How are the ways we design and shape places being altered by changes to the way we consume culture?

How are the ways we design and shape places being altered by changes to the way we consume culture?

16/06/2020

With:

Nic Durston (CEO, South Bank Employers’ Group) Cllr Jack Hopkins (Leader, Lambeth Council) John Langley (Head of external relations, National Theatre) Despina Tsatsas (Executive director, Young Vic)

SUMMARY

This session kicked off the first of what will be a series of Tuesday morning breakfast Culture Sessions, within which the relationship between culture and placemaking will be discussed and examined. In this session, questions in particular were asked and subsequently answered about the ways that we consume culture, how they have changed during lockdown, and how we might continue to engage with and give a platform for culture as we move into the new normal. On one very prosaic level, culture is important for economic reasons. In 2018, the cultural sector contributed £32.3 billion to the UK economy. On another level however, culture is profoundly important for us as people - one might even argue it is one of the things that makes us human. The types of culture that we display in our public spaces and the paths that we offer to engage with it matter hugely, and are deeply cared about - the current furore and debate surrounding statues only highlights this.

Cllr Jack Hopkins opened the discussion by advocating a broad remit for what we talk about when we discuss culture. “Culture happens in lots of different ways and in lots of different levels. It’s not all about a trip to the theatre, it’s about how you express yourself.” He also outlined some of the measures that Lambeth has taken to protect the rich tapestry of artistic and cultural organisations that call the borough home, including rent reliefs, hardship funds and grants. Cllr Hopkins also spoke about how black and Asian minority ethnic organisations have been particularly hard hit. “We’ve been trying to make sure to support buildings and we’re supporting them with cash, so we can make sure that people don’t go under and that they can carry on doing the work that they do, and that they survive”, and so that they continue to have spaces to operate within.

On the subject of spaces, Cllr Hopkins did emphasise the importance that buildings can and should serve a multiplicity of uses and demographics.

He mentioned the example of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, which variously caters for younger demographics all the way up to over-65s.

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Nic Durston gave testament to how vital the support that Lambeth has made available to businesses in the borough has been. “Through Lambeth’s endeavours they’ve made £30 million pounds available in grants to those organisations and that’s an absolute lifeline.” As CEO for the South Bank Employers’ Group, Durston was well-placed to comment on how important that area’s cultural assets have been to its growth since the mid-90s. “Cultural bodies really led a lot of regeneration activity, that then fostered wider economic growth. And what we’ve got now, pre-Covid, there’s a pretty diverse economic base. There’s six or seven economic sectors that were powering ahead. It’s absolutely an economic powerhouse as well as a cultural powerhouse as a neighbourhood.” As we move out of Covid-19 then, how can we ensure that audiences will want to return to visit and make use of these cultural assets? Firstly, there’s the agenda around Covid-19 stewardship - understanding health and safety, and making sure that the public realm is properly maintained. It’s important then also that these measures are visible and that the public are aware of what efforts are being made. Durston also spoke about the way that consumption will change. While people will still want to experience the real and the experiential, there will be an uptake in virtual consumption of culture – “how cultural organisations wrap up their commercial activity around the virtual is going to be key to their long term survival as well.” Finally then, there needs to be investment into the public realm - places need to feel accessible, and in light of everything happening in the world, there needs to be a “big focus on inclusivity”.

“You've got to recognise that people will want to be in an attractive, exciting environment. So we need investment in the public realm, making sure that places are accessible, and a big focus on inclusivity.”

