What have they (Bristol, Manchester, London) got that we haven’t? what have we got that they haven
- Convenor:
- Alison Gagen
- Attendees:
- Geraldine Collinge, Mark Cochrane, Andrew cowie, pippa frith, jenny stephens, orit aza, sam fox, raidene carter, moquapi sellasie, john moreton, chris o’connell, ed collier, tom davies, Vanessa oakes, sarah thom, Graeme rose, Katie day
- Description:
Birmingham is boring – there is no community, I live in the middle of the city and I never meet any real Brummies. There’s no community in the city centre, that’s why – it’s all in Kings Heath! We came late to the scene in terms of building city centre places to live.
3 things were proposed: That we embrace a broader definition of theatre which includes live art and other types of practice; that we celebrate the fact that we have diversity here as a real strength; that we demand a different image of Birmingham is embraced and celebrated, by the City Council particularly – why do they want this to be a place to come to shop and not to see art?
Why do the local artists lack confidence? Self esteem? How can we articulate better what it is that we do – and that we do well? We could just get on and do it. Prove it by doing great work.
Does the City Council only want Big Stuff? Big International Stuff?
Things can change: Simon Day started Pilot 5 years ago (ish) wanting to ‘creative a scene where there wasn’t one’ – he did – and now there is – and when he wanted to stop doing it, Sam and Jess from Kindle took up the Baton – people from other regions have started to come to Pilot. Do we welcome them?
Is it just about information gathering – and sharing? Theatre Bristol said that they are still finding new people and companies, even now – no one knows everything, but between us we know a lot.
Creative producers who can broker on behalf of artists: Yes Please.
In response to the Theatre Bristol website usefulness: there are some useful websites here in Brum already. Not everyone knows about them though. Some people find out about work in Digbeth – new interesting work – via these websites, and take responsibility for finding out about that interesting work themselves.
Are there things we should and could be saying to Birmingham City Council?
What does Creative Republic do?
Responses to Theatre Bristol – and interest in it – All We Do (said Tom) is create a space. For people to fill. Could we have a Theatre Birmingham? IS Birmingham like a donut with an empty middle and stuff which happens around the outside?
What other models might be interesting to us: Panda in Manchester – because it helps with business development as well as artistic development? Yes – there’s a need – need to help make artists and their work sustainable.
We have a problem with venues. We lack venues which have a clear and public remit to develop artists. We learned about how Theater Bristol (TB) based its producers for a while, initially, within venues – this helped. Here we have Raidene as Associate producer based at the rep working with BME artists but also looking outside the rep. Talked about what the rep would be like after it reopened with the new space. Would it have a different remit – more about developing artists? Or more focused on audience development?
Observation from Tom, TB: we have great energy for change here. What they found in Bristol is that when the Old Vic closed it revealed lots of work being made by others : ‘like a big rock was moved and you could see the ants underneath’.
Our assets: we have big industrial spaces that would be great as artists spaces.
Do we need a Tehatre Bristol:? What is great about it is that it doesn’t work to its own agenda – it can represent many peoples and be objective and strategic. The feeling in the room was that people here believed that that was true. And authentic. And that it was very important for this region/place to have something they could believe in, which seemed authentic – there is a strong suspicion and dislike of untruthful, inauthentic things. Everything at TB has equal status. The website is used by artists and audiences alike – this is important.
We really feel the lack of a publication for the city. No Time Out or City Life or Venue. There is a new mag called Aerial which looks promising.
We should get a website like TBs?
Other models: Arts Admin? Fuel? No, because those are producer lead. We might need those, but further down the line? Those models work because they are have strong leadership – TB seemed more demomcratic? Still needs a leader though!
It seemed important to everyone that TB had been founded with ‘built in obsolescence’ – that they want not to have to exist.
It’s also important that they do do development work – and that it is wide and inclusive. Even if not everyone can be helped to production, they can help a lot of people in the first instance.
BUT should it be a Theatre Birmingham? How do those in the room based in Wolverhampton and Coventry and Shropshire feel about that – they would feel exc luded.
And a wolverhampton artist said she had worked in llondon and been struck by how connected we feel here – we actually do have a sense of community.
We ended on the BIG question of whether or not it should be Theatre Birmingham – or Theatre Central (or something wider and more inclusive) – the Brand is important – people Google Birmingham and that is what you want reflected in your name and brand. Or is it actually more important to be inclusive?
Final thoughts: From Tom from TB: you have something great here – don’t screw it up!
(and a local producer said what we make here is going to be EVEN BETTER than Theatre Bristol!)Thank you.