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Lincoln Arts Centre: RELAUNCH
26 Plays1 year ago
Thanks for making us a part of your audio worlds!
We are joined by Ben Anderson & Kayleigh Hunt from Lincoln Arts Centre who discuss the relaunch of the venue. You can find out more info at their website www.lincolnartscentre.co.uk
As always, ArtsPod is an @thelincolncompany production.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Like, why are they here? It's okay. Like, fine. We're not, you know, we're not asked to. Football is not just the only barometer of success.
Introduction to the Arts Pod and Guests
00:00:39
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Lincoln Company Presents Arts Pod. This is Danny hosting. I am here today with Kaylee Hunt and Ben Anderson of Lincoln Arts Centre fame. Hello both. Welcome to the podcast. Hi Danny. Hello. I'm good. Thank you. I'm good.
Exciting Changes at Lincoln Arts Centre
00:00:56
Speaker
We are...
00:00:58
Speaker
in the middle of a very exciting time for this art center. But before we get into that, who am I speaking to? Who are you? Let's hear a bit about you. Why are you here? What are you good at? What's your favorite brisket? Over to you, Kaylee.
Roles and Backgrounds of Kaylee and Ben
00:01:11
Speaker
Oh, wow. Okay. So my favourite biscuit, it really depends on the day. I'm a big chocolate digestive fan. But I will go for a custard cream if need be. So my name's Kaylee. I am originally from Sleaford, but have moved all over the country. I'm a producer, but for Lincoln Art Centre, and now my career is communications and development.
00:01:37
Speaker
which basically means that I'm in charge of all the social media and also in charge of developing the audiences, looking at sales, looking at what's going on and kind of finding patterns and then adapting what we do to either get more people in or get a different kind of person in. Yeah, that's kind of a very, very condensed version of my job, I would say.
00:02:06
Speaker
Nice, nice. Ben, what about you? Well, I am a big fan of a pink wafer curveball. Oh, nice choice. Living my child up dreams, but also a good party ring. You can't beat a good party ring as well. It's true. I'm all here for the kids party vibes. And yeah, I am the creative and exec director, which is a very fancy title.
00:02:30
Speaker
But what basic it means is that I look after everything and also get the right people in the right places to do great jobs. And so a lot of my work is pulling the right people together. And that's why I've got a great team. But also, you know, creative program, setting the student director of the organization, making sure that the finances are OK.
00:02:51
Speaker
making sure that everybody's happy, making sure that the work culture is good, making the business plan, all of that stuff, setting the vision for the next three years and beyond. Previous to that, I had a variety of jobs, as you do in the arts. The portfolio career is very rife.
00:03:12
Speaker
I was the creative producer of Ingood Company, which is the flagship professional creative and business development program for the inmates in the region, which is a really exciting job.
Ben's Career Path and Regional Engagement
00:03:22
Speaker
So I did that for three years. I started my career as an intern at Dance 4 in Nottingham, which is amazing. I loved doing, starting in dance because I hadn't really trained in dance. So I kind of had permission to learn a little bit. It was a really great thing. And Dance 4 are amazing. They're now called Fabric.
00:03:38
Speaker
And they've become like the Midlands, a huge Midlands dance agency across the East and West Midlands. And then in between all of that, I did lots of freelance work and I also worked for a company in Northampton called Watson North Theatre, who were essentially a pay what you can youth theatre, but you used to co-create theatre with young people. So lots of stuff, quite often in the producing more than anything else.
