The Boy with a Kirpan

How Not to Agonise in a Diverse Community

The kirpan (pronounced ‘kir-paan’ as in ‘sir’ joined with ‘barn’) is a knife, a Sikh symbol, one of the Five K’s of the Sikh religion, carried by Sikhs who wish to display the symbols of their baptism  connected to their religion.

A Sikh boy has been barred from a school in North London where the authorities are concerned with breach of security and ‘health and safety’ provisions. While the boy is only eleven years old, recent examples of young children highlighted for their criminality do not help to put forward a case that the Sikh boy is wearing a religious symbol, the essence of which is to use the ‘knife’ for self-defence rather than aggression. The critics of the symbolic carrying of the knife or ‘dagger’ as some people like to call it with some imaginative stretching of vocabulary say, “How can a knife become an instrument for defence?” Their concern is that when driven to defend themselves the wearer of kirpans will also resort to attacking people, the best form of defence….

Three critical dilemmas have been identified:

a)      Ban the kirpan from the school and let the Sikh boy learn to conform to the laws of the school

b)      Ban the boy if he must wear the kirpan when attending school

c)       Ban the boy and the kirpan as a mandatory display of fair rules for all

The real impact of these dilemmas are not so much of concern here as much as a search for the best way to seek an urgent compromise. For many Sikhs, the removal of the boy and kirpan from the school is a violation of their religious and human rights. Quite true except that many other Sikhs do not really wear the kirpan and are quite prepared to forego symbolism in exchange of compromise to defend the values of the majority. Tricky, because it opens up a huge debate about perceived or real oppression by the majority.

How can a compromise be reached? It is there for the taking; the school has asked the boy and his parents and community representatives to offer a compromise. What type and size of knife or kirpan can the boy present as a good demonstration for the search of an amicable solution? What is more significant? Carrying an actual kirpan or wearing a symbolic one on a hidden necklace which does not pose a security risk? What type of kirpan can be worn as a symbol? A small, one inch long but blunt ‘knife’ with no jagged edges and no sharp point should take care of the problem. It would not breach safety regulations while still offering the Sikhs an opportunity to display their baptismal identity.

It should work as long as a symbolic manifestation of the kirpan is accepted as a good compromise.

How to regain lost audiences- Lessons from Slough

Slough Borough Council prepares to make a renewed cultural offer

A new senior appointment was made a few months ago- the post that was advertised and filled competitively is effectively that of a head of culture with a new vision for a challenging role.  What progress has Slough made in developing its new vision through its cultural services?

 

Slough is a fascinating town with as many challenges as opportunities. What can be seen from this cultural window noting the impact of the recession but also recognising the fact that Slough has a resilient cultural market which has the potential to respond to innovation even under the most testing conditions? A visit to meet the new head of culture is on the cards…just as Comprehensive Performance Assessment is being implemented by the Audit Commission. There are interesting times ahead. It was quite interesting that many years ago before Slough Borough Council started to seriously and strategically invest in its cultural provision, people explained the ‘death of culture’ in Slough as ‘the Feltham effect’, meaning that the opening of new multiplex cinemas in Feltham had ‘stolen’ the audiences from Slough.

 

Have the customers for culture returned to Slough? The work of Andy Lee, Slough’s Principal Arts Manager has been exemplary. It will be presented as a special report

Experiments in Mainstreaming

Whatever happened to Mainstreaming?

‘Mainstreaming,’ is a cultural marketing and placement strategy. It started to receive serious attention a few years ago. It assumes the existence of different markets supported by different data sets. Mainstreaming strategies may be useful for marketing planning and targeting of new productions. However, some people object to be seen as ‘marginalised audiences’ and the producers also protesting,’ We are all in the mainstream now’. Does this approach not somewhat mix the issues relating to the preservation of identity with the harsh disciplines of business planning to capture new markets especially where  there are differences in purchasing power? Can the challenge of survival in any market be entirely dictated by identity?

