Our Senior Associate, Andrea Nixon, formerly Executive Director of Tate Liverpool, discusses the need for collaborative approaches in the post-COVID-19 cultural world.
A friend from the sector talked to me today about us all feeling as if we are in “Bear!” mode. The fight or flight, heart-palpitating crisis management that everyone has been thrown into over the past 3 weeks, whilst we rewrite our risk registers, talk more with our boards than ever before, begin to navigate tax systems in a completely new way, and individually watch our whole 2020/21 livelihood dry up, has been unprecedented at best, and terrifying to many. All of this is before the full effect of COVID-19 hits.
François Matarasso’s recent blog ‘Let’s Use this Breathing Space Wisely’ makes the key point that it is now up to the sector to use the time Arts Council England (ACE) has bought us in a new way and to think carefully while we pause to catch our collective breath. He proposes:
“We must see the cultural ecosystem in which every person, every organisation, every cultural expression, has a legitimate place. We must prize mutuality and solidarity above sectarian interest. We must use what resources we still have, whether we lead a great institution or a neighbourhood arts group, to protect the most vulnerable. Those with the broadest shoulders should take more of this burden, and that might mean some redistribution to help those on freelance contracts and minimum wages, those on the margins, whose voices have not been heard, those who have always had less easy paths to the work, the stages and the funding. Let’s live up to art’s inclusive values. We have one shot. Let’s be our best.”
This is inspiring (and right) – but a very big ask. Even if organisations are prepared to be generous and generative in the way ACE has requested, supporting freelance creatives and smaller non-National Portfolio Organisations within their applications, it may be difficult to cohere their thinking at the speed required for ACE’s processes (due to start in early April).
The places which already have a history of sector co-working will be at an advantage here, if they can spare the time to pause for a collective think and reflect, and ensure that individual applications are using the fullest mix of place-based assets and are not duplicating or trampling each other. It is time to think strategically, in place-based approaches, and not while in “Bear!” mode. ACE staff who have worked deeply in an area will be able to advise, as will those local authorities that still have culture teams with expertise, but whether they have time to help convene a way of distilling sectoral priorities is another question. Counterculture has worked across the country over the years to support institutions and authorities to identify their ambitions. What is the best route now for us to speedily share this knowledge again with its commissioners, to help them connect with partners – and particularly to help local authorities muster a strategic place-based approach, which can fairly and dispassionately help those who need it most?
Longer-term, the need for collaborative approaches is going to be more vital than ever. The National Portfolio Organisation round has been moved but will need to knit up even more closely with National Heritage Lottery Fund, and the plans being put in place by the major trusts and foundations for place-based and audience-focused support. More than ever we are going to need to be clear what we are for, who and why, and find joint approaches to delivery. “Bear!” as a reaction will get you some immediate security – but not for long.