public venues and their role in society (keynote) - 公共施設とその社会における役割...

7/23/2019 Public venues and their role in society (keynote) - (

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Conference

Japan Foundation for Regional Arts Activities()

30.01.2013

(Speech Transcript -)

Speaker:

Michael Spencer

Research Fellow

Ueno Gakuen University Music &Culture Research Centre

Sponsors: Japan Foundation for Regional Arts Activities

Public venues and

their role in society

2 Public Venues Evolution

11 Becoming a Resource for the

Community 3 questions

3

14 Creating a Public EngagementProgramme

23 Conclusion


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sound strategies 2013 2

The purpose of my speech is to consider some of the challenges that face publicly funded

performance venues today, how these are being addressed, and what sort of solutionsare being found. I will focus in particular on public engagement and community

programmes, and their role and method of application in shaping strategically effective

and sustainable presences in our towns, cities and countries. In doing this I want to

highlight 3 questions which I feel are fundamental to developing such

programmes. However, this will come later.

Public Engagement

First, I intend to start by briefly considering the origins of the public venues we have today

particularly as their history, structure and purpose is so intimately entwined with the

Western-based art forms, traditions and societies with which they are associated. So I

want to wind the clock back more than 2,500 years to Ancient Greece.

It was the Ancient Greeks who were to create the first large-scale public performance

spaces; something unique to Western culture. In many ways they still influence the design

of the auditoriums we have today. One of the fundamental differences is that now most

contemporary venues have walls and roofs, although this can also bring a different set of

acoustic challenges.

[SLIDE]

PublicVenues Evolution


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Their purpose was originally religious and we know this from the etymology of the wordtragedy; one of the three dramatic forms performed in these public spaces. For those

who are interested tragedy, or in its original form tragoidia, is made up from two Greek

words; tragos meaning goat, and ode, the word for song. This gives us an indication of

the original purpose for these spaces. They were intended for religious purposes and in

particular the cult worship of the Greek god Dionysus who spent, as legend tells us, part ofhis early life in the form of a goat.

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2

You can see him here on a sarcophagus (260-270 CE) held by the Metropolitan Museum inNew York.

260270

[SLIDE]

.Dionysian Procession, Marble sarcophagus, Metropolitan Museum. Roman. ca. 260270 CE 260270


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[SLIDE]

Epidauros. 300-340 BCE 300340

This theatre at Epidauros holds over 14,000 people and was built in the 4th century BCE.

Even though it is famous for its unique acoustic properties, from looking at this image we

must surmise that it still required the audience to listen in almost reverential silence.

Because there was no artificial amplification, if the theatre was full, it would have beenquite difficult to hear the performers from the back of the seated area, or theatron (the

origin of the word theatre).

14000 4

4

[SLIDE]

Roman Theatre in Orange, Southern France. Built about 300 BCE 300

Comparing this with the theatres of ancient Rome we can see similar architectural

features, however, despite drawing strongly on Greek (Hellenic) theatrical tradition, the


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performances also included elements more associated with street theatre, acrobatics andother popular entertainments. In effect they were responding more closely to public

demand. This blend of performance practices created events that were more varied,

extensive and sophisticated than those of any culture before.

If we jump forwards to the Middle Ages, by around 1000 CE there are no longer the same

examples of formalised public performance spaces. Instead, informal entertainment

areas tended to be integrated within places where people naturally congregated such as

market and fairs. At this time also the Church played a major role in the promotion ofpublic performance. The liturgical drama was a means by which religion could

communicate directly with a largely illiterate but enthusiastic audience via the creation of

lively dramatizations of biblical events. By the middle of the 11th century this tradition waswidespread from Russia to Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.

100011

11

By the 15th century more formal, dedicated performances started to proliferate. These

were often on movable structures such as wagons or carts, and actors were frequently

amateurs drawn from the community.

