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Mark Robinson

@thinkingpractice.bsky.social
184 followers 381 following 348 posts

Writer, researcher, adviser, coach etc. cultural sector and intersections. Thinking Practice. / www.thinkingpractice.co.uk

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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Back on the blog... Committing to a post every week, so long as i get at least one comment on each. (The void and I are consciously uncoupling.) tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com/p/lets-go-on...
tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com
Let’s go on
Bewildered and driven: back to blogging like it’s 2008
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I really want every applicant to ACE's NPO tombola to say they may pose existential risks to humanity.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Just on the off chance there's anyone out there, I'm doing this in October with @wahwncymru.bsky.social, introducing recent report for Baring Foundation on Creatively minded and Resourceful. Do join us! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wahwn-octo...
eventbrite.co.uk
WAHWN October Network Meeting
Join us for our October Network Meeting exploring some ideas and practical approaches that enable creative health work to thrive.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Coming out of a cold so may be tetchy and literal but isn't "world class culture in every postcode" an example of taking a decent impulse and stretching it so far it frays like soft blutack as it turns to a slogan? I live across the road from a very fine museum, but it's not in the same postcode.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Tom Watson has always been a cynical man. A story not without relevance to arts and creative industries here. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Tom Watson’s move to Palantir is the latest sign of how far the rot has spread in UK politics | Clive Lewis
When a former Labour deputy leader joins a firm built on surveillance and military targeting, it deepens public cynicism – and democracy depends on trust, says Labour MP Clive Lewis
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is true.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Was thinking about this risk yesterday re broader failure of funders and govt to support backbone organisations after closure news from Reach Volunteering, which connect charities and volunteers including trustees. Value of backbone organisations to sectors proven but no one wants to fund them.
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David Quantick @quantick.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
New slogan for AI: THIS MACHINE THRILLS FASCISTS.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
So far these are the two most positive signings of the day for me...
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Who decided to have transfer deadline day on my first day back to work? Distracted by PNE's inability to do anything - literally anything - to stave off what I fear is an inevitable return to League 1. Which would be deserved after years of (mis)managed decline. Happy to be proved wrong obv.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I'm back at my work desk trying to recall what it is I do. More news as it breaks.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"Though they were surrounded by the marks and leavings of a bad year, they were surrounded also by the marks and leavings of good work, which for that year and any other proposed an end and a new beginning." RIP Wendell Berry. Longer quote here tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com/p/the-marks-...
tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com
"The marks and leavings of good work..."
"Good work was on that place in a way that granted and collaborated in its own endurance, that had carried them thus far, and would carry them on" (Wendell Berry)
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Holiday In the UK we thought. By train. Been to London, Glasgow, Liverpool. no less than three train cancellations meaning delays and scenic routes home. All cities great, mind, though Liverpool still the greatest, maintains its grip on our hearts. Even in the rain.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Saturday night Wilco at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Sunday night Martin Stephenson and 'some Daintees' at the Waiting Room Eaglescliffe. Both fantastic and epic in their different ways.
the rock band wilco, playing infront of their nameMartin Stephenson and some daintees
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Ruth Pearce @notrightruth.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
UK Quakers commit to continued, explicit trans inclusion. "...toilet facilities labelled with a 'female' sign remain available to cisgender women, trans women, and others for whom those facilities best align with their lived experience."
quaker.org.uk
Quakers reaffirm commitment to trans inclusion in the wake of EHRC Code of Practice
Quakers in Britain has refreshed and reaffirmed its commitment to providing trans-inclusive facilities across its buildings.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This. Also: people can ring me without warning without causing panic. Especially if I've forgotten an online meeting. I will always give it three and a bit rings before answering, mind, in case it's just my mum's ghost letting me know she's home safe.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
If you asked 10 year old me who my favourite footballer was he’d sat Kevin Keegan. He scored a penalty in the first game I ever went to. I was 10 & on the Kop so I didn’t see it so much as experience it. For some reason I’m also remembering him on Superstars… (A show Id like to see revived btw). RIP
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This game is everything that’s dull about so much so called world class football. It’d be more fun watching kids in the park.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Just before Argentina‘s first our cat brought a mouse into the front room. I blame her. Too soon Meg too soon!
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Pet peeve: forms that ask for your bank’s address. There is no conceivable reason for this information being required any more.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
To celebrate Stockton making the shortlist for Town of Culture here’s a couple of photos of my poem The Infinite Town being put to good use on the High Street During SIRF and the Stockton Flyer emerging. Onwards ‘and train ourselves to dream’!
People of a mix of races leaning on a plinth with a poem carved into itStockton Flyer emerging from a big plinth on Stockton High Street, poems The Infinite Towncarbed on it.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Govt cutting funding for arts subjects is madness. Ditto languages. Double ditto with knobs on cutting grants for nursing. As this from Nov 24 says we need loan forgiveness for nurses not more debt. (Yes, my daughter studied nursing, work in NHS, has debt!) www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-eve...
