John’s Blog – December 2007

 Art for art’s sake – or for all our sakes?!

Those of us in the arts world in Worcestershire have been very exercised of late, for reasons I shan’t bore you with, with the question of funding for ‘the arts’. Coming out of the intense discussion has been the question of whether the use of the term ‘the arts’ is detrimental to our case for public funding – whether you want to describe it as ‘support’, ‘subsidy’ or ‘investment’!

My concern is that the use of the phrase ‘the arts’ conjures up in many minds only such activities as the opera, ballet, Shakespeare plays, orchestral concerts and ‘conceptual art’ that is obscure and, frankly, baffling. Yes, these things are out there and they do receive public money. The assumption all too often is that these things are not for us, therefore ‘the arts’ are not for us (and, for some people ‘why should we pay for them with our taxes!’). But these activities are the tip of the iceberg of what constitutes artistic activity.

For example, settle down for the evening to watch a soap on TV – ah, actors! Listen to your i-pod or a CD – musicians, read the latest ‘Harry Potter’ – written by an author, the latest James Bond film, more actors – get the idea? And what about fashion designers, furniture designers, advertising – we’re surrounded by the results of creative activity. In fact, our whole culture is determined by it, we live with and absorb it in the fabric of our daily lives. It’s a continuum from the crassest jingle at one end to a Mozart Opera at the other.

My view is that art can’t and shouldn’t be compartmentalised, each end of the continuum is influenced and shaped by the other and can’t exist without the other. ‘The arts’ don’t exist in a vacuum, they’re all around us – just try and imagine what life would be like without them: no theatres, no gigs or concerts, no books, no TV and films, no colour, no form, no imagination, no flights of fantasy, no controversy, no debate. In fact, a dull, utilitarian world in which few of us would wish to live!

And so back to Worcester Arts Workshop where our philosophy is to try and engage people where they’re at and encourage them to participate, whether in an audience at one of our performances or at a class or workshop or enjoying one of our big outdoor events. You don’t have to have any particular skill or previous experience, just a curiosity to find out what happens when you have a go, see how you feel, see what you will find out – about yourself and the world around you. You probably won’t become a Picasso or a Beethoven or a Vanessa Redgrave, but you might just have a sense of what drives those people to want to express themselves and create something that is unique because it can only come from them!

Our challenge is to convince people who think that ‘the arts’ are not for them, that they already are and that they are involved with them in a fundamental way every day of their lives whether they recognise it or not! Yes, we currently get public funding to support our activities – in our case, at present, somewhat less than 50% of what’s needed to do everything we do - and we have to work hard to earn the rest, running a ‘lean and mean’ machine to make the best use of the relatively small amount of funding we receive. That support allows us to offer what we do at a price that most people can afford. Indeed, a lot of our outreach work is free ‘at the point of delivery’, to use an NHS metaphor, such as our ‘After Dark in the Park’ events, both to participants and audience, and our work with schools.

Without ‘the arts’, in its broadest sense, we have no culture and without culture we have no identity and no quality of life. From the earliest human times mankind has expressed itself in an artistic way, witness the cave paintings and artefacts of prehistoric times. The poorest societies find the time and opportunity to sing, dance, tell stories, decorate and adorn themselves – it’s our way of making sense of the world and our existence in it!

‘OF CAFÉ’S AND SCOTTISH KINGS…’

So here we are contemplating the autumn of 2007 and our new season of performances and classes is looming following the most extraordinary summer most of have experienced! Fortunately, we are high enough above the high water mark not to have suffered any direct flooding and, thankfully, we have not had any repetition of the water inundation that nearly permanently closed the studio theatre six or seven years ago.

We did have to postpone the ‘Manos Puestas’ gig at the end of July due to the uncertainty created by the extensive flooding in the area, always a difficult call to make, but we will be re-scheduling for the next year.

It’s an exciting programme this autumn with storytelling, drumming, cinema and the ‘Scottish play’ and new additions to the classes including activity days aimed at encouraging families to work and play together. All the details, of course, up on the site.