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[SLIDE]


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Castle of Perseverance 15th century England15

This is a stage plan stage from the 15th century. It shows the audience surrounding the

performance area. This implies that the relationship between the performanceand public

areas was more closely interrelated.

15

At this time England started to emerge as one of the worlds main centres of development

of theatrical tradition, and in 1567 the first theatre was built in London - The Red Lion - and

it marked the re-establishment of the formalized, dedicated public performance space.Interest in the performances was such that people from different social classes often

made up the same audience; members of Queen Elizabeths court stood alongside

commoners to watch the same plays. The number of public theatres proliferated in and

around the City of London until 1642 when the influences of the Puritan religiousmovement and the English Civil War closed them down for the next 18 years.

1567

1642 18

[SLIDE]


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These theatres were vibrant, social centres designed for interaction between performersand audience. This is an example of one such theatre. The Swan. You can see how

the thrust stage took the actors to the heart of the audience

[SLIDE]

Here is an image of the reconstructed Shakespeares Globe Theatre as it replicates the

Elizabethan theatre experience today.

I should perhaps mention also that whilst these theatres were open to the public they

werent supported from public funds and were instead commercial concerns.

It wasnt only in England that this intimate relationship between audience and public

theatre was developing. The same happened in Japan. Kabuki moved from the informal,

almost improvised performance platforms in the riverbed in Kyoto to dedicated, multi-level

theatre spaces. And we know how popular these were from the way in which the

authorities reacted in trying to limit the number of people who attended as they felt thatthe gathering of crowds was potentially politically volatile.


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[SLIDE]

By the 18th century there was a considerable degree of interaction between the theatres,their audiences, and the communities within which they were situated.

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However, in Europe, from this time forwards the role and nature of these spaces started to

change. This was in no small part influenced by the way in which the performing arts were

evolving and how in consequence public tastes and attitudes adapted. This was the

period known as the Age of the Enlightenment, when the voice of the individual was ofparamount importance and needed to be heard.

Music, for example, had until this time served either as a privileged soundtrack to the lives

of rich patrons, including the Church, or as bucolic accompaniment to daily life in the

form of folk music traditions. During the 18th century, however, it started to evolve into a

form which required the attention of the listener and consequently we see theestablishment of the first dedicated concert halls.

18


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[SLIDE]

This is Holywell Music Room in Oxford; built in 1748 it is the oldest custom-built concert hall

in Europe and was funded by public subscription.

1748

In1781 Leipzig received its first concert hall, which was created from the upper floor of an

old trading house and became the first home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

1781

During the 19th century, as access to public tutelage became more widespread and

standards of education started to improve, we observe the start of a gradual transition of

the public performance space from a popular and lively arena integrated within itscommunity into something much more sober and contemplative with more akin to the

temples of the Ancient Greeks, and created for the worship of high art by the

cognoscenti. For these venues public subsidy played an increasingly important role

whereas the more popular theatrical forms such as burlesque, vaudeville and music hall

were generally privately run commercial concerns and left to fend for themselves.

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Undoubtedly these subsidized spaces developed their own particular communities of

interest, however, as we start to move through the 20th century we find their audience

base shrinking, and by the time we reach the 1950s and 60s, certainly in the UK, the act

of attending concerts, opera or the theatre often carried the stigma of elitism.

20 5060


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In conclusion, from this brief overview we can see that throughout history communitieshave developed public spaces that reflected their needs, whether these were for

performance, sacred celebrations, local rituals or general areas for congregation such as

markets. Public spaces also often became iconic symbols within the community, society

or culture within which they were based. I would suggest that this was perhaps what led

to the creation of community-based performance spaces often linked to civic centres,each of which was subsidized from a varying combination of local and national

government funds, ticket sales, foundations and sponsorship.