00:04:03
Speaker
Yeah, and here I am now. This is August 2022. So what, six, seven months? Nice. So it's sort of a multi-discipline
00:04:15
Speaker
across the East Midlands operations for the past sort of X amount of years? Yeah, very Midlands heavy. I love the East Midlands and have been in like every single county in the East Midlands probably working and also that cross disciplinariness is really, I really love that and that's why I love being part of this art centre now is that
00:04:37
Speaker
have the opportunity to be cross-disciplinary and I think when theatre combines with dance or combines with science that gets really exciting and I love those moments and I love it also when it's a little bit undefined or
Interest and Opportunities at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
00:04:48
Speaker
it's a bit blurry. I was having a conversation yesterday with an artist where we were like well are you a dancer or are you a theatre maker and actually we don't know actually does it matter and it's quite interesting that kind of blurriness creates a bit more innovative and interesting work I think
00:05:05
Speaker
Let's tap into that so you sort of steered us in this direction. You saw an opportunity obviously arise when this role that you're in now came about. What was it about the idea of maybe just ticking off your chart list of counties in the East Midlands to work in? But what was it about the then named Lincoln Performing Arts Centre and that project that you wanted to get involved in?
00:05:31
Speaker
Well, I'd always admired Lincoln Performing Arts Centre and the University of Lincoln. When I worked in Good Company, a lot of the artists and filmmakers that we supported were from the University of Lincoln, recent graduates from there. So I knew that there's a lot of talent and the high calibre of work that was happening.
00:05:49
Speaker
And there was an opportunity to do, I always wanted to work in an art centre and there was an opportunity with Lincoln Performing Arts Centre to do something I think was quite interesting. It had the rights of, for me it looked like it had the right support mechanisms around it in terms of the university and partners. There was a lot of talent, it was really, talent development was a really key part of the work naturally through the fact that it was a co-existing space with the University of Lincoln and the School of Creative Arts.
00:06:17
Speaker
So there's already, you know, 600 students learning in the building every day. So it's like a really good kickoff point to do something really exciting with talent development, which is kind of my specialism, I guess. And also that I, yeah, I wanted to, you know, tick off the box, but also the cross-disciplinary nature of
00:06:38
Speaker
working in an art centre, I think, excited me a lot the possibility to work with scientists or to work with people who are interested in fashion or geographers to then make art about those things and the propensity to commission or produce work as well. Because what
Innovating Beyond Traditional Arts Models
00:06:59
Speaker
I was seeing was that it was a kind of traditional receiving house model.
00:07:03
Speaker
and that that receiving house model. So what I mean by that is when people, you book a show, it comes, it has a box office relationship and then it goes off somewhere else.
00:07:10
Speaker
And that model, whilst it's kind of, it has been working to some degree across the country, it's really tricky and it's kind of breaking and it's particularly post pandemic. It's really, it's bending to the point of snapping. And so there's an opportunity here to do something different. And I think that that's why it's like me the most. Also that the university had already done a lot of work on this. They'd already been thinking about it.
00:07:40
Speaker
probably five or six months before my arrival.
00:07:43
Speaker
to have a really good think about it. And what was great is when I got the job, I basically got this dossier of like, this is all of our thoughts and we've really thought this through. And this is a good guide and that was brilliant.
Kaylee's Journey and Return to Lincolnshire
00:07:58
Speaker
And then I took that guide and I went, right, how do we then bring that into the public realm and allow the public to engage with that process? Because at the minute had been a lot of people thinking in a room behind closed doors and how do we bring that out to the public?
00:08:12
Speaker
So we did the Future Arts Center consultation, which I'm sure we'll touch on in a bit.
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. We'll make that a priority question for a moment's time. But Kaylee, I want to offer the same... You are doing a very good job of steering this. I don't necessarily... It's going great. Kaylee, same sort of question to you, is that the idea of this opportunity popping up, what was it that encouraged you to want to be a part of this project, a part of this evolution of an art centre?
00:08:48
Speaker
So I would say to start off I'm from Lincolnshire and I left Lincolnshire because when I was like 19 to go to university down south
00:09:01
Speaker
I left Lincolnshire because I didn't think that there was any arts opportunities here for me and I didn't think that what I wanted to do could happen in Lincolnshire. So I left, I went down to Chichester and I went to university there. I went from someone who thought she was going to be on the West End in musical theatre to a
00:09:25
Speaker
theatre maker and writing and directing and producing production management, all of my own stuff. So that was a huge turn. But I found at university that I really loved being on the other side of theatre. I really loved production management, stage management, producing. Became a creative producer of a company called the Midnight Florist Collective. And then went to London and did an MA in creative producing.
