Guest post: "One can´t make omelets without breaking eggs - Regarding the project Temporary Occupations", by Elisa Santos (Maputo - Mindelo - Lisbon)

I enjoyed very much listening to Elisa Santos talking about the Temporary Occupations. Projects like this one, which bring people together around an idea, which look for new ways, which make things happen ‘despite’, they always draw my attention, they transmit enthusiasm to me, they remind me that a lot, so much indeed, is possible when people want to. But there is a limit and Elisa is determined to remind us of it. There is a limit that the will to do should not surpass; because we have a responsibility and because we owe respect, to the works, to the artists and to the audiences. mv 

On Jaimito´s Facebook, 24th of July Av., Maputo, 2011. A citizen is leaving a comment on artist Azagaia´s installation.  (Photo: Ocupações Temporárias)

It is a fallacy, one frequently used in these times of scarce resources, to assume that it is possible to do without means, crossdressing the argument with epithets of innovation and entrepreneurship. The whole exaltation, more or less naive, more or less politcally adjusted, that it is this “magic” that will save us, is a serious contribution towards disinformation, decapitalization and the implementation of a strategy of mediocrity, in any field. This is my firm conviction. And it is equally firm with regards to any field, but even more in what concerns the artistic and cultural field in particular.  

In 2010 I challenged a group of six Mozambican artists to make an exhibition in different molds than the ones they were used to and as an answer to a pressing issue in the city of Maputo which they themselves were proclaiming: the suffocation felt by artists, caused by the lack of spaces of presentation (the existing ones have a closed and repetitive programming) and of audiences (equally closed and repetitive). This suffocation was not related to the quantity of woks produced, but to the incentives for creation, since the spaces for critique, the opportunities for discussion, for the exchange and contact with new languages, tecniques and issues seemed to bypass the circuit of presentation of the capital of Mozambique.

Meeting with artists for the 2010 edition. (Photo: Ocupações Temporárias)

To make an exhibition, or rather six exhibitions, in two months, with a coordination/production totally unknown to the local agents and possible funders, with a group of artists doing a number of other things that would guarantee their living and without an institution formally promoting it, can it be considered venture without means? It may seem like it, but it´s not. The first “version” of Temporary Occupations  - this is the project name – was discussed in meetings on a esplanade, was produced on coffee shop tables and using free public Wi-Fi; its opening date was set to coincide with the Jo’burg Art Fair, in the (perhaps naive) hope that curators, commissioners, buyers, collectors that would attend the event might become interested in Maputo, just around the corner; Facebook and a blog were the main means of promotion and communication. These were the means available. The artists themselves put their own means at the disposal of the project. The first Occupations had a financial support of 3.000USD. In our final report we accounted for the pro bono contributions (production, design and translation, for example), but we were never able to account for all the means that were made available in order to make the Occupations happen.

In 2011 we wanted to risk again. We thought that it would be easier to raise funds, because we had a file that proved our seriousness and transparency in managing the project, the involvement of the participants and the sustainability of the idea, which did not have as a base a fixed, heavy and expensive structure estructure and that, above all, there was a need, that is, it was not a commitment imposed by a calendar, but an action justified in the city´s artistic and cultural context. All arguments were acknowledged, we were praised and pointed out as an interesting case – both in what concerns the essence of the project and its management -, nevertheless, the financial resources, in particular the funds for international cooperation, are aimed at reinforcing institutions and civil society, where we did not fit because we were not a legal entity, that is, the project was not based on a formal organization, did not correspond with the calendars of funding allocations, did not guarantee its existence for the next year. Even though, we persisted and the subject chosen for the Temporary Occupations 20.11 was Precariousness.  The opening took place on the 11^th of September and we had the support of Goethe Institut in Maputo and the Swiss Embassy, in a total of €2000.

View of artist Paulo Kapela´s installation in the streets of Maputo, 2012. (Photo: Ocupações Temporárias)

The conditions for this version of the Occupations were even harder than the previous year´s, nevertheless, it mobilized the artists of 2010 and those of 2011, and once again friends, acquaintances, strangers who had seen us the year before and, once more, there was a lot of investment (also financial) on behalf of those involved. The result was very positive, but, as an international commissioner said, it had reached the limit of what was possible, of what was acceptable. Because there is a limit for the dignity (of the works, of the artists, of the audiences) assessed according to the conditions of presentation, of production and enjoyment of an exhibition.  

