Wafer Hadley has been engaged to produce the cultural strategy for Hull, working closely with the city’s emerging LSP advisory group on culture and lifestyle.

Our work began with the group last week , and the potential for the project is clearly very great. Our consultation with the community and stakeholders takes place over the next few months, and it will be fascinating to see the vision emerge.

As part of recent piece of evaluation for Arts Council England, we had the chance to interview a wide range of Chief Executives of arts and cultural businesses about the organisational change process. We asked them to share from their own experience a ‘top tip’ for keeping change on track and for good management generally. Here are the Top 10 suggestions:
1. Draw yourself a map for change, taking different areas of management as starting points, so that you have something to hold onto. The road ahead may be slippery.
2. Be open to things you haven

There seems to be a window of opportunity emerging to inject a bit of life into the country’s playgrounds, judging by a new government consultation on the quality and content of children’s play areas. A national play strategy will see kids’ playgrounds being put under the microscope, aiming to get beyond swings and roundabouts to “something more creative that inspires play across a wider age range”.

The consultation comes from DCSF and DCMS, and it does rather suggest an opportunity for colleagues from the arts to bring their considerable experience in this area to the table? There is

I’ve seen two great films in the last fortnight, but where are the audiences? The first, Vantage Point, was in a little out of the way place on a rainy Tuesday, but Son of Rambow was at the biggest city centre screen, on Friday night. Is DVD by mail hurting cinema? (I hear Love Film is buying Amazon’s UK DVD hire list). Or was it Son of Rambow’s poor reviews, which criticised the film’s 1980’s setting for its artificiality: sorry, were they there in the ‘eighties?

As someone as intrigued by people as I am, it has been fascinating to find out more about Mass Observation. The beginning of the twentieth century had seen social anthropologists travelling far and wide to study the habits of ‘the natives’, but in 1937 three young men decided to study everyday behaviour in Britain, creating a ’science of ourselves.’ The study lasted until 1950 and thousands of volunteer writers and observers committed to keeping a record of their daily lives and charting a period of great change in British history. Simon Garfield’s book ‘Our Hidden Lives’ takes extracts from these diaries in the period immediately following the war and gives a precious insight into the daily trials and experiences of ordinary people. A new Mass Observation started in 1981 and they are currently recruiting for male writers aged 16 to 44 living in the North to take part. Your everyday could provide intriguing texture for tomorrow.Link to Mass Observation site

Legendary Polish foreign correspondent, Ryszard Kapuscinski, who died last year - obituary - wrote a final book about the legendary Greek foreign correspondent, Herodotus. It’s a great insight into the art of listening and understanding. Kapuscinski points out that in a world without books, or inscriptions of any kind (let alone emails or desktops loaded with pdfs) the only way to give or receive information was to find someone and make an exchange:

“And how much richer is this primeval, antique language of direct contact and Socratic give and take! Because it is not only words that matter in it. What is important, and frequently paramount, is what is communicated wordlessly, by facial expression, hand gesture, body movement. Herodotus understands this, and like every reporter or ethnologist he tries to be in the most direct contact with his interlocutors, not only listening to what they say, but also watching how they say it, how they act as they speak.”

Travels with Herodotus, Ryszard Kapuscinski, pub. Allen Lane.

Front Row, the Radio Four arts show, had an item last night on the British Army’s officer training programme: hear it on Listen Again. To help trainee officers develop their strategic sense, to encourage them to analyse situations and to step outside their own comfort zone, they are sent on a series of visits to arts venues.

It’s an interesting example of how cultural provision builds intellectual capital.

We’ve been signing and sealing the evaluation of the Renaissance Yorkshire Hub’s programme 2002 to 07 this week, which feels like the right thing to do during the last office week of the year. Next year sees more work on behalf of the Hub, looking at its partnerships initiative, as well as a national evaluation of Not For The Likes of You, on behalf of the Arts Council. We’re also looking forward to getting stuck into important projects at Bradford and York: it’s an exciting start to 2008.

But for now

Any Company wanting to boost its social responsibility credentials seems to reach for the sky in its advertising. In the energy business? You need some kids pointing at the clouds, perhaps waving (not cowering or running for cover)… Pay up front mobile phone service? Get some kites in the air, come on, the sky’s the limit - geddit? Footling intermediate redesign on your family hatchback? Float it into the air and it’ll look much greener.

Blue sky thinking is everywhere - just don’t mention the ozone layer.

The term ‘audience engagement’ is firmly in the ascendant now, complete with sub-terms: audiences can be engaged, less engaged, or unengaged. I think that’s it: just the three options. I’m slavishly following the zeitgeist, and use ‘engaged’ an awful lot, but I think I might hold out against unengaged. Will it be used like ‘unemployed’?

And also - is it engaged as in “engage warp speed Mr Spock”? Or engaged to be married? Or is it the opposite of Vacant?