Here We Go Again!
The HUGE project about which I've been obsessing since early 2010 took a step towards actually happening last month when an offer was made for the building I'd identified as a potential development centre for minority arts in Newcastle and the North East by a property developer I'd been wooing for a couple of years. The building has been on the market since 2008 when it was priced at £1.3m, the final asking price was £380,000.
Far from delight at being able to bag such a bargain, the funder who has had £5m "ring-fenced" for the development of Black and Asian theatre for about ten years ridiculed the notion of establishing an arts centre for the low price of £750,000 I suggested. Their "officers" have carefully avoided opportunities to actually venture inside the building to see for themselves that although the building needs remedial attention, it is all but ready to go. Their experience warns them that if they agree to the project it will only be sustained by an endless supply of additional funds.
The project is victim to previous publicly-funded, high-profile cultural building fuck-ups that spawned the mantra "Buildings are bad!" among Arts Officers. It has been frustrating, irritating and insulting to have been lumped in with the numpties given millions of tax-payer pounds for fanciful projects with little concept or understanding of commercial independence or sustainability that ultimately failed. I have a strong concept of a "community business" as something initiated by charitable or perhaps public funding to generate enough income to sustain itself- rarely completely, but enough to be independent. Looking for perpetual hand-outs just won't cut it in these harsh times.
So I present well thought out proposals, operational plans and financial forecasts only to be told that the community interest company I formed to manage the project isn't suitable because it lacks a track record of building management... The fact that I have successfully managed bigger and more complicated community buildings in the past, or that the other directors of the company have significant success in arts development, administration, personnel management, teaching and fund-raising is apparently irrelevant because the company is less than two years old!
None of the above would matter if the creative professionals FOR whom the project is being developed would stand up and be counted. If I had ANY doubt that once the building opened it would be in constant demand I would have given up long ago. The artists can be forgiven for having heard it all before, but it would be incredibly ironic to lose perhaps the best opportunity to develop sustainable infrastructure for black and minority arts since... for ever, because the remaining artists didn't believe it would happen. Some of them are cautious to show their hand for fear of the cross contamination of being on a losing side. Others have heard me going on and on about this project for so long they think I am completely deluded.
In short: If the artists don't come forward; the funds won't be released and the artists won't come forward until the funds have been released and the building opened.
So, I revise the plans and outlines and financial forecasts one more time to present them to consultants hired to deliver a feasibility study that will include an assessment of 'grass root support'... It is weird to feel so out of step with peers who seem resigned to gratitude for the odd crumb from the big table over risk and thrill of running their own affairs. It is like they have complained for so long that to actually be given what they've asked for so long will rob them of their identity! Its like mounting the barricades mid revolution only to find you're on your own!
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