Passing on the baton

A lot has already been said and written about Liverpool’s tenure as European Capital of Culture. Best ever. Economic impact. Social engagement. But in case you missed it, it was also the best ever according to the European Union. The economic impact of £800m roughly translates to eight times the return on public investment – a bit better than a punt on the banks at the moment. It also indicates that you can create commerce from culture. The social side, that engaged every child and every school, resulted in an increased sense of well-being. So much so, that both local Mental Health and Primary Care Trusts are ring-fencing funds for further cultural initiatives. A success well worth repeating. Hence the proposal to develop a British version of the EU programme.
 

Can it work? Well, why not? It’s not who or what you are, or where you are located, but how you define the culture that defines your city. Upon taking up the role of Master of Ceremonies at the great Scouse Wedding (as it came to be known), I trawled through all the paperwork attached to anything coming out of Brussels and, buried among the cultural programme directives, there was a short form definition of culture as: arts, literature and shared lifestyle. This chimed very well with a graduate of the Marxist Appreciation Society, as the School of Sociology at the University of Liverpool was once affectionately known. It also chimed with the ethos of the original bid that created the “a world in one city” slogan. The bid ensured that the Creative Communities programme was the first thing commissioned, and that artists and creative practitioners would be placed at the heart of health and education initiatives. This ethos determined that 2008, which could easily have been just another arts festival, but obviously bigger and better than Glasgow, would be much more: it would become the focal point for every other city civic, social and regeneration agenda.
A core team and delivery vehicle, The Liverpool Culture Company, was created by Liverpool City Council to navigate the politics, find the funding and organise the overall marketing strategy. Not everything went according to plan of course, and already there is much myth, perhaps mirth, and history is being rewritten. As the MC at the Wedding, here is my personal checklist for anyone wanting to try and emulate what Liverpool achieved. It is not definitive, as we’re still working on the Capital of Culture Users’ Manual, which seemed to be missing when we started out. Number one would be to take Liverpool’s example of using the title as a badge of authority. The award from Europe comes with no direct funding, simply the right to use the title. It is there to do with what you choose, the only limitations being local ambition and aspiration. Funding can be found from as many and varied public sector pots as there are acronyms. Do the research.
Two: the badge of authority is the most valuable asset. It is what attracts the media, and media exposure is vital in terms of promoting, perhaps positioning, any city or arts organisation. Liverpool initially struggled against its media caricature, but fortunately had many favourite children already performing on the world stage. And what Macca, Ringo and Rattle couldn’t do, a giant spider achieved. Big, media-attracting events are exciting, but should be also be used as a way of highlighting what else is going on. When the media turn up, it is the opportunity to sell the rest of the story. From that, number three: the marketing itself. As we all know, it is dispiriting to produce great work only to have it ignored. Clearly define what story is to be told. Work collectively and collaboratively on the marketing. Concentrate not on individual events, but on how they fit into the fabric of the year. The Walker’s ‘Art in the Age of Steam’ and the Tate’s Klimt exhibition contributed enormously to the overall programme, but benefited in equal measure from the development of Liverpool One, the regeneration of 25% of the city centre. Every concert or theatre goer likes to eat and likes to shop. All were part of 2008 and part of Liverpool’s ‘look of the city campaign’ that continuously promoted the fact that when you came to Liverpool to see one thing, there were always several others going on. Expand the offer to the cultural tourist.
Four: recognise that across a city, any city, the formal arts organisations, even aggregated, would find the level of community engagement seen across Liverpool in 2008 impossible to match. Profile is important, but once you have sold the concert hall tickets to the database, they are gone, with little room to enlarge the audience.
Five: bearing that in mind, each venue or organisation should be encouraged to vary the offer as, for example, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic stretched from Simon Rattle and Messiaen, to Viennese Balls to the Rightful Owners of Song, when the city’s pub singers joined the orchestra on stage. All played to different audiences, including those outside the usual database alongside those with varying tastes within, but the key point was that they were seen to be doing things differently, but the key point is that they were seen to be doing things differently, and even those that would never go near the Philharmonic Hall, for all the reasons we know, still felt proud that it was happening in their city. It was the same for all the arts venues, which saw their move towards greater inclusivity influence their audiences’ perception of the venue. Six: beyond the arts organisations, artists and creative practitioners were encouraged to engage with local communities and schools. This resulted in city-wide projects from the ‘Go Superlambanana’ parade that engaged 300,000 people and raised £600,000 for the Lord Mayor’s Charity Appeal, to the Biennial’s Pavilions that resulted in one neighbourhood group threatening to take to the streets if anyone dared think about taking away their piece of public art. How’s that for community engagement?
And on the subject of community engagement, what about the politics with both a small and big ‘p’? The easy answer is: avoid it. The more pragmatic answer is limited coalition, the subject of a book not an article like this and from where the phrase ‘the Great Scouse Wedding’ actually came from. We in Liverpool are lucky to have our great philosophers; Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. We can always Imagine, know We Can Work it Out, but All Things Must Pass. For everyone else, good luck.