In 2012, the Temporary Occupations, under the theme of Foreigners, finally had what one might call “the means”, thanks to the exclusive funding of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which decided to support the exhibition in Maputo and to propose and promote it in two more countries (Cape Vert and Angola) and also to schedule in 2013, in its head office in Lisbon, a documental exhibition of the whole process. Without these resources, without this support, the Occupations in Maputo wouldn´t have happened, not in the molds they did actually happen, not even in the molds of previous editions. It wouldn´t have been possible to insist on askingalways  for the support of the same people just to prove that we have the capacity to make things happen, when this capacity, although acknowledged in theory, did not get in return the support of those institutions which aim to support this kind of initiatives. Without these means, the Occupations would have terninated in 2011.

All the editions fulfilled the initial objectives: to attract the attention of different audiences that would be confronted with the works in the public space; to confront the artists with new spaces. Although it is not possible to count the number of visitors, the works have undeniably been seen by thousands if people. Another, more specific, audience - that of cultural agents, artists and arts students – also saw the Occupations and there was a lot of conversation, discussions and stands regarding the initiative. To prove this, one may consider the interest expressed regarding the dates and themes of the following edition, the ways to apply, as well as the invitations to talk or write about this initiative.

Although the Temporary Occupations were seen, since their first edition, at distance, from a number of programmers, critics, curators, gallery owners and other artists, we have not managed to gain international notoriety, to draw the attention of new markets, namely the south african one, to give national visibility to the production of contemporary art; these were very big challenges that we wouldn´t be able to reach when the big majority of promotional materials was not translated, there were no catalogues of all the editions, there was not a good technical support or good images of the works, there was not a website or a good archive, allowing to access the information and the documentation of the different exhibitions.

Installation by artist Bento Oliveira at the Porto Grande airport on S.Vicente island, Cape Vert, 2012. (Photo: Ocupações Temporárias)

The great importance of the support received for 2012 and 2013 is exactly the fact that it made available financial and other resources, that made the exhibitions and other actions possible in order to internationalize the artists and to give visibility to a new production stemming from the emergence of an artistic community with new practices, different discourses and other proposals of intervention.  

As I stated in the beginning, the praise of the lack of resources as a potential instigator of creation and production, is false, and it may even become dangerous in what concerns the quality and independence of what is being produced.  The Temporary Occupations would be different with more means, with other menas, but would have never existed, as nothing exists, without means.

The exhibition Temporary Occupations – Documents may be seen at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon until May 26. Admission is free.

Elisa Santos was an independent cultural producer until 2002, when she took the post of Director of Production at the Teatro do Campo Alegre in Oporto. She worked in projects of cooperation and development in Angola and Mozambique between 2003 and 2012. She is a consultor in the fields of volunteering and cooperation, maintaining her activity as producer in the cultural field.

Safety net(working)

Photo taken from My Firefighter Nation.

When in 2006 I started working in the performing arts field, and as this was a whole new world for me, one of the first things I did, apart from ordering new books, was to look for associations, professional groups, conferences and seminars that would allow me to become better and faster integrated, meet other professionals, find support, ask questions, exchange ideas, acquire new skills. But, apart from a couple of american associations, one of which was organizing an annual world conference on management, I didn´t find anything that could be of help.

I was coming from a very much organized and connected world in that sense, that of museums, where one can find all sorts of models: international associations, national committees, regional and local networks, networks by subject (management, conservation, education, communications, access, etc.); there is also a number of conferences, meetings, seminars, workshops, training courses, where one can get the necessary skills, meet other professionals, extensively share information, get support, build projects, put other people in touch. 

I remember how scary and lonely it felt (apart from very exciting...) when I started working for Lisbon´s São Luiz Municipal Theatre. It was thanks to the help and support of the manager, Rui Catarino, that I managed to find my way. Even though, I did feel the lack of a more extensive and organized professional network - that sense of community, of family, with common concerns and goals - that one finds himself in when entering the museum profession.

Even though, here in Lisbon, those of us working in Communications in different performing arts venues formed a couple of years ago an informal discussion group, called Rehearsal Room. The functioning of the group was rather simple: we would meet once a month, for two hours, in order to discuss a previously chosen subject and many times we would invite a special guest, someone with specific knowledge and experience on the subject to be discussed. Once we exhausted the “big and urgent issues”, our meetings, a bit less regular, served as a get-together, a space and time where we could discuss our concerns and difficulties with colleagues that knew exactly what we thought and felt, that could give advice, share information or simply listen...

