The civic role of artists and arts organisations

I've been reading the report on the inquiry into the civic role of arts organisations (phase 1). It's an interesting and timely provocation with lots of good thinking. They invited responses and this is mine.

I have found the inquiry into the civic role of arts organisations a stimulating process which has gathered focus and momentum as it has progressed. Any initiative which helps foreground the useful, but often invisible work that arts organisations do, is to be welcomed and I welcome the chance to comment on the first phase report.  

Firstly three points on the report thus far. 

THE METAPHORS (Arts organisations as Colleges, Town Halls, Parks, Temples and Home)

The metaphors used to describe organisations are interesting and yes, we can relate them to our practice. However they suggest iconic buildings or physical places. Our (London Bubble’s) distribution model is less centralised. More importantly the work arts organisations do is largely ephemeral.

(Can I refer you to the Peckham Experiment, an inspirational arts and health initiative conducted between 1926 and 1950. This was a hybrid blending surgery, arts centre, sports centre and college, built on a membership model).  

BEWARE A DEFICIT LENS

At one point the report suggests “our interest is arts organisations in receipt of public funding working with local communities to co-produce problems these communities identify”. We would question the use of the work ‘problems’. It’s only one word but casts the community as problem, the arts organisation as solution and the work as ‘instrumental’. We would argue that artists and arts organisations should see themselves as part of the community, participants as well as artist-facilitators, with a useful skill set. Sometimes that can be used to solve a problem. Sometimes it can be used to co-create, even celebrate, with no set agenda. The work of Welfare State International comes to mind. Perhaps ‘problems’ could be replaced by ‘opportunities’.  

Moving forwards:

OUR CIVIC ROLE

Reading that the first civic institutions were a Victorian response to the drunkenness amongst the large number of workers who had flocked to the towns because of industrialisation made me wonder (in equally generalised terms) about the present day - what are the arts responding to now? In our work with children, young adults and elders, we are observing three, possibly related, trends. Increasing numbers of young children who struggle to communicate, increasing numbers of teenagers and young adults managing mental health issues and increasing numbers of older people who live with loneliness. Our response is to base our practice on building a sense of connection through care and creativity. Are we dealing with a sense of disconnection similar to that experienced by the dislocated Victorian worker? Is the present day problem caused by the new industrial revolution and the impact of digital communication on community? Should this define our ‘civic role’?

CAPACITY BUILDING

Bubble is a small organisation whose work is based on participation and relational practice.  The characteristics listed as principles for consultation we aspire to. (And we would argue that larger organisations sometimes adopt these, rather than truly holding them in their heart). Perhaps there is something to be learned from the Dunbar number* here. To truly foster relationships you have to value them for what they are and question any transaction which places material gain before social gain. Smaller organisation who are part of their community are more likely to foster these principles but they are also more likely to have a lower profile and smaller voice. So any initiative that helps us network, develop capacity and build stability we would welcome. 

LEADERSHIP

The report pays a number of compliments to small and medium scale arts organisations and those who work within them - particularly leaders. It suggests the leaders have developed the organisation. But I sometimes wonder if it is also the organisation that makes the leader. Arts organisations are a wonderfully developmental environment which expect leaders be creative, passionate, open and reflective - and to bring these qualities out of staff and participants/audiences. This creative environment and training ground could be cast a civic asset that reaches beyond the creative sector. 

Jonathan Petherbridge

Creative Director,

London Bubble.

*The theory of Dunbar's Number posits that 150 is the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships.