordinator, ponders the difficulty of mapping out your future when you work in an industry like the arts but explains how thinking about the long-term helped her land a big promotion just a few months into her first arts job.
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Tourism Minister John Penrose reflects on the newly published Tourism Strategy and the view from the top of Europe’s soon-to-be tallest hotel and tourist attraction.
Continue reading "And finally . . . Tourism Strategy is published" »
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VisitBritain Chief Executive Sandie Dawe takes the reins on the DCMS blog today, with a guest post on British Tourism Week, partying on piers and warming up Britain’s ‘welcome’.
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Arts graduates are working in a variety of organisations across the sector on placements funded by the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries Scheme and many have been tracking their progress on their employers' blogs. Here is a round up of some of the best, offering a further insight into careers in the arts.
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On International Women’s Day, guest blogger Jude Kelly – Director of Southbank Centre and WOW – Women of the World, a new festival celebrating and promoting women – gives us her independent viewpoint on the fight for equality.
Continue reading "From Bangladesh to Bristol – celebrating women’s strength and inventiveness" »
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In the latest instalment of the Bursary Blog, Lucie Sheppard fills us in on her placement at Siobhan Davies Dance and how it is giving her vital experience of working in an arts organisation and the chance to re-establish herself as a dancer.
Continue reading "Exploration and artistic development: life on the DCMS/Jerwood Bursary scheme" »
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Some of you may have read Watership Down, the children’s book by Richard Adams, which was published in the seventies, then made into an animated film in 1978, generating a No.1 hit single for Art Garfunkel, before going on to become one of those cultural icons – like the book and film Babe or the comparethemeerkat.com ads – that change how we think of a particular animal.
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Harold Tillman, Chairman of the British Fashion Council, reflects on the success of London Fashion Week, its importance to the British and global fashion industries, and how the industry is working to address the challenges it faces.
Continue reading "Showcasing and nurturing British fashion talent" »
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I’ve always had a soft spot for the Heritage Lottery Fund. One of the original good causes when the Lottery was set up more than 16 years ago, it has been quietly going about its business and, with the bare minimum of fuss and kerfuffle, has been putting money into projects and programmes that have had a fantastic impact on our built, cultural and natural heritage.
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Bought a new car recently? Me neither. But when the time comes, I’m pretty sure that I - like most of you, I suspect - will make the decision on what to get on the basis of lots of different things.
Continue reading "What cars, cornflakes and caravan sites have in common" »
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Grace Denton, iShed Coordinator at Watershed in Bristol, explains how the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries scheme enabled her to take part in an internship and kick start her career in the arts.
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Not-for-profit theatre company HighTide is one of the organisations taking part in the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries scheme. In this video, artistic director Steven Atkinson explains how the scheme is benefiting the organisation while new recruit Philippa Wilkinson, tells us why a funded placement was the perfect option for her.
Continue reading "Graduate placements "will improve our theatre"" »
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In the first of our new series of guest blogposts from graduates on the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursary scheme, Gemma Connell, Trainee Producer (MIF Creative) at Manchester International Festival reflects on her blossoming arts career.
Continue reading "From bedroom to performance space – an artistic journey" »
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Wonderful news today that Brueghel’s masterpiece ‘Procession to Calvary’ is to stay in the UK.
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So did you have a good one? Me too. Plenty of snow, roasting chestnuts, open fires and so forth.
Continue reading "Good news on our £100 million tourism marketing fund" »
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Jacqui Gisborne, Head of PR for Weymouth and Portland Council on hosting the sailing events for the Games in 2012.
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We’re all in favour of people coming to this country for their holidays, of course. The more the better, in fact. But what is it they get up to while they’re here?
Continue reading "So what do tourists actually do when they come here?" »
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I did an interview this week with BigHospitality, an online news and information service. Hospitality is itself, of course, a sub-set of the tourism business and, as such, a source of great interest to me as the minister responsible.
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Charles Saumarez Smith, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts on plans to boost philanthropy.
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Foul weather, beating the Australians and Blackpool are all on the mind of Tourism and Heritage Minister John Penrose...
Continue reading "Fancy a brew? Earl Grey with milk, no sugar, turns out to be a world beater" »
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There’s an old gag that goes like this....
Continue reading "Stonehenge, mystery shopping and an over-excited lemur" »
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Cast your minds back 16 years. November 1994 was a month like any other, packed with incident and happenstance, much of which has now been consigned to the recycling bin of history.
Continue reading "Forward to the past: taking the Lottery back to its roots" »
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Councillor Brian Connell, Cabinet Member for Business, Enterprise and Skills at Westminster City Council explains why it will pay to promote tourism.
