When helping may not help
I’ve tried not to, but want to say something about last week’s hoo-hah over Arts Council England’s amendments to its Relationship Framework, relating to reputational risk and ‘overtly political or activist statements’ by an organisation or those working for it. This is one of those situations where it seems to be helping may not help, but where several apparently opposing things can be true all at the same time. Here’s 14. (Me, obsessed with sonnets?)
[TLDR: Time and its malign intents may prove me wrong, but I’m pushing the ‘Don’t panic just yet’ button.]
1. Art is always a reputational risk and art is (almost) always political.
2. Reputational risk is much more likely in a time of inflammable social media and more polarised opinions on a range of political and social issues.
3. You cannot please all the people all the time, and that brings reputational risk. Sometimes you want certain people to react negatively to your work. (Looking at you Daily Mail and Spiked.)
4. These are things organisations should be aware of and discuss rather than leave implicit and unspoken, to protect themselves, staff and artists.
5. Arts Council England does not typically interfere in the content/form of the art its funding supports, and it’s not its intent “to stop political art”. Local politicians and media are much more likely to try and influence programme and how you deliver it. (This includes elected mayors and combined authorities who some see as an alternative to centralised arts funding via Arms Length Bodies.)
6. The current government cannot be trusted to protect artistic expression. (Or much else, but that’s another article.)
7. Arts Council England is in one of those clumsy ‘over-helpful parent/friend’ phases where it is issues too much guidance (aimed at being supportive and ensuring delivery against funding agreements) on all aspects of how organisations manage themselves, at a time when it has less staff capacity to engage with organisations and organisations are over-busy.
8. Many people in the cultural sector (as elsewhere) are stressed to all hell right now. The psycho-political ‘stress buckets’ are full and it doesn’t take much to make them overflow. Work is eating lives. (This was brilliantly described by Jo Verrent last week, by the way.) There are genocides and wars around the world and our complicity/opposition is painful. It can feel like society is crumbling like the pot-holed roads, and everything we do is a little bit wrong. So loose words can push people into panic and fear, reading the headlines only.
9. The guidance does not (to my reading anyway) say anyone should not make political statements or political art.
10. The general public, on whose support arts funding ultimately rests, expect some ‘common sense’ limits on the uses of public funding in terms of partisan/party politics.
11. Bad management and boards will try to use any risk management framework to shut up ‘awkward’ people. Good management and boards will use them to support everyone and their purpose.
12. No one with much to say has ever let funder guidance stop them saying what they must say or making what they must make.
13. Arts Council England, like the rest of us, is facing wicked, messy problems to which there are only messy solutions.
14. That’s where we work in the cultural sector, in the messy situation, with all due vigilance, diligence and dedication.
Onwards.
RSA Boycott
Talking of bad managements, messy situations and reputational risk brings me to the RSA….
Last year I reluctantly resigned from being a Fellow of the RSA. For some time now, the noises coming from the RSA had felt increasingly discordant with my values. Recognising a union only when forced to, and in minimal way. Being found in breach of employment law for dismissing an employee for union activity, not negotiating with staff properly, leading to strike action for the first time in the organisation’s history. Although I’ve enjoyed lots of being a Fellow – regional networks, connections made, access to the London base, feeling part of something big and progressive – it came to just not feel right.
The Union have now become so frustrated with the lack of engagement from management, led by Andy Haldane, they are calling for Fellows, speakers, academics and those working with the RSA to boycott their activities until the situation is resolved. No attending events, no speaking at, no involvement in projects and no nominations of new Fellows.
Although I’m not currently a union member, being a sole trader, I have certainly benefitted from being a union member in the past, and – importantly for this case – also felt union recognition was helpful to me as management. Working with union staff reps and paid workers is not always comfortable - it shouldn’t be - but it generally in my experiences leads to better outcomes all round. The approach the RSA management have taken baffles me, as well as not fitting with my understanding of the values of the organisation.
The RSA are currently working with the Creative PEC and Arts Council England on the Northern Creative Corridors project, a creative industries growth project bringing together local leaders across sectors. This could give the North some leverage in this situation if enough people raise their concerns and/or join the boycott. I would ask those involved – in universities, at ACE and in regional partnerships etc – to give this call serious consideration. (For the avoidance of doubt: I’ve not had anything to do with the Corridors so far, so I’m not claiming to being boycotting this work anymore than I’m boycotting the TS Eliot Prize. But neither will I be seeking/accepting any invitations to engage until things change, and I won’t be connecting to any other RSA activity.)
If you are involved but feel for whatever reason you can’t boycott, please take the opportunity to raise concerns, and make it clear that any version of a Northern Creative Corridor must be one open to unionisation and union recognition, to equitable employment and good conditions for creative workers of all kinds, including freelancers. Make it clear to the RSA management that they should have nothing to fear from engaging constructively and seriously with the staff via their union, and everything to lose from not doing so.
The Infinite Town launch: last plug
If you are reading this before Sunday 25th February 2024, you still have a chance to jump in/on a bus, car, plane, donkey, pushbike or Shank’s Pony to get to The Waiting Room in Eaglescliffe for the launch reading of The Infinite Town. I’ll be part of an event with two poets I really admire – W.N. ‘Bill’ Herbert and Bob Beagrie who also have new books from Smokestack Books.
If you do happen to be local to Stockton it would be great to see you there. Or invite me where you are! As well as finalising recordings more poems I will also do some kind of online thing soon – watch this space. And read the book while you watch the space…