I remember once when the subject of the month was publicity. Our guest was a specialist in this field. She was surprised to see that, unlike what happens in other sectors (where competition means that almost everythings is a top secret, unthinkable of sharing with anyone else), we were there mainly to share information, to debate and to help each other. And this is actually one of the specificities of the cultural sector, both in what concernsmuseums and the performing arts. I don´t mean to say that we are not competing with each other, we do. But there is so much more competition for all of us from outside the field, that, in what concerns our primary audiences (and by “primary” I mean those people who usually attend cultural events, who are interested and who like to be informed), we become stronger when we share information and develop common strategies rather than turning our backs to each other.

I strongly believe in networks and I´ve already mentioned some of the reasons why: they can help us be better professionals by providing a (both real and virtual) space of encounter, a space for asking questions, exchanging ideas, acquiring new skills, getting support. This is what they have always meant to me. But I now see more benefits in them.

First of all, they can be the right-scale platform for the younger to express themselves. More than once lately I heard younger colleagues talk about their reticence or discomfort in expressing their views or even asking questions in the big forums (like conferences and seminars) where the “established” and respected specialists in our field are taking part. I´d say it´s natural. Smaller specialist networks and working groups can be just the right size for them to feel more at ease in order to informally discuss their concerns and ideas. And we do need those ideas.

They can also be the most appropriate means for people who share a specific mentality and feel strong about a number of issues, to push their case forward, independent of formal and rigid hierarchies or, I dare say, despite them. Networking means stronger and more decisive lobbying, no matter where individuals stand in a given hierarchical pyramid, in a given structure. Networking means stronger collective leadership.

In life, there are a number of things we simply cannot do alone. Either because we´re not strong enough; or because we haven´t got enough preparation, knowledge, experience or self-confidence; or because our voice is not strong enough. Professional networks may be the cannon that ejects us high and far; and they´re undoubtedly our safety net. This is why I believe that the performing arts have got a lot to learn with museums, and not just in Portugal. Management, communications, education, access are all areas that need to be better developed in order to promote critical thinking and good practices, support newcomers in the field, create the conditions for greater professionalism in areas which are all technical and build a firmer discourse.   

Guest post: "Bombay gets the Blues", by Jay Shah (India)

A blues festival in Bombay? “But why?”, one might think. Or maybe... “Why not?”.  The fact that the festival is organized by the Mahindra Group, though, with my friend and colleague Jay Shah being the driving force behind it, explains that this is not a decision that came about by chance. It´s part of a global company´s strategy, as it relates to more than 100 nationalities of customers and employees, to promote art and to enable conversations across culures. mv

Walter Trout at the Mahindra Blues Festival 2013, Mumbai, India (Photo: Ritam Banerjee)

Mehboob Studios, the iconic Bollywood studios in the heart of Bombay (now known as Mumbai) have been coming alive with the best Blues talent the world has to offer during the Mahindra Blues Festival (MBF) each year for the past three years. Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal were here, so were Robert Randolph, Poppa Chubby, Shemekia Copeland, Ana Popovich, Jimmy Thackery and many more. The Best of Blues, in an unusual venue, in an unusual city, you may surmise.

The MBF is a celebration of an art form in a festival far away from the Mississippi Delta, its place of origin.  In a culture so seemingly different, astounding commonalities have emerged. Bombay is a tough city – but a city of dreamers. Struggle and strife is as abundant as triumph and victories. There may not be a better connect between this genre of music with any city in the world as there is with Bombay. Our audacious vision is to create the biggest destination festival for the Blues outside of the United States. We would like to make Bombay to the Blues what Montreaux is to Jazz.

In the absence of a practice of individual giving to the arts and the preoccupation of the government with greater compulsions of providing basic living essentials to the masses, art and culture have seldom been supported in India. Sporadic acts of benevolence for a particular artist or an art event do occur but this lacks a holistic long term plan or vision. We are convinced that corporate houses must help bridge the gap.

The Mahindra Group, is a USD 15.9 billion federation of companies spanning international geographies and straddling businesses as diverse as automobile and tractor manufacturing to retail finance and holiday resorts. We engage with over a 100 nationalities of customers and employees present in all continents except the Antarctic. As a global company we believe we are in a unique position to enable conversations across cultures and have taken a long term view of promoting art and culture as an  enabler of admiration of our brand. Moreover, our cultural outreach activities are directly linked to business strategy, hence are sustainable. They help create shared value between our brand and our stakeholders, securing a positive mind space for our brand.