Continue reading "Giving councils a stake in local growth will drive tourism" »
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There are lots of things we associate with seaside holidays in the UK. Some of them are childhood memories, while others come to us as we get older and, if we’re lucky, have the pleasure of seeing the seaside through our children’s eyes.
Continue reading "Piers, Penny Lane and a Prime Minister mistaken for a President" »
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Last week I interviewed the Minister for Culture, Ed Vaizey on stage, at the Youth Dance England conference, in front of more than 300 people from across the world.
Continue reading "National Young Dance ambassador blogs for DCMS" »
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Apparently my opposite number in Italy, Tourism Minister Michela Vittoria Brambilla, is furious at a new ‘What Country’* app which sums up Italy as ‘pizza, the Mafia and scooters’, and wants it removed from the Apple online store.
Continue reading "Tea, a weird sense of humour and rain – do they mean us?" »
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It would be handy to be able to kick this little effort off with something about ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’ or a doleful suggestion that ‘summer’s lease hath all too short a date’ but, let’s be honest, there’s a better than even chance that you’ll be moaning about it all being too hot and muggy as you read this.
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Last week was pretty hectic, and I was involved in issues across the whole of my fairly wide-ranging brief.
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Got any plans for the second weekend in September?
Continue reading "Heritage Open Days, vintage posters and a challenge for seaside resorts" »
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I think it was The New Statesman, or possibly I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue on Radio 4, that first came up with the idea of asking contributors to find the most inappropriate, but well-meaning, advice to give to overseas visitors to Britain.
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It's now been three months since the election, and it feels as if we have barely drawn breath.
Continue reading "Tough times, difficult decisions, fresh thinking" »
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It’s around this time of year that Ministers for Tourism get the call, I’m told. It may come from a Sunday tabloid or a daily red-top. It may even be a broadsheet. But the question is very much the same, whoever’s asking. It goes like this: Where’s the Minister for Tourism going on holiday this year?
Continue reading "Are you going away at all this year, sir?" »
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Breakfast at home on Saturday, the gentle tick of the dining room clock the only sound above the soft murmuring of the children, the barely audible rasp of low-fat spread being applied to wholemeal toast, and the occasional turning of a newspaper page’s well-informed and balanced coverage of Government news. Calm and contentment - the perfect peace of a family weekend...
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So now we know which city is attempting to follow on from the “best ever” European Capital of Culture, Liverpool.
Continue reading "What winning UK City of Culture will mean for Derry/Londonderry" »
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Birmingham – City of Culture? Well we’re already a Kity (Keep it to Yourself) of Culture and now I think it’s time we really did show people in this county just how good Birmingham really is.
Continue reading "City of Culture - Jasper Carrott blogs for Birmingham" »
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I have been very interested to hear of Derry’s bid to become the first ever UK City of Culture in 2013.
Continue reading "City of Culture - Liam Neeson blogs for Derry/Londonderry" »
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Here the lifestyle is honest and I feel set free from the chaos, congestion and consumer pressures of London.
Continue reading "City of Culture - Mary Anne Hobbs blogs for Sheffield" »
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'Norwich is a city with culture running through its veins, and combined with its way of doing things differently, it is poised to make the best use of the City of Culture title through a radical Whole City Experiment.'
Continue reading "City of Culture - Stephen Fry blogs for Norwich" »
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I've been wondering for a while if I have the longest job title in Government, as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries with responsibility for Digital Access and Inclusion. I suspect others might outdo me if they used their full eighteenth century monikers.
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It’s not every day that Blackpool’s Golden Mile and the Great Wall of China appear in the same sentence.
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So far, I think I am making good progress on my DCMS priorities.
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Let’s begin with a statement of the blindingly obvious: there’s a lot more green space in our towns and cities than you’d expect.
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An interesting report from Sheffield Hallam University brings welcome news for the tourism industry. Welcome, that is, in the sense that it helps dispel some of the received wisdom that the seaside tourist sector is in dire straits, following the historic increase in overseas holidays being taken by Brits.
Continue reading "Why we do like to be beside the seaside" »
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Government’s a funny business.
Continue reading "The strange case of the listed building that wasn't spun" »
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A month or so ago, I got the call from Downing Street to say that my career as Shadow Business Minister was over (no surprise there, in the circs) and a new life – as a Minister in the Coalition Government - was about to begin. Not, as it happened, as one of the ministerial team at BIS in Victoria Street but, in a move as old as Yes Minister and as young as The Thick of It, as Minister for Tourism and Heritage at the DCMS in Cockspur Street.
