Here is the next in our series of reports on creative dialogues between Future Arts Centres memebers and international partners:

A Creative Dialogue between the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal and the Maison de la Culture, Amiens

Since 2014 the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, on the edge of the Lake District National Park, has been leading a consortium seeking to establish the Lakes as the UK’s leading rural cultural tourism destination. Lakes Culture includes Cumbria Tourism, the National Park Authority, Theatre by the Lake, the National Trust, the Forestry Commission and the Wordsworth Trust amongst others. Our USP is the unique way in which over 200 years the Cumbrian landscape has inspired artists and writers and continues to inform the work of contemporary artist today. With funding from ACE through its Cultural Destinations programme, Lakes Culture has delivered a wide programme of B2B and B2C marketing activity across the cultural and tourism sectors, and commissioned new work inspired by the Lake District landscape, under its Lakes Ignite banner.

At the same time, the Brewery has been supporting the emergence of the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival (LICAF), as the UK’s leading celebration of comic culture from across the globe. Acting as the hub festival venue and co-commissioner of events and exhibitions, the Brewery has supported the festival as a key element of our diverse year round programme.

The Creative Dialogues programme offered the Brewery a unique opportunity to explore a number of shared issues with the Maison de la Culture (MCA) in Amiens, as we became aware of their work in partnership with the On a Marche sur la Bulle comic festival in the city. The MCA also hosts a major festival of landscape art in Amines, supporting cultural tourism in the region. We realised that the similarities between our organisations were considerable. We are both…
• Combined arts venues presenting work across several art forms – music, dance, theatre, film, visual arts
• Resident in towns/cities that use culture and festivals as a key part of their identity, tourism offer and economic development. Both venues play a key role in hosting festivals, whilst seeking to maintain a broader programme of activity
• Both create and commission new work across several art forms, with a particular specialism in art and landscape
• Curate our own festivals
• Have an association with a comic art festival with whom we have an existing commissioning and partnership relationship.

The two way Dialogue involved three representatives from Amiens visiting the Brewery Arts Centre and entering into a discussion with eight representative’s from the Brewery. There was also an opportunity for the Amiens team to explore some of the cultural offer in the Lakes and meet representatives of Lakes Culture. The return leg of the Dialogue saw four representatives from the Brewery and LICAF visiting Amiens during the Art, Cities and Landscape Festival. Our Dialogue focused around the following key areas…
• Cultural tourism; the role of the art centres in the development and presentation of cultural towns/ cities
• The venues and their relationship with partner festivals
• The programming & commissioning principles and process of the art centres
• Our approaches to audiences and audience development
• The funding demands on venue operation
• Commercial activity and its role in our organisations, particularly catering

The Creative Dialogue programme produced a wealth of learning for individual staff members and the institutions involved.

During their visit to Kendal the MCA team were able to meet the steering group of Lakes Culture, understand the principles of the Cultural Destinations project and describe their own Art, Cities and Landscape Festival and how this was charged with changing the nature of tourism within Amiens and the wider region.

During the visit to Amiens the Kendal delegation were able to explore the Art, Cities and Landscape Festival. Cultural Destinations Project Manager, Usha Mistry was able to discuss with festival curators the commissioning principles, operational details and future plans of the Amiens festival.
The MCA receives significantly more state funding than the BAC, amounting to 51.39% of its turnover, as opposed to the BAC’s 24%. This funding is awarded to the institution because of the merit, significance and the impact of its work. However, the lack of formal funding structures means that awards are much more at the whim and inclination of state, regional and local government leaders and frequently awarded well into the year in which the funding supports. Four year NPO agreements began to feel a lot more appealing.

With a programming budget around six times larger than the Brewery and with none of its art forms charged with delivering a surplus, the MCA works on a different scale and with different priorities to the Brewery. Both institutions seek to offer a challenging, diverse and innovative programme but at Amiens there is no formal review of the work created nor is it required to deliver strategic outcomes for its funding partners and does not have the same pressure to balance artistic challenge with commercial success. However, it does see its role as a commissioner of new work of a national significance, particularly within theatre and dance.

Unlike the BAC, where commercial film provides significant income to support the wider artistic programme, the MCA shares programming of specialist film in a single cinema with a sister venue and generates a small surplus. There was some evidence that the BAC was achieving greater efficiencies in its programming of the same acts.

Four months before the Brewery visited the MCA it opened its own daytime catering operation, with an independent street frontage and ability to trade when the rest of the art centre is closed. Bar and catering amounted to 3.29% of MCA’s income, as opposed to the Brewery’s 38.0%. During both the Kendal and Amiens legs of the Dialogue there was much discussion about the merits of in-house catering vs. outside tendering, the role of hospitality in the overall offer within art centres and detailed operational discussions around catering operations, trading times and practices.

The Dialogue created some of the most animated discussions with the Brewery seeking to understand the role of the MCA’s beautiful but expensive print marketing. The MAC noted France’s slow adoption of digital technology and the even smaller interest by MAC’s older audience in digital communication and particularly social media. They emphasised the annual printed guide as a key tool for engaging their audience as a year round resource.

It was clear the MCA make limited use of box office data, segmentation or profiling to understand their current audience or potential new ones and indeed, there is no requirement from funders (or infrastructure support) to do this. The Brewery team was struck by the limited use of Twitter, Instagram and other social media by the MCA.

Our Dialogue was based on a generous sharing of knowledge and experience. The Brewery team were able to explore a venue with a huge wealth of experience around commissioning work within venue and in the landscape. We were also able to see how regional venues can establish themselves as nationally significant creators of new work, as well as organisations rooted in their community. The Brewery was able to share some of its commercial and marketing acumen and programming philosophy.

The Dialogue began an ongoing discussion between MCA and Lakes Culture about future, closer relations between the Art, Cities and Landscape Festival and Lakes Culture’s Ignite Festival with the potential for co-commissioning and shared learning.

Richard Foster, CEO & Artistic Director, Brewery Arts Centre
@richardbrewery