00:09:53
Speaker
And whilst I was there, the very first module that we did was called Theatre Ecologies, where we looked at where we were from and what's going on there. And I did Chichester because I was like, there's nothing going on in Lincoln, so why would I look at the Theatre Ecology there? And it was during this MA where I was learning about producing and learning about making and learning about kind of changing
00:10:18
Speaker
the ecology that I was like, actually, I really want to go back to Lincoln and I want to start creating the opportunities that I didn't think existed or I didn't have when I left.
00:10:33
Speaker
That was just set in my mind. I was like, right. I've worked with So Festival. The wonderful Matthew Archer was my mentor during my MA. So I worked with them last summer and I went to the Zests. Zests put on, what was it called, Ben? I forget what it was called. The Forum? The Forum, yeah. Yeah. The Forum where I met Ben Anderson.
00:10:59
Speaker
We had a lovely chat and Ben was asking me why I left. And at the time I was going after another job, I unfortunately didn't get it. And I thought, okay, I'm going to start really working towards getting back to Lincoln. So I was still in London and I set up meetings with everyone that I knew in Lincolnshire, all the creatives, which included Ben, included
00:11:26
Speaker
people from Zest included another creative producer and I just basically chatted about what I could be doing and how I could get back here and how I could help develop what's going on in Lincoln. So we spoke a little bit about basically the job that I have now and I said I'm kind of talking about whether it was right for me or what should we do and I went for it and now I'm here and I got it and it was really exciting and
00:11:55
Speaker
I think what's really, really exciting about Lincoln Art Centre is the prospect of artist development and really nurturing.
Creating Local Arts Opportunities
00:12:05
Speaker
I don't really like the word young artists, but I guess new artists. And really creating that kind of community of arts that I didn't think
00:12:19
Speaker
existed when I left and now I think does but also I could have maybe just not been looking in the right places when I left when I was 19. But that's what's really really exciting about working here and being a part of this is creating something that I know will last and also something that if I saw when I was 19 or 18 or 16 or whatever
00:12:45
Speaker
would have been like oh cool yeah I can just stay in Lincoln and do arts and and do exactly what I want to do. I hope that's answered the question. One thing I want to ask out of that to both of you is is the intention then that with this new chapter for Lincoln Art Centre that this
00:13:08
Speaker
This environment helps develop the arts ecology of the local area, that the people like you, Kaylee, who are thinking, oh, I have to leave Lincolnshire in order to engage with art practice, don't necessarily have to do that now. Where does that sit amongst your vision for the venue?
Investment and Strategic Goals at Lincolnshire
00:13:23
Speaker
Well, Lincolnshire is massive, right?
00:13:26
Speaker
So, compared to other counties in the East Midlands, where you've got a real coalescing of investment in arts and culture, that investment is actually quite spread across Lincolnshire. So what you get is the kind of, and Kaylee mentioned this the other day in a video, I was stealing Kaylee's words, but sort of pockets of opportunity.
00:13:50
Speaker
But obviously those pockets you've got to travel to or things like that. And what that creates is that it creates a bit more of a difficulty around partnership building and growing networks. And there's been some really great work happening to combat that, Lincolnshire One venues historically, other schemes and systems. But what we've got now is a major investment in Lincolnshire. And yes, it's still spread because it's a massive county, but we have got major investment in the county and also the city. And I think that
00:14:19
Speaker
And yes, we don't have those enormous national portfolio organizations. And, you know, we are still, we're a huge institution at the university. And in terms of that investment, but we're still, you know, at the Art Center is actually still fairly, you know, small to mid scale, we've still got quite a small team. So, you know, the ambition is, we're really ambitious. But the, and we want to, you know, we want to connect across the county, but
00:14:47
Speaker
It's important to contextualize where we've been, I guess, and then where we're heading. There's huge amounts of investment in Lincolnshire now. There's a real opportunity. So what we've got, I think what we've got is the perfect combination at the minute is some right, some great people in the right places. We've got some really galvanizing energy.
