The arts sector has learned a lot of hard lessons over the past 10 years, ever since the Lottery carrot was dangled so enticingly in front of its eyes, leading us all momentarily to believe that new investment in the arts capital infrastructure would be the solution to so many of our problems.
Whilst this has been the case for some, for many others (Newham Council, for example, p3) it has meant doom and gloom. The fundamental problem has been the apparent failure of so many capital projects to understand the concept of long-term sustainability. It?s all very well having a sparkling new building, but the costs of keeping it running ? particularly given the uncertain nature of many of the income streams associated with arts activity ? will always need a good slice of contingency built in.
How heartening, therefore, to hear of two initiatives which promise to deliver tremendous things, yet seem to have their eyes open to financial realities. Congratulations to Scotland?s theatre community, which has finally succeeded in prising a respectable sum out of the Scottish Executive wallet for the establishment of a ?virtual? National Theatre of Scotland (p1); and how prudent to keep the overheads to a minimum and use the money instead to tease out the existing talent already residing in Scottish theatre and present it more widely throughout the country and further afield. Yet more common sense is coming out of Bristol (p3), with Arnolfini announcing that the renovation of its building will include the conversion of three floors to office space, which is going to be rented out to generate a new revenue stream to support its work. Wouldn?t it be interesting to work out just how much money could have been raised for arts activity across the UK if the architects of every new-build venue had been asked to design a scheme that would enable a portion of the building to be made available for external lettings or other revenue generating schemes? Just a thought?