Imagining Belfast - Cultural Strategy

Background

Earlier this month, I was made aware that Belfast City Council had published a draft strategy for the arts and culture.  "A City Imagining - Cultural Strategy 2020-2030."
The municipality was inviting the general public to join the discussion, to react to its report and to submit comments and suggestions.
This sounded like an opportunity to be grasped, not to be missed.

Before reading the Council's document, I was immediately struck by the invitation's timing - to consider the role of culture in a region during a month when manifestation of a culture based on a seventeenth-century battle delights many and alienates others.  
I recollect also how, in another context thirty-five years previously, we saw culture as a way to bring people together in a provincial town, Omagh, using music drama and art (e.g. establishing an annual Arts Festival) to demonstrate that normal life continues despite the distraction of the Troubles.  Those efforts might not have solved anything, but we learned about the beneficial power of culture when negative events can disrupt life.

A couple of days passed before realisation dawned that in two days the Council's deadline for receiving comments would loom large. My strategy, therefore, was to spend one day reading and thinking about the 50-page consultation document; thence another day to compose something that might be of use to the report's authors when they write the final strategy.

Reading the report, I was at first disappointed at its refusal to define its operative word - culture; but on second thoughts concluded that this was local diplomacy at work in an organisation which is sensitive to sectarian issues.  Perhaps my response could assist by defining what the arts are and what culture can achieve.
I was also struck by the apparent lack of empiricism and case-studies that any report needs as an evidence-base for its policies and proposals.  Once again, I decided to suggest examples from the recent work of the Ulster Orchestra to support the objectives and explicitly stated priorities of the City Council - to endorse and encourage the Council in its positive efforts.

On the deadline (10 July 2019) a couple of hours before closing time and a bank holiday weekend, I submitted this two-page response.

General observations on Belfast City Council’s 10 year culture strategy

·         This welcome strategy for the arts and culture must recognise our city’s role as regional capital.  Belfast’s immediate catchment does not end at its municipal boundaries.  Rather, its practical catchment includes the Council District’s population as well as that of the Greater Belfast area.  Its neighbouring Council Districts are part of its arts catchment.  Moreover, the city’s draw extends further when major cultural events are promoted only in the region’s capital.

·           Where the strategy properly emphasises “the transformative power of culture,” it must conclude its logic by explaining the specific relevance to Belfast.  Our city’s process of transforming from the scourge of sectarian strife to peace requires explicit reference.   The strategy, therefore, must acknowledge directly the roles of the arts in social integration, in promoting civic pride locally, the positive impact of the arts on the city’s external image and reputation, and their economic benefits.  Not only do the arts enrich lives but they bring people together, they project a positive image of our creative ability, and they boost our economy.  Belfast craves for these lasting benefits to create sustainable transformation. 

·         Because arts events tend to take place in neutral venues, they unify the local community.  This applies in BCC-owned venues like the Waterfront Hall and the Ulster Hall, to theatres like the Grand Opera House, the Lyric, the MAC, the SSE Arena, to cinemas and many smaller arts venues like the Black Box within BCC’s administrative boundaries.  It also applies to the wonderful portfolio of events and festivals that happen throughout the year, all of which add to Belfast’s critical mass of culture.

·         The arts demonstrate the creative capacity of our people engaged in positive endeavours, nurturing cultural talent which attracts visitors as well as local people.  The strategy is important also in promoting the commercial value (with revenue and employment consequences) of marketing Belfast for cultural tourism along with our infrastructure of visitor attractions (natural and man-made), quality accommodation, entertainment and restaurants. 

·         While the document’s enthusiastic aspirations for Belfast are pleasing, more detail and commitments would strengthen its impact.  At times, the draft strategy reads as if it knows more than it is prepared to reveal.  An appraiser might ask, for example, about its evidence-base, the datasets and empirical research provide the foundation for its policies. 

·         To put the draft strategy’s objectives into effect (in its own words “action is a responsibility”), a plan for implementation together with timescales, costs, delivery organisations and monitoring will be essential.  That will include, for example, defining criteria which BCC will use to determine cultural investment priorities. 

