Charlie Dearden looks at the organisation and funding of a successful regional arts centre.
The great thing about arts centres is how diverse they all are. The type of buildings, resources available, participants and audiences can vary widely, whilst the range of programmes, staffing arrangements and methods of funding tend to be unique to each organisation. Over the years some arts centres have become more embedded into mainstream funding, with some being wholly owned by their local authorities. Others are partially revenue funded by the Arts Council and/or local council, whilst others are not funded at all, surviving solely on the goodwill of volunteers. There are arts centres with the capacity to have a fairly strong commercial business aspect, with a shop, café and rooms to let as conference facilities, while others have only a couple of rooms and one of those is the theatre/gallery. It is important to remember the arts centre aims and reason for being and not allow the commercial side to become top heavy. I was once given advice on how to make the arts centre more financially viable by a business organisation. The advice was to stop having any arts activities, to let the rooms and the Board would then only need to employ a caretaker. Isnt that called a community hall? I asked.
Organisational structures
A large majority of arts centres are governed by a voluntary Board of Trustees. The stronger the Board, the more successful the Arts centre. A Board that has members who are knowledgeable in law, business, marketing and finance offer a strong support to the professional creative team. Board members can be important to successful fundraising. They can also open doors to commerce and business, help with sponsorship deals and be great advocates for the arts as well as the arts centre. Due to local authority funding systems it may be a condition that a councillor, probably the portfolio holder for culture, must sit on the Board. This can be a mixed blessing. A supportive councillor can pave the way for additional funding and opportunities for the organisation to be more strategic, enabling entry into the overarching philosophy of the local authority. A less supportive councillor may use the opportunity to put barriers in the way of future development or sit on the Board with a council perspective, rather than an arts centre perspective, and consequently not have the best interests of the centre at the forefront of his or her mind.
It is important for the arts centre to be seen by the local community and local authority as more than a venue and place of entertainment. Arts centres need to place themselves at the heart of the community by running programmes outside the building in local community centres, schools, homes for the elderly, in local parks and on the street. These projects can and do attract funding streams that are not arts-based and yet support a range of arts activities, such as working with recovering addicts, children at risk, young people leaving care, pregnant teenagers and migrant workers. This project work is often dependent on the arts centre attracting new and additional grants, which is time-consuming work in itself. These additional grants, though restricted, can significantly add to the financial security of the organisation.
Programming
There are certain advantages to not having an Arts Council revenue grant or not being wholly owned by a local authority, and these include the freedom for the directors, staff, volunteers and users to make their own choices and decisions. This works well if there is mutual respect between the different parties and clear boundaries as to roles and responsibilities, and it can enable programmers and producers to take risks. What to programme is one of the most exciting aspects of working in an arts centre, but is also the make and break of the organisation. Daily the postman brings armfuls of publicity, on top of work you have already seen or otherwise heard about. There is an expectation from the current audience that needs to be fulfilled, but you have a set budget and choices have to be made; the balance and mix of the art forms, professional and community, seeing and participating is integral to a good programme. Mixing the professional programme both in the theatre and the gallery against the participatory workshops and community projects can be challenging, as capacity for space, staff and resources can limit choice especially for new ideas and new workshops.
Local value
Most arts centres have huge local significance, and are considered valuable by the local community every town should have one. Many of these venues have no national or regional significance; however, arts centres are the places that ensure the arts in all genre and forms are kept alive. They are places that artists can make, create and show work. They enable members of the local community to see, listen to, aspire to, participate in, discover and develop their own creative skills and ambitions. Local arts centres are the place that many children will have their first cultural experience, and for many that memory remains with them throughout life.
Bridgwater Arts Centre has been in existence since October 1946, and when the doors were first opened, everything from the toilet rolls to the dinner for the visiting classical pianist was paid for by the then newly established Arts Council of Great Britain. Things have changed dramatically since. Bridgwater Arts Centre is now a company limited by guarantee with charitable status; it has a small revenue fund from the local district council and an even smaller one from the county council; and there is currently no, nor likely to be, any further revenue funding from Arts Council England. Bridgwater Arts Centre is proud to be a community arts centre and has a thriving creative community to work with.
Charlie Dearden is Centre Director of Bridgwater Arts Centre.
t: 01278 422700;
e: charlie@bridgwaterartscentre.co.uk;
w: http://www.bridgwaterartscentre.co.uk