Retaining Talent In Leeds
Anamaria Wills (@Anamariacida) from CIDA, The Creativity and Innovation Company, wonders what we can do up North to keep our creative types from buggering off to London …
In the last two weeks, I’ve run creative enterprise seminars for final year students at Leeds College of Art and then for new creative businesses at York St John University. As usual, they were fun, stimulating and challenging, with some wonderful ideas and passionate commitment. But, underneath the passion, there is always the still, small voice of doubt: can I make it in Leeds? Should I go to London?
Living in the North (yes, even Leeds) makes you an outsider in a cliquey world, a member of the minority and not ‘one of us’. You are not part of the myriad London networks, where real access to influencers is often around supper parties or private members clubs, at events that are invitation-only and rarely publicised. In a London-centric culture, exacerbated by media focus, the nexus moves unpredictably from place to place within the capital, often below the radar and known only to its denizens, until the place gets talked about and instantly becomes uncool. The regions are usually left to follow. How can we blame our Bright Young Things for thinking that London is the centre of the world?
No matter which way you cut it, for artists and creative practitioners, the truth is they’re right. London is where it’s at. The money is there, the audiences are there, the fashion is there, and, goddammit, the critics are there.
But things are changing. According to NESTA, research is showing that the number of people in creative employment outside the creative industries is growing strongly, by as much as 11% between 2004 and 2010. As industries embrace the need for creativity and innovation, they are recruiting creative people to bring their knowledge and skills, their perspectives and tastes to influence their companies’ capacity to delight their customers. So, relatively unnoticed, the employment opportunities for creatives are growing but not necessarily in the areas they’d anticipated. And it’s worth noting that it is happening particularly outside of London, where over half of all creative people in creative jobs are employed outside the creative industries.
How might we in Leeds capitalise on this situation? How can we retain talent for our local economy and future prosperity without losing the links to the London infrastructure for access to markets, both UK wide and internationally?
We’ve got some good steps in place. Leeds City Council, with Leeds and Partners, are about to embark on a mapping programme, finding out exactly what we’ve got and where our strengths are. This will be useful, not least because it is now widely recognised that the DCMS definition of the creative industries, and the resultant economic measurement figures, were wrong. NESTA’s recent Manifesto for the Creative Economy provides a revised definition of the creative industries, taking into account, for the first time, the wider creative economy. It demonstrates that, although digital skills are paramount, they are now so widely distributed and applied that the old separation of the digital sector from the broader creative sector is now irrelevant.
A new economic phenomenon has emerged, characterised by a parallel application of digital and other creative skills together. .. any attempt to separate digital from other creative work will not succeed.
So if Leeds is mapping its creative economy to find its key industries, it needs to take note of these new characteristics of the creative economy. Firstly, it should ensure that, to establish the true size and importance of the sector in Leeds, those in creative occupations outside creative industries are counted alongside those within the sector. Secondly, Leeds should avoid the outdated labels of ‘creative, cultural and digital’ and should recognise that this ‘new economic phenomenon’ of digital and other creative skills being applied together requires new thinking and new segmentation.
There is another issue for the mappers of Leeds’ creative economy to consider: that is, the informal creative economy. This is essential because it is clear, not least through social media, that there is a massive amount of activity going on. This includes both guerilla and pop-up activity, often outside the ambit of established cultural and creative organisations. Participants reject traditional modes of management and marketing and provide a creative voice that is community focused and utterly insouciant about being heard by the dominant majority. As an illustration, I recently ran a creative enterprise course for STAY (Sustained Theatre Artists Yorkshire, for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic artists). We wanted 20 participants. Through our own marketing, we recruited 3 practising artists. Through subsequent word of mouth by BAME artists, we were able to recruit another 17. Neither my colleagues and I, nor the STAY coordinator, had met or even heard of any of them before. They proved to be a truly exceptional group, all deeply involved in delivering work in their own communities, creating and making work, supporting each other and trading without much help from anywhere else. How many more BAME artists are working in Leeds that we know nothing about? My objective on the programme was to get them into the mainstream, not necessarily because of any value judgement about informal economies but because their capacity to earn would be significantly increased and because their creativity could achieve greater impact. And Leeds needs both.
