Sally Lai and Vanessa Rawlings-Jackson reveal the findings from the first leg of a cultural exchange between the East Midlands and South West China.
A cultural exchange taking place between the East Midlands and South West China is distinguished from most other China exchanges by its region-to-region focus, building on twinning relationships between Leicestershire and Sichuan, and Leicester and Chongqing. As well as encouraging peer working, the exchange aims to explore opportunities for long-term partnerships and for sharing expertise and knowledge, to enhance understanding of international work, to look at good business practice and to promote culture in the East Midlands. Principally funded by Arts Council England, the initial exchange has two strands: an outward delegation that took place in March and an inward delegation scheduled for the autumn. The outward delegation, involving senior representatives from key cultural organisations from across the East Midlands, focused on the themes of audience development and capital projects, with an emphasis on information gathering and advocacy. And the information gathered was both fascinating and inspiring.
The ambition of the capital projects in Chongqing in particular is astounding in terms of design and scale. These include the 2,700 seat Chongqing Grand Theatre, Chongqing Science and Technology Museum and Chonqging Library. The approach to capital projects is dominated by their capacity to shape and redefine Chongqing as a cultural destination. Its more about regeneration than art: these buildings arent being planned in response to local artistic ambition or market demand. Imaginative approaches to cross artform working provide wide cultural experiences, such as at Chengdu Arts Centre, where a musical was being presented telling the story of ancient relics found outside the city. These relics are subsequently going to be housed in the newly built museum. The musical therefore not only acts as creative piece in itself but also provides interpretative support (with fictional elements) for the relics and promotes them to audiences. And as for audiences, it is interesting to hear that employees of state-owned companies in Chonqging are given half days off for group visits to museums.
The experience of the trip itself provided some valuable lessons for future exchanges. For example, opportunities for dialogue were limited by full itineraries coupled with the Chinese adherence to punctuality. Ideas and conversations werent always as developed as they might be, and social events such as banquets hosted by a local organisation rather than a British agency are places where the most fruitful and insightful conversations can take place. Partners proved essential to the project, not only UK ones but also local partners in China. The more thorough the briefing both before and during the trip, the more can be gained, and our partners were key to the planning but also for their local knowledge. Good language translation and an understanding of the cultural sector are key. We were fortunate to have a brilliant interpreter who works for a British arts consultancy in China and was able to grasp complex concepts and to question us to ensure that she fully understood our points. An experienced China-based arts manager complemented her work.
Collaboration and business in China takes a substantial investment of time. This outward delegation was only the start of our regional collaboration. Delegates are collectively reflecting and learning from the experience in order to shape the inward delegation and how the region as a whole engages with South West China.
Vanessa Rawlings-Jackson is Chief Executive of Cultivate: the East Midlands organisational and audience development agency.
e: info@cultivate-em.com;
w: http://www.cultivate-em.org.uk
Sally Lai is a Clore Fellow, Curator and Project Manager of the Cultural Exchange between the East Midlands and South West China, for Arts Council England, East Midlands.
e: miss.sally.lai@hotmail.com