Looking sideways

I don’t think there has been much of a radical shift in the landscape of the arts after last week’s announcements of ACE cuts. The big guys have absorbed a little pain, London has taken the lion’s share with an emphasis on the east of London with the impending Olympics, the regions have maintained the usual suspects (for the most part) and there have been some lucky, plucky young companies in line for a future that other unlucky and well established companies will struggle to survive. Many, including friends of mine, have simply received the email that baldly states: you do not meet the fit of a national portfolio organisation, with no further explanation. And all for a paltry saving that even on a simply transactional and monetary basis does not make sense. T’was ever thus. Let us not grace this whole thing with the idea that it is fresh thinking or radical. Cuts or even fresh new shiny funding do not radicalise an arts culture, but new alliances, new attitudes and ways of working and thinking do.

I don’t think there has been much of a radical shift in the landscape of the arts after last week’s announcements of ACE cuts. The big guys have absorbed a little pain, London has taken the lion’s share with an emphasis on the east of London with the impending Olympics, the regions have maintained the usual suspects (for the most part) and there have been some lucky, plucky young companies in line for a future that other unlucky and well established companies will struggle to survive. Many, including friends of mine, have simply received the email that baldly states: you do not meet the fit of a national portfolio organisation, with no further explanation. And all for a paltry saving that even on a simply transactional and monetary basis does not make sense. T’was ever thus. Let us not grace this whole thing with the idea that it is fresh thinking or radical. Cuts or even fresh new shiny funding do not radicalise an arts culture, but new alliances, new attitudes and ways of working and thinking do.

And this is where artists and arts organisations can take the initiative – cross the line drawn by others of the successful and unsuccessful. Already I have heard of this little miracle happening in several places. How can we work together to make it work? Because as we know, survival lies not in the strength of the fittest but in a mixed ecology. I have had several conversations with the fortunate funded bodies that can appreciate a long term benefit through sharing their resources, and I don’t just mean money. There is an opportunity to generate new relationships – between artists, across art forms, new non arts partners (especially the hitherto hidden ones) – and consider innovative funding models. Seems to me that diversity is the key factor. I recommend a paper from Australia: The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability by Jon Hawkes. In it he states: “Diverse values should not be respected just because we are tolerant folk but because we must have a pool of diverse perspectives in order to survive, to adapt to changing conditions, to embrace the future.”

We need to develop porous networks that can support a broad range of alternate approaches with no winners and losers. There are brave new funding models. Have a look at wedidthis or what the London Bubble theatre company has done with fanmade theatre. If ever there was a time to shift the way we work and join forces, this is it. Don’t look up, look sideways.