rcn.org.uk
Tuition fee increase is ‘bad news for patient care’ | News | Royal College of Nursing
A loan forgiveness model for nursing staff who commit to working in the NHS and public services must be introduced.
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No Score Draws ✍🏻⚽ @noscoredraws.com · 07/07/2026
Sorry sorry sorry am trying to delete
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
My embourgoisement would have been severely hampered if I’d not studied French. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Cutting language courses puts social mobility at risk, say UK experts
Exclusive: University moves and falling exam entries fuel concerns about opportunities for working-class pupils
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
If Burnham is ok with Mahmood's latest shabby, cruel (and politically pointless as the right will just want more) moves all the devo-plus in the world is not going to redeem him in my eyes.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Adaptive resilience from the adaptive Brazilians.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Again, if Burnham keeps Mahmood at the Home Office, his whole coup will have been pointless.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Stockton still buzzing from the newly opened park. FAR busier than usual(so felt safe and friendly, urban life is not rocket science.) Bought a book in an independent bookshop. Bought some records in an independent record shop. Bumped into some people. Vegan sausage rolls. What more do you want?
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Lot of talk of anniversaries today. This is a happier one.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Fantastic to see Stockton’s new park (opens onto High St one side, the riverside the other) open today. Fantastic atmosphere to match the achievement. Ambition and blueprint to more than match any other aspirant town of culture.
Open square with steps in sunshine Stockton on tees
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Just sharing this new report for the Baring Foundation again for those who like to spend their Friday afternoons catching up on reading. baringfoundation.org.uk/resource/cre...
baringfoundation.org.uk
Creatively Minded and Resourceful - The Baring Foundation
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Newsletter if you need to catch up on my recent publications. Really enjoyed launching Resourcefulness resource today, thanks to Jacqui Wood and Fenya Sharkey for great presentations. You should read the case studies on their organisations! tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com/p/in-the-abs...
tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com
In the absence of silver bullets, possibilities
Some new publications
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
New thing up courtesy Baring Foundation, report launches today. Ideas, case studies, tools. Focus on creative mental health but hopefully wider applications too. So many people doing great work there. baringfoundation.org.uk/blog-post/po...
baringfoundation.org.uk
Possibilities for a resourceful field - creative mental health - The Baring Foundation
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Further to my last here’s a bonus photo of Sir Ken Robinson watching England in the 2006 World Cup - we had games available to watch and paused for England v Trinidad and Tobago if memory serves me correctly. I think his brother played for Everton.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
What were you doing 20 years ago today, Mark? Standing next to two heroes, the much missed Sir Ken Robinson and the happily still with us at 91 Justice Albie Sachs. Otherwise panicking about the World Summit on Arts and Culture which we’d brought to Newcastle Gateshead.
Formal photo Mark in a bad suit. Albie Sach Vanessa September Sir Ken Robinson two people whose name I can’t find Andrew dixonConference bag black and white text World Summit in Arts and Culture 14-18 June 2006 NewcastleGateshead
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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
I hate to say this, really I do, but in 2026 banning access to YouTube for teens is like stopping them from going to the library.
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Lauren Dobson-Hughes @ldobsonhughes.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
These are the 30 women killed since 2020 in Northern Ireland, all by white men 21 killed in their homes by men they knew. The youngest 20, the oldest 82 21 were mothers, 4 were killed with their children in the home. Two were pregnant Nobody rioted over their murders www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
A picture of violence: The 30 women killed in more than four years
In at least 21 of the 30 deaths, the killers - or the suspects in their killings - were well-known to the women.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
My other 'discuss' thought about Hockney apart from the breadth and never-settledness of his work, some of which lands with me and some not, my issue of course, is that he maybe shows how artists can have identity without identity politics.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Friend of mine had a friend who, when he was at art college in Bradford, opted out of a painting-swap with a small group of friends - they gave each other a painting so they had works to keep for the future. He thought he'd be better off with his own work. One of his friends was David Hockney.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
When I look back thru' old ACE docs, as I did last week before @whatnextculture.bsky.social session on the Strategic Framework, the biggest difference, under shifts in lexicon, is in 2003 Ambitions for the arts could talk about 'major increase in public investment' and the case with Govt being won.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Strayed into an academic journal with @artscentres.bsky.social co-directors. Pre-pub version on Thinking Practice website if you (like me) don’t have access to such things.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Last week's holiday was a waste of time then eh?
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
He can jog on then.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Boro ticket office.
static.klipy.com
Oh My God, It's Happening! (The Office)
ALT: Oh My God, It's Happening! (The Office)
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Well well. UTB. (Bet they didn’t waste time spying on PNE for that last game of the season.)
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
I like to get the Penguin Book of Socialist Verse off the shelf on May Day. A good use of 40p. Thanks to Mrs Braithwaite and/or the Kirby Adukt Reading Centre for getting rid of it!
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Happy Willie Nelson’s Birthday Day #93. youtu.be/NySpcFpPcQg
youtu.be
Willie Nelson - Last Leaf (Official Video)
YouTube video by WillieNelsonVEVO
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
M Cousteau?
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
How many soft pens for Ipswich this season. A lot.
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