Isle of Man seeks young professionals with 'Shoreditch' makeover

[snowman]

If property wasn't so disproportionately expensive compared to wages, people might be encouraged to move here. There's no doubt the island needs to grow the population. Many sectors have shortages of employees

[Andy Onchan]

Why do we have to pretend to be something we're not? Do we not have our own home grown art talent that can create it's own unique street or urban art? Why must we copy someone else?

[Annoymouse]

14 hours ago, cissolt said:

Keeping the young people we currently have is a massive challenge.  Unable to afford to buy a property, rental property prices are through the roof ( pardon the pun ) and our health service is an appalling state.  Plenty of jobs here but no incentives for young people to stay.

Did any of our political candidates try and engage with the younger demographic?  The apathy shown by young voters would suggest not

A big part of the issue is the Government took the approach that it’s easier to bring someone in from the UK with more experience/training completed than to train up their own, the shortages are mostly of their own making. 

School teachers are a good example, they make it very difficult to get the training required, construction is another, minimum 4 year apprenticeships, you have to find an employer first and course is ran in very limited numbers. 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Annoymouse

[Declan]

Hipsters in Shoreditch - let's party like it's 2011! "The hipsters" are now approaching 40 and have moved to Suffolk to whittle tweed and weave spoons the artisan way, whilst running their social-media PR analytics consultancy.  

Shoreditch is filling up with trustifarians  and young city types, whilst the Cool Kids are listening to Klezmer music in South London sporting half-mast slacks and Hitler taches. 

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Declan

[Flyingfemme]

Maybe they should have looked at Cheltenham instead of Shoreditch. The Paint Festival is run by street artists and costs very little (£30,000 in 2019). The results are interesting and very high quality. It doesn’t bring people to live in the town but the walking tours (all free) are popular with tourists and residents alike. I cannot believe that the Island doesn’t have enough local talent to do it. Maybe it should be taken away from middle-aged, middle-class civil servants?

[John Wright]

I think the press release or whatever publicity shot arrived on the journalists desk was particularly maladroit - even cack handed, and the Camden or Shoreditch comparison just stupid.

That said I'm all in favour of public art, in its broadest sense.

The Arts Council has only half the income it had 12 years ago. There is no direct tax payer funding, however it does get a share of the IOM share of Lottery Duty, so IoM lottery players are funding.

The murals are good, fun and brighten things up. But maybe too easy and we are getting too many. Whether there is much merit in the Sefton Dancers, the Bee Gees, George Formby, Norman Wisdom, the Airport three legs, or the Nobles one, or the statues of TE Brown, or William Hilary, or the Lifeboat recue in the sunken gardens, or the foxdale Miner etc is a matter of opinion and taste.

Public art, privately or publicly funded improves our environment.  Its de minimis. It doesn't take away from nurses, hospitals, food poverty, or all the other things that are moaned about, as more deserving. Truth is we are a wealthy nation. The fact we tax caps or have low rates of direct income taxation is much more worthy of examination if there isn't enough to go round.

I hope that Government will put more into the Arts, we should have better touring drama, classical music dance, opera and ballet. They are all things good for the soul of the Island, attracting people to live, keeping others here. And that's not to say that local amateur or semi professional performances are not of very high standard. We have an amazing theatre, several studio theatres and a decent concert hall.

[RoundTheCourse]

It's only hipster whist it is still trendy. When that expires it looks a scruffy unkempt mess.

[Declan]

17 minutes ago, offshoremanxman said:

It has more than a touch of the “Nathan Barley” about it. 

Interestingly Nathan Barley was 16 years ago and was described as being 5 years behind the times  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/feb/04/newmedia.broadcasting1

It's worth remembering the article about the Isle of Man is from the Daily Telegraph.

[english zloty]

At interview for the regeneration manager job about 10 years ago, I suggested similar to this having seen how some towns in the North were responding to the threat of having the Trafford Centre just down the road. I suggested that as was true, national, local government, landlords, business and schools etc. could work together on a mainly philanthropic basis for the greater good. (At that time in the northwest schools and charitieswere painting hoardings and buildings and local artists were doing displays etc. in empty shop windows, whilst big business sponsored makeovers of the streetscape in return for a plaque or news release. The interview panel literally laughed at me. The job went to a town planner, the application process was ridiculous, government ran out of money and support. Meanwhile the biggest local authorities did exactly the same using rates and in isolation of national government. That was ten years ago. I think I read the government plan is to copy Scotland's ideas. (Presume some one has Google something). 