 

There are major challenges for mainstreaming the cultural offer of minority communities and informal providers, that is, organisations that are not funded. One of the most exciting mainstreaming programmes, for which Mirador takes some credit, addresses key aspects of design, development and delivery of a festival known as ‘The Festival of Ephemeral Arts’. Known for its rich visual imagery and highly original treatment of events in the cultural calendars of many societies, it has been of interest to many audiences. However, there are several layers of customer interest which can be summed up as ‘the pyramid for audience development’. Detailed commentaries are to follow. A festival gallery, which is aimed to attract European partners, is at www.ephemeralarts-gallery.com and the main website is at www.ephemeralarts.com  However, even the best festivals have to innovate and evolve by adding new dimensions. Mirador is the new trading name for Asian Arts Access, a company which was launched in 1989. What is a mirador?

Using community infrastructure for arts and culture

Is it time to  recognise community investment in cultural infrastructure?

It is generally known that many minority communities have been slowly but surely developing new, high quality infrastructure for their religious and community programmes.  There are excellent examples of bold and innovative projects such as ‘The Peepul Tree’ in Leicester where the largely Gujarati community has won acclaim for successfully developing a major capital programme that has created new capacity and generated opportunities for cultural producers and audiences from many backgrounds. A visit to the Peepul Tree project would be timely; it would seem that there is a lot to learn and report. In the early days a ‘rumour mill’ was very active suggesting that the project was opposed by several parties. Was this indeed the case and if so, why?

However, almost every major city in the country will have a Hindu or Sikh temple and also a mosque where new capacity can offer ‘acceptable’ cultural programming. For example, any accommodation connected to a Sikh temple may be used for suitable programming but smoking and the consumption non-vegetarian food is always forbidden. It is only right and fair that religious places and some of the multi-use buildings are used to offer culture that is acceptable to the owners .  However, there are also concerns that opportunities are being missed and that existing capacity is not being creatively used at a time when communities are seeking more funding for new cultural facilities. What are the constraints? Where is the problem?

Management boards of minority-led community centres have the prerogative; they must make the choices about the type of provision that their members need. However, there is a need to highlight the choices available to community leaders- how they may be able to use informal volunteering programmes to attract internal talent as well as create new audiences. However, a review of using community infrastructure to create new cultural product may also be helpful. The evidence from audience research seems to suggest that in the case of South Asian cultural experience, many community-led annual celebrations of Diwali, Vaisakhi or Eid may also need to be reviewed. There is some concern that audience interest in ‘more of the same’ Diwali nights may be declining and that the contribution of the informal artists should not be taken for granted.  There is pressure for change especially where the quality of output needs to be upgraded. Community leaders should benefit from new funding opportunities as they explore the scope for replacing ‘tired’ and ‘Bollywoody’ cultural escapades with home grown projects.  However, where is the pressure for change coming from?  This is quite clear and needs urgent investigation. More on this some other time.

Is Cornwall on the brink of change?

Cornwall to invest in culture

Cornwall is working on unitarisation of the County Council and a possibly new and radical approach to developing and celebrating culture is being sought. A new head of cultural services is likely to have brought in fresh eyes. There will be many challenges but undue emphasis on the structures for delivery should not outweigh the benefits of creative problem solving. Cornwall needs to standout by delivering short-term impact through a number of ‘quick wins’.  Local opinion on the best cultural ‘horizons’ will no doubt vary, but any new programme that does not show improvements and more significantly, also a better return on investment within three years may need to be reviewed. Cornwall, like other large county councils with widely dispersed populations cannot afford to adopt a slow and ‘sleepy’ programme of change aimed at producing results within the next 7 to 10 years as is usually the case with unusually slow and sleepy councils.