With the advance of the 20th century came an increasing focus on public accountability,

and in response, for their own survival if nothing else, publicly subsidized venues had to

address the long term effects of falling public interest and the failure to attract new and

younger audiences. This has its basis in a number of influences but particularly the public

perception of inaccessibility and a growing interest in alternative sources of entertainment

e.g. television, sport, technology etc. The argument for survival could no longer be made

on the value of the Arts to society alone. In the UK the debate became increasingly

vitriolic and reached one particular climax in 1998 when there was a public outcry about

the proposed 218 million pound refurbishment of the Royal Opera House, 78 million of

which was to come from public sources. Did we need hospitals or the Royal Opera

House?

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1998

2 1 8 305 2

7 8109 2

Therefore, venues that received public subsidy as a part of their budget had to take

responsibility for justifying what was, by some, considered an unequally privileged position.

This provided the backdrop to the development of outreach and community

engagement programmes. In fact, one of the key reasons that the Royal Opera House

received the refurbishment grant money it did was because of the way in which itintegrated a robust, strategic education programme within its overall strategic plan. At


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that, however, time the concept and methodology behind such outreach programmeswere still in their infancy.

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I am aware that today I am addressing an audience with a mixed variety of experiencesin arts management. Some of you are just about to move into your first jobs, some are

already well seasoned. Whatever your background may be Id like return to my opening

remarks and ask you to consider your own experiences of public theatres, and inparticular I would like to pose three questions.

1. Bearing in mind that physical structure of your venue is probably one of the biggest

public buildings in the community how many physical spaces, suitable for public

use, does it actually contain? This includes foyers and additional rooms. And overwhat proportion of their potential usage time do they remain empty?

2. What in-depth knowledge do you have about the community that is served by the

venue, and not only those groups or individuals that may be interested in attending

events?

3. If there is any interaction with the surrounding community, other than attending

events, how is this publicised?

Becoming a Resource for the Community 3 questions 3


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I realize of course that some public halls have a bigger remit than others and theircommunity might be prefecture-wide, but I would suggest that the answers to these

questions are fundamental to the success of any public venue.

The first is about realizing the full potential for the venue as a building. Too often in Japan,

it seems to me, venue spaces are not used in sufficiently creative ways and tend to be

limited to their original purpose alone. For example, think of the empty foyers that are no

more than assembly points and have all the characteristics of an underused railwaystation.

Its interesting to look at venues such as the Barbican Centre in London that now has a full

programme of concourse events and activities, and how this creates a lively and vibrant

atmosphere outside of its dedicated auditorium and theatre spaces. In Gateshead, a

medium sized town in the North of England associated more with coal-mining and industry

than the Arts, the Sage Centre encourages involvement in the concourse events and

activities throughout the day and in doing so gives ownership of the venue to its

community.

[SLIDE]

The Sage has also become the home of both the Northern Sinfonia, one of the UKs top

provincial chamber orchestras, and Folkworks, the largest folk music development agency


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in the UK. And its often the case that they combine together on projects. Its aparticularly interesting venue because of the way it has become a focal point for a wide

and diverse range of arts activities across the North East of England. Cross-partnerships

work!

The second question concerns what brands call market intelligence. This helps with the

design of the content for every aspect of engagement with the community. Do you really

know who is out there and what their needs and desires are? Do you know what potential

there might be for collaboration?

2

I remember years ago being part of an unlikely collaboration between the London

Symphony Orchestra and Arsenal Football Club.

However, this is not to imply that ones role as an organization is purely to fulfill the desiresof ones community. The purpose of a venue should not be an aesthetic equivalent of the

immediate gratification one receives from a fast food outlet. Michael Kaiser, who used

to be the CEO of the Royal Opera House and is now president of the Kennedy Centre in

Washington, talks frequently on his Huffington Post blog about the importance of

programming compelling and stimulating content. This is applied to all activities includingeducational or outreach work.

I will talk more about content shortly.

The third and final question relates to how an organization talks about what it does,particularly if it is doing something new and ground-breaking. It seems to me that arts

organisations in general are very bad about publicizing what they have achieved in a


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way that is both engaging and stimulating for their audiences.

