New NDotM Video

We have a new video! It includes interviews with some of the people New Deal of the Mind have placed into jobs with London Metropolitan Archives. Please do take a look.

Our thanks to Jenna Jovi who not only did a great job filming, producing and editing the piece, but also turned it around very quickly.

Karen Freyer | Friday, 9th July, 2010 at 11:26 am | Blog, News | No comment


A creative alternative to the dole

Our founder, Martin Bright, wrote in Sunday’s Observer about how New Deal of the Mind is trying to ease fears of another lost generation. In the article, Martin describes how we should harness the potential of Britain’s creative industries (film, music and the performing arts, as well as new forms of innovation such as software design and social media). This should take its lead from the cultural projects of Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, which put thousands back to work on artistic and literary projects. Although some of the works produced were mediocre, among the alumni of the scheme were painters Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, and writers Saul Bellow, John Cheever and Ralph Ellison.

New Deal of the Mind is now just over a year old and some of Martin’s ideas and now in practice. New Deal of the Mind has created jobs for just under 700 unemployed young adults in cultural institutions around the country. We’re also diversifying the demographic of people who are able to work in the arts. By recruiting from the long-term unemployed we are tackling its domination by privileged people who can afford to work on free internships. Generations of well-meaning arts quangocrats have attempted to crack this so-called “Samantha syndrome”. Our recruitment days have enabled organisations to interview people who would have previously never dared think they could work in these institutions.

Karen Freyer | Monday, 5th July, 2010 at 10:19 am | Blog, News | No comment


New report: struggling artists want a helping hand – not handouts

New Deal of the Mind’s latest report, Creative Survival in Hard Times, looks at the obstacles facing young people who want to pursue a career in the arts and creative field. The report, produced by New Deal of the Mind, was commissioned by Arts Council England and launched on March 30th, 2010.  New Deal of the Mind list a series of recommendations and conclude that struggling artists would rather have a helping hand than a handout. Young artists and creative entrepreneurs interviewed for the report wanted work space, access to information, mentoring and business skills. Small interventions that could make a big difference were far higher on their list of priorities than money.

Although the creative sector is widely recognised as key to economic recovery, “…we treat those who are striving to work in the creative industries abominably with low pay, long internships and little help with professional training.”

The creative industries contribute more than £50 billion a year to the economy and, according to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), the sector will be “a key driver for the UK’s recovery from recession” employing more people than the financial sector within four years. Any government policy directed at young creatives is critical and the report lists several recommendations.

Download publication pdf

Karen Freyer | Tuesday, 30th March, 2010 at 2:43 pm | Blog, News, Uncategorized | No comment


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