For greater success in exploring alternate funding sources, Art institutions may wish to closely analyze business plans of specific companies and help them identify ways in which they can derive long term advantage by supporting a particular art form. If one sees a strategic connect and business benefit, funds will flow and art will thrive.

Dana Fuchs at the Mahindra Blues Festival 2013, Mumbai, India (Photo: Ritam Banerjee)

And what strategic connect does the Blues have to our business you may wonder? Mahindra is the largest manufacturer of tractors in the world. The hobby farmers of the Mississippi Delta are our most discerning customers in the United States. They have begun to relate to us on a different plane. We are not just another foreign company trying to sell them a product. They view us as a brand that takes pride in their heritage, celebrates their culture and helps propagate it in distant lands. Our market share has risen and our customer satisfaction levels are amongst the highest. Our products are of course the best one can buy. But our culture connect has significantly boosted our brand’s likability, there is no doubt.

The most endearing by-product of this festival has been the enthusiasm in which the Bombay audiences have adopted it. The connect they feel with the music is intense. The audience comprises of citizens from all walks of life, age brackets and demographics. As Anand Mahindra, Chairman & Managing Director of the Mahindra Group observes, over the years, this festival has become a movement and has garnered a cult like following. The audiences have become believers, a tribe of followers.

I invite you to watch glimpses of the Mahindra Blues Festival and hear the audience testimonies:

Jay Shah has been with the Mahindra Group for the past 15 years doing a variety of assignments. His current charge is to innovatively use art and culture to connect with Mahindra’s stakeholders throughout the world. He oversees the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards and the Mahindra Blues Festival and leads internal programs such as the Global Recruit Program, Mahindra Rise Awards and Mahindra Has Talent. He is an International Fellow at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC. 

Guest post: "Orchestras in trouble: a think-piece", by Simon Fairclough (UK)

It´s a great pleasure to hear Simon Fairclough talking passionately both about classical music and his job. Simon is an intelligent and committed young professional who wants to make sure that more and more people are able to discover and enjoy the pleasures of classical music. In this post, his analyses the troubles orchestras all over the world are facing nowadays and points out causes and possible ways forward. Among them, the need to find new ways to engage with audiences. mv

Bach´s St. Matthew Passion re-imagined for younger audiences with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and  a virtual choir. (Photo: Vocal Futures)

Say "click"!

When I visited the Museum of Vienna a few weeks ago, what mostly caught my attention was Unter 10, a temporary exhibition of objects from the museum collection that measured under 10 centimetres. I thought it was an original subject for a city museum exhibition. When I arrived at the exhibition entrance, I was very pleased to read the well-written introductory text, to contemplate the excellent graphic design and also a visually impressive panel with rows of hanging magnifying glasses, waiting to be picked up by visitors in order to explore the miniatures exhibition.

I asked two guards near the entrance if I could take a photo of the panels. They looked at each other not really knowing what to answer. The younger one said “I guess so, why not. But again... I am new around here.” The other guard went inside to ask a colleague of his and came back with the verdict: ‘no’. Visitors could not take photos of the exhibition, but, if I wished, I could buy the catalogue... I explained that I didn´t want photos of objects, I just wanted a photo of the entrance panels for my classes. They seemed to feel sorry, but... ‘no’. The next day I wrote to the museum director. I explained what had happened, I said it was a pity the museum wouldn´t allow visitors to take photos and I asked if they could send me a photo of the entrance panels from the museum archive to use for my classes. Not even that, a question of copyright... (?)

It´s a great thing to be able to take photos in museums. In my particular case, because  I am always looking for (good and bad) examples to illustrate my classes. I suppose that many more people take photos for professional reasons (and no, bying the catalogue is not an answer to our needs...). In most museums I visited in the last years, photography was allowed and it was a big relief. I immediately felt more at ease. In some cases, though, when I explained I wanted the photos for my classes, I first had to sign a paper that I wouldn´t use them for commercials purposes. In other cases, museum staff couldn´t make up their minds, asked me to wait until they could talk to someone else and by the time I was leaving the museum thay hadn´t had an answer for me yet...

But I also like to see other visitors taking photos in museums: of a famous work of art, of a favourite work of art, of an exhibit that particularly drew their attention or touched them in a special way or raised their curiosity or will be a reminder of their experience (and no, buying postcards is not the same thing...).

