Overcoming social and economic barriers to arts engagement is at the heart of Threshold Studios’ work, which is why most of its work is free to participants. Barry Hale and Uzma Johal explain.
At its inception 14 years ago Threshold Studios established the principle that its works as artists and its participatory art opportunities needed to reach deep into all social strata to develop those audiences and voices that have traditionally faced social and economic barriers to meaningful engagement with the arts. To achieve this, its integrated practice model, combining the production of digital and moving image works with participatory arts workshop opportunities, pursues a Social Change agenda that makes more than ninety-five percent of its activities cost-free to participants and prioritises exhibition platforms that are largely free to access and in the public realm. In the new economic climate this commitment has never been more necessary yet, equally, never before has it been more challenging for a small artist- led organisation to raise the necessary investment to maintain this open and free access for all.
The success of Threshold's approach is rooted in its recognition of the importance of developing a relationship with a community and its key support agencies before bringing arts activity into it. This long-term commitment has transformed the economic opportunities available to the communities it has worked with: the alumni of its Young Creatives programme, often drawn from the most hard to reach communities, have gone on to become arts and media professionals.
One would think Threshold Studios' commitment to knowledge-sharing to be counter-intuitive for its business, leading to a commercial landscape peppered with potential competitors. Instead, the organisation has shaped a region-wide network of freelance artists and media professionals with a shared ethos, who support each other to take on projects with social impact on a scale far larger than any one small arts organisation could cope with on its own. For Threshold, it's about shaping the social perspectives of emergent talent as much as it is about equipping them with knowledge and skills, highlighting for them the values of sharing and networking over competitive practice.
Threshold originally set itself the challenge of taking unique voices from hard to reach communities out to an international audience. Today, it recognises that new digital tools have democratised production and offers open access to exhibition platforms. This digital revolution has shaped Threshold Studios' new challenge for itself. Over the next five years the company plans to transform its own artistic practice by working with new technologies to bring new works with meaningful social experience to a media-savvy 21st century audience, whilst maintaining a commitment to further cascading the knowledge and skills into the wider artist community. It is also experimenting with the potential of curatorial activities to contribute to its central Social Change agenda.
Taking on the role of Festival Directors of Frequency, Lincoln's first Festival of Digital Culture, was the first expression of this. Threshold worked with the key partners to establish the Festival's core principles; that it should celebrate the social transformation and democratisation of art that the digital realm has sparked, mixing works from experienced artists with international profile with works in development by emergent talent. It should also take art out from the white cube gallery experience into the social fabric of the city and should be free for visitors wherever possible. Commissioning decisions were informed by a desire to look for projects that offered a post-festival legacy that will increase creative opportunities for people in Lincolnshire and the East Midlands while introducing free, accessible, digital art to the city. In future years, Threshold would like to see the festival develop as a platform for the city to curate itself, enabling local residents to develop relationships with artists who inspire them and bring them to work and exhibit in the city, opening channels for potential future collaborations and international exhibition. For Threshold, the festival also offered an opportunity for people to meet artists and debunk the myths of who gets to make and show art.
There are, of course, risks in establishing a new festival in such harsh economic times. However, Threshold believes Lincoln's commitment to the Frequency festival will lead to a resurgence in the local economy through an increase in local artistic ambition and endeavour, arts and media production, increased graduate retention and a potential increase in tourist revenue. Whether these strategies will achieve its target outcomes remains to be proven, and this is just the beginning of a long journey. Formal intelligence gathering process is about to begin, but initial snapshots suggest more than 14,000 site visits were made during the 2011 festival. The second festival is scheduled for October 2013. Only then will we begin to learn the true social impact of the Frequency Festival initiative.
Barry Hale and Uzma Johal work for Threshold Studios, which directed Frequency 2011, Lincoln’s first ever Digital Culture Festival