Just embarrassing really. This is a proud Island nation with a rich heritage to be built up on. Not ignored.

Final point DFE = 500,000 visitors or whatever and a new Freeport next to a Heritage Railway. Treasury = no money to maintain never mind build upon what visitors would come to see. Policy = work with developers to build more housing next to heritage railway. Not really very joined up thinking?

[slinkydevil]

 

[Declan]

38 minutes ago, John Wright said:

 

That said I'm all in favour of public art, in its broadest sense.

 

I like public art and it enhances my experience of places when I travel. 

But it's not enough in itself to make somewhere interesting (unless it's on a grand scale like Portmerion). Shoreditch is popular with the not-quite hip because of it's independent shops, restaurants, markets, cafes. It's somewhere you can spend a pleasant Sunday - browse records in Rough Trade, have street food on Brick Lane, flowers from Columbia Road, then a beer. Most large cities have that sort of space - Manchester's Northern Quarter for example, and people don't need to live in expensive flats in these areas to enjoy them - it's only a tube or tram ride from the suburbs. It's this kind of experience we lack here and would be one of the factors that would stop me returning if I was graduating now. 

 

 

 

[garymanx]

20 hours ago, hissingsid said:

Beth Cannan,  a Commissioner from Castletown has spoken so it must be right.   Where does the Arts Council get their money from ?    Nearly £300,000 in two years is a bit over the top.    Perhaps in the scheme of fair play the state of our Health Services could be mentioned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Majority of their funding comes from an allocation of Lottery duty with the rest as a grant from DESC. They also attract private sponsorship 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, John Wright said:

The Arts Council has only half the income it had 12 years ago. There is no direct tax payer funding, however it does get a share of the IOM share of Lottery Duty, so IoM lottery players are funding.

[...] I hope that Government will put more into the Arts, we should have better touring drama, classical music dance, opera and ballet. They are all things good for the soul of the Island, attracting people to live, keeping others here. And that's not to say that local amateur or semi professional performances are not of very high standard. We have an amazing theatre, several studio theatres and a decent concert hall.

Of course we do need to look at what that funding is spent on.  I was always under the impression that Arts Council staffing consisted of a part-time secretary who organised the necessary admin around grants etc.  Maybe that was the case 12 years ago, but a look at their website now shows they have one each of:

Arts Development Manager

Arts Development Officer

Arts Engagement Officer

Arts Graduate Intern

Arts Administrator

(I'm using titles because I'm not complaining about individuals who no doubt have their own artistic talents, but it's notable that these are all admin rather than creative titles).

However, as is often the case with Government websites, this is out of date.  I get weekly e-mails from them (very lengthy, but sometimes reminding you of something that's on) and the merry band has now risen to eight:

With the Arts Administrator promoted to Arts Administration Officer and additionally there now being a:

Head of SoundCheck

Art Tank Facilitator

Creative Development Coordinator

Art Tank and SoundCheck appear to be youth-related (for visual art and bands respectively)and helping run the sort of thing that youth clubs often have done.  From memory the payroll has doubled in about a year and crept up before that. 

Presumably the money that pays for them all comes from that declining pot and I suspect what has been lost is the subsidy for touring companies that used to come here.  

[Declan]

Presumably the Soundcheck and Art Tank roles are what the DSCE funding goes. Could they have been transferred into the  Arts Council to give managerial oversight of those projects.

[pongo]

Places like Shoreditch work because they have evolved organically over decades and centuries in response to the ebb and flow of economics, immigration etc. Some of what are now the poshest parts of West London had shown the way in the 70s and early 80s.

By the 90s everyone knew that Shoreditch was a good place to still buy cheap. Being so close to the City - while physical proximity still mattered so much.

Shoreditch did not have to promote itself as a place to go to. It happened despite local government.

It's a model which the rest of Britain could learn from.

(It's a good example of why we should not worry about the decline of our former retail areas. We should stand back and see what naturally replaces that.)

Edited November 22, 2021 by pongo