When discussing photography in museum, It´s Time We Met immediately comes to mind: the brilliant initiative of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where photos taken by visitors in the museum enter a competition and are then selected for the museum´s promotional materials. What a great way to engage visitors, to share their enthusiasm, to promote the museum itself (at no cost...). Here in Portugal, our colleague Inês Fialho Brandão also organized a competition on Flickr in 2010, called Museus de Portas Abertas (Museums with Open Doors) for the Municipal Museums of Cascais. Following the success of the initiative, the Municipality decided to lift the ban on museum photography. They don´t seem to have regretted it... At the same time, the Powerhouse Museum shows to be quite understanding with the visitors´ needs to take photos, for personal or professional reasons, and actually encourages them to share them with the museum... (see here) It´s a matter of attitude.

Some museums around the world adapted quickly to the new realities created by digital technology and social media in the way people of all ages experience museum visits. Others are now in the process of adapting, feeling the need to keep up and engage in new ways with their visitors. Other museums stubbornly go against the tide and in some cases, if we ask ‘why’, the museum guards are not able to explain anymore. It seems it´s because it has always been like this and nobody has told them otherwise. One of the funniest moments for me lately was at the National Museum of Ukrainian Art, where at the entrance of each room there was a clear sign (the usual icon of the camera) that photography was not allowed. So, a young visitor was taking photos of every painting with his cell phone and the guards looked at him but didn´t interfere... Does this mean, cameras no way, cell phones OK? I din´t dare to take my camera out...

The case that has intrigued me the most in what concerns photography in museums is that of France. On the one hand, because professionals in the field had actually to address the Ministry of Culture and propose a working group to reflect on this issue (read here and here). I was surprised that there was a need for all that... On the other hand, the rather fundamentalist attitude of Musée d´Orsay – which since 2010 prohibits photography both of objects and the museum building itself - probably explains why things had to be discussed at the highest level. The prohibition at the Musée d´Orsay is officially justified by the fact that guards were finding it hard to control the use of flash, because visitors taking photos were slowing down the pace of everyone else and because there was a danger for the art works. To all this, the President of the Museum, Guy Cogeval, added another – highly questionable – reason: the fact that visitors taking photos would not actually look at the works of art and would not allow others to do so either. “My God”, one may read in a interview published in an exhibition catalogue, “we are going back to a time of barbarity.” (read here).

Photo taken 'unlawfully' by the author at the Musée d´Orsay. Couldn´t resist...

Photography in museums may actually pose some practical problems, but many museums (and even the visitors themselves) seem to have found ways to solve them. It may also raise issues of copyright in what concerns contemporary art - although it´s quite funny to see sometimes that one work of art may not be photographed in one museum, but may be in another... But the fact is that allowing photos has brought a number of benefits both for the museum-visitor relationship and, eventually, for the promotion of the museum itself, through the advertising channel that has always worked best: word-of-mouth. I definitely don´t see an act of barbarity in it. I see people who wish to register an experience (hopefully, a good one), to share it with others. The way one lives this experience may have nothing to do with what the curator had idealised, but that has always been the case in museums, hasn´t it?

Readings

Visiteurs Photographes au Musée, edited by Serge Chaumier, Anne Krebs et Mélanie Roustan, was published in February and brings together a number of very interesting essays grouped in three parts: I. Interdire / autoriser. Le juridique au centre de la controverse?; II. Du côté des visiteurs. Pratiques photographiques et usages des photographies; III. La photographie comme instrument des politiques des publics. Read the presentation of the book by Mélanie Roustan here.

Further readings

La photo au musée, ou l’appropriation

Musées: interdit de photographier

Le musée d’Orsay interdit les photos

Museum photo policies should be as open as possible

Orsay Commons, an interview with Julien Dorra (also in portuguese in Reprograme, p.130)

Guest post: "The arts in everyday life", by Tim Joss (UK)

A few months ago, my friend Caroline Miller forwarded to me Tim Joss´s Christmas message, where he was sharing his thoughts on the challenges the cultural sector faces today in its relationship with people. Tim is the founder of Public Engagement Foundation which aims “to open up markets for the arts in daily life”. In this post he explains to us why he thinks the arts have such a powerful role and value in our everyday lives. mv

5 Soldiers, by Rosie Kay Dance Company (Photo: Brian Slater, www.rosikay.co.uk)

Soon after taking office, the current United Kingdom government announced that it wanted to start measuring people's happiness, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor psychological and environmental wellbeing. It would add to purely economic measures, such as gross domestic product. The UK Office of National Statistics got to work and, last September, published the list of the ‘domains and measures’ to be used to assess the wellbeing of the nation. It was then that we heard that the arts are unimportant to the UK’s national wellbeing. The statistics office took no notice of representations and decided that there would be no measure specific to the arts.