Cornwall’s programme  for managing culture as a driver for its economic development is  going to be challenging.  The customers who head for its attractions are also likely to be highly demanding. Would any slippage in running culture as a serious business mean that other councils could even emerge as possible local competitors? Are competitors more likely to benefit especially if Cornwall continues to offer ‘more of the same’ cultural provision as it perhaps offers at present? How would this be possible? There has been an argument that accommodation in London during the 2012 Games is going to be relatively expensive. Have the adjoining London boroughs on the outer fringes and even towns in the South East carried out any competitor analysis to see if they can offer more affordable accommodation to visitors who will save money by living outside London? Similarly, could access to the Cornish seafront also be provided by cheaper accommodation in the neighbouring counties? People are willing to travel if they can save money.

It would appear that for Cornwall, some of the previous Best Value inspection reports produced by the Audit Commission may not be very supportive. A comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) outcome for 2008 offers a weighted average score of 2 for Cornwall’s culture service assessment suggesting adequate performance but only at minimum requirements. Further details on the score and its interpretation is available at http://cpa.audit-commission.gov.uk  Whilst some observers may harbour doubts about the Commission’s methodology, that is, its rationale for weighting of outcomes and the reliance on previous judgements to extrapolate new final scores, there seems to be sufficient robustness in the CPA judgements to make the results useful at this stage of analysis. Further changes in the outcome of CAA, the Comprehensive Area Assessment should offer ongoing and possibly more reliable judgements on Cornwall’s future performance.

Cornwall’s future cultural development should offer opportunities to evaluate change from several ‘viewing spots’, as is the case of critical seating positions that audiences adopt in the ‘theatre in the round’.  Cornwall’s experiment is likely to be of interest to many people in the cultural sector especially as the recession in the UK has forced many people to take holidays at home and Cornwall’s tourist facilities remain attractive in terms of cost. However, these additional revenues cannot be taken for granted. In the short-term the high demand should generate new opportunities for reinvestment in cultural industries to build future capacity. What incentives will the county and its various development agencies provide?

A series of commentaries will be provided. A case history cannot be offered just as the situation is unfolding. Cornwall’s attempts to link culture with economic development should provide some interesting lessons.  A report from Demos says that ‘Cornwall operates on a different time signature to the rest of the United Kingdom. Its physical isolation has provided the foundations of a distinct identity for thousands of years….’ The report refers to declining coastal tourism in the UK but says that ‘Cornwall has remained a stubbornly popular attraction.’ Will this argument be sustainable in the future especially when more aggressive ‘destination marketing’ techniques may be used by other competitive coastal attractions in order to take business away from Cornwall?

Welcome to Cultural Windows

What do Gordon Brown and David Cameron have in common?  The debate in the media is more interested in trying to assess how their policies relating to public spending are going to be different at a time when some minds may be engaged with electoral choices. For the rest of us, especially those who work in culture and the creative industries, does it seem inevitable that culture will come at the bottom of the list when hard choices have to be made about funding health, education and social services? Wrong. For the next three years we will be seeing the highest level of spending on culture in absolute terms. Many people are forgetting the fact that the nation’s spending on the Olympic Games in 2012 and the legacy programmes that follow them will in fact be a delight for anyone involved in the cultural sector.  Yes, but is sport really ‘culture’? Let’s come back to this at another time!

 

Is it not time to put aside all the blame games- the finger pointing, the brandishing of swords of recrimination, the revealing of the kirpans[1] of perceived justice?  Is this not the time to remind ourselves that communities may be watching us and that they have their own ‘assegais’[2] for dealing with wasteful offenders?  The singular challenge facing all producers, managers and creative people in cultural management is:

“How to get more out of less”

This blog is not just concerned with reactive positions in the challenging economic climate – such as seeking bailouts, but also how to cope with the shrinkage of resources without compromising the integrity of cultural output.  Whilst radical funding cuts may not affect all arts organisations, there is no doubt that the challenge of securing incremental funding should become more competitive if more and more organisations try to submit the same old recycled bids to overcome the effects of declining revenues. Will this also result in more cultural producers to seek higher ‘subsidies’ when consumer spending on culture may actually be declining? Patrons of arts and culture may already be prioritising other areas of spending. There are interesting lessons to anticipate and learn.

However, does the challenge of “getting more out of less” not suggest that previous funding levels were probably adequate if not even generous?  