But there is more that’s new. Thanks to funding obtained through the diligent work of one of our trustees we have been able to upgrade accessibility in the building. We have installed stairlifts from the ground to the first floor and down to the studio theatre, hearing loops, braille signage and replaced the existing benches and seating in the pottery room with adjustable height ones.

And there have been big changes in the café, too, including a new name. So welcome to ‘Café 21’ with a sleek new look and the promise of new menu items to add to existing favourites. We have also been able to expand the wall space given over to exhibitions – so welcome, also, to ‘Gallery 21’ which, this autumn, has an Indian theme and opens with images from artist, Sarah Edwards, travels through the sub-continent earlier this year!

Let’s hope that the autumn and winter don’t throw up too many weather surprises. We’re looking forward seeing you here without you having to wade through flood, snow, gale or fog – so see you soon at the ‘new, improved’ Worcester Arts Workshop!

SEDUCED BY AN ELEPHANT!

Back in May 2006, Kate, our visual arts project officer, said ‘Have you heard about this ‘Sultan’s Elephant’ thing in London?’ (or words to that effect!). ‘No’, I replied but pretty soon we were on to it and discovered that this amazing event had taken place in the middle of London and hardly anyone in the country (and probably most of the rest of London) had heard about it.

A French company, ‘Royal de Luxe’, have created this extraordinary forty feet high animatronic elephant and a sixteen feet tall articulated girl ‘puppet’ which, over a period of four days, enact an adventure entitled ‘The Sultan’ Elephant’.

On day one a mysterious, quaint ‘space capsule’ is discovered, early in the morning, embedded nose down in the middle of the road. On day two the ‘girl’ is lifted from the capsule by the ‘Royal de Luxe’ team, dressed in red, eighteenth century livery and, attached to a motorised frame, she proceeds to parade through the streets.

Later in the day she meets up with the ‘elephant’ which has been resting up in a square somewhere. Over the three remaining days of the event they parade separately through the streets, the ‘elephant’ accompanied by a band on the bed of a lorry, meeting up again in the evening to rest overnight. On the fourth day, the ‘girl’ says ‘good bye’ to the elephant and returns to her ‘space capsule’ and is taken away (by crane) to who knows where.

When we saw the Arts Council England documentary of the London event on BBC4 (sorry if you haven’t got digital!) we knew we had to get to see it for ourselves! And so at the end of October, Kate, Natalie (one of our Management Board) and me and my family (it was half-term!) headed off to Le Havre in France.

One uncomfortable and exhausting overnight ferry journey later, we arrived in Le Havre as dawn broke at about 7.30am. Kate and Natalie headed off separately to their hotel and my family and I installed ourselves in our Le Hotel Vatel which, as chance would have it, is about two minutes walk from where the capsule landed.

That’s all that happened on day one, the ‘capsule’ sat embedded in a little square on the quayside, smoke drifting up from the shattered flagstones around it. Off we went to discover the delights of Le Havre and a serendipitous conversation (in fractured English and my even more inadequate French!) led to the discovery of the square where the ‘elephant’ would be based.

The next day we went back to the ‘capsule’ and waited for the Royal de Luxe team to arrive to liberate the ‘girl’ from her ‘capsule’. It was a surprisingly moving moment when she was lifted by crane, head encased in a flying helmet and goggles, from the ‘capsule’. Her red liveried retainers removed her headgear and we had the first look at her face – and what a beatific face! She looked around at us, blinking occasionally and everyone was instantly entranced. Over the next three days she paraded through the streets drawing large appreciative crowds everywhere, sometimes licking a lolly or resting with children swinging on her giant arms.

Off to the square where the ‘elephant’ was based. The first sight of the ‘elephant’ generates instant ‘wow’ factor – it is huge! And when it began to move, trumpeting loudly and waving its huge trunk around it was completely mesmerising. It is difficult to explain the sheer sensual impact of this huge beast, four-storeys high, trundling past you, trumpeting and spraying the crowds with water from its trunk, a four-piece rock band thundering away in its wake.