00:15:07
Speaker
led by potentially those people. We've got a kind of everything's been thrown up in the air and the dust is kind of settling and the jigsaw pieces are in the right places and crucially we've got the resources to back that up as well because you can have all these lofty ambitions but then it has no resource to do that and we have got those resources and I think the next step on that is to go look this is a moment where we've got the resource we've really got to use those resources to grow more resource
00:15:37
Speaker
and that have exponential growth because I think that potentially that there has been a stagnation over the last 13 years around that because we've not utilised the
00:15:48
Speaker
the resource that we currently have to grow more. We've kind of used it to do the stuff that we want to do. And then it's gone as far as it can go with that, which sometimes is OK. And I think that's because of the fact that it's vast. So we're all doing our own little thing. And that's great with the money that we have. But if we start to pull that or if we start to utilize the new resource that's recently been invested into the county.
00:16:12
Speaker
we can grow it. So yeah, we have a massive commitment to the county, a big commitment to the city. Civic purpose is a big part of what we do. And we'd like to, you know, ยฃ150,000 worth of
00:16:27
Speaker
We're investing ยฃ150,000 a year for the next three years in talent development initiatives. So that's money directly to artists through commissions, workshop fees, presentation fees. And what's really exciting about that is that's the baseline. So, you know, that comparative to what that has been previously, like, that's significant. And we also have
Community Engagement and Challenges
00:16:52
Speaker
a plan. So
00:16:53
Speaker
But first time we've ever had a three-year plan, and as part of that three-year plan, we are going to grow from that 150 benchmark to 260 because we're going to utilize the money to get more money through match funding and developing a project. Yeah, it's super ambitious. It's kind of terrifying. At least we have a plan, and I think that's the bonus.
00:17:19
Speaker
So yeah, we're literally on the cusp of significant change next month. Well, April, when this goes out, April, there'll be, literally, it'll be happening. There'll be significant change, new website, new facade, the building will look different, new artistic policy. We'll have just joined the national portfolio, which is a three-year, so we'll have funding for three years from Arts Council of England, which is amazing to have that recognition so early on in our
00:17:49
Speaker
kind of journey and we've got 260, we've got a business plan and a vision that has been built and co-designed by 260 people. So we know that it's like super rigorous in the sense that
00:18:07
Speaker
because we can't be everything to everybody, but what we've done through consulting is going, well, we're really clarifying who we are, our mission, our purpose, our vision. We believe in a world transformed by creativity. We want to be the home for the next generation of artists and artistic ideas to present and create work that inspires challenges and delights. And that's really clear. I could go on and on about all the exciting things that we're going to do. But yeah,
00:18:35
Speaker
I waffle too much. Absolutely not, absolutely not. So you mentioned this cusp, so of really exciting moments about to happen. Let's just talk about our journey to this cusp, if you wouldn't mind. And the process from day one, day one of Ben Anderson and Kaylee Hunt in role, okay.
00:18:59
Speaker
Not day one of birth, day one of you in this role. There would be a long story. Maybe that's one for your memoirs in a few years. But how did you go about, what was the process for bringing this change about from stepping into role to getting to this point of relaunch of a completely new offer? What was that? What was involved there?
00:19:26
Speaker
Well, I think we've come a long way in the six months since August, 2022. I arrived and I had a smashed window and an office full of wood. So we've moved quite fast. I spoke a little bit about this earlier in terms of the kind of the kicking off point that we'd already provided by the university, which is fantastic. The university has been absolutely brilliant at doing that.
