'We Want to Remain Artistically Relevant and Energised.' Guest Blog from Gareth Machin, Artistic Director of Wiltshire Creative

Are professional performance and community participation two separate strands of work or should they seamlessly intertwine within an artistic project, a programme and an organisation? Should funding structures be separated out into professional and community work? Should they be equal priorities for publicly funded organisations?

These are not new questions but ACE’s Let’s Create strategy has perhaps brought them into sharper focus and, in the past few weeks, Nick Hytner’s bold intervention has reignited a passionate debate.

Like many of the big questions our industry faces at the moment, our perspective can easily become skewed by the extreme financial pressures we are all managing. To a certain extent, we are all being led by the money, making it particularly challenging to think beyond the bottom line.

I feel incredibly privileged, therefore, to be part of an organisation that over the past year has delivered at least three major projects that have fused world class professional artistic intervention with strong and passionate community engagement. The results on all three occasions have been artistically electrifying, clarifying for me the huge opportunity organisations like Wiltshire Creative have if they can fully engage the local community and inspire them to participate in the creation of the artistic programme.

As part of the 2022 Salisbury International Arts Festival, we collaborated with the brilliant Bath Philharmonia to create an astonishing concert in Salisbury Cathedral featuring two incredible soloists, saxophonist Jess Gillam and violinist Harriet Mackenzie. Playing alongside these world class talents and the full orchestra were participants from Wiltshire Young Carers performing a new piece that they had created. The joy they generated shook the foundations of the building and the freshness and energy of the whole evening was sparked by the engagement and participation of the young people.

We were back in the Cathedral in the autumn, this time collaborating with Australian theatre makers All the Queen’s Men to produce the international premiere of Congress. This highly original piece created a citizen’s assembly where underrepresented voices in our community had the opportunity to make their maiden speech, articulating their personal visions for our collective future. The stories we heard were as dramatically powerful as any conventional theatre piece I have seen. The diversity of voices, the emotion, the vision and the hope that came through these speeches, punctuated by beautiful dance interludes also performed by members of our community, was one of the most powerful moments of live performance I’ve witnessed.

The third event took place this summer when we reimagined Shakespeare’s The Tempest within one of Salisbury’s most beloved parks. 150 community members played the role of Ariel, ranging in age from 8-80 and working alongside a fantastic professional cast. Other community groups such as choirs and dance groups performed on a community stage as part of the famous Masque scene. Still other groups worked with our amazing designer Dan Potra, responsible for designing elements of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and multiple Commonwealth Games opening and closing ceremonies, to realise parts of his extraordinary vision. Community members were working on graffiti projects, puppet making and costume work in different locations across the city before bringing it all together for a wonderful, community owned event in the sunshine.

It’s worth noting that none of these events received national coverage and all had to be heavily subsidised financially, but they all achieved far more artistically and in terms of community legacy and cohesion than many of our more high profile and profitable events. They are made possible because of the year-round programme of community engagement delivered by our outstanding Take Part Team and because we are a professional producing house able to realise in house work of scale. It’s not one or the other but the committed fusion of the two that feels the most vibrant way forward for organisations such as us if we want to remain artistically relevant and energised.

Photo Credit: Lydia Stamps

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