May I, therefore, endorse the draft strategy by suggesting examples to fill its gaps.  This draws on experience of being a subscriber, patron and board member of the Ulster Orchestra (UO).  It demonstrates how Northern Ireland’s professional symphony orchestra provides working examples that accord with the strategy’s broad aims. The examples follow the report’s own themes. 

Active citizenship

The practical benefits of working within the community are evident from numerous examples of the UO’s largely unheralded Learning and Community Engagement projects.  Since its inception over 50 years ago, the orchestra has provided expertise to develop music education outside its conventional platform of the concert hall.  In more recent years, it has established a comprehensive programme of community outreach within and outside Belfast. 

 Its enormous schedule involves musicians and staff developing projects not only in schools and youth clubs, but also in other venues such as care homes, community associations, sports clubs and prisons.

Place making

BCC’s Ulster Hall has always been known as the home of the UO, not least because of its centrality and internationally-recognised acoustic.  As the orchestra develops its programmes, it is planning to cement its presence in Belfast with the establishment of a new facility to house rehearsal space and a base for its ever-expanding outreach work.  Alternative options are being appraised, one being the restoration of a listed building, the other a new build on a regeneration site.

New Approaches

The UO loves innovation and pushing musical boundaries. It has, for example, intensified collaborative work to positive effect in recent years by moving beyond the classical repertoire with music concerts across genres.  Last year the orchestra worked with the local R&B musician Davy Watson culminating in a sell-out concert in the Ulster Hall.  Discussions have taken place with an internationally-renowned operatic trio for another collaborative project; the growth in popularity of the annual Lush concert in the SSE Arena exemplifies the orchestra’s musical versatility; and collaborative projects with writers have become a part of the orchestra’s development of Derry/Londonderry as a cultural hub. 

  

Building on the innovative appointment of Rafael Payare’s 5-year tenure as Chief Conductor, audiences in Belfast will soon discover the different skills of its new Chief Conductor, Daniele Rustioni from Italy.  This is the first time that the orchestra will have had an Opera-specializing maestro in charge.  This rising star can expect to produce mutual benefits for the orchestra’s work and for partners as Northern Ireland Opera and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir grow in stature. 

Our Place in the World and Lift Off

The Ulster Orchestra is outward-looking.  Apart from a track-record of appointing three foreign Chief Conductors in a row (from the USA, Venezuela, and Italy), the inclusion of musicians from abroad (such as the current leader and associate leader), the Orchestra’s MD hails from New Zealand.  Most of the musicians and staff come from Northern Ireland as well as from Great Britain and Ireland.

Last year the orchestra hosted the annual conference of the Association of British Orchestras.  The event which received substantial publicity was attended by delegates from across Europe.  One reason was the fact that the orchestra is a leading partner in the European project, EO2 Lab.

Looking outside Belfast, the orchestra has expanded substantially its concert programming in towns and villages across the region. Apart from the work to develop its presence in the North-west, concerts around the region improve the orchestra’s popular appeal as well as its networks and reach.

The orchestra is performing at the London Proms in August 2019, it has previously appeared in concert at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, and plans are in hand to arrange a return concert in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Against this background and track-record, the orchestra would appear to be a prime candidate for inclusion in the strategy’s UNESCO 2023 City of Music project.  Likewise and for the economic reasons noted above, the strategy’s aims to prioritise “the development of cultural tourism” and to “invest in our cultural and creative sectors” resonate with the mission of the Ulster Orchestra.

Partnership Working

The Ulster Orchestra operates in close co-operation with a long list of partners. These include funders (Arts Council, Belfast City Council, the BBC, sponsors and trusts, the public), other arts providers (exemplified above), the community and voluntary sector, a half dozen European orchestras in the EO2 Lab consortium, NI Screen, the Musicians Union, record labels and the audiences.  As instanced by the significant expansion of its educational and outreach work, by collaborative cross-genre projects, and by joint working with other arts bodies here, the UO provides ample case studies as proof of the necessity for partnership working.

I assume that Belfast City Council will now be considering the responses submitted.  In due course, a final strategy with details of projects, timetables and resources required can be expected.  This is an exciting space to be watched.

 

©Michael McSorley 2019