Another step that Leeds is taking that will help retain talent is the provision of much greater connectivity. The imminent introduction of high speed broadband should have a significant impact on the capacity of creatives in Leeds to promote, deliver and benefit from their work being seen, sold and celebrated in London (and elsewhere!). All it needs is that they know how to exploit that opportunity.
But we can do more. Based on my long experience of working in the sector, here are a few things we might do, or do better:
- Start by recognising that the transition from student to artist is a massive step – to the point where some even feel inhibited about describing themselves as ‘artists’. Acquiring the know-how of how the sector works, in the craziness of its chaotic entry-points, is difficult for anyone. Moving from an academic environment, where the focus is (rightly) on the work itself, to a ‘business’ environment where your work has to enable you to eat, pay bills and have a life, is an enormous challenge. That awful moment when you realise you are going to have to take that waitressing job just to live, and that the world is not waiting for you, no matter how brilliant your final show, is only the first bruise you collect on your way to becoming a practising artist. Leeds could help to facilitate that transition – no other city is doing it, we could be first and create a world model (there isn’t a country anywhere that isn’t at least looking at its creative economy to boost its prosperity). If new doctors can go to teaching hospitals to get real-life experience, and new lawyers can get training contracts with established law firms to learn and earn, then surely we can figure out a way of providing that bridge to professionalism for creatives
- Apprenticeships and [paid] Internships are not the answer, as useful as they are. Over 50% of the new businesses set up by graduates leaving university are set up by students from creative courses. That’s compared with the fact that creative courses represent only 27% of the total percentage of students in the UK. While this illustrates that, contrary to popular opinion, both creatives and entrepreneurs share the ‘right brain’ thinking characteristics required for entrepreneurship, it also means that we need a bridge that enables creatives to bypass the Apprenticeship stage and go straight into learning entrepreneurialism by doing it but with some sort of safety net
- A key aspect of this is in access to, and management of, finance. One of the inescapable truths about artists and creative practitioners is that they tend to be conservative (with a very small ‘c’!). Generally, they don’t understand enough about money to feel confident about loans. They have enough student debt for a lifetime so why would they seek more? The current ACE Creative Industry Finance is a good scheme but there needs to be a culture change within the sector for loans to be regarded by most as a viable way of developing their creative business. CidaCo has just launched its Creative Capital programme which is for established organisations to raise their level of financial awareness and generate new kinds of income. But for those just beginning as a creative entrepreneur, we need a seed fund mechanism that could include a mix of intense and sustained enterprise coaching, 1-2-1 mentoring, pitching and investment. Of course, there is a model in London, www.weme360.com, established through both private and public sector funding – why shouldn’t Leeds have one?
- Creative start-ups tend to keep their focus local, their market narrow, their ambition constrained. We need to help widen those horizons. It’s now as easy to access customers overseas as it is in the non-Yorkshire parts of the country but we need to help access all of it. The city could, on behalf of its creative businesses, join the new European Creative Business Network: this inter-city creative collaboration provides peer-to-peer access to markets in Europe, with local creative practitioners in each city signed up to helping introduce the right gatekeepers, networks, contacts, supply chains etc. To build on that, we could create a UK Creative Business Network – opening up reciprocal opportunities for performing, selling, creating in cities across our own country. It wouldn’t cost much; everyone wins.
Through Creative Capital, CidaCo and friends will be exploring how we might help develop some of this for Leeds. We in CidaCo are up for it – email me if you are interested – let’s see what we can do together!
Anamaria Wills, Anamaria@cida.org or tweet @Anamariacida
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Hence my question
Partly I think it’s good for creatives to spread their wings and go to other places for a while to keep fresh, have new insight, to challenge themselves and develop new networks.