When I was Head of Education at the Royal Opera House some years back we created a

software package that was issued to 5000 schools. It was only because we worked closely

with the PR section that we were able to coordinate a media initiative that culminated in

two features on BBC prime time television news. They jumped at the chance of such an

original good news story and this was extremely positive publicity for the Royal Opera

House at a time when it was under much criticism. I cant emphasize enough howimportant it is for education, PR departments and sponsorship departments to work

together closely and to have a good knowledge of each others roles and practices.

5000 BBC

2

I assume that that we all agree on the rationale for creating clearly articulated, strategic

outreach and public engagement programmes, so I propose to talk about some of the

elements from which they are constructed.

Before I do, however, I would like to mention a difference I have noticed in Japan with

regard to the way in which a season of events might be structured. It seems to me that

there is an emphasis on creating programmes of events that consist almost solely of anumber of unrelated performances, where the rationale for their inclusion is either the

popularity of the content or the reputation of the artist or artists. Whilst this sometimes

happens at other venues in the world, by comparison I notice that in Japan it is seldom

that one finds the same sort of themed series that often programmed elsewhere.

Creating a public engagement programme


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[SLIDE]

For example, every year the Barbican Centre in London holds the Total Immersion series.

This consists of a series of days spread throughout the year for each of which a separate

musical topic is selected. All events that take place on that day will be connected and

give the opportunity to explore the music in greater depth. So for example, in February

there is a Japanese day that consists of two symphony and one chamber music concerts

all featuring the music of different contemporary Japanese composers, a film about

Takemitsu, and an illustrated talk about the music in Kurosawas films. Alongside this are a

number of related education events and demonstrations. Not all of these are necessarily

held in the Barbican. The next Total Immersion day explores the music of Finland and

Denmark.


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This whole series is just one of a number of interrelated programmes the Barbican holds

throughout each season. I mention this because by creating bigger planning structures it

is much easier to create a raft of supporting activities around a series of themed eventsrather than individual items. Also, I believe that it leads to more innovative planning and a

much more positive and responsive engagement with the audience.

This type of programming focuses less on the performers and more on the music and howit functions. Education work takes this even further and is based on the premise that

people are fundamentally curious and need the opportunity to question and learn. And

the best way for them to understand and learn is by practical participation; Learning bydoing as it is often known. I will be talking about this during later sessions in the

conference.

In considering outreach and community engagement programmes, I tend to considerthem as falling into two types of activity: Education, and event-based activities. They may

sometimes overlap.

[SLIDE movie clip]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaHPND2QJg


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This is a superb example of an event-based activity that was used to reach out to theirlocal community, and beyond. The Orquestra Simfnica del Valls is an ensemble in

Spain of which I am Director of Education and Strategy. We had often discussed the

need to get closer to their community audience. This was one of their solutions.

With over 9 million views on You Tube the orchestras stature has increased immeasurably.

It also helped in no small way with their relationship with their sponsors the Bank of

Sabadell - as it took place in front of their main building.

This process was straightforward and the objectives clear

[SLIDE movie clip]

https://vimeo.com/59243920

This is an example of an education-led project I facilitated in 2006 at the Grand Ship in

Shizuoka. This type of project has a much more involved process and the aim is to involve

the participants in learning about some particular aspect of the Arts. This is achieved by

active participation and exploration or Learning by doing. The video extract shows theearly stages of a project based on Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition.

2006

And, these projects need not necessarily be confined to music alone. A few years ago I

ran a nationwide project for school students exploring Kabuki drama. It was part of the2001 Japan Festival that was held throughout the UK. We looked at the essence of Kabuki


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by taking the balcony scene from Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet and transforming itinto a kabuki-style performance. In the final stages we even had the assistance of one of

the actors from the kabuki-za, and final performances or sharings took place at the British

Museum and the Japanese Embassy in London. Obviously this was not an accurate

replication of kabuki, nor was it intended as such. But by giving these inner city children a

practical, in-depth, creative experience reinforced with educational rigour, and by usingsome of the dramatic tools and traditions of kabuki, they received an immersion in

another culture that will remain with them for life.

