Category Archives: Arts Funding

Culture and Tourism: Realising the value, at Fountains Abbey

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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I attended the above event at the National Trust’s Fountains Abbey which was organised by Chrysalis Arts, Welcome to Yorkhire and Arts Council England.  It was a beautiful clear sunny day and, in the nature of conferences, we were stuck indoors, unfortunately.  However it’s probably just as well as, had we had been out enjoying the lovely scenery and architecture, we may not have got any work or networking done at all!

Once again you will note that I am straying away from the area of puppets.  Perhaps you are wondering why I attended at all and if I got any benefit from it.  While it is true that none of the other people (as far as I am aware) did puppet theatre, I am part of the wider picture of Culture and Tourism as a whole.  In the course of my work, I interact with a huge number of other businesses, not all of whom are arts organisations.

My being booked to do puppetry at Masquepony, for instance.  I may have been booked by M.I.A. and Lakes Alive people, but I am also connected to the people running the campsite at the racecourse in Cartmel, who are getting extra business at this time as a result of my work.  Equally, if they were not able to attract visitors to their campsite, the festival would not succeed and I would not have that job.  People who sell camping equipment will also benefit, as will people purveying food and drinks and other local shops in the area.

One of the things that was highlighted by Steven Feber was that while there were huge amounts of cultural and tourist attractions or activity in North Yorkshire, generally speaking people are operating in their own little bubbles and are not talking to each other or working together to improve the visitor experience of tourists in our area.  Culture adds value to a visitor experience and the aim, through co-operation and joined up thinking, would be to increase the length of time visitors spend in the area and thus the amount of money spent in our area as well.

Tom Freshwater, contemporary arts programme manager for the National Trust, said that there was a lot less interaction between the Trust sites in Yorkshire and contemporary art practice/installation than in the South of the country as things stand.  They are working on it and they aim to turn the visitor feedback forms from good to excellent for the sites in our area.

I was particularly interested to hear about this because I have been meaning to contact the Trust about doing performances at their sites for some time now.  Tom gave a number of case study examples of things that had been done in Trust properties elsewhere in the country.  These were very interesting and were real examples of value added by the introduction of contemporary art into existing spaces and sites.

For example:  Engaging the bikers who regularly visit the Tattershall Castle area, which is essentially just a shell of a building without any objects or interior furnishings to speak of, through an art installation and an alternative village fete aimed at bikers.

This event and the art installation work towards the aim of getting people to stay in places for longer periods of time and to spend more money while they are there.  This was done with the support of ACE as well.

We found out about the Railway Children theatre performane, championed by Welcome to Yorkshire, which was created by the York Theatre Royal and then restaged at Waterloo station in London.  It was used as publicity to persuade people to visit Yorkshire after seeing the show, through the cunning device of staging it in what they were calling the “Welcome to Yorkshire Theatre” within the station and publicising it in various other ways too.  Feedback sheets from the audience indicated that they would consider visiting Yorkshire after seeing the show – though the data for how many actual visits happened was unknown.

I also found out about a little known National Trail in a little known part of Yorkshire called the Yorkshire Wolds.  They were going to apply to ACE for a set of benches along the route, but instead they were encouraged to apply for benches and artworks along the trail and a set of “land art” pieces are being constructed as we speak.  After a while the artworks will appear to be part of the landscape as the earthworks are covered in grass.

There are also plans to create a Hockney trail, similar to the existing Turner trail, which has benches where you can sit and look at the locations from particular paintings side by side with a board showing a copy of the painting for comparison.  The idea being, that you could choose to visit some or all of the locations.  So clearly, the artwork is adding value or, indeed, creating the tourism and also encouraging people to stay longer in the area.  This also benefits cafes restaurants B&Bs campsites, outdoor supplies shops etc.

Lunch was devoted to networking, (we were banned from talking to people we already knew).  After that we were split into roughly geographical groupings to talk about what existing links and networks we have, and how we can create more or be more efficient at working together and co-operating.

Steven Feber had been keen to point out that the “Welcome to Yorkshire” website was less user friendly and flexible than it ought to be, but that perhaps the future lies in “apps” like “Stumbleupon” that create user generated recommendations based on people’s existing likes, dislikes and patterns of behaviour.  But this seemed to suggest that we needn’t bother trying to link up with each other and that we could leave it to the tourists themselves!  Quite a few people were on the technophobic side and seemed to think that paper based promotion and leaflets were enough.  My personal view is that the arts is a difficult business to make pay and we are in an economic down-turn too, so why not take all the advantages you can grab with both hands.  Paper may appeal to older people who are existing customers but why not make young people your customers too by reaching out in a medium they understand, (to say nothing of being better for the environment – how many leaflets are wasted every year I wonder?).  Also, the internet is a global medium, you can reach out to people from unimaginable distances as easily as the person next door.

