Monday 7 July 2008

Can you feel the force?

How my kids laughed at this… Apparently I am one of 500 of the most influential people in the North East of England. Well, at least according to a highly unscientific and undemocratic exercise in The Journal newspaper, that is, and if you want to make a sarcastic comment about the North East please do so using the normal channels!

The reason I mention it, apart from amused pride, is that I’m interested in the high number of cultural figures in the list. (To be honest, it’d be a shame if someone in my job wasn’t on that list, so I don’t put it down to my personal qualities especially.) These range from novelists such as Val McDermid and David Almond through choreographer Liv Lorent, poet Sean O’Brien, playwright Lee Hall, a good set of Chief Execs, producers and festival directors right through to giants such as Ant and Dec. The ‘Culture, media and the arts’ index is twice as long as the public sector one, for instance – surprising perhaps as the public sector is a big employer in this region. And there are more of us than there are lawyers. (They can probably outspend us in the Influence bar though.) I take that as an indication that culture here has, at least in part, and in the perception of whoever put this list together, put itself at the heart of regional life. On a good day I always think that, but it’s good to have some ‘external’ confirmation.

(Another confirmation came last week in that the announcement of the Hodge Review and the abolition of the regional cultural consortia was, somewhat surprisingly, front page news in The Journal.)

Another noticeable trend is the number of ex-Arts Council/Northern Arts people now in senior non-arts jobs in the region. Maybe that’s the kind of thing we need to really ‘mainstream’ the arts: more people prepared to dirty their hands with the process of ‘influence’ and power? Perhaps the various ‘cultural leadership’ schemes need to also think about how some people can move not just ‘up’ but ‘across’?

8 comments:

Pete Hindle said...

That last trend could just mean that senior arts jobs really are filled by people who are just 'leaders' in the sense that they have the right connections and friends.

And also, maybe cultural figures get to be so influential because of the way that regeneration money powers the local economy, rather than a sweeping cultural awareness across the region.

However, the way you stated it sounds much more enthusiastic and upbeat. I think I prefer it that way.

Mark Robinson said...

Well, there may be something in your second point, given the prominence of the imagery of the arts in regeneration in the North East. Your first I find a bit cynical. And if my 'career' had been down to my connections and friends I'd still be working in a kitchen, I think. You do build up connections, it's true, just as you do in any job. There are 'transferable' leadership skills such as dealing with politics, etc that help with the transition for some though.

I live in Teesside, by the way, thereby minimising my chances of making influential friends and connections. (Note to any humourless people living in the Teesside: this is a joke.)

Pete Hindle said...

They are both very cynical views, and I brought them up as a counterbalance to the points you made in your post. I thought it was worth doing so because I've found them to be very common views amongst the artistic community.

Personally, I've found that most of the upper echelons of the art world are filled with people who do really care about art, and have been involved in the field for a long time. There are exceptions, it's true, but that doesn't always affect the quality of their work.

It would be great if you could write a little bit explaining regeneration as it relates to the arts in the area, from the point of view of working artists. I'm not alone in finding it a mysterious force that sometimes blows in to deposit large lumps of money, and then vanishes for months at a time.

Mark Robinson said...

I think the connections and friends theory is common across all sectors. And like all stereotypes it's not without truth. If I ever need a job in a carpet warehouse (again) I can probably find a few former employers of my dad who'd sort me out...

I may have occasion to write soemthign about regen shortly actually...

Yana said...
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Mark Robinson said...
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Mark Robinson said...
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Mark Robinson said...

Some deleted comments as a result of odd offers for partnership in promoting vacuum cleaners... not censored in case you were wondering.