Each evening, the ‘girl’ and the ‘elephant’ return to the square to sleep (she on a giant bed) and in the morning she is given a shower by the ‘elephant’, dressed by her retainers and off they go for another day’s stroll around the city.

With return to school looming, my family and I had to get the ferry back on Sunday afternoon and so missed the girl leaving – perhaps as well, I would probably have cried! A fantastic four days, what with the bonus of French food and culture thrown in – and far smaller crowds than in London. If you get a chance to see it – anywhere in the world – try and go! Or failing that, google ‘Sultan’s Elephant’. And wouldn’t it be great to have something like it happen in Worcester, albeit not on such a grand and extravagant scale? Watch this space!

WORKSHOP LOOKS ABROAD!

For some time now, we at the Workshop have been thinking about spreading our wings! Much as we love Worcestershire, there’s a whole big world out there and, apart from sheer curiosity, there seemed, in 2006, some extra pressing reasons why some sort of partnership with an arts organisation abroad might be an exciting idea.

Walking down the High Street in Worcester, you cannot help but notice the wide range of languages being spoken by passers-by. You will hear Portuguese, Polish and a variety of eastern European voices. These are the new settlers in Worcester – and they are also out there throughout the county.

The influx of Poles has been the most recent and, in a bid to find out more about Polish culture – and with help from the Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce, I flew out, in August 2006, to Lodz, the second biggest city in Poland and smack in the middle of the country.

Now Lodz is not the prettiest city in the world – in fact, it’s rather shabby and still shows signs of its communist legacy, outcrops of uninspiring blocks of flats and a very Soviet-style TV building which was just around the corner from the hotel I stayed at. But Poland is clearly emerging from its stifling communist recent past and there are signs of enterprise and regeneration everywhere.

I was very well looked after and accompanied (when I wanted to be) by young people working for the city authority who translated for me. (Sadly, my non-existent Polish vocabulary improved very little during the four days of my visit!).These were university students working during their vacation, very friendly and well informed people anxious to give me a picture of modern day Polish society.

They also guided me to the cultural places in the city – and there were a surprising number of them. Lodz hosts at least two international arts festivals every year, one being a photographic festival at one of the arts organisations I hope we may be able to link up with, the Lodz Arts Centre, a new independently run organisation housed in redundant textile factories.

There is a large area occupied by these nineteenth century brick-built factories, all now sitting empty following the collapse of the textile industry in Lodz after the fall of communism. Some are being converted to other uses including a new retail and leisure development called ‘Manufaktura’, built with French investment, and others are earmarked for loft-style development.

Lodz also has an opera house and a new glass-fronted concert hall (of which the Lodz citizens are rightly proud), a film school (where Roman Polanski trained), an art gallery and an art school. I visited the art school and the quality of the work being produced is very impressive. I hope we may also be able to forge a link with them with a view to hosting some Polish artists in Worcester.

My overall impression of Lodz is that it is a city of great potential. In amongst the depressing post-war architecture there are gems including ‘palaces’ built by the textile barons in the nineteenth century. But the whole place needs a large injection of cash – maybe it will come now that Poland has joined the EU.

New investment is staring to arrive. I was taken to visit a new ceramic tile factory outside the city - state of the art with Italian-made machinery and mostly automated. The manager explained that there were around thirty people working in the factory and, relatively-speaking, they are well paid, receiving £300 per month! It’s no surprise, then, that young, well-educated and ambitious Poles are looking to the more economically developed countries to the west – and hence, some are arriving and choosing to settle, at least for a time, in Worcestershire.

And so, if we can find some funding, we are looking forward to travelling back to Lodz and undertaking a project there and then inviting Polish artist to work with us here. Hopefully, this will be the start of a long and fruitful cultural exchange. If there is anyone out there who might be able to help us make contacts within the Polish community here, any Polish artists living here – or anyone who can help us find some funding to kick-start the process, please, please get in touch!