We need to be much more articulate about the powerful role of the arts.  So here are three promising signs and stories about the value of arts in our daily lives.

1. For those outside the arts and not engaged with them, ‘the arts’ often mean high art in plush venues for the better off – opera houses, national theatres and major galleries.
Through the Rayne Foundation I meet many charity chief executives working inside and outside the arts. Steve Wyler is the Chief Executive of Locality, a nationwide network of over 700 community-led organisations, each helping community enterprises grow, increasing community ownership of local assets and backing social action within their communities. Early in 2011, Locality won a £15 million government contract to train 5,000 community organisers and set up an Institute of Community Organisers. Steve thinks of ‘the arts’ in this exclusive sense. I asked him about his plans for training all these community organisers: ‘You’re about culture change, aren’t you?’ Steve agreed. I asked: ‘Do you use culture to achieve culture change?’ Steve said no. It led to a breakfast together. I avoided talk about ‘the arts’ and instead took Steve through some of the roles different artforms can play: music for celebration; drama for exploring conflict; photography for documentation … Steve was excited by storytelling and its power to pass experiences and wisdom between community organisers. I introduced Steve to Hugh Lupton, one of the UK’s leading storytellers (I knew Hugh from the Bath Literature Festival which I founded in the mid-nineties.) The Rayne Foundation gave a small grant for three diverse storytellers to contribute to a summer gathering of community organisers. It was a success. Reflecting on it, Steve highlighted not only the value of storytelling but also the importance and potency of artistic quality. He didn’t need to be an arts specialist to understand the power of expert storytellers.

2. Those working in the arts talk often about the arts’ transformative power. Realising that power is largely limited to experiences in concert halls, theatres, cinemas and art galleries and at home listening to music  on the radio and watching television. Where people spend their daily lives away from home – in the workplace, in hospital, in local communities and in schools – the arts are thought of as low priority, nice-to-have ‘fluff’.  

Arthur Koestler is best known for his novel Darkness at Noon, an anti-totalitarian work which won him international fame. He is also remembered for founding the Koestler Trust and its awards programme to recognise the artistic skills of offenders, secure patients and detainees. It was the first arts in criminal justice programme and recently celebrated its 50^th anniversary. Today, 200 organisations belong to the Arts Alliance, the national body for promoting the arts in the criminal justice sector. As well as the Koestler Trust, notable members include Clean Break women’s theatre company and Music in Prisons (in a typical project, a group of around 10 to 12 participants will be encouraged to try out different instruments, develop song ideas and write lyrics as part of the process of creating of new and innovative music). The work relies heavily on fundraising (little is paid for by prisons) and is vulnerable. For example, in 2008, the then justice minister Jack Straw cancelled comedy workshops in Whitemoor Prison and circulated an order that similar activity was to stop.

But evidence of interventions being more than ‘fluff’ is growing. Arts charity Good Vibrations uses Indonesian gamelans (beautiful, calming percussion orchestras) to work with the most difficult prisoners: violent men and prolifically self-harming women. An evaluation by the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology of its work with women who prolifically self harm was able to demonstrate long-term reductions in their self harming.

3. Too often mainstream arts organisations – subsidised and commercial – give low or no status to participatory activities. Despite financial encouragement from Arts Councils, the work is still the poor cousin of professional work in arts venues. Some artists adopt a patronising tone, talking of ‘giving something back’. ‘Outreach’ can have patronising connotations too.

Talking to artists and reading about them has led me to a different view. At best there is a dialogue between artist and context, enriching the artist, the context and the artist’s creations.
I created Rayne Fellowships for society’s ‘bridge-builders’. The first wave addressed a problem identified by senior dance figures: choreographers are too often caught in a dance bubble, not connected enough with the rest of the world. One Fellow, Rosie Kay, had a placement with the 4^th Rifles Battalion and Headley Court (a centre for the rehabilitation of soldiers). She created a work about soldiers in Afghanistan who told her ‘You got it! You got it! You understand what it’s like.’ Rosie became, I suspect, the first choreographer war artist.

