Are we training enough creatives -- or too many?

Are we training enough creatives - or too many? Are degrees in the creative arts a passport to the future or just conning the kids?

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw recently visited the Huddersfield Media Centre. He has said that: "Our cultural and creative industries have been a British success story in recent years. They have continued to grow strongly during the global downturn and will provide a lot of the future jobs and growth the country needs."

This optimism has driven a massive increase in the number of people being trained in creative subjects in British colleges and universities. But when they graduate are they what the industry wants… and can there ever be enough jobs to employ more than a fraction of them anyway?

Andrew Blake, Associate Head of the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London says the rhetoric around the creative industries, skills and education is getting way out of hand. He believes we are educating far too many people for jobs that will not exist and that the best many people can look forward to is a life of self-exploitation followed by abandonment of their vocation for a more sustainable career. Unless, that is, they are the scion of the comfortable classes who are prepared to subsidise their offspring indefinitely in unpaid internships for a callous and increasingly exclusive industry.

Opposing this viewpoint will be Emma Hunt, Dean of the School of Art and Design at the University of Huddersfield.

Huddersfield Salon, Tuesday 26 January 2010

Doors open 6.00

Debate starts 6.30

Café Ollo

The Media Centre

7 Northumberland Street

Huddersfield

HD1 1RL

£2.50 or donation

Throw open the borders, is it time for a radical response to immigration?

The Huddersfield Salon is a new space in Huddersfield for people who are interested in hearing provocative ideas from engaging speakers, and participating in stimulating debate.

October's event asks - "Throw open the borders, is it time for a radical response to immigration?"

The venue is open from 18:00, debate starts at 18:30.

Refreshments will be available at the bar.

Suggested donation - £2.50

Cafe Ollo
The Media Centre
7 Northumberland St
Huddersfield
HD1 1RL

www.the-media-centre.co.uk

Huddersfield Salon: Shopping till we drop?

Shopping till we drop?

Is the British obsession with supermarkets killing pour towns?

Love them or loathe them supermarkets have become an integral part of our lives… but are we letting them kill off our towns?

Are you in the pro camp? You find them convenient and good value… you don’t understand what the fuss is about?

Or are you frightened that our towns will be consumed by too many supermarkets?

Come and join us in a lively debate!

Doors open at 18:00, debate starts at 18:30.

Suggested contribution: £2.50 (more if you can)

Refeshments will be available at the bar.

The next Huddersfield Salon will take place on 27th Oct and 24th Nov. Subjects will include immigration and death of family.

Assisted suicide – a personal choice or a criminal act?

Tuesday 30th June Doors open at 6.00pm, debate starts at 6.30pm

Helping someone to take their own life is not only illegal but simply wrong, or is it a humane and respectful response to the rights of the individual.

Martin Johnson RN, MSc, PhD is professor in Nursing, University of Salford and editor, Nurse Education Today “It is an individual’s choice to decide how they are cared for. This includes being able if they wish, to end their life because of chronic and incurable pain and suffering.”

Dr Hans-Christian Raabe MD MRCP MRCGP DRCOG is a Manchester GP and medical coordinator of the Council for Heath and Wholeness “The real danger is that once you accept killing as the solution to a single problem, then what is to stop it being as the answer to hundreds of other problems?”

Entrance: Suggested contribution £2.50 (more if you can)

Pay at the door

Refreshments are available at the bar

Café Ollo, The Media Centre, Northumberland Street, Huddersfield HD1 1RL (2mins from train station)

For more information:

Tel: 01484 483010

Email: info@the-media-centre.co.uk

http://huddersfieldsalon.blogspot.com

Freedom of the Streets ? Booze and the regulation of social life

Tuesday 19th May
doors open at 6.00pm, debate starts at 6.30pm

Is the extension of laws limiting alcohol consumption in public places reclaiming the streets from the drunks on behalf of the silent majority? Or is it one more step towards a town centre police state?

Josie Appleton, author of 'Against the Booze Bans - and the Hyperregulation of Public Space' says "Over the past few years, cracking open a can in the street has become not just rude, but illegal. The State is now the arbiter on questions of social etiquette which were previously decided by individuals and communities themselves."

Chris Walsh is Principal Community Safety Officer, Safer Stronger Communities, Kirklees Council. He manages a team of community safety officers who work in partnership to manage the impact of alcohol-fuelled violence, crime and anti-social behaviour in town centres across the district.

Entrance: suggested contribution £2.50, pay at the door.

Wind turbines: energy saviours or blots on the landscape?

The next Huddersfield Salon event will take place on the 28th April between 6 and 8.30pm, the debate itself starts at 6.30pm.

The subject of the debate is 'Wind turbines: energy saviours or blots on the landscape?'

Speakers:

Dr Julia Meaton - Head of Strategy & Marketing Centre at Huddersfield University Business School, Julia has a keen interest in ethical and environmental issues. Recent research is looking at Environmental Management and Corporate Social Responsibility, ranging from a study of environmental grassroots movements in the UK to an analysis of environmental management in Saudi Arabian businesses.

Jane Davis - Jane farms a smallholding in Spalding, South Lincolnshire with her husband Julian. Jane is a retired health professional and has been involved with mainly rural communities since 1980. Following the installation of wind-turbines near their home, to which they didn’t object, Jane has spoken at countless meetings across the country about the disastrous effect this has had on their lives. She and her husband gave evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Economics of Renewable Energy.

Suggested contribution £2.50 (more if you can)
Pay at the door, refreshments are available at the bar.

Other dates for your diary:
19 May, 30June, 29 September, 27 October, 24 November
Subjects to be confirmed

Café Ollo, The Media Centre
Northumberland Street, Huddersfield HD1 1RL (2 mins from train station)

Call 01484 483010 for more information



some further reading/information:
The Age of Stupid - drama-documentary-animation hybrid which stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching archive footage from 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

The Danish island of Samso and how they are selling power from their windfarms back to the national grid - an interesting article from the Guardian, 21 September 08, about how a Danish island is benefiting from wind power, and the response of English people when they presented their ideas here.

Windmills of the Mind by Tim Black, in Spiked magazine, 01 April 09 - an article about why a minister’s pledge to make opposition to windfarms as unacceptable as refusing to wear a seatbelt is revealing.

A provocative review of The Age of Stupid by Brendan O'Neill, from Spiked magazine, 16 March 09

Parenting Skills: essential attributes or fads we should send to the naughty step?

Tuesday 24th March - 6:00pm til 8:30 pm

Speakers

Jennie Bristow - freelance writer and researcher, author of the 'Guide to Subversive Parenting', has two young daughters

Jo Pitt - recently retired as Regional Director of the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, a mother of four and grandmother

Entrance: Suggested contribution £2.50 (more if you can), pay at the door, refreshments are available at the bar

Other Dates for your diary: 28th April, 19th May, 30th June, 29th Sept, 27th Oct, 24th Nov - Subjects to be confirmed

Cafe Ollo, The Media Centre
Northumberland Street, Huddersfield

Tel: 01484 483010 for more information



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