When the National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) meets for its annual conference in July, the theme of the conference will be ?Diversity?, reflecting its interest in promoting culturally diverse product. Sian Kerry explains.
Despite increased mobility ? both socially and geographically ? the rural/urban divide seems to have increased in recent years. It seems now to be primarily a gap of understanding about how the other lives and operates. Statistics show that the population of British rural areas is over 99% white. For children growing up in rural areas, their experience of non-white culture can be extremely limited, restricted to the local Chinese or Indian takeaway: I consider this to be cultural deprivation.
The experience of black people in rural areas and the prejudice surrounding this has been widely debated. In ?The Guardian?, Trevor Phillips, the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, referred to ?passive apartheid? in the countryside, for which a kind of ?mutual incomprehension? was to blame: ?This is not by anybody?s will; there is no law and I doubt if anybody in the countryside wants to keep people out. But I think what we are seeing is a gradual drift towards a difficult situation in which people from ethnic minorities feel uncomfortable.? For many urban-based performers aspiring for professional advancement and recognition, the rural touring sector is not one they are aware of, or marketing themselves at. The vast majority of the initiatives under the ACE diversity project decibel (aimed at raising the profile of diverse artists) have been urban-based. Rural touring schemes are in a strong position to build bridges between cultures and colours, between urban and rural.
The cultural exchange works both ways. Thanks to the ?hosting? system of touring schemes, communities welcome artists: they feed them, applaud them, appreciate them. Performers new to rural touring are often surprised by how long it takes to get anywhere, that when they get lost there?s no one to ask for directions, and that there are few shops or garages. Artists from different cultural backgrounds can be taken aback by the almost exclusively white audiences. The challenge for us as scheme managers is to ameliorate the perception of such artists as ?exotic?. Does this sound out of date? I can assure readers that in some rural areas this situation exists; that there is a lack of direct personal experience of our multifaceted contemporary British society, and that there is casual offence given through ignorance rather than racism.
Rural touring is an exciting area of work for performers, though not for those who like cosy dressing rooms, a full lighting rig and a stage door to leave by. In a village hall gig there is nowhere to hide: you have to be prepared to be closer to the audience than you might like and to be asked questions afterwards. In return you may be fed home-made cakes, the audience will help load the van and you will know if they liked you ? no standing on ceremony here! We need artistic ambassadors to get up close and personal with our audiences, to bring their cultural differences, to share a different way of life, to build bridges and to create relationships that make Britain ? and the world ? a smaller, friendlier and more tolerant place that we can all enjoy and celebrate.
Sian Kerry is a Director of Arts Alive, one of the 40 touring schemes operating around the country represented by the National Rural Touring Forum. The NRTF conference takes place from 19 to 21 July at Moreton Hall in Warwickshire. t: 01759 303624; w: http://www.nrtf.org.uk