Into the mix of the discussion someone said that the geography of the region made it hard for everyone to receive Broadband and that maybe that was part of the charm of the region and perhaps we don’t need Broadband at all!  It worries me if these are the kinds of people who are making decisions about connecting the region with the rest of the world, I feel sorry for all the businesses who will suffer from such narrow thinking.

No definite conclusions were reached by the end of the day but everyone had a lot to think about and I personally made lots of new connections with people that I particularly wanted to be connecting with.  So the event itself made a good start, despite the pessimism of some who implied that everyone knew each other anyway, (perhaps they only spoke to people they already knew and it was their own fault for not circulating).

One thing that did come out which I thought was interesting is that days like this and intermediary organisations like Welcome to Yorkshire, ACE, Chrysalis Arts etc. are vital in providing the opportunity and financial support for links and clusters to form and work together.  As Rick Faulkner pointed out, even something as simple as putting other people’s links on your site is not a “free” activity and takes time and expertise to achieve.  Let’s hope that money to help everyone along does not dry up altogether.  It was encouraging, (or is it disturbing?) to hear that as tax payers contributions to ACE go down, lottery money goes up!

Is it enough to make a pretty puppet?

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Huge amounts of stuff have been happening this week.

Among other things, I have been preparing for my primary school workshop at the Bay Primary in Bridlington.

This largely involved cutting circles out of plastic bags, (both good for the environment and cheap for the school).  I have been doing prototypes as well, to check that what the kids will be doing works.

I’ll be working with two classes of Year 1s and they’ll be making a puppet each to the theme of “Lost in the Toy Museum”.  Half will make hand and the other string, but everyone will learn to make both.

In order to make it value for money for the school and to fit as much in as possible, the emphasis is going to be on learning about puppets and how to use them and how they differ from toys, (amongst other things).  The making part will be relatively simple.

I’ve often felt when doing puppet making workshops that while the children have made excellent puppets, that there was no time for them to learn how to use them properly.  It has seemed like it was just a fun activity for them to do with no thought about what happens to the puppet once you’ve made it.

I remember when I was a Brownie, our well meaning Brownie leaders thought that drawing a face on a paper bag, (for a hand puppet) was a good activity for us to do.  But I don’t think a single thought was given to whether or how we would use these puppets to act a story.  I doubt any of them was used to perform with at all.

The point of a puppet is to perform and make theatre.  If a puppet does not get used in this way, it is just a toy, or even a sad useless decoration that hangs on the wall.  I don’t have a problem with decorations or toys but I do not think a puppet is ever truly a puppet unless it is used to put on a show of some kind.

One of the major differences between a puppet and an actor is that an actor will always be themself.  They may be themself dressed differently and acting a character, but they are “acting” and they go back to being themselves afterwards.

A puppet IS the character, it doesn’t take off it’s wig and make-up after the show and then go off for a cup of tea.  It does not have any purpose or life outside of the show.  This may seem sad, but actually it means that puppets are better at totally being the character than a human actor.  They can do things that are physically impossible for a human to do.  They can look like humans cannot too, even with the very best costume or make-up.  Imagine a person trying to do what a dissecting skeleton marionette does.  However thin, a person could never “be” a skeleton that moves, they could just try to look like one.

For this reason, although it is nice to give children complete imaginative free rein, I shall be teaching them to think about what the character of the puppet will be before they fully create its appearance.  In my experience, children left to themselves will often be extremely dull and unimaginative and all copy each others ideas.  If you narrow the options available this can actually increase the creativity of the result.

Consider, who would use their imagination to create a puppet out of rubbish if other “nice” materials are available?  Being creatively selective is what puppet making is all about.  Out of all these things, what looks like an eye?  Narrow it down further; I’ve decided to make an evil character, so I won’t pick something that looks like a cute or friendly eye, but something that could look angry, sinister or supernatural.  Then you have to consider how you want the puppet to move.  If you want a character to move with sharp spiky movements, you might not use a light floaty costume.

So, you can see how, if you wish to make a puppet for performance, you have to think first, then make, then perform.  If you just make and perform, the puppet might not be able to do all the things your story requires.  Just making is a fun educational exercise, but what is it teaching them to do?  To make something that is largely useless and will be quickly abandoned and forgotten.  To make a puppet for performance and to perform a show will be giving a child confidence and pride in their achievements and often brings shy children out of themselves, as it is not them, but the puppet who speaks.  And of course to perform is a puppet’s function, a puppet performing fulfils its reason to be.  Why bother otherwise?