- Nic Durston (CEO, South Bank Employers’ Group) The National Theatre has taken this agenda to heart. Through its ​NT Live service, it has been broadcasting shows on YouTube throughout lockdown. However, while virtual might be on the up, John Langley cannot see it replacing live theatre any time soon - “It doesn’t fully capture the experience of being in the room. The thing about theatre is the suspension of disbelief. You go into the theatre, we watch a bunch of people on stage, many of them you will recognise because you've seen them on TV or 3

you've seen them in an advert or whatever, but within 10 minutes, they have become somebody else.” However, going virtual can do much for accessibility, and Langley spoke about how NT Live receives viewers from across Europe. As to the live experience, with difficulty was the sentiment given by Langley as to how theatres will enforce social distancing. While audiences might be socially distanced, he said: “You can’t socially distance a play. Sooner or later, there’s got to be a fight or there’s got to be an embrace, or some kind of reconciliation.” That said, he gave testament to the brilliance of directors, and their creativity to find solutions and ways around the problems that social distancing might cause on stage.

“Directors are not going to sit still through the pandemic. They are inventive people, brilliant people, and they will be looking at all sorts of things.”

“It is quite extraordinary that we can take this vehicle all over the world... but it is still a kind of ​aide memoir​. ‘This is what you see when you come into the theatre, but it’s not what you experience’.”

- John Langley (Head of external relations, National Theatre) Despina Tsatsas likewise called for the cultural sector to be brave at this time, and warned against becoming risk averse. She emphasised that the culture we produce is as impactful and valuable when it is made for local people, as it is when it is being exported to a global audience. “To survive, we need to resist this retreat into commercially safe content - that applies to the stories that are told and the tellers who tell them.” The theatre industry needs to remain inclusive and open to new voices, otherwise it risks losing progress that has been made in this regard in recent decades. Tsatsas expressed confidence for the sector’s imagination when it comes to new technology, and how it might be adopted so that stories can continue to be told. “But when we think about advancement and progress in the future, it can’t just be about massive hardware…but it will and be and it always has been about the radical impact of stories we choose to tell in terms of formal innovations and who was privileged in consuming them.” Tsatsas gave the example of ​Punchdrunk theatre company​, and its recent production The Oracles. This was produced with

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the support of Google’s creative lab and in collaboration with a production company called Grumpy Sailor to be at the cutting edge in terms of technology. However, the true “radical element of it was that it was designed for the toughest and most underserved audience in our locale, which were primary school children from Haringey”. As such, progress will be about including voices that might consider themselves other or perhaps uncomfortable in a theatrical environment, and giving them a platform and helping them to realise and to tell their stories.

“I think if the UK arts and culture scene is going to retain its place as a progressive force for good and stay a societal success story, as well as the commercial one, it has to remember that its work is as impactful and valuable when it's being made for local residents and neighbours as when it's being exported worldwide. “ - Despina Tsatsas (Executive director, Young Vic) Cllr Hopkins was keen to emphasise the emotional and social value that artistic and cultural organisations can have for people, and he accorded with Tsatsas on the message that these spaces are for everyone.

“I think there's definitely something around how do we understand it not just as an economic driver as well…it's also about how we understand the social benefit and the broadening of horizons and the opportunity that working in the cultural sector provides you, rather than just pounds, pence and contribution to GDP.” In Lambeth, the council are taking an approach where they look at wellbeing as a measure of success, rather than just simply economic growth.

“​ Culture happens in lots of different ways and in lots of different levels. It’s not all about a trip to the theatre, it’s about how you express yourself.”

- Cllr. Jack Hopkins (Leader, London Borough of Lambeth) One of the big takeaways from the session was that culture can and will happen anywhere, whether it is in a dedicated space or not. It’s important then that when we create places that we anticipate those uses

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that we can’t expect, or plan for. In particular, it is important that young people feel welcome to use these spaces to create and engage with the culture that they want to create and engage with. Cllr Hopkins gave a brilliant example of the sort of thing we should nurture, and what it can look like. “On the estate that I live on, just outside is this kind of green space, which has got a little climbing wall for kids. And every summer there’s always a bunch of young black girls doing their dance routines.”

Culture is an ecosystem, and if all parts of an ecosystem are not nurtured, it collapses. While those girls might only be dancing on the green on the estate today, one day in the future those same girls might go on to dance on the stage of the National Theatre or The Young Vic.

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POLLS AND INSIGHT

Polls taken from the live audience.

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