If you draw a circle to define the audience catchment of The Maltings Theatre and Arts Centre in Berwick-upon-Tweed, you will discover that you will need a programming and marketing policy that needs mainly to appeal to fish, explains Frances Benton
The Maltings was built on the ashes of an old maltings warehouse, destroyed by fire 12 years ago. What followed was a 10- year mixed history of under-funding, overspending, lack of financial controls, very little serious marketing and a lack of popular programming, and as the bells of the new Millennium rang out, the local Council ? the main core funders ? decided to pull the plug. With literally only week to go before certain closure, a small group of board members, with little or no arts management skills, decided this simply could not and would not happen, and as everyone cut down on everything, the Chairman and the Administration Manager met three times a week to decide which bills should be paid. Stubbornly determined to confound the critics, we drew up a plan to change the entire thinking and development of the organisation.
First came a three-year business plan that brought in a team of three managers with disparate and essential skills, motivated by the same drive as the newly streamlined board. Business thinking overrode the arts in the need to survive. We pretended that we weren?t selling art or emotion, experience or education or even entertainment, but something tangible, like tractor widgets. We applied our minds to bottom line profits ? yes, we used the word ?profit?, not ?surplus?. We programmed tribute bands and ?end-of-the-pier? stuff in order to put bums on seats. So how did we manage to hold onto audiences who wanted challenging theatre? We told them what we were doing, and spent months walking and talking and persuading, while developing our customer database.
In the meantime, to get more support and new money, we applied to Northern Arts, for help. They were the supportive partners we needed to persuade the Council to continue to fund us over the first sensitive period, as we proved the new structure could work. The debates were heated, and although we had strong support from some Council members and officials, it was touch and go. At one point the argument rested on the fact that it would cost more to mothball the building, than to keep it open. Frankly, we didn?t care why they decided to let us have our heads, the fact was that they did, and we had six months to prove it.
It was a funding race against time! The community outreach manager, Anne Plenderleith, introduced exciting and practical projects aimed at community needs. I used my business background to write succinct bullet points on application forms, and my persuasive sales skills to rally local business support. We were supported by the loyal staff, who even accepted a pay cut in the early days, to help the cash flow; and all the time, the board members were working on the core-funders to gain more than the historic one-year funding package. We made savings in salaries, programming and paperclips. We tightened belts, borrowed when we couldn?t buy, and enlisted volunteers. Within six months our net debt was reduced from £108,000 to £18,000.
So, what of the future? Year two is about consolidation. We are programming a stronger and more varied diary, still driving hard bargains with tetchy agents, but establishing relationships with all those who contribute to our work, both suppliers and patrons. The needs of local youth, the elderly and disabled are now at the top of the agenda, and best of all, the public are coming through our doors.
So, let your financial business heads govern strategy, but let your hearts be ruled by the arts ? not the other way around. And if there?s anyone out there who can tell me how to attract more halibut than herring, please get in touch?
Frances Benton is Marketing Manager at the Maltings Arts Centre t: 01289 330999; e: frances@maltingsberwick.demon.co.uk