(image via mannschaft)
It’s often said that university students don’t know how to apply their knowledge to the working world, but I think this is particularly true of students of the liberal arts and culture where words like race, diversity, intercultural and dialogue have their roots in textbooks and lectures rather than everyday life. They are largely theoretical concerns and inevitably end up being used tokenistically ( the ‘and race/ethnicity/gender/age’ effect) by students who know that it’s important to mention them but don’t have any experience of their material effects or how they effect cultural policy, programming and strategy.
As one of these students myself it is eye opening to be in an environment in which cultural diversity is a practical concern, of everyday significance. It is central to artistic and creative practice and audience development. As the UK becomes more diverse and multicultural, as populations age or grow younger, as what we think of as normal changes and expands, so should the arts.
The challenges of diversifying seem more or less universal. Driven by the need to create sustainable audiences and artists for the future arts organisations look to make adjustments to their programming. But how can they do this without making temporary, tokenistic gestures that don’t engender long term engagement? This is something that happens everywhere – a week of programming centred on Islam/refugees/black history during which everybody gets very excited (and often self-congratulatory) about the work that’s going on and then it all drops off and ‘normal’ programming resumes.
Perhaps this is because the approach is often to change everything entirely for a short period of time rather than to make small, sustainable adjustments. In the arts everybody likes to make a statement and it’s difficult to suggest that changes be subtle and slow. Rather than a classical music centre reprogramming for a week of hip-hop, why not have a hip-hop retelling of a classical piece? Or an interpretation of one piece of music or dance into multiple pieces using diverse methods and mediums? Or better yet, invite a group of people to come together and decide what constitutes good music/dance/art for themselves.
This is something that is happening more and more in the UK as artistic and creative people are driven by the desire for their work to have meaning for everybody in the region. Birmingham Opera Company are a great example of a company with a deep, underlying commitment to local communities and their diverse inhabitants, which has inspired their structure and programming and made them a huge success and inspiration.
This is what intercultural means – not an equal number of black, white, Asian, old, young, middle class, NEET in the audience – but an artistic programme that can inspire, interest and capture them all.
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