I shall never forget the day when, in the North East of England, we managed to persuade

some very tough young men with tattoos to explore the role of the onnagata!

As we can see, event-based interventions are comparatively simple to arrange.

Education-led programmes are, however, usually much more involved and have a

number of stages and a requirement for facilitators with specific skill sets.

Perhaps the most important starting point for an organization when creating such a

programme is to have a clear understanding of why it is deemed necessary, how it fitswithin their overall strategy, what the parameters will be, and what the outcomes might

be. I have witnessed too many education programmes that failed because of the lack of

alignment with the aims and objectives of an organization.

The second most important stage is the consultancy and data collection stage which

precedes any practical work. This involves interviewing stakeholders within the

organization, community representatives, interest groups, possible sponsors etc.


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The Royal Opera House has a major project under way sixteen miles to the East of London

in Thurrock, Essex. This was once a busy, heavily industrialized area but now has rising

unemployment, wages below the national average, and the lowest take up on higher

education or vocational training in the UK. Undoubtedly an area of social deprivation.

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[SLIDE]

The production facilities for the Royal Opera House had to be re-sited because they lay

within the plans for the Olympic Park. In 2005 Thurrock was chosen as the new site. But as

you might imagine the concern about this world-renowned and possibly elitist

organization suddenly turning up in the middle of a deprived area had the potential for

both a social and political backlash. The Education Department, however, has

considerable expertise and knowledge of working in such circumstances and it was

decided that they would lead on the strategy for integrating the ROH and its new facilities

within this particular area.

2005

There followed 8 months of formal and informal consultations across the community after

which the first education project was instigated. Over the next 4 years the programme of

education work continued to expand, even though the production facilities had yet to bebuilt. This didnt start until 2010.

84

2010


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Now, this project stands as one of the most successful examples of integration andinclusivity in the UK. 2,500 people from the community have actually attended

performances at the ROH in Covent Garden, there is a raft of education projects in place,

a local choir has been formed, and as a joint project between the ROH and the

community a new opera was created and performed which attracted a combined

audience of 3000. The Royal Opera House is now an integral part of the Thurrockcommunity.

2500

3000

Last year, I spoke with my past colleague, the Director of Education, about this project

and he emphasized the importance of learning to be flexible and responsive to demand.It often means adapting the original plan, and reframing it to accommodate the views of

each stakeholder. Therefore there has to be a willingness to listen, negotiate and

compromise wherever possible.

This is obviously a large-scale project with a long future ahead. On a much smaller scale,a very modest project I put in place at the ROH focused on social dancing. Our brief was

to work with all segments of the community it was seldom that we involved those of

advanced age. We therefore started a programme of tea dances. This style of dancing

was extremely popular in the 30s and 40s in the UK, but it was not necessarily the most

obvious project for the grandeur of the ROH. The convincing argument came when werealized that during the war years the opera house was a dance hall.

193040


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[SLIDE]

Once it was agreed to move ahead I contacted all the local age concern centres todetermine the level of interest. Despite the enthusiasm I encountered, first dance we had

only 80 people. By the third event, however, we had over 300 participants and becauseof the safety regulations from then on we had to limit numbers. One of the main

attractions was that we used a 9-piece band, something seldom heard these days. It

gave the event a unique feel and was in line with the opera houses commitment to liveperformance. This was 12 years ago and they are still going strong. In 2005 they held one

in Trafalgar Square and are now in the Guinness Book of records for the largest tea dance

in the world.

80300

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2005

[SLIDE]

For me the most telling comment was from one old lady who, until this moment, thought

that they were not entitled to come into the building.


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And what happens once a programme has been implemented?

