Wiltshire Arts Promoters, Development Manager, Tracy Sullivan, C/O Arc Theatre Trowbridge, College Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 0ES Tel: 07540 938936 email wiltshireartspromoters@gmail.com

Automatic Transmission

In it’s very simplest terms this project is about readying the arts sector to respond to the

commissioning process, advocating to commissioners the value that the arts has in

delivering to its objectives and that young people are at the heart of identifying the need and

ways to respond to the needs of young people. All of this funded work is to be within the

Children and Young People’s service however it has resonance throughout all services

where commissioning happens and the learning gained can be used to deliver to a wide

range of sectors.

I have copied the opening of the Automatic Transmission G4A that WYAP have submitted as

part of their wider application to provide more detail if helpful.

Automatic Transmission Wiltshire

To date Automatic Transmission Wiltshire has been driven by Wiltshire Youth Arts

Partnership and Wiltshire Arts Promoters (WAP) with the purpose of developing a strategy

using an action research model that will make a deep and long-term impact on how the local

authority perceives the value of the art sector's contribution in achieving strategic objectives

for children and young people. A tender was submitted to the Arts Council and once

successful, seed funding was used to develop this into a business plan which is currently in

the process of being revised and re-focused so that it responds more rigorously to the needs

of Wiltshire’s youth arts sector with the increasing moves toward commissioning and in the

light of increasing competition for funding to deliver youth arts work.

Currently the Development Manager for Wiltshire Arts Promoters and the Youth Arts

Coordinator for WYAP are leading on supporting a steering group of key arts and local

authority partners. If fundraising is successful, our proposal for delivering this piece of work

is that it will be led by the WAP Development Manager. The WYAP Creative Producer will

continue to sit on the steering group and will also be nominated to sit on the executive group

for Wiltshire Arts Promoters who as a group have the direct line of accountability for the

WAP Development Manager’s role.

The aims of Automatic Transmission Wiltshire are:

1. To provide criteria for defining excellence and guidance on best practice in the delivery of

arts activity that achieves strategic objectives for children and young people.

2. To advocate for the arts as a key resource in delivering strategic objectives for Children

and Young People and to prepare the ground for an empowered arts sector to continue to

build strong relationships with the Local Authority and the broader public sector beyond the

life of this project.

Wiltshire Arts Promoters, Development Manager, Tracy Sullivan, C/O Arc Theatre Trowbridge, College Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 0ES Tel: 07540 938936 email wiltshireartspromoters@gmail.com

3. To achieve and promote a shared framework of evaluation that is accepted as an industry

standard by both artists and Local Authority/public sector partners.

4. To develop mechanisms for ensuring the central involvement of young people in making

the case for the value of arts in achieving local objectives important to them.

5. To identify skills gaps within the Wiltshire arts sector in delivering arts work that achieves

strategic objectives for children and young people and to develop methods for up-skilling the

sector appropriately.

6. To promote transparency in working arrangements with commissioning and partners in

sharing good practice both aspirationally and practically.

7. Building partnerships to managing risk and increasing effectiveness in delivering services.

8. To promote “cross mentoring” for new and existing partners which encourages

consistency and coherence across departments.