As for whether they then return to Leeds is another story.
But whilst in Leeds* I do have some ideas about how we do more from a grass roots up and top down to practically support each other.
Education and wider world
1) Colleges/Universities etc when conducting Live Briefs with their students and the community/industry try to work across their own universities faculties. In my experience the arts/design bit is often quite separate from the digital/computer science bit/Journalism/pr and social media bit. As we’ve seen from the Nesta findings, the convergence of all of these disciplines does not seem to be replicated in our education establishments
2) I’d also like to see more evidence of non competitive working across the education establishments in Leeds, especially where art/design/tech is concerned. Why don’t we have a challenge which puts people together from across the schools to create new websites, apps, hacks, etc? Encompassing service design, coding, design, database development, history, philosophy, architecture/design etc? ie content, front end and back end?
3) When I’ve been involved in Live Briefs we get to the print stage of the process, and for many 3rd years it’s the first time they’ve stepped foot inside a printers. What’s that all about? The links with industry seem sporadic, sandwich years must be very expensive in today’s climate, but what placement schemes are there?
Selling the value
4) Fundraising
How many people are coming out of university with little idea of how to get a job? What about making your own career up? I can tell you there are very few people in Leeds who know how to create compelling propositions to businesses about why they should get involved in partnering creative endeavours. If only a few well resourced arts organisations can afford time/resource to generate patrons/endowments/members schemes/corporate patrons then how are the businesses of Leeds supposed to know the richness of what’s under their noses. How are we going to encourage them to invest their CSR budget, or their sports and social spend, or their marketing on helping develop Leeds as a distinct place to live work and play
To my mind this is just one opportunity entrepreneurial graduates could start to develop names for themselves. I am sure there are plenty of other jobs where just a few people command a small fortune for themselves as they are scarce. Can we identify them and ask them to mentor graduates?
Promoting
5) Where is the artist representation in Leeds?
Not just at a leadership level, but agents who promote the creative talent in Leeds or the North? The music industry seems a bit more organised in this respect, would they be a good place to start sharing best practice with?
6)How do we persuade Brands,( whatever you think of them) to come to Leeds and reach their market with unique/interesting local creative partnerships? Do the creative industries make themselves known to the PR industry in Leeds and beyond?
7) How do we champion creativity within the region?
Do we have cross sector awards, conferences, PR campaigns
Development
8) Critical friendship
Sometimes we need a poke, are we really punching above our weight? The size of Leeds makes us all a little bit shy of being totally frank with each other to our faces. What if we took the time to find ways to help the people we rate but aren’t quite ‘there’ yet?
9)Stop mixing with people just like ourselves
Get on out there, and meet people who don’t ‘get’ us! Yes it’s hard. Go to Yorkshire Mafia meetings, Junior Chamber of Commerce events. Think about your neighbours, do they ‘get’ what you do, or why you care? Think about their point of view, how would you get them onboard based on their concerns and aspirations? Indifference or cynicism is often the best challenge to us, if we can’t see the value of what we bring from their perspective how can we reach a wider audience/market
10) Make a bigger pie by championing each other
More often than not we suffer envy. Instead of sharing, and trying to rise above our own need to make a living, create influence or dominance, we tend to stick with people who get us, who look like us, rather than those who challenge us. Divergent thinking will help us in the long run. But sometimes we need to think longer term. The more we create opportunities for each other, as well as for ourselves, the bigger the pie will get. Therefore there will be more to go around
I could go on and on and on. But you’ll not have time to read all of it. Some of my notions may be out of date, and I’d love it if there are initiatives already. So do share them in the comments, this might help with the mapping Anamaria speaks of!
*Most of these points are true of places other than Leeds too!
