CADT

By Alan Thompson

The Centre For Arts Development Training (CADT) is a well-established and renowned training centre for arts administration. Nerve met the one-time comedy compeer and now ringmaster of a much bigger show, CADT director Liz Lacey, to get the low-down on the place she runs.

Liz, you joined CADT in October last year. Could you describe your role?

I’m the director, which means is that I organise all operational development processes around the organisation. We’ve been in existence since 1984. We were set up as a fringe to capitalise on community programme arts opportunities connected with the International Garden Festival. Because so much energy was generated by that, it seemed a shame to lose out on the projects that people had started to run. The fringe was born to provide a centre and training wing for people to work in the community arts.

Since then we have developed our vocational arts management programme, which is the only one of it’s kind in the country, and in 1990 since it started to be funded by a mixture of European and Liverpool City Council funding. We have contributed year on year a million pounds to the economy of Merseyside. That’s through the contribution we make as an organisation, but also through the fact that our trainees come here and get the entrepreneurial and business skills, and essentially learn how to make money doing what they dreamed of. Because of that, they become self-sufficient and go on and employ other people. 80% of our students go on to start a small to medium-based enterprise. The other thing we provide for Liverpool is that we make it unnecessary for our young creative people to have to go elsewhere to receive this sort of training. Many of our trainees have come from disadvantaged backgrounds and they have needed help with childcare and travel expenses etc. European Social funding allows us to do this for them and to give them opportunities that they would normally not have had otherwise.

So, CADT is providing an alternative to the ‘brain drain’ which has plagued Merseyside’s economy for the past twenty years: that creative types from the region have been forced to move down South to succeed.

Absolutely. And I was one of those people, and went to live in London and stayed there for thirteen years and then there wasn’t much of an argument for staying in Merseyside. That’s all changed now and I think that there’s such a terrific buzz about the city. There’s so much energy to go with the talent that’s always been here, and people are really starting to identify themselves as being part of a city whose basic operation is around being creative.

What are the plans this year for CADT?

Well, this year we’re expanding, because as well as our usual support from Liverpool City Council and the Arts Council who have been instrumental in our success, we have had three European Social Fund bids accepted. That means as well as our vocational arts management course, we’re also running an administration in The Creative Enterprises Course, and that is designed to enable women who are working in an arts admin environment to upskill and go and achieve NVQ level 3 qualifications and be developed towards management positions.

With this course, did CADT perceive a need for women in the arts to overcome discrimination in their careers?

Totally, and nowhere is that more true than in the management hierarchy in the creative industries. There is a perceived image that the arts is very person-friendly and that equal opportunities are easily implemented, almost naturally, without it having to be instigated by policies and procedures. The statistics just do not bear that out, as women are very underrepresented in managerial and supervisory positions in the creative industries. I want to also mention our community arts management programme, which starts in September. Basically this course will take practitioners in the community arts and give them an extremely high level of business and entrepreneurial skills, so that people who are running arts regeneration projects will be able to get a thorough business grounding. They can go back and operate their projects more effectively and efficiently and contribute to the grassroots regeneration of Merseyside’s creative industries.

What are your long-term plans for CADT?

I intend that CADT will be without a doubt the beacon for vocational training in the arts for this city. Also we will be part of a crucial network with other training centres and artists to provide training in the creative industries in Liverpool for the 21st Century. Anyone who is reading this article who is interested in us, get in contact, as we not only provide these courses but a referral system and arts career guidance. We’re pretty confident we can help you!

For more information on the CADT:
phone: 0151 707 1404
email: info@cadt.mersinet.co.uk