What I Intend to Research + Why

I am interested to learn more about producers who work in the arts, and am especially interested in talking to the people behind Bristol’s big cultural events and festivals, its contemporary arts scene, as well as those involved in engagement and participation within arts organisations or community projects in Bristol. I will mainly used the internet (blogs, organisation websites, press and social media sites) to find out about industry professionals in Bristol. Where possible, I will talk to colleagues and our course facilitators, Clare Simmons and Hannah Higginson, about who is working in the kind of areas I am interested. I will read up about the career paths of people I come across in this research and will document it in this blog.

I think that this element of the course is very important for me in terms of building my confidence and learning about the history (and future!) of advanced arts practitioners. I hope to find out that they were not too dissimilar from me when they began their career and I am sure they will have some inspiring stories and advice to share. It will be interesting to see whether they always knew what they wanted to do, and if not, how their interest and expertise evolved over time. I am looking forward to gaining some first hand insight about these area/s of the arts and I hope to better understand how these areas work, which will give me the confidence to follow my interests in the arts.

Initial Research

Here are a few of my initial ideas for who I would like to interview and why:

Mike Bennet – of Bristol Media fame is employed by the City Council as Place Making Director, working on projects to help develop the city’s profile and attract investment in the area. He is the man behind events such as See No Evil (which attracted local and international graffiti talent to the city to turn Nelson Street into one of Europe’s most impressive outdoor galleries in which to host a weekend long summer festival and celebration of all things Bristol) and Eat Drink Bristol Fashion (which takes over Queen’s Square by the harbourside to bring us a two week gastro-extravaganza with michelin chefs, tapas bar and live music). He is also involved in the regeneration that is going on around the train station, an area which is now called Creative Common which has various little places to eat and drink at, including the Yurt Lush Cafe. This distinctive blend of art, music and great food goes down really well in Bristol and I would love to find out more about how these events are produced.

  

Helen Cole – is Artistic Creator and Chief Director of In Between Time, which is an international production company creating extraordinary public art works, and the biennial In Between Time Festival. They encourage artists and audiences to let their imaginations run free and I love the live art and performance elements of their work. Helen Cole is particularly interesting as she began her career as a producer in Manchester in the mid-90s, developing interdisciplinary projects in unusual unused urban locations, and then worked with Bristol contemporary arts gallery Arnolfini as a producer of live art and dance there, where she then set up the festival. The work she champions is often cross-art form projects from emerging artists, which I am most interested in exploring. She explains her journey and what she does in this interesting article.

 

Poppy Stephenson – is the CEO of the Bristol Festival Community Group which produces BrisFest, an entirely volunteer run music festival which brings together the best of the South Wests artists, performers, circus acts, food stalls, and much much more. Next year’s festival has been cancelled (it is thought that this is due to the volunteer model and shoestring budget), but I hope that this not-for-profit event will be back in 2015 (they say it is a fallow year). I would love to chat to Poppy about what gave her the idea for the festival and how she managed to organise so much with such little cash.

Jack Gibbon – is Director of Antlers Gallery, which is a nomadic art gallery that operates out of Bristol. They produce many temporary exhibitions both in traditional contexts and disused urban places as well as representing a select group of contemporary artists through exhibitions, art fairs, consultancy and private sales. The artists they work with are particularly interested in natural history, narrative and folklore, and all have a slightly darker, or uncanny side to their work. I have worked with Jack in the past (that’s me in the right hand photo!) but I would like to spend some dedicated time picking his brains about doing all of this highly organised, creative and innovative producing at such a young age. I studied History of Art and so have a real interest in exploring in more depth the contemporary art world, curation and artist representation.

 

I would also love to talk  his work for Studio Upstairs which is an arts engagement project that works with arts therapists to provide artistic resources and therapeutic support to people experiencing mental and emotional distress and to those in drug and alcohol recovery.

 

Ellie Jeffs – is Assistant Curator in Participation and Learning at Arnolfini art gallery and does a lot of work with family audiences which especially interests me as I am working on the Family Arts Festival for this project. I met Ellie at the start of the project to talk about our joint marketing campaign – she is friendly and open. I think she would be an excellent person to interview as I could talk to her about engagement and work with families in the context of a large public arts organisation which I can reflect on in relation to Watershed and my own career path. I could also ask her about her experience of the Family Arts Festival itself, once this year is over. She is a very relatable person and I think that talking to her could give me insight into what I could do next in terms of carving out a career in engagement.

Planning the Interview

Ellie also attended a Family Arts Campaign training day I went to in London at the TMA. Hearing her talk about her work at Arnolfini, the focus groups she ran, and her current work with families was really interesting. I asked if she would mind doing an interview with me about her work and her career path – and she agreed!

So, I set up an interview date and time, did some research into Arnolfini’s family engagement work and drew up some questions, which I sent to Ellie in advance so she could prepare for the interview if she liked. Here are the interview questions I sent to Ellie.