Thanks Anamaria and Emma for opening this important debate. I agree wholeheartedly that much more support is needed for creative people (at all stages of their careers, not just the beginning) and organisations in Leeds. I find it frustrating that ACE funding is not about building long-term relationships with hard-working, talented individuals. It’s too ‘project by project’ and the conversation often too much one-way (rapid staff turnover at the ACE end is also difficult as it means we’re starting from scratch with new people too often, but of course we understand the reasons why and the pressures there too). And yes Emma, we could probably all do a whole host of things better, but that’s not to say there isn’t a lot of work being done already.
Overall I’m not sure I’d paint quite such a bleak picture of creative life in Leeds – I can only relate the discussion to the visual arts, but can vouch for the fact that there are a myriad of people and organisations doing all kinds of things (in Leeds and across the North) often well, and in a way that links them in nationally and internationally so that they achieve recognition way beyond Leeds or wherever. Here, we’ve got PSL, East Street Arts, blip blip blip, &Model, mexico project space and many others doing interesting, ambitious work, supporting locals whilst linking them in with like-minded people and organisations elsewhere. And providing support structures for new graduates and early-career artists, building longer-term relationships through mentoring, making/showing opportunities and on on. I think, slowly, we’re hanging on to more creative people in the city, and building some relevant infrastructure.
I’m also not sure that all roads lead to London, either. There are definitely opportunities to be had from not being based in London, or from looking to other centres of activity (PSL has been looking more towards Scandinavia of late). We also know from artists based in London that they’re often keen to look elsewhere too – to make connections, find new partners and contexts and set up projects that give them access to spaces and a level of visibility that would be hard for them to achieve in London. In this way we’ve been building links with artists emerging from Goldsmiths and talking about projects that could happen at The Tetley once we open there.
So I completely acknowledge that there’s a lot to be done in Leeds and across the North, but let’s not forget about all the wonderful people, places and networks that already exist – who already talk to each other, support each other, and are interested in doing things differently as opposed to trying to replicate something unique that only exists in London, and always will. I like the way that initiatives like Corridor8 have aimed to link people and organisations across the North and to highlight and celebrate what’s unique and different about working here. We need to celebrate our ‘Not-London’ identity more perhaps.
I think your points about learning to work differently, looking for opportunities where no-one is yet taking the lead, and so on, are all really valuable Anamaria. We’ve got to building really strong, effective partnerships with agencies like Leeds and Partners (I sit on the cultural strategy group and things are looking promising there) which work for everyone, and work harder/smarter to promote what we do. There are lots of us out here who want to be part of making that happen, let’s just hope we can join up those dots. In the meantime, there’s no substitute for focused people just getting on and having a go, and I believe Leeds really has those kinds of people in abundance, both in and beyond the visual arts.
Thanks Kerry, you are right, these conversations enable us to take stock of where we are actually at against perceptions.
I personally don’t feel bleak, just reflecting on stuff cross sectors, so how we weave stuff more effectively, and awareness of the good stuff is the starting point for that.
The question I asked on Twitter which resulted in me asking Anamaria to expand was based on a couple of conversations I’d had recently with people considering to go to London where there would be more work/opportunity for them. Quite often this masks a plethora of reasons/motivations, the need to seek adventures elsewhere, wanting to remake yourself anew, itchy feet, frustration, etc etc
London as a methaphor or a cry for attention?
Anyway your considered response is refreshing, and again makes me optimistic, and determined to keep questioning my assumptions, challenge my cynicism and keep going!
Hope all is good at The Tetley, and let us know how we can play a part in supporting you and as a result ourselves!
I agree with the poster above – although there is apparently limitless ‘opportunity’ for artists and cultural workers in London, in reality it can be hard to gain access to the kinds of platforms that might move your career forwards once you’ve gained some experience. I have found to Leeds to be far more open in that respect.
