Onward cultural soldiers

It’s typical of Barbara Matthews that she should see her current tenure at Arts Council England (ACE) as her “National Service”, and equally typical that she should worry that it makes her sound pompous. Following a postgraduate diploma from City University, Matthews has spent her entire adult life in the performing arts. She refers to her 17 years touring Cheek By Jowl to 47 countries as her “magnum opus”, but it would be easy to see her current post as ACE’s Director of Theatre Strategy as an equally important role. She is unequivocal when asked whether it is important that someone in her position is steeped in practice: “It’s essential.” She explains, “If we want our funding bodies to really understand the industry and the audiences that they’re there to support, then we have to make sure that people move in and out between the Arts Council and the sector.”

OPEN DOORS
When Matthews first arrived at ACE, she commissioned the Theatre Assessment to start a dialogue with the sector, and to show that “it’s not just us decreeing from on high what’s going to happen”. It’s this sensitivity to the complicated relationship between funder and funded that gave the sector a sense of optimism when she was appointed in 2007. In Matthews, theatre has a passionate advocate, who understands the needs and fears of the sector. She is clearly adept at treading the line between policy and practice: she admits that at times the “stop-startism [of] yet another pilot that we’re not able to embed” can be frustrating, but defends the cumulative effect that many small initiatives pulling in the same direction can have in changing attitudes. She is not afraid to take the side of the sector when the Theatre Assessment reveals a consensus that there are too many short-term initiatives, although she chooses her words carefully: “I’m a bit ambivalent… there are definitely very frustrating short-term things that happen where everyone rushes around and learns the language and then it disappears again, and that’s very annoying.” She remains pragmatic and points out that sometimes it’s worth jumping through hoops to secure the money, although she does not seem the type to jump just because someone says jump. She is mindful that ACE has a responsibility to remember the big picture and to “encourage movement in a certain direction”, and argues that even though ACE sometimes has to make unpopular decisions and “individual artist or arts organisations might resist being pushed in that direction, it’s our job to see the long-term direction of travel”. It is easy to imagine how hard it might be for a former practitioner to implement decisions that may not be easily accepted or understood.
PERSONAL PASSION
Matthews cheers down the phone when the subject of touring is brought up. It is clearly something she is passionate about. A Touring Strategy is currently being developed, and should be published in the New Year, “which is fantastic news”. Again, drawing on her varied career, Matthews “understands the difficulties that both presenting venues and touring producers have with the way we [ACE] work with them at the moment”. She explains that although Grants for the Arts has supported many projects and artists, “it can present challenges, particularly when tour schedules, casting or other things change during the time it takes us to make a decision”, and acknowledges that “we need to build better relationships with venues we do not fund but which rely on work that we support”. Although she is not responsible for leading on the Touring Strategy, she has made it a personal priority to work closely on it because she understands “how crucial touring is, to ensure that the best of our theatre reaches the widest number of people”.
Matthews’ admission that the relationship between ACE and the theatre sector needs work is refreshing, and suggests that the sector is lucky to have a strategy director who is attuned to its needs. She seems genuinely to want to know what works and what does not, hence the Assessment, and is committed to fixing the bits that do not work. Through anecdotal evidence she is aware that although audiences are holding up well in the recession, “you naturally worry when you do not know what you’ve got to deal with”, and that political uncertainty is having an effect. I bring up the Conservatives’ White Paper ‘Control Shift’, which, amongst other things, proposes giving local citizens the power to call referendums if 5% sign a petition within a six month period. Ed Vaizey, Shadow Culture Minister, has suggested that these could be about funding for local theatres, and that if a theatre has not worked on its relationship with its community then it might suffer as a result. Matthews thinks these proposals present “an incredible challenge and opportunity. It’d be very scary for a theatre to put itself on the line like that… on the other hand, those theatres that really have thought about their role in the local community should have nothing to fear.” She suggests that theatres that have strong ties with their communities “understand that receiving public money… gives them certain obligations… there are theatres that have really engaged with their audiences, communities, partners etc, and are much more vibrant and exciting places because of it”.
She clearly enjoys her job, but as Matthews says several times “it’s a partnership”. None of the strategy is about ACE issuing orders, and her willingness to see and to understand the knowledge and the front-line information that theatres can bring to the table is clear from the Assessment and how the research is being used to move forward. If this is Matthews’ National Service then she is clearly a volunteer not a conscript, and for as long as she continues to serve, theatre will have a powerful ally.