00:19:54
Speaker
And then we, from October 2022 until December, we ran the Future Art Centre, which is a period of mission and vision testing, business model innovation and consultation. And so workshops, online workshops, in-person workshops, which Kate, I think you attended. Yeah, well, all of them, all the online ones, I was busy, except for the last one. So I attended one, and I'd already been
00:20:17
Speaker
told that I'd got the job at that point. So I was kind of in it like, oh, I'm going to be a part of this soon. Like taking part, but also being like, oh, we're talking a lot about what I need to do in my job. Like a lot of that workshop was kind of bringing everything together and talking about where we go from here. And a lot of it was development. And I think you came into one of the breakout rooms and I was like,
00:20:41
Speaker
A lot of this is what I need to do. And you're like, yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah, so we did a consultation and we focused our transformation on four key areas of people, perception, place and program. And they carried through into our vision and our business plan.
00:21:01
Speaker
And so, yeah, we've been trawling through 260 people's opinions, which is quite overwhelming at times. Those opinions are quite varied and diverse. People's staff have given those opinions, students have given those opinions, audiences, past and present, people that have never engaged with us before, given those opinions. We had a postman come to one of the workshops who just said, I've been doing this postman stuff, but I actually really want to get into the arts and I've got some opinions.
00:21:31
Speaker
And so it was a great process. And since then, we've recruited 20 volunteer critical friends. So they will take all of that stuff and continue to hold us account to it. And we'll launch our business plan.
00:21:46
Speaker
We've been working with a researcher, Dr. Sharazad Rangel, on it. So it's a live and active research project as well. So the idea is that the process, we're evaluating the process in which we co-design this vision together as well, so that that
00:22:03
Speaker
process than it can inform other people's process, so Lincoln starts to become a beacon of excellent practice, people are going what's going on in Lincoln, we're amazing and so yeah that's exciting too and Sherry's been absolutely fantastic in introducing me into the world of academic research which is a wild world of interesting acronyms and yeah.
00:22:28
Speaker
wild timelines and things like that. So that was a new and interesting world. And yeah, we basically have the Future Art Centre consultation. We now have Lincoln's Future Art Centre, which is Lincoln Art Centre, the business plan and the vision. And we know that it's been informed by 260 people. And we know that 20 critical friends are going to keep reflecting on it with us for the lifetime of the vision for three years, which is exciting. You know, I've got, we've got, I
00:22:53
Speaker
get very excited by data. And me and Kaylee have been really excited about surveys and processes, but we've been, you know, we've designed the process for which the critical friends will be able to like literally critique all of our, the things that happen. So the events, but also the opportunities that we might have or the, yeah, really kind of scary, the level of transparency, but exciting, I think. Nice. Nice. Kaylee, while Ben has been sort of explaining
00:23:24
Speaker
the longer term, widely consulted vehicles for change. How on earth do you go about presenting that to our audiences, to those who would now start to look at Lincoln Art Centre for activity and things like that? How does your role interpret all this change that Ben has helped facilitate?
00:23:53
Speaker
a lot of marketing. No, I think it's really difficult because on the one hand, so when we went a few weeks ago, when we were thinking about the relaunch, I was like, okay, we're going to get a big billboard and we're going to have posters everywhere that say Lincoln Art Centre, Lincoln Art Centre, this is what's going on.
00:24:21
Speaker
But actually, how many people other than people in the sector really care that we've changed our name? So like, I know that everything else is happening, obviously, the building's changing, our whole program's changing, but how do we announce that to the audiences? The answer is by doing it, right? So like, we can say,
00:24:45
Speaker
everything and be like we're gonna be this this this this and this and I can write a million tweets and put posters everywhere but actually the answer is you just you do it you create it and you you listen to the 260 people and you say okay these this is what the vast majority of these people want so let's do it and then let's let them know that we've done it like it lets
00:25:14
Speaker
rather than kind of saying this is what we're gonna do, it's more celebrating and saying, okay, this is what you said, this is what we did, and this is the impact that it had. So a lot of what I'm doing right now is like putting together post-show emails that go out to all the audience members to make sure that they were satisfied with their visit, that it was what they wanted it to be. And then we can put all that together into a document and say, okay, so since we,
00:25:44
Speaker
did everything and we changed our programme, this is how satisfied the people that come to see us are. And then we can look at that and say, oh, actually, maybe that's not right and change stuff. Sorry, Ben, you were going to say something? I was going to say, as well as just how satisfied they are, we're trying to look at that as an expand, like the beauty of being part of a university is that we can look at that really expansively.
