This week’s blog is by Alison O’Hara, CEO of Audiences North East.
Many of you will know that over the past few months I’ve been battling with the dreaded ‘c’ word… I returned to work cancer-free a few weeks ago only to find that I’m now battling another ‘c’ word – yes the dreaded cuts to arts funding. During my sick leave I felt fairly immune to these but the harsh reality of the economic downturn and the prospect of some tough decisions ahead for cultural sector funding have certainly brought home the fragility of working in the arts.
Whilst off work I had plenty of time to consider life, the universe and everything and I counted up how many people had been involved in my recovery – a conservative estimate of 50 based on face-to-face interactions alone. In a kind of day-dreamy way I mused on the similarities between the arts world and the NHS – the huge amount of team work involved, the whole spectrum of skills required and the sheer brilliance of the lead performers.
Thinking about the cuts in government spending I pondered Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the relative positions of health and creativity in the pyramid. Arts Council England’s ambition to help arts organisations thrive not just survive applies just as equally to me as an individual – whilst clearly I need to be healthy to survive I also need to enjoy life and for me, as well as many others, that includes the opportunity to experience those skin-tingling moments of really great art.
Last week we held our annual subscribers’ event at Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens in Northumberland. Extraordinary Measures, English Heritage’s latest contemporary art exhibition at the country estate, surely shows how great art can be. My favourites - Ron Mueck’s beautiful Spooning Couple and Mat Collishaw’s huge zoetrope The Garden of Unearthly Delights – were simply amazing. Spooning Couple, a miniature man and woman, was so tender and intimate, so lifelike and mesmerising whilst the zoetrope (spinning wheel) conjures up a 3-D flickering world of birds, snails and mischievous imps. Even now I still try to work out the mechanics of the zoetrope.
This week I’ve been at the Arts Marketing Association Conference at the Royal Armouries in Leeds which started with a rousing performance by duet Upneet Singh (tabla) and Giuliano Modarelli (guitar). This year’s conference, Pulling Power – The Social Marketing Revolution (cue lots of references to the dating game!) attended by c. 500 arts marketing professionals, explores the social, interconnected world and new ways of engaging with the public.
Two speakers really got me thinking about how as a sector we could create a more positive future despite the economic uncertainties. Mark Earls, author of HERD: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing our True Nature got us on our feet in a practical demonstration of his thinking with the herd behaviour implicit in a Mexican Wave. We might like to think that ‘We’re all individuals”, but in fact we adopt ritual practices and constantly mimic other people - where we live, the brands we use, the music we listen to, the clothes we wear and the names we give our children reveal us to be social creatures. The challenge for us is how we harness the herd effect not only to increase audiences but also to create public support for the arts in the face of government spending cuts.
In a session about leadership Chris Grant, Director of 14a Conversations, asked the workshop participants to give a one word view of how the past few weeks had been for them. Given my own current absorption with spending cuts I was amazed by the results. Whilst around half the group used words such as ‘pessimistic’, ‘precarious’ and ‘at risk’, a fair number of participants were ‘buzzing’, ‘excited’, ‘liberated’ and even ‘on fire’! As a group “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. For me, this simple exercise demonstrated how inspiring the arts can be – despite the uncertain future for the cultural sector, the arts still have the ability to excite people and transform their lives and we need to harness this powerful message to protect the arts.
Alison O’Hara, Chief Executive, Audiences North East
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