Comments on: Missing the point of the Arts Council

By: Maude

Maude — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:42:12 +0000

Not sure whether its worth dignifying Helena’s rant with a response… but soddit. Theatres of course should be led by their art, but given that they are often large and complex organisations, artistic directors do not always have the right skills to be ultimately responsible for them. So, those of us who are called executive directors, executive producers, administrative directors, whatever, often need to have a major role in getting these theatres to work. Sometimes this involves being ultimately responsible, sometimes being jointly responsible, sometimes being a no 2 to the artistic director: how this is decided is often a response to all sorts of pressures and situations: and in fact all the theatres that Helena mentions have very different reasons for having a non-artistic director with ultimate responsibility. What I would absolutely refute is that we are middle managers and bureaucrats, especially if that means direct comparison with Arts Council officers. Most of us HATE bureacracy (and aren’t that keen on the Arts Council) - what we want to do is use our skills and experience to make our theatres thrive.

By: Gareth James

Gareth James — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:55:57 +0000

There are only two valid criteria for funding and they are quality and access; anything else is misguided and patronising. When I got out of my pram at the closure of the un-funded Bridewell, I looked at the complete list of AC funded organisations in London and found it riddled with preposterous politically correct grants for things such as the promotion og Brasilian crafts! It certainly is time for an overhaul when premiere league organisations like The Bush are threatened.

By: Helena Kaut-Howson

Helena Kaut-Howson — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:26:46 +0000

Well said ! But what can be done when it is the bureacrats and the middle management who cling to the theatre like the proverbial shit to the blanket ? The battle between the artists and the beaurocrats fought in the mid 90ties has long been won by the latter and it is they who now run most of our regional theatres having appropriated for themselves executive artistic positions Bureaucrats and middle-managers like Patrick Gilchrist or Sarah Holmes, to mention only those I know from my own experience at Theatr Clwyd, are now firmly enscosed as artistic executives in theatres like the Century in Keswick and Wolsley in Ipswich .Sheffield, Derby and Colchester are also ran by people whose background is in administration. Isn’t that the cause of the lowering of standarts and aspirations ? Isn’t that why, with few exceptions gray mediocrity dominates whatever remains of regional theatres ? There is no scrutiny because the papers seldom review their work , certainly not the national papers who seem to care neither about preserving the standards of the theatre nor preseving the critics.