Mike Bradwell in the Evening Standard today argues that arts organisations should resist entering into corporate sponsorship agreements with major polluting organisations (he cites BP and Shell) because it can compromise their integrity. “By consorting with polluters, arts organisations are polluting their own reputations,” he says.

Here’s the link to the full article…http://tinyurl.com/3y63lm4

It’s a plea to arts organisations to not compromise their integrity in these hard times, which ends “Be brave like Joan Littlewood. Tell them to bugger off.”

A thought provoking piece in these hard times. What do folks think? Will we all be re-examining our ethical policies, whoever and whatever they might rule out at the moment?

Munira Mirza, the Mayoral Advisor on Culture at the Greater London Authority is one of the speakers lined up for the New Music Plus…Co-producing for new audience event taking place at London’s City Hall on 10 June.

Programmed by the hub and the PRS for Music Foundation, other speakers confirmed so far include Stuart Brown (BFI Southbank), Regis Cochefort (Paul Hamlyn Foundation), Laura Ducchesci (De La Warr Pavilion), Will Dutta (Chimera Productions), David Francis (Dartington), John Kieffer (Sound and Music), Penny King (Arts Council England) David Metcalfe (Forma), Jo Ross (Oxford Contemporary Music), Andi Studer (Cenatus), Alexandra Tomkinson (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) and Andy Wood (Como No).

The event, which draws on the hub and PRSF’s learning from its New Music Plus… leadership development programme, will explore the artistic, audience and organisational development opportunities created when independent producers collaborate with arts organisations to programme new music.

Places at the event are limited, so if you’d like to attend, email us here at the hub as soon as possible.

Last year the hub worked with the MusicLeader team, carrying out research amongst its 11 000 members, and providing recommendations for the strategic development of the service. Since then, MusicLeader, which exists to raise the quality, value and impact of music leadership in the UK, has extended its network into East Anglia and the South East, so that for the first time ever it can provide a truly national resource.

Our research provided information about MusicLeader’s members, their needs, ambitions and the challanges they believed they face and will face in the future. It also consulted them around how they thought that MusicLeader could most usefully provide support in the future, testing this with key figures in the music education sector, and providing recommendations for future programme development, communications and operations.

Informed by this research, MusicLeader has published a new on- and off-line brochure, describing the information, advice and guidance, training and networking opportunities and online resources it provides, and giving useful information about how all those involved in young people’s music making can access them. It looks great (!), and is packed with really useful information. If you’re involved in this kind of work, or know someone who is, then do check it out and get in touch with the MusicLeader team in your region; they’re a great bunch, they really know their stuff and can connect you to lots more free advice, training and guidance.

the hub has recently joined forces with the Arts team at Dartington, and will be working as producer in residence until early 2011. Dartington is a pioneering Devon-based charity which nurtures ideas to address pressing problems and works for the advancement of the arts, sustainability and social justice. Dartington’s arts programmes provides opportunities for people of all ages to participate in and experience the arts, and in addition to a year-round performance programme, many of you will know of its internationally renowned Summer School and the work done by Dartington-based South West Music School, one of the government’s Centres for Advanced Training.

As part of this partnership, hub producer Matthew Linley will be working alongside members of the Arts Team on all aspects of the arts programme, including the forthcoming GeoQuest project and June’s Home festival, which showcases acoustic music from around the world as part of a programme that explores themes of diversity and sustainability. Other members of the hub team, including hub Director Julia Payne, will be involved too, working with Dartington to develop its programme ideas and supporting the development of new partnerships.

You can keep up with Dartington programme by following Dartington on twitter (#DartingtonHall), and by following Matthew (#matthewlinley).

the hub and the PRS for Music Foundation have teamed up to present ‘Co-producing new work for new audiences’, an event that will explore the artistic, organisational and audience development opportunities of co-producing music-led events across art form and between organizations of different scale.