This year is the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth. In 1945, he and Yehudi Menuhin performed a concert for Bergen Belsen survivors. Britten later revealed that the experience coloured everything he had written subsequently.

The Hepworth Wakefield gallery currently has an exhibition of Barbara Hepworth, one of the greatest British sculptors of the 20^th century. The exhibition is of her hospital drawings. They were the result of Hepworth spending many hours in operating theatres. The experience helped crystallise her view of abstract painting: “Working realistically replenishes one’s love for life, humanity and the earth. Working abstractly seems to release one’s personality and sharpen the perceptions ...”
Artists’ experiences away from arts venues and other artists can have a profound effect on their work.

Tim Joss is Director of a charitable foundation, the Rayne Foundation. In 2008, Tim wrote ‘New Flow – a better future for artists, citizens and the state’. He was appointed visiting Senior Fellow in cultural policy at City University and created the Public Engagement Foundation which aims to open up markets for the arts in daily life (in community development, schools, prisons and so on). The first focus is on health. Previously Tim was Artistic Director & Chief Executive of festivals in the city of Bath where he revitalised the Bath International Music Festival and founded the Bath Literature Festival. He is a graduate of The Queen’s College, Oxford (in mathematics) and Royal Academy of Music (in piano and composition). The French Government appointed him a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2005.

The beginning and the ending of a b&w week in Vienna

Angelo Soliman (Image taken from www.economist.com)

I arrive in Vienna on a Friday night. The taxi driver´s face tells me that his country of origin might be somewhere in the Middle East. He doesn´t speak english, so we can´t talk. A few minutes later he answers a phone call. I hear him speaking turkish. “So, you are from Turkey?”, I ask, when he hangs up. He looks at me surprised through his mirror and asks me (probably): “You understand turkish?”. I tell him “Yunanistan” (Greece, in turkish). He looks at me even more surprised and says: “You?! Yunanistan?!”. And he continues in english: “Me, you, no problem, no problem!”. I smile: “No problem”, I tell him. When we arrive at the hotel, I thank him in turkish. He seems pleased.

--------------------------------------------

I am in Vienna for a workshop on “Racism and Cultural awareness”, funded by Grundtvig, the European Union programme for lifelong learning. The main trainer is a black woman who seems to be dynamic and very self-confident. The participants come from Bulgaria, Romania, the Czekh Republic, Poland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, UK, Spain and Turkey. Black and white people – or kind of black and kind of white  - many originating from countries other than the one they´re presently residing in, people of different ages and backgrounds, gathered in Vienna to discuss racism

We are asked to talk about our expectations from this workshop. I tell them I expect my views on racism to be challenged, my thinking to go a bit further, because I know that none of us considers him/herself to be racist, yet, we might be surprised.

Later on, we´re given by the trainer a definition of racism: “Racism is discrimination with power in a white dominated society.” I am not comfortable with this definition.

-  “Do you see racism today as something that just white people do to black people?”, I ask.

-  “It´s not me saying it”, the trainer answers, “this is how it´s been defined.”

And at that moment, with this kind of answer, I know that the week ahead of us will be more complicated and less interesting than I had anticipated. But challenging, nevertheless.

There are a number of reasons why this experience left me deeply concerned and disappointed, apart from uncomfortable.

First of all, along the week, we were bombarded with statements (some, actually, being serious historical inaccuracies), rarely, or rather never, referring to any kind of bibliographic source and not supposed to be further discussed: so, we were told that we should forget about the ancient Greek philosophers and their contribution to european and world culture, because they had been seen studying in Egypt (just this, “they had been seen”); that Herodotus described Cleoparta as someone with african traits (how did he do that, if he lived five centuries before her?); that Alexander the Great burnt the library of Timbuktu (actually, I think he went the other way); that doctors today are taking an oath written by an egyptian doctor (mmm... would that be Hippocrates?).

