AMA Symposium 2005 – A road map to utopia
AMA Symposium 2005 – A road map to utopia
Report on a symposium held to assess the 'big picture' around the sector and look at its long-term future, with an opportunity to build a collective plan for the next two decades.
The symposium started in 2003 to meet the needs of the AMA’s more senior members (arts professionals with ten or more years’ professional experience). It focuses exclusively on ‘big picture’, sector issues and is less concerned with offering practical learning experiences that are directly relevant to the delegate’s job. The symposium is programmed for people with ten or more years’ professional experience in mind.
This year, the symposium provided an opportunity for senior arts professionals to plan collectively for the next twenty years – to agree a blueprint for the future for the arts and audiences. It brought together marketers, managers, audience development professionals, policy makers, cultural planners, artistic directors and curators, and offered a three-cornered structure:
- Visioning Utopia: what could the UK arts sector look like for audiences in 2025?
- Looking Out: what opportunities and challenges might help or hinder this vision?
- Looking In: using this knowledge, how might we create a road map to a realistic Utopia and make it happen?
The programme was delivered in a series of presentations, debates and facilitated discussions with the final plenary presenting a summary of what the symposium participants felt to be the salient points of the two days.
The AMA enabled delegates to keep abreast of innovative products through the conference exhibition and for those wishing to relax, they added yoga sessions and sugarfreedesign provided a chill-out area featuring a new work by artist Carey Young that delegates could take part in.
