The past 25 years have seen significant and positive change in both the volume of activity and the positioning of international arts in the UK. Terry Sandell believes programmers now need to concentrate more on contextualisation and quality.
The UK has come a long way since the 1970s when formal recognition, long overdue, was given to the fact that relatively little contemporary foreign work, even from Europe, was reaching these shores. The literal insularity of the UK, combined with the ramifications of social change in the 1960s, which included the final stage of decolonisation of the British Empire and the beginnings of mass tourism, immigration and youth culture and empowerment, created a climate in which the traditional British island mentality was seen in some quarters as a handicap.
It was symbolic that in the 1970s, the Gulbenkian Foundation with the then Arts Council of Great Britain, the British Council and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, set up a formal mechanism for encouraging promotion of and interest in contemporary foreign arts: Visiting Arts. While sharing a common goal, the four partner organisations had specific individual agendas relating to Visiting Arts. These included wanting to have external benchmarks to see how domestic investment in improving standards in certain artforms was faring compared with the best from abroad, through to countering perceptions overseas of cultural imperialism or British philistinism.
International mood swing
While the primary problem at that time related simply to the dearth of foreign work coming to the UK, the situation today is radically different. Quantity is no longer an issue. There has been a revolution in several directions. London can now claim to be not only a ?world city? but an almost unrivalled international cultural capital. It is almost impossible to keep abreast of what is happening each day in London in terms of international work, let alone attend it all. Expectations of professionals working in the arts are pleasingly dramatically higher ? to take one example, the smallest provincial gallery now has the same international pretensions in the positive sense as the major galleries such as the Hayward. Similarly, the knowledge and sophistication of a significant number of promoters and curators has grown as horizons, cheap travel and easier communications, and most recently the Internet explosion, have spread.
International arts work is not only fashionable but is being seen as an important element in other agendas, either in its own right or as part of an instrumentalist policy. The UK arts councils have moved in varying degrees, from explicitly ruling out international activity as part of their remit to taking a hands-on approach. It is easily forgotten that not so long ago companies and organisations funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain were actually banned from using any of their funding for anything ?foreign? or international. The current competition amongst selected cities to be the European Capital of Culture in 2008, all actively displaying and promoting their international arts credentials, is a good example of the climate change outside London. This is happening with the very active backing of their local politicians and commercial interests, as well as their traditional arts constituency. The English regions are also developing interests in international cultural working, for example, the North East forming links with Scandinavia; and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have long established connections with other countries which are beginning to make an impact on their cultural agendas.
Context and quality
Against this very positive background, what are the key issues? Where are things set to go over the next ten years in terms of international arts activity? I would argue that the key issue is now contextualisation and quality. This is related to audience development, and creating more intelligent, informed audiences. For all the talk about multicultural programming and the importance of international arts, knowledge and sophistication is not, I would argue, always evident. Too often things are programmed either out of context or with insufficient information or understanding of their essence being provided to an often genuinely interested audience. At worst this leads to exoticism and at best to a missed opportunity.
Quality and contextualisation are linked to the need for time to develop projects and partnerships. In general in the UK, the arts funding system is focused on and funds product rather than process, yet it is process which often determines the quality of product. This problem is not entirely unrecognised and, for example, we at Visiting Arts, both directly and through encouraging others, are stressing the increasing importance of mechanisms such as international residencies, training and professional development programmes (both for artists and their managers), in addition to traditional ways and means to facilitate greater time and space for process and the nurturing of environments for serious and reflective collaboration.
Hostile environment
For professionals working in the field, the environment is often a little hostile. The volume of funding available through any source is woefully limited (and incidentally leads in some instances to what is de facto exploitation of artists), while rules and regulations ? the red tape ? are often unintentionally crippling or constraining. The system hitherto has not recognized, for example, that in the performing arts, promoters and presenters are often sole traders or small businesses. There is a difference between touring a Yemeni oudh player in South Wales and a Bruce Springsteen European tour. Issues around tax and work permits are a key area of concern. While progressive changes to the UK work permit system as a whole may be positive (including much improved turnaround times), they could be detrimental simply in cost terms for those working in the arts and cultural sector (i.e. the proposed introduction of charges for work permit processing). The threshold for foreign entertainers? tax is again something that could be usefully reviewed by the government.
While not specifically related to international arts, there are other areas of rules and regulations that indirectly have an impact. The proposed changes to public entertainment licensing regulations are a case in point. Those venues that frequently present foreign artists are amongst those that previously did not need to be licensed.
No excuse for complacency
So the general picture in terms of international arts in the UK is that the scene has changed positively beyond recognition, but this must not be an excuse for complacency. Greater investment is needed by the arts funding system and in more imaginative ways, for example, supporting sustainable cross-national relationships and international networks. There are some small encouraging signs that this is slowly happening, but it needs to be done in a clear policy context and with sufficient resources devoted to it. There are real threats and obstacles at a practical level and there is a need for government and the civil servants concerned to continue the improvements they intend but also to focus on the ramifications, and act accordingly at the micro level. Arts professionals should continue to work to ensure that they are not only engaged in international ?eventism? but genuinely trying to develop and cultivate sophisticated and knowledgeable audiences in the UK for foreign artforms and work which is so beneficial to the enrichment of our cultural and personal lives.
Terry Sandell is Director of Visiting Arts. t: 020 7389 3014; f: 020 7389 3016;
e: melissa.naylor@britishcouncil.org.uk; w: http://www.visitingarts.org.uk
Visiting Arts funded a residency and first exhibition outside Iran for the young photographer Shadafarin Ghadirian in February 2000 (her work was included in the Barbican exhibition ?Iranian Contemporary Art? the following year). Her work was subsequently purchased by the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC and she has been featured in numerous British culture magazines and Sunday newspapers. Her work depicts women in ancient Qajar dress seen with vacuum cleaners, bicycles and other equally ordinary everyday items. The incongruity between these activities and the women?s outmoded look and haughty demeanour underscores the strangeness.