In the courses I teach on at Leeds University we are constantly trying to engage students with cultural and corporate partners so that they can build and sustain relationships which will be fruitful after graduation. Having said that, many of our students do move to London after graduation because the vast size of the city means there are more graduate opportunities which allow them to gain the experience necessary to further their careers. It’s what they are able to do once they have gained that experience which is the problem. Because Leeds is a much smaller city than London (and so is unlikely to be able to replicate the myriad entry level opportunities available there) it might be better for cultural industries here to focus their energy on attracting experienced, mid-career artists and cultural workers, a smaller pool I would imagine – who can contribute to the cultural life of the city.
This was a very interesting piece. I was at Leeds University, leaving in 1978 and almost everybody I knew, regardless of where they were from, headed off to London when their course was finished. I can remember only two graduates who stayed, one had studied fine art and her work is now well known nationally. I am still in contact with a great many ex students who left Leeds in 1977/78; many have remained in London, some have moved out but maintained strong connections. Eventually a few Leeds graduates moved up to Hebden Bridge to take up positions in the arts, where they still work. Maybe this is, as the previous contributor said, where Leeds and its environs can benefit, by luring back arts graduates once they have cut their teeth in London.
I wanted to stay on in Leeds but felt the pressure to follow my friends in the great move to London, and felt I would narrow my employment options by doing otherwise. I was also unsure what, if any, support or advice I could get from the university if I chose to stay.
It doesn’t surprise me that the landscape is shifting; London’s ‘affordable’ areas move ever outwards, and the arts mecca of East London is well established by now, with rents at an all time high. The internet is this biggest game changer. I see a pattern of arts/media people getting themselves on the ladder, in conjunction with a thirst for the city life, then moving out when their skills allow them to do this. Whether this is a general trend is something I’m not sure about because it would infer there is a ‘gap’ of people in their mid twenties.
Dear All – thanks very much for responding so interestingly to my piece – it was intended as a gentle provocation and I’m happy to see the responses! I certainly didn’t intend to sound bleak about Leeds – far from it, we are really enjoying being here! – but the issues about retention of talent is facing every non capital city and not just in the UK – one of the reasons we were invited to join our first transnational European partnership was to share with our French, German and Dutch partners what and how CidaCo contributed through its work to reducing the talent drain to London.
Just a few quick comments on Emma’s substantial piece: first, I totally agree on the need for multidisciplinary working – it’s increasingly part of every job and the more practised students are, the more quickly they can be effective in the workplace. Critically, I think schools need to up their game, long before students leave: design disciplines, visualisation skills and sheer, down home coding skills are no longer specialisms but are now basic skills and should be taught from kindergarten. At the NESTA seminar last week, members of the panel led by David Puttnam and supported by Ian Livingstone and others, made the case that coding should be the second language every school child learns. I currently have a brilliant “Technology Wizard” (so much more a propos than Creative Apprentice!) but the first formal training I want him to do is to learn to code – both his usefulness to me and his career potential will be increased exponentially! The whole issue of fundraising is being addressed by a raft of programmes – our own, Creative Capital, was recently launched – we hope it’s a pilot; we have 20 places and over 30 Yorks organisations have applied: there’s no lack of interest in this but time is always the enemy. Actually, the other enemy is financial robustness that necessarily precedes any attempt to woo new partners and investors – that needs to underpin all the other work – Promoting ourselves in the many different ways suggested by Emma is of course necessary, thinking collectively as well as individually – but dare one suggest that Leeds as a major UK city does not yet promote itself properly – I think Leeds and Partners are going to change that, which is great – I believe that, once we get a confirmed and sustained sense of ourselves as part of the identity of the city of Leeds, the stimulus to come together and support and enhance each other’s work becomes so much stronger.
I don’t disagree with anything the wonderful Kerry says – I’m thrilled with her creative entrepreneurialism in setting up PSL and think it could open new thinking and new opportunities across the city. I very much hope CidaCo will be able to be part of that.