00:26:06
Speaker
So we can start to say, well, how is that thing that you attended or participated in affected your well-being? Are you happy? Or do you feel more connected to your community as a result? Or do you feel prouder of the place that you have or have you learned something if you developed a skill? So what's great is that we've been able to be really expansive in our impact. Impact evaluation is like really critical and key. It's so important. And the same with the
00:26:35
Speaker
that you were speaking about audiences as well, Kaylee, and how we connect our audiences. What's great about being part of a university is that we can also be really nuanced about that. So when we did the Future Arts Centre consultation, what came out was this notion of community a lot. Everybody just kept saying, community, we must serve our community. This word just kept appearing.
Understanding Diverse Community Interpretations
00:27:00
Speaker
And then
00:27:02
Speaker
So if you take that at face value, what I think that means is that we're not serving the community of Lincoln because we're serving our students or whatever. I think that is what the notion was, the undertones of that. But then we looked at the nuance of it a little bit closer. So what do we mean by community? And what we realized was that although community kept coming up in the consultation, people had different notions of what that meant.
00:27:32
Speaker
And there was no clear definition of what the word community means. So it might mean that we have a community of students or a community of artists, or we might have a particular community that meet on a Tuesday to come and upcycle in the cafe, or a particular community that lives in a postcode that is on the indices of deprivation, quite high on that indices. So that notion of community was so vast.
00:28:02
Speaker
And, and so at face value, the consultation was quite, you know, we'd take, we were able to look really deep, much deeper in, in the consultation findings because we're, because it's part of a research exercise to be able to bring clarity to what we do. So, you know, we have an immediate community on our doorstep, which is students, academic staff and sector. We have a community literally, um, across what I described as the moat.
00:28:28
Speaker
Um, which we have to work on age because of that, because it's, there's a literal mode in a railway line, stopping, not stopping, but as a physical barrier, um, to our spaces. So we have to work hard for those communities as well. Um, but this, but yeah, the, the notion of, um, we were able to dig deeper as to not everything was so face value all the time. And the beauty of that for, for, you know, Kaylee and when it was Kaylee and I, when we had those conversations is that
00:28:57
Speaker
we have to work a little bit harder to think about what that means, which is great because that's come out in this, you know, what we're doing in the impact evaluation now is that looking at how, not necessarily who or why, but how that's impacted them, which is great. And another thing is that they always, the thing that also came out of the consultation, which was really fascinating was this idea of like, you just got to get people through the door. And I was like, okay, why?
00:29:25
Speaker
Like, why are they here? It's okay. Like, fine. We're not, you know, we're not Asda. Football is not just the only barometer of success. It's also about why they're here and what the purpose of, you know, what impact is the art that they've seen? And we are an art center after all, you know, we're not an entertainment venue. We're an art center. What's the impact of the art that we've created or co-created with audiences, communities, participants and artists? And what is the impact having on those people?
00:29:54
Speaker
And how is that making sense to the world around us? So I think that sense of a mission is really, that feels really prevalent. Yeah, that's fantastic. So with that in mind, what does your artistic programme look like now?