Secondly, there was a determination to hush anyone, white or black, who might attempt to put racism into a contemporary, broader perspective. We were either told that this was not the subject of the workshop or our comments and questions were met with ironic laughs or agressive responses, as our wish for debate was seen as an attempt to minimize the seriousness of white racism against blacks in order to deal with our “white guilt”. The arguments to support this kept coming. In a tour around the city (called “Black Vienna” in the workshop programme), a young black woman - living in Austria since the age of two and an Austrian citizen today – shared her story of entering a play by Tennesse Williams as the maid (typical role reserved for black actors, she said). She felt uncomfortable with the use of the word “nigger” in Williams´s text. She wanted it to be changed (Let´s see: she would be happy to change a text written in the 50s and presenting a story in the american south, where a white - probably racist - character wishing to depreciate a black would maybe use the term ‘african american’ instead of ‘nigger’? And maybe the maid should be interpreted by a white actress? Seriously, is this the way to fight racism?). After this, continuing our city tour, we were also taken to the city park, to be shown the spot where a black youth was seriously beaten by the police (presumably for being black), with the ambulance taking ages to come, the attack resulting in the youth´s death (two weeks before a very similar incident had taken place in Salonika, Greece, where the police didn´t like much the “anarchist” looks of a – white – youth...).

An apparent inability of the black community in Vienna to get organized in order to pursue their rights and widely share their concerns with the viennese society, was equally worrying and rather surprising too. We were told the story of Angelo Soliman, a black man who arrived in Vienna in the 18^th century, was greatly respected by the local society and a companion to the emperor himself for his intelligence and vast knowledge and even got married to a white woman... only to be embalmed and displayed at the Natural History Museum after his death. An exhibition about him at the Vienna Museum a few years ago was heavily criticised by our city tour guide, for the way it was depicting african people, but, apparently, there was no official reaction from the black community (read about the exhibition here). Later on, when we asked what kind of association they had to represent them in the Austrian society and in their dealings with the Austrian State, we were told that such kind of association was difficult, as the biggest community comes from Nigeria and they belong to different, and in the past rival,  tribes... How can it be that they are all one (“black” or “african”) when attacked or discriminated, but tribes are getting on the way when they should be getting organized?

Finally, one more reason of concern: the obvious anger and equally obvious inability (or lack of willingness) to put things in perspective. When the case of Zimbabwe was referred, in what concerns the treatment white farmers got from Mugabe´s government, we were told that this was justice. Black people had always lived there, whereas white people arrived much later, so, even if they are being born and raised on that piece of land for decades now, they are not allowed to call it “home”... On the other hand, young people who are officially today (black) Austrians – after having lived in the country for a number of years -, rage against austrian racism and discrimination. They are convinced (or prefer to think, in order to continue nurturing their anger) that whatever happens to black people is because they´re black.

I am not denying this kind of racism – on the contrary, if I did, I wouldn´t be there –, but in their repeated attempts to make us see a black victim, some of us would just see a victim: a poor person, a woman, a gay, a Roma... I was particularly impressed when a Senegalese participant, living in Barcelona, told us that, when a Senegalese boy was killed by Romas (shouting “kill the nigger”...), the community refused to see this as a racial crime and concentrated on the crime itself, the murder that had to be punished. It was a conscious choice to avoid turning one community against the other. The murder was seen as a murder.

And I feel that this might be the way forward. Considering that there is only one race, the human race, racism for me today can only have a metaphorical sense. It is discrimination with power (regardless of the colour of the discriminated or the powerful). In an interview with Mike Wallace, Morgan Freeman considered Black History Month to be “ridiculous”, refusing to see his history resumed in a month. When asked “So, how are we gonna get rid of racism”, he simply answered: “Stop talking about it. I´ll stop calling you a white man and you stop calling me a black man. I am Morgan Freeman to you and you´re Mike Wallace to me.”

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By the end of the week, waiting for our flights at the airport – four of us, blacks and whites of different origins – we discuss travelling and eventually low cost companies and their services. One of us, black, shares the story of her aunt, who was coming to Europe with Easyjet, and was told to wait somewhere for the check-in, being on purpose “forgotten” and having to purchase another ticket. “This is what they do to Africans, you see.”

Further readings

Diane Ragsdale, Are we overdue to amend our defaultcultural policy? (very interesting post on the impact of the 'white racial frame' in the cultural sector)

Molefi Kenti Asante, An african origin of philosophy: myth or reality?

ABC 2020 editorial, Is the ‘n-word’ going mainstream?

Melinda Ozongwu, Half cast: On the idea that mixed-race Africans are “diluted” Africans

Lauren Frohne, Looking past the poverty: Life on Roma ghettos

Jenny Barchfield, In Brazil, a mix of racial openness and exclusion

Khady Touré, Les nouveaux nègres

Achille Mbembe, Consumed by our lust for lost segregation

Spectra, What kind of African doesn´t speak any african languages? Me.