I think ElfinKate’s comments are interesting, especially coming from someone in the HE world. if I have interpreted her correctly, I think she’s right that the apparent opportunities in London can turn out to be a mirage – streets paved with gold, as it were – just another reason for providing an infrastructure here in Leeds. I don’t see an ‘either or’ in terms of supporting start ups or mid career/established artists. I’m afraid I feel uncomfortable about the suggestion to ‘focus [Leeds’] energy on attracting experienced, mid-career artists and cultural workers, a smaller pool I would imagine’ – But it’s worth saying that, in my experience and inevitably generalising for argument’s sake, creative businesses tend to serve local markets and looking further afield is too much of a challenge. I think any creative infrastructure in the city should take that on – the world is our oyster!
I think Olivia makes some really good points and I hear the voice of authentic experience in her observations – apart from noting that there are other Yorkshire ‘creative hubs’ apart from Hebden Bridge (!), I think we should put Olivia at the heart of any group that is seriously attempting to address some of these issues!
Thanks Anamaria – just to quickly add a couple of thoughts that have been brewing about this. I’ve been involved in several meetings in the city over the past few weeks, the most recent yesterday organised through LCC with the ‘major’ regularly funded arts organisations in the city, but also through a ‘culture strategy group’ organised by Leeds and Partners. A couple of things are becoming clear:
1. That the issue of how Leeds promotes itself and particularly its fantastic cultural offer is very high on everyone’s agendas and there’s broad agreement that this hasn’t (for whatever reason) been done well enough to date. I do believe this is being addressed as a matter of urgency.
2. That funding cuts being actioned now and those undoubtedly to come over the next few years, are making everyone think creatively like never before – LCC are keen that organisations work together with urgency to address what we’re all going to do – either through sharing back office operations (more problematic than you might think, even for organisations living together in the same building), or joint advocacy, or joint working in a whole host of other ways.
3. We all need to keep lobbying everyone, everywhere at every level from elected members through to the man on the street, about the value and importance of culture, to ensure it retains its place in the city’s thinking and doesn’t come across as an easy target for further cuts. Maybe there are a handful of key messages, alongside economic value, that we can all adopt in doing this.
4. And that we’ve got some amazing opportunities over the next few years (if we can all cling on til then) through the Grand Départ and other large-scale cultural events which are hopefully going to be confirmed for Leeds in 2015-16 and beyond, to showcase what we do on an international stage and really make a major shift in the perception and visibility of Leeds as a creative centre.
No doubt it’s all going to be exhausting, and the challenges are worrying and daunting – but hell, we’ve all just got to get on with it. We know that we can’t compete with London on its terms – but maybe we can do some things better, and we can do a whole lot differently, distinctively. And if we do it all well, we can aim to hang onto a lot more of those fantastic, talented young people that we all know and want to support, and encourage to stay here in Leeds.
It’s great this issue is being discussed and highlighted. Good to see discussion about it. I share the same concerns.
I’ve been freelancing as an illustrator, designer and artist since graduating in 2007, I spent the first two years working part-time in a coffee shop making sandwiches, to cover my living expenses. I did graphic design on the side to supplement my income and eventually I was able – through vigor and hard graft to make jobs for myself and find places to apply my practice.
I stayed in Leeds because I felt I needed time after graduating to develop my practice and learn how to generate and manage business without overbearing external pressure; living expenses, traveling & access to people who can make decisions. London does offer lots more opportunities, but it’s also saturated with enthusiastic, energetic people trying to jostle for attention. I’m happy I stayed here, I wouldn’t have been able to contend with others as well as taking time to hone and refine my practice, which may have been crippled living in London. Plus I’ve had the pleasure of working with some supportive people, with big ambitions themselves like Kerry and the team at PSL, who are actively looking to engage with and support emerging artists.