New Initiatives and Artist Support
00:30:14
Speaker
With launch imminently happening, happening right now as we speak,
00:30:18
Speaker
Um, people are tuning in to all the ways in which they can access the information that the art center has. What does the program look like? What can we expect to engage with at Lincoln Art Center for the rest of the year and for going and going forward? Well, I think that, um, everything will become really much clearer once we get the new website launched. So that's right, Kaylee. Oh my God. The new website is going to change everything and like,
00:30:46
Speaker
currently, as we're recording, working on it right now. And it is just so exciting to have a website that's also just easy to navigate and be able to find stuff. And I think something on the website that I'm really happy with is literally just the page about our team. Because not only do we have our little descriptions, but I've asked everyone to be like, Kaley can help you with,
00:31:16
Speaker
marketing or these queries or this query and then with our email. So it's not like, and here's all the people that are gonna do this. It's more like, and here's the people that
00:31:28
Speaker
can help you if you have a query, this is exactly what we can help you with. Yeah, because as a learning institution, we're embedding that learning and even the small things, even the team page has learning embedded in. We're in receipt of public funding, we're a public institution, and therefore we want to be transparent. And I think one thing that when I arrived, one thing that was really evident is that the staff team
00:31:57
Speaker
The staff team are brilliant. Yeah, the staff team are brilliant. They are really excellent and they are already helping people and giving their time generously. Even when busy, we will give our time generously. In terms of the program and what that looks like, well, we've got 150 grand's worth of talent development initiatives over the next year, every year for the next three years.
00:32:22
Speaker
Um, what that looks like is that we will have a, um, we'll work with associate artists. Um, and this is exclusive information. We're going to work with associate artists. So, um, it looks like we would probably work with three associate artists who are people that are established artists that will help us connect and make work. Um, whether that be participatory arts work or, um, innovation, innovative work in terms of tech, embedding technology in art.
00:32:52
Speaker
or whether that be just creating new work that we can tour locally and nationally and potentially internationally and those artists will have national and international reach as well and profile so they'll be quite established and probably work with three of them over three years to commission when we'll commission those artists to make new work but crucially those artists will also be embedded in the organization so they'll be part of our critical friends group
00:33:17
Speaker
And they will also work with a new group of artists. So there'll be six resident artists who are early career artists that would receive seed commissions, support packages, including business and creative support. So it's not just about how we grow your artistic practice, but it's also by the end of their time with us, they'll sit down with me and go, right, you're going to have a business plan.
00:33:41
Speaker
you're going to have a fundraising strategy and I'm going to give you the I've got these I've got templates for you and you're going to have them all so that by the end of the process these these six resident I'll stay in Lincoln because they've got the they've got the tools to be able to do that because you know when we know that and this is something that kept really it's really um clung to me from what Katie said at the beginning is that
00:34:05
Speaker
Yes, when you arrive into wanting to, you settle on, you want to work in the arts, quite often you kind of go to the, well, I'm gonna work on the West End, I'm gonna be an actor, which is one avenue. But actually there's all these other avenues that are available. Quite a lot of them, quite a lot of those avenues that are available to you, they will revolve around and building your business essentially, your artistic business,
00:34:35
Speaker
So, yeah, we're going to have resident artists, six resident artists, and three social artists over the course of three years. And they will get seed commissions and commissions as well. And then we will we work really closely with the Lincoln Company, obviously, through this podcast as an example of that. And they are our graduate and student companies, a company of recent graduates and students. So to bridge that gap and to give those students professionalising experiences,
00:35:05
Speaker
And they will work with us. So we have our own, you know, there's literally a general manager of the Lincoln company and the general manager of Lincoln Art Center. So they can connect and work closely together. And then, I mean, there's so many things as part of this, the MPO money that we have that's going to transform things. We have an independent producers network, which I'm really excited for as an independent producer in my heart. I'm really excited to connect
00:35:33
Speaker
a network of independent producers literally pay them to work with other artists, maybe they'd be our social artists, maybe they'd be other artists across the county or city, because I think the best way to develop an ecology is to inject independent producers into that ecology to make things happen. And then I think the broader programme is around, we have a new artistic policy, so we have a new programming process for finished products, so that'll come live in April.
