Elizabeth Adlington believes that changes in the environment facing venue managers require them to play more than just a supporting role in relation to touring ? they must assume an active role as cultural leaders within their local communities. To do this, they must understand what makes them attractive to touring companies.
For anyone working in the arts, change is a fact of life. It is a driver for much of what we do, and can be initiated by all involved ? artists, managers, funders, policy-makers, audiences and so on. Touring venues are no exception. They face continued challenges in attracting and maintaining audiences, creating a balanced programme, reaching new audiences, achieving box office targets, maintaining education and outreach activity, meeting legislative requirements, and attracting touring companies, to name but a few.
Touring aspirations
The Arts Council of England?s Touring Department has had a long association with touring venues across the country. During the past 25 years it has worked with many of them, both directly and indirectly, to support and encourage the aspirations of those venues? managers. There has been a range of policies, initiatives and funding programmes all aimed at one activity - getting more touring work to more theatres in more places across the country. The objective: to reach more audiences. It sounds simple, but is that really the case?
Going back to the basics of touring for a moment, it?s clear that artists want to reach audiences and audiences want to see good work. Funders want more touring to happen. Easy? well not so easy without taking into account the crucially important venue manager, without whom none of this can happen. A venue manager has a pivotal role to play in enabling artists and audiences to come together and experience live performance. The skills and abilities of the venue manager, along with their choice of programme, have a direct impact on the cultural life and experience of the community and upon the opportunities for artists to reach and speak to their audiences.
A proactive approach
Recent developments in practice amongst touring venues have been driven by changes in funding, policies and priorities, companies and artists, local politics, and of course the drive and imagination of a number of individual venue managers.
Current demands dictate that it is no longer enough for managers simply to play a passive supporting function, but rather, the challenge for them is now to assume the active role of cultural ambassadors within their local communities. On the one hand they are working alongside other artistic practitioners in the community and integrating plans and ideas; and on the other, they are taking full responsibility for a large part of the cultural activity in the community. But it remains a fact of life that there is a continual mis-match between the amount and type of work available for touring and the number of dates available for promoting the work. A question I am frequently asked is how a manager who is committed to a proactive role in their community, bringing in a wide range of arts events, can ensure that they are able to find and attract the work they want?
Mutual attraction
The question of how attractive (or not) touring venues and companies appear to be to one another is an important one. In the course of my work I often hear both sides of the story: how a venue feels about a company and the other way round. But, the fact is, if a touring venue is to programme the work of its choice, and to face competition for the same work from other venues, then it must be irresistibly attractive to the touring company. It goes without saying that policies, priorities and funding can play a large part in helping make these positive connections happen, but I am often struck by the number of instances where the answer lies not with the actions of others, but with the venue itself.
Each touring venue has a unique identity and opportunity to offer. It is the differences between venues which make each one special and therefore more or less attractive to a touring company looking for tour dates. Attraction in this case is finding out what an individual company is particularly looking for from their touring schedule. It is easy to overlook what might be considered to be ideal. The most attractive features for a company vary enormously - size of stage, type of auditorium, acoustics, location of the theatre, proximity to or distance from London, accommodation available, ability of technical staff, marketing support, audiences that attend the venue, audiences that can be reached, financial deal, time available on stage especially at the start of a tour, good links with local schools and community groups, feeling welcomed at the theatre, and so on. The list is endless, but just one or two of these factors will make a venue more or less attractive to one company than another. Greater awareness of their unique circumstances will attract the companies and artists that a venue wishes to see in its programme.
Being a cultural ambassador working in a changing environment is a daunting role. My admiration for those individuals who take up this challenge and who bring their own creativity, enthusiasm and solutions to the role, continues to grow. The Arts Council of England has been through its changes and reform and during 2003 will continue to bring its support to those individuals and organisations who play such an important part in realising our ambitions for touring. More detail about the new grants programmes will be available from February 17, 2003.
Elizabeth Adlington is Director of Touring at the Arts Council of England.
e: elizabeth.adlington@artscouncil.org.uk
ArtsProfessional is a media sponsor of a forthcoming conference debating The Changing Face of Venues, taking place in Cheltenham next month. For full details http://www.tickets.com/uk/conference.html