I’ve decided to move to London this Summer, because among other reasons, I now do the majority of my work down there and I value being able to meet and develop actual real-life relationships with the people I work with. I really haven’t been able to make the same kind of impact in Leeds, even the cultural industry seems fairly non-plussed by my practice, which is fine, maybe there isn’t a place for it here – just I’d like to be doing more. Plus the prospect of being paid fairly for the work I’m doing as well as being able to see the work applied to places that actually benefit from my input is extremely gratifying. Realistically at this point in my career I feel there isn’t an awful lot of stones unturned in Leeds for me, there’s no evident way to scale up. I really enjoy initiating and doing things myself, but feel I need more support (not have to do all the administrative and organisational work necessary) and want to see my practice applied to more ambitious contexts – reaching out to a wider audience. I would have liked to have connected with business here, for reasons too complex for me to understand this proved to be overly difficult. I would also have liked to have had the opportunity to work with institutions like Leeds Art Gallery, Henry Moore, YSP & Hepworth who I feel could do more intermittent activity and create opportunities to collaborate with individuals, similar to the projects I’ve been working on in London with The Tate Modern, British Museum, Contemporary Art society and the ICA. Providing more of a snapshot of things actually happening and being nurtured at grass roots level in Leeds and placing it in front of a wider audience, giving the independent artist groups and collectives an opportunity to work in a more structured professional way. I feel a more general push in this direction (which isn’t expensive) would connect with the wider public and business community – give visual art more prominence and a more meaningful place in peoples lives in Yorkshire. Doing these kinds of projects usually means there’s scope to involve lots of different people, artists to conduct activity, designers & illustrators to create branding and promotional material.
I try to keep as involved in the emergent scene as possible, spending time with artists, teaching and attending new initiatives. The best thing I’ve seen happen in mobilising artists is the Leeds Inspired small grants initiative. These small pockets of money that individuals and groups can manage have done wonders amongst people who have naturally become resourceful.
What an absolutely fascinating discussion. I think about this more than is possibly healthy!
I’m a television scriptwriter, who, since the death of YTV (which I blogged about on Culture Vulture a couple of years back here: https://theculturevulture.co.uk/speakerscorner/the-quiet-death-of-ytv/comment-page-1/) has felt like a creative adrift in a city to which he has little creative connection.
I think Jay’s thoughtful post above about his move to London says an awful lot about the problems that Leeds faces. There is, I feel, something deeply ingrained in Leeds’s suspicion about the value of culture. As Anamaria points out, social media makes you realise how much is going on in this city – but so much of it is DIY and on the fringes. That is not in any way a criticism of that work and those doing it, quite the opposite – we need as many self-starters as we can find. But is there a sense that the city and those with money and influence within it really see the arts and culture as a central plank of the way we build the city’s future? I don’t sense that it is.
I’ve harked on about this in the past on these pages, so forgive me going on like a broken record, but whether we like it or not, Manchester has to be the most obvious point of comparison. Now, I don’t know about the visual arts, but I do know that in the fields of music, theatre and television, they have a much stronger retention rate of creatives in the city and an astonishing sense of community. I strongly believe that’s because the city put culture right in the centre of its regeneration in the 90s and 00s, giving free reign to mavericks like Peter Savile (they made him “Creative Director” of the City. Can you imagine us doing something like that?) and Tony Wilson, and they reaped the benefits. Do we honestly think Leeds is able to host something as world beating as the biennial Manchester Festival? We’re miles behind.
That’s not to say there isn’t great things going on here. I get the impression there’s actually a LOT of talent in Leeds. Like, LOADS. But is that talent being nurtured, empowered, commissioned and financially supported? Or is the city still too busy getting excited about a frigging shopping centre?
I hope this can change. I love your idea about a Creative Business Network in the city, Anamaria. I hope it can take off. Leeds needs big, bold creative leaders.
Yes you make some valid points this is something I have thought about a great deal. Take somewhere like sheffield which has used public art to create a really welcoming city centre that feels terming with life rather than simply a place to shop. The new shopping centre is a prime example, all that creative energy gone into attracting a load of big chain stores, half of whom were already in the city anyway?! Pah.
@sallycatriona