Its essential to apply an evaluation that reports, challenges and rewards the project and

its stakeholders. There are many different ways of doing this and its advisable early on in

a project to determine the nature of the evaluation because this will ultimately highlight

the successes, failures, and learning points for future use.

In the UK there are a number of guides issued by the Arts Council which describe some of

the ways in which one might evaluate a project and they are not restricted solely to a textbased method of presentation

Finally, who is going to implement this work? It doesnt happen on its own, and its

essential to have at least one administrator who will develop a specialisation in this area. I

would suggest that its equally as important a role as any other within the organisation and

cannot be considered supplementary to the workload of someone with other

responsibilities.

1

The other people who are important are those who actually plan and deliver the

outreach programmes. The facilitators. This requires a range of special skills and I will talkabout this more tomorrow.

One item I realize I have left out of the presentation so far is funding. The reason for this is

that it is a complex subject which requires a presentation all of its own. I realize, however,

that there is not the same tradition of sponsorship in Japan as there is elsewhere and this

has a number of different reasons, tax relief perhaps being one of them. In 2011 in the UK

the average funding budgets were made up from three separate contribution sources;The Arts Council (33%), sales and merchandising (45%), and the remainder (22%)1 from

sponsors or grant giving bodies.

1http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/30/arts-council-funding-decisions-list


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201133

45 22

Sponsorship departments spend much time trying to match the needs of sponsors with

some sort of quantifiable method to demonstrate a return on investment. This is often in

the form of visibility, but can also fall within the remit of CSR programmes.

CSR

The fact remains that in the current financial climate sponsorship has become increasingly

difficult to find. This is why organisations are becoming increasingly creative in what they

can offer. The Orchestra Simfonica de Valles I mentioned earlier shows one suchexample. Others I could mention include the sponsorship by local firms of individual

dancers in the Northern Dance Company, a small provincial dance company in the North

of England. I also heard of a performance of Handels Messiah where each section of the

piece had a separate sponsor. It might amuse you to know that when I was in the LSO the

second harpist, a woman, was sponsored by the lingerie company Victorias Secret.

If public venues are to continue to provide a range of life enhancing experiences theyhave to become proactive in reaching out to the communities within which they sit. There

are now too many enticing distractions in the world that are enabled at the touch of a

button and which draw people away from authentic and meaningful interaction.

Life is really about the quality of relationship we develop with others and I dont believe

that technology is yet ready to give us a viable substitute. The sort of authentic,relationship that is possible in public venues is both intimate and worth sharing, and we

Conclusion


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must be cautious that our audiences are not seduced into thinking that there are equallyeffective alternatives.

Each venue will have its own unique set of demands, but there are also common areas ofchallenge that are better if shared and dealt with together with your own community of

interest whether this be nationally or locally. PR, programming, funding, outreach and

community programmes, performers etc., all have to find a more efficient and strategic

way of working together. I can see how smaller venues with limited budgets might

struggle, but they have a wealth of resources available in their communities if they canonly learn how to tap into them. It takes courage and cant is not really an option.

No matter the size of the organization, it is imperative that they nurture connections at this

intimate and highly nuanced local level. And it can be a long journey. The Royal OperaHouse started with one education administrator and a secretarial assistant. It now has a

staff of over 40 people to run its many different and diverse projects. But it took 16 years toget to this level.

2 40

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If, as Shakespeare said, All the worlds a stage and all the men and women merely

players the evolution of the public theatre has an important role within this context andtogether they form a holistic and evolving continuum. For their integration to be fully

effective requires an approach that is inquisitive, responsive and flexible, and it is perhaps

only in this way that venues can become true and valuable resources for the communities

in which they operate.


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MS. 5 January 2013

Website: www.sound-strategies.co.uk

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 (0)7976 432348/+44 (0)20 7247 0891

public venues and their role in society (keynote) - 公共施設とその社会における役割...

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