Take the example of the Eu4ia Festival Co, a fictitious arts producer. It reflects the business planning habits of several festival companies. Its market research has not been convincing, costs have been inflated (the “logic” of this has been ‘explained’ as “Whenever we asked for x, we always received 50% less …… resulting in the fact that the Eu4ia Festivals were always underfunded from the start). While Eu4ia desperately needed the money, was the grants officer sufficiently financially savvy to realise that the project was  under-capitalised from the outset….[3] 

However, production companies invariably have a habit of complaining that they have been under-funded.  I used to run one.  The funding agencies, on the other hand may want to respond, perhaps, by saying that the cost ‘baselines’ of arts and creative organisations may have already been inflated through ‘accumulative persuasion’.  What does that mean? People tend to ask for more than what they need because they anticipate reductions to be imposed by eagle eyed funding officers. It is also true that high bids tend to reflect inaccurate planning assumptions; sometimes considered to be a common problem in the sector.

While we need to stay away from hasty and risky generalisations, how is one going to deal with the critics who cannot be stopped for claiming that top producers and managers in the creative agencies have always been overpaid? Some may even go as far as claiming that culture has its share of ‘fat cats’. No, it’s not Jonathan Ross who is in the line of fire yet again; the debate is about compensating good managers. When managerial pay is compared to other sectors of the economy, is there not a distinct lack of understanding of the knowledge and expertise demanded by the creative sector?   A robust defence is much needed but the absence of proactive public relations has failed to communicate the essential nature of skills and values required in the delivery of cultural output. While talent and enterprise must be suitably rewarded in all cases, subject to scrutiny of hard evidence, there is also a strong case for challenging escalating costs in the cultural sector if creative people wish to continue to command a high price. However, someone is bound to be thinking that productivity must also be improved. That is on the agenda for another day.

At other times the blog will aim to celebrate, promote, reflect and report on new cultural opportunities created by a combination of delivery agencies- funders, local authorities, successful production companies, community groups and individuals. We Brits must learn to celebrate success! Very occasionally it may be necessary to recognise that ‘we are not worth it’.  Judgements will be guided by accurate research and reliance on hard evidence. At other times, the glass of the cultural windows may need to be cleaned. Any bias created by dust or grime should be easy to remove as long as the blog is guided by positive feedback, objective comment and support for new information when requested and co-operation from concerned parties if the quality of the critical debate is to be sustained.

‘Cultural Windows’ will not be constrained by one way vision; those who wish to ‘look in’ as well as ‘look out’ will be equally encouraged to participate. However, reporting on the ‘circus’ in the cultural industries can be very amusing indeed, especially when reflected by mirrors that can cause huge distortions. In many cases, it might be a good idea to learn from a humorous look at ourselves.

There is a final concern. Is the ‘arts funding mechanism’ still a source of rich subsidies and unwarranted handouts as some critics maintain? Is the funding mechanism overheated by running on the same spot for 20 years? How can we respond to the critics who say that funding for the 2012 Games should be curtailed even at this stage and that the resources would be better applied to the NHS or schools?  A visitor to Thailand in the late 1990s will have seen motorways, bridges and buildings abandoned halfway during their construction when the economy went into freefall and the Thai baht lost its value. Do the critics of the Olympics really expect that a half-built stadium can be safely abandoned? Lastly, should the arts funding agencies, especially the Arts Council, not be best treated as development organisations which apply funding selectively for strategic development of culture and the transformation of successful production companies as much as sustaining their short-term (1-3 years) cashflow needs? This is a point worth returning to in the near future … 

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[1] The Sikh sword nowadays used for baptism but originally a weapon for war

[2] In common parlance in most parts of Southern Africa, the assegai is a spear, heavy but aerodynamically efficient and thrown with great skill by warriors and huntsmen to kill. The Eastern African version is the common ‘sururu’ or long metal spear.

[3] Several fictitious cultural companies will be created to illustrate key issues. Any similarities with known companies and individuals are not intended.