World Class in Newcastle

For five years I worked for a voluntary organisation that became the development agency for minority ethnic arts and artists in North East England. It built a network of groups and individuals. It identified the career development needs of creative professionals from minority communities in the region.

The problem most articulated by the artists was that it was impossible to be programmed by major venues in the region. To achieve "cultural diversity" in their programmes, it was easier for those venues to scan national and international touring circuits to book artists "of colour" who were making the rounds rather than those working in the region. To justify this they and officers of the supposed support agencies calmly stated that there was a lack of minority ethnic artists in the region of regional or national quality to take to the major stages and galleries. I found this hard to accept and wondered how strategic cultural support agencies saw no irony in such statements: to me; it was an admission that they were failing in their roles. I also began to see that it was simply not true- there WERE artists of national- even international stature, but they rarely got opportunities to prove it.

Consultation, consultation, consultation...That is the habitual response to any attempt to articulate these complaints. I would be fascinated to see how much has been spent on consultation on diversity in this region in the last ten years against money granted for production and presentation. Artists of colour who have been producing work for twenty years labour under the "Emerging" title whilst better connected counterparts soar. Millions of pounds have been spent improving cultural venues but artists of colour still struggle to be seen.

There is a formality about our major art houses that is at odds with the cultural experiences of most of our minority audiences and the sometimes "laid back" approach of some artists is easily interpreted as a lack of professionalism. On Saturday 27th of October 2012 I attended an event at Newcastle Arts Centre to mark Black History Month. "Waka Waka" might have given a "mainstream" venue manager a stroke! It started- eventually: 7.30 "BMT"= 'Black Man Time meant around 8ish. But when it did start, it was a delightful concoction of multi-national African musicians, local young people and performance poets. I had become so conditioned to low expectations I was unprepared for the quality of the performances.

For me: the highlight was a performance by "Radikal Queen" (pictured) of her poem "Mama Africa"... It has been a LONG time since I was so moved in such a visceral way by a performance. I am proud to call the performer a friend, I know how hard it has been for her to be taken seriously by those in power and control of arts in this region. Their treatment fuels her rage and her rage increases their fear of her and keeps her from their stages. But last Saturday was a perfect audience in a perfect venue. It gave me a real boost in my passion to create the Intercultural cultural centre I have been struggling to achieve since November 2009. We NEED a "natural home" for artists of colour in North East England to develop their work and perform with confidence and where the established venues can come to learn how to really increase the cultural diversity of their programmes for new audiences.