The Peril of Thinking SMALL!
I love theatre for its capacity to make the impossible possible, for its ability to create magic, but it seems that its a lucky theatre maker who has an entire crew sharing their dream. Risk... people, supposedly creative people today are afraid of risk! That constantly shocks me. Recently I have watched a series of documentaries about and discussions with creative greats like the Jazz Divas of the mid twentieth century, contemporary musicians, writers, actors, architects, artists of the European Renaissance etc. Over and over, the people who "made it" were the risk-takers not the line tow-ers.
I once worked for a black arts organisation that walked away (i.e. fled) from a £30m grant to build what would have been the National Centre for Black Arts in Britain on London's South Bank!!! Why did they flee? -Because the project MIGHT have failed and the trustees didn't want their names associated with it if it did. Incidentally: ALL of those trustees faded into obscurity almost immediately afterwards anyway. It was embarrassing for me to have to go back to all the supporting agencies such as the Lottery, the London Docklands Development Agency, the South Bank Centre and creative professionals all over the country to tell them we couldn't go forward because of the Board's lack of balls! People outside the organisation had more faith in it than it did in itself!
The fiasco of The Roundhouse as almost London's Black arts centre had a part to play in those trustees' fears: the UK Black arts sector had never fully recovered from the failure to make the building work under its African Director Remy Kapo. This had happened a bit before my time, but I researched and discovered that, although there were SOME petty issues, as there almost always are with national networks, to do with people who felt they could do it better and, "yes" there was SOME (much over-blown) Caribbean-African racism that definitely didn't help, the REAL inhibitor to the Roundhouse's success was the fact that the Centre was never actually in control of its own destiny: everything had to be passed by the dual authority of The Arts Council and Camden Council who were the signatories to its bank account. NO decisions could be implemented without this joint participation. ANY developments were so painfully slow that opportunities were routinely lost and the building, once a vibrant alternative venue, never fully recovered and lay empty for many years.
The Roundhouse may contribute to why Black creative professionals seem to habitually think small, they don't expect to have big resources and exist in the expectation of failure with statutory agencies looking over their shoulders, holding their hands and offering 'guidance'. Successive cultural capital catastrophes compounded by the "economic down-turn" has left Minority Arts looking even more risky- after all: if well supported 'mainstream' creative organisations can do so badly as to spend millions on buildings that never fully open or never attract audiences, what hope for people who have rarely had those opportunities? In response, minority arts organisations specialise in minor thinking, are careful not to ask for too much or to overreach themselves. But this doesn't work either: its a strange truism that one tends to receive less subsidy than is requested so if you ask for what you think is 'reasonable' you'll end up with less than you need to make the impact you want.
The minority arts sector seems doomed to remain in church and community halls apart from when major venues can't put off a gesture towards "diversity" any longer or have an awkward programming corner to fill. The unrealistic expectation that audiences who have grown used to thinking the bigger venues aren't for them will flock to see artists who represent their cultures and histories usually fails and fuels the claims that "there are no audiences for minority arts". The idea of being in control of a significant facility frightens too many minority artists who fail to understand that not having building management experience is no reason for not seeking buildings to manage! The 'trick' is to hire people with relevant experience and to ensure management that reflects the wishes and aspirations of the artists and their audiences rather than to tick the boxes of supporting agencies.
Its sad to say, but it feels like minority arts has still not come of age and still looks to have its hand held rather than to forge ahead on its own. Thinking small remains the modus operandi and regularly yields insignificant results.
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