What really happens when a small regional arts venue finds itself in the full glare of the national media spotlight? Liz Hill found out when she interviewed Sarah Blomfield, Director of Bedford?s BCA Gallery, who last month found herself at the centre of the type of media frenzy normally reserved for major national arts institutions.
The White Trash Curry Kick, one event in a new body of performance art by internationally acclaimed Cardiff-based artist Andre Sitt, generated column inches in just about every English national tabloid and broadsheet newspaper - not to mention coverage in the Scotsman, the Western Mail, an array of local and regional radio stations and a live audience debate on Anglia TV. Why the intense media interest? Sarah Blomfield speculates about two possible reasons. ?First and foremost, the combination of contemporary art, taxpayers? money and curry proved irresistible for the tabloids. But also, it?s been a while now since Tracey Emin?s unmade bed was used to resurrect the depressingly familiar themes of ?is this art?? and ?what a waste of taxpayers? money.? It seems they felt that the time had come to have another go.?
Attracting attention
For anyone who has managed to miss the startling and unexpected savaging that the tabloids meted out to the Bedford Project, it centred around claims, originally published in The Sun but closely followed by other tabloids, that an artist had been paid £12,000 of public money to kick a curry carton the length of Bedford High Street. An explosion of coverage ensued, refuelled by the announcement by the Gallery that the event would have to be cancelled on safety grounds, as the intense media coverage would have been certain to generate crowds of unmanageable proportions.
So how did it all begin? ?In the first event in the series, called The Italian Job, the artist was to carry a hod of bricks from the local brickworks to the Italian Vice Consulate in Bedford. The local newspaper, Bedfordshire on Sunday, picked up on some local publicity, sent their arts correspondent to the event and conducted an interview. Then they ran a front page story ? headlined ?Incredible?. Needless to say, they weren?t referring to the quality of the art.? A news agency in Luton picked up on the story and phoned the Gallery, ostensibly to check the facts. But clearly the truth wouldn?t have made such interesting reading. ?When the story first appeared in the national media, attention had turned away from the Italian Job to another event in the series, the White Trash Curry Kick, due to take place the following month. But the inaccuracies were all still there. Nobody reported that the budget of £12,000 was being used over several months to fund nine performances, two 8-week exhibitions at two different venues, photography, filming and all marketing costs ? only that the artist would get his money for carrying bricks or kicking a curry carton.?
Blanket coverage
Subsequent media interest came from every direction. With two or three notable exceptions, the vast majority of coverage was negative. Such was the hostility and aggression of the interviewer at Three Counties Radio, the BBC local radio station, that the artist walked out during a live interview. The Sunday Times was negative, but at least looked at performance art generally and set the work in context. Anglia TV ran a live studio debate, where the audience was split in its views. The artists? students were asked to participate (he teaches at the University of Wales in Cardiff) but not the artist himself. The Independent published a piece that was both factually correct and relatively intelligent. The Guardian was the only broadsheet to make no mention of the work or the related controversy; and the art press has shown no interest whatsoever. The Big Issue, on the other hand, sent a reporter and wrote a long and intelligent piece. Requests for the appearance of the artist on So Graham Norton and Channel 4?s Rise were both turned down, on the grounds that the likelihood of being subjected to anything other than ritual humiliation seemed slim.
Local reactions
Support from those involved in the arts made the media frenzy more bearable. ?East England Arts, the Arts Councils of England and Wales and the Gallery?s Management Committee were all both publicly and privately supportive. Arts funders are well aware that the decisions they make can be controversial, yet they must be accountable for these. They don?t shy away from it. It was more difficult altogether for Bedford Borough Council, which supports the Gallery through a small grant and rent-free accommodation but was not involved in the funding of this particular project. Conscious that, in the wake of the publicity, several local groups, including more traditional arts groups, had made their views known as to how £12,000 could be better spent in Bedford, it had to find ways of endorsing the work of the Gallery whilst distancing itself from the controversy. Its central press office managed all media attention, and dissociated the Council as far as possible from the storm.?
Lessons learned
So, with the benefit now of 20:20 hindsight, what does Sarah Blomfield think she has learned from her brief moment in the media spotlight? ?Nothing could ever prepare someone for this type of attention. You may spend years sending out press releases to the media, hopeful that one will catch the eye of a national journalist and raise the profile of your work; but when your moment comes, you could find out the hard way that not all publicity is good publicity. Our profile has been raised in the arts community and Bedford may now be on the map for cutting edge art, but the cost of that may be the alienation of the local community. Time will tell.? And advice for others, potentially facing the same issues? ?Press is a game. Don?t get pushed into a corner; and don?t lose your cool. At the end of the day, provided you really believe in what you?re doing, you will live to tell the tale.?