I then arranged to get a room at the Arnolfini in which to film the interview and booked out the necessary tech equipment available at Watershed. Initially I was going to use a Kodak Zi8  but I used a Canon SLR digital camera instead as it records better quality footage (but only for 11 minute sections at a time!). I used a tripod to set up the camera and a Tascam audio recorder which needed headphones and a lapel mic for Ellie. A few months ago I attended a masterclass on producing a video interviewing with Paddy and Grace from Watershed’s programming department, where I got to know the equipment, discussed shots, sound and lighting, interview techniques, and then made a practice interview.

I took the tripod and camera out before the interview and shot some cut-aways of the harbourside area and the gallery inside and out, which I may or may not have to use, and I have selected some intro music, which again, I will wait until editing to see if I use it or not. I also prepared a consent form to get permission from Ellie to publish the video on this blog. 

Shooting and Editing the Interview

I was really happy with how the interview went. I set up the camera in the room, taking into consideration the natural light and shadows, and luckily it was not a very sunny day – I learnt that when filming in a room with windows, if there is lots of sunshine and clouds outside it means light levels go up and down and make editing more tricky. Before we began we had a chat over some tea and cake so that we both felt relaxed. We then hooked up the mic and I did a few tests and began filming. The interview went more quickly than I expected. Ellie answered all my questions clearly and concisely, and I only had to direct her a few times to reply using the question for her answer so that I knew I had some good soundbites. I forgot to ask Ellie to clap so that I could sync up the sound and video easily – I realised this as I was packing up my equipment. But again – I will remember next time! The editing went well (I learnt how to do audio and visual transitions and add stills) and I am happy with the final result. Here it is:

Interview with an Arts Practitioner by Roseanna Dias, 2014 from Watershed Bristol on Vimeo.

Reflection

By interviewing Ellie, I have learnt about how important getting as much experience helping at workshops in different organisations will be for my career development. I think that I need to start going outside of Watershed and volunteering in different organisations or with smaller groups to gain a different perspective and other insights into how others run public engagement events. I would like to volunteer at children’s arts workshops in Bristol and I have already fixed up to help at one next week with a friend at SOUTHBANK Club in Southville. I hope it will be the first of many.

I also learnt more about how to produce a family event, which is what I am most interested in and I will aim to get involved in the production and not just the on-the-day running of such events during the coming year. I find it really exciting that Ellie runs many of the workshops at Arnolfini – I did not know that this happened and thought external practitioners were nearly always brought it – and I would love this part of the job! I learnt a bit more about how little funding there is in this area, and what this means for working in participation (resourcefulness, collaboration and creativity).

The thing I have learnt most from my research is that being proactive, making contacts, and seeking out new projects to help on will be key to my development in engagement and participation. I think the same goes for pursuing a career in festival production, so getting in the mindset of an arts practitioner who does the kind of work I want to has been useful for setting short and mid term goals. I still think I need to have a good think about what my long-term goals are and I hope that the year ahead’s experience that I will gain will help me to clarify these.

I do feel more confident about how to get into engagement and family events having done this interview as I feel I am more knowledgeable of the type of skills needed, the roles out there and the state of this arts area. However, I think it will be important for me to keep talking to as many arts practitioners as possible to get as much advice as I can from people working in the industry.

On a side note, I have also really enjoyed making and editing the video and this is a new skill that I will aim to improve on. There are loads of great tutorials online for editing and I want to continue to learn more by experimenting with the equipment and software.

Other Research into Arts Practitioners

Here is an interesting site (artsinterview.com) which I came across last year. The website has sadly closed down now but its a rich archive of interviews with arts practitioners. This interview stood out to me as it follows emerging arts practitioners, who talk about their professional development.

I met with Aisling to discuss her work on the Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival (coming up in March) as I will be working with her to promote an exciting event we have at Watershed as part of the festival. I also had a chat with her about her work in events PR and marketing for various clients in Bristol, including BrisFest (2012), Arc Festival, Harbourside No. 1 and The Canteen in Stokes Croft, Shambala Festival, and now Bristol Food Connections Festival which will run in May. Aisling specialises in music, food and cultural events and loves working in Bristol because of the city’s unique creative vibe and easy going nature, which I can definitely relate to. She talked about how busy and full-on it can be, but also said how enjoyable it is, especially since you are often surrounded by lots of people. I have realised this year that I enjoy (even need!) to interact with people on a day to day basis as it gives me lots of energy. Aisling said that she had previously worked with agencies, but much preferred working with the clients and on the events and festivals she works on now. I hope to speak in more detail with her about her career path and what her current job involves.

Today I had a catchup meeting with Polly from the Asian Arts Agency. Hearing about her work on the DESH project (which I attended the launch of) was great – and she actually comes from a similar background to me (History of Art) which I found really interesting. I have arranged to go along to a session in two weeks time to meet the participants and see how they are getting on. Meanwhile, I am going to think about where else we can publicise the project to push up numbers!