Taking place at London’s City Hall on 10 June, the programme will include discussion panels, breakout sessions and presentations about New Music Plus… Panellists will include Stuart Brown (BFI Southbank), Laura Ducceschi (De La Warr Pavilion), Jude Kelly (South Bank Centre), John Kieffer (Sound and Music), Penny King (Arts Council England) and David Metcalfe (Forma). Watch this space for full programme details, or email us to make sure of your place at the event.

The event will draw from our learning from the pilot New Music Plus… producer development programme which ran in London during 2009. Click here to find out more about New Music Plus…

Back for a stonking third year , the hub produced the Insulting Cabaret for our friends at International Pen. The theme for this year’s outing at the Southwark Playhouse was ‘love and hate’ and the evening featured an impressive mix of writers, musicians and poets.

Our compere for the evening was the fantastic poet Ross Sutherland . Click here to see him escape our tech run through to give us a sneaky reading of one of his poems from his Things to do Before you Leave Town collection.

Also featuring in the line up were Last Mango in Paris (seen here in sound check), 30birdproductions.org, poet, musician and editor of the Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets Jeet Thayil, actress and writer Pauline Melville and poet and performer Zurab Rtveliashvili.

Music in the bar for the evening was provided by the love and hate DJs Jason Phipps and Ruth Barnes. Their blog which includes a mix tape and play list is well worth checking out.

As part of the evening we asked members of the public and team members to read selections from well over 100 Mills and Boon books which we gave out to the audience at the end of the evening. You can catch Jason and Ruth’s readings in this short video here. . You can catch many more of the readings on our blip tv site here including readings by hub director Julia Payne &amp, and hub producers Jenny Harris and Matthew Linley. Contained within each Mills and Boon book was a book mark detailing the case of one of the writers being championed by International Pen, an ‘on the tube home’ reminder that even thought the Insulting Cabaret is a lot of fun the work of Pen continues to be very real and important.

You can also catch some photographs from the evening of our love / hate survey here

As ever a long evening – but a very successful one!

Insulting Cabaret was produced by the hub (www.thehubuk.com) for International Pen (www.internationalpen.org.uk) as part of Free the Word festival.

Over the summer, the hub will be working with EFDSS to explore how best the organisation can support the development of new work and emerging talent in the folk music sector.

EFDSS aims to “nourish artistic innovation and excellence and develop the reach of English folk and new acoustic music in the UK and its profile internationally”, and we’ll be looking in particular at how it can support artists to build and connect with new live audiences. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more, or tell us what you think.

In the meantime, check out Folk Rising, a three-part concert series sampling the freshest, undiscovered and at times radical UK folk music, produced by EFDSS and the most excellent The Magpie’s Nest. The future sound of folk…today.

DJs Jason Phipps and Ruth Barnes have programmed a special set list of love and hate songs for Friday night’s Insulting Cabaret – check their blog http://insultingcabaretloveandhate.tumblr.com/ for more information. Warning – not for Phil Collins-lovers, the faint-hearted or easily offended!

“In human contact, there is either love or its refusal” Hanif Kureishi

What do you love to hate? Any secret loves to confess? Where do you draw the line when speaking your mind?

After last year’s sell-out success, the irreverent and provocative Insulting Cabaret returns to Southwark Playhouse on 16th April, as part of International PEN’s Free the Word! festival of world literature, and in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the organisation Writers in Prison.

Hosted by live literature’s rising star Ross Sutherland, this year’s Insulting Cabaret takes as its theme Love and Hate and gathers together an international array of some of the most talented voices in writing and performance today, including spoken word supergroup Last Mango in Paris, Indian poet and musician Jeet Thayil, writer and actress Pauline Melville, performance company 30Bird, and Georgian surrealists Irakli Kakabadze and Zurab Rtveliashvili.

Expect a memorable evening of lyrical and surreal poetry, live music, DJs, visuals, Swizzels love-hearts and plenty of Mills and Boon!

Tickets are available from Southwark Playhouse on 0207 7407 0234 or online at southwarkplayhouse.co.uk