00:36:01
Speaker
So you'll be able to go online and see our artistic policy, read it, and then submit your finished product for programming. And that will be reviewed by me, but also a close group of academics from across the university, who have specialisms in dance or visual arts or music, for example, so that all the time specialists are looking at
00:36:28
Speaker
the art that's presented, that's offered up to us, I guess, as finished product. Because we're so much multidisciplinary art centre, there's no way, well, it'll be foolish to think that I could pretty, I could judge the artistic quality of all of that stuff. Like it's just, it's not possible. And then in addition to that programming process, which is a process I'm particularly proud of, is open to ideas. So we have, it was called an open to ideas scheme. So what we're trying to do is shift the dial in
00:36:56
Speaker
in artists' relationship with us and also other organisations in the city. So we're basically saying there's a huge amount of ideas. Everybody has an idea. And we're not going to be able to make all those ideas a reality. And actually, you know, we shouldn't be able to do that. But what we're not doing at the minute is knowing the breadth of the ideas that are available. So let's, as an organisation that's publicly funded,
00:37:25
Speaker
and have people on salary, we should be able to go, let's put that into a melting pot. And three times a year, I promise that that will be looked at by people from across the university. So if you've got a project that explores some kind of degree of psychology, and it's a dance piece about that, or I don't know, you're creating an exhibition about it. Well, then
00:37:54
Speaker
why wouldn't a psychologist from the university be interested in that? So we're trying to connect subject specialists into artistic ideas, and then also industry specialists as well. So I hope that other industry partners will also be in those meetings and see all the ideas, because it's not a competition. We don't need to hoard or control or own any artists or any artistic ideas. It's just about being collaborative and sharing those.
00:38:24
Speaker
And hopefully stuff will come out of it. So that's another exciting part of that artistic policy is the open to idea scheme and the programming process. And then another thing that's kind of coming out of that is this idea that we have three priorities. So one is working globally, like being having global mindset. One is knowledge exchange and research. And one is really great stuff for children and young people.
00:38:54
Speaker
there isn't that much available at the minute for those people and also as a place for talent development. I would hope that our future programme would focus and prioritise on introduction of your first experience of a live thing, whether it be art or performance, maybe your first professional debut or something like that.
00:39:17
Speaker
and then maybe also introducing you to a new artistic idea or concept. So there's like those three points of newness feels like a really nice hang for our artistic vision. And what that looks like is really collaborative partnerships between arts partnerships and non arts based partners. So we're working with an example of that would be that we're working with NHS practitioners
00:39:48
Speaker
the School of Media at the University, and musicians, artists to bring the Laryngectomy Choir, which is a choir for people who have had their voice box removed or had an operation on their throat, which has meant that talking and singing is a little bit more tricky. And so we've been informed from Silence of the Song, it's happening in June at the Art Centre.
00:40:14
Speaker
And that is exactly the kind of like beautiful synergy that we're looking for. We've got academic research connecting to industry practitioners, connecting to audiences. And also this idea that we have a non-arts based partner involved through the NHS and NHS practitioners. And so that's like, so dreamy. That's exactly the sort of thing that we should be doing.
00:40:36
Speaker
For Christmas, we're hoping to do another exclusives for you down here. I'm giving you all the exclusives. Ready for it. And we're doing Christmas science lectures live on stage. Amazing. Cool. So we're going to have we're working with the College of Science to make explosions happen on stage. Amazing. You know, giant test tubes. And what's beautiful about that is that creative practitioners for the creative arts programs here that we have.
00:41:06
Speaker
are working with our excellent scientists and social scientists. And that's brought together and professionalised through having a public arts centre at the university. So that is like another dreamy collaboration. So it will be a bit more nuanced, a bit more considered, I guess. It might feel a little bit less, if I'm honest. Let's be honest about that, because we're trying to do things that take time
00:41:35
Speaker
Um, so it might initially feel, it'll take time to grow and it might feel for quite a while that we're doing a little bit less publicly.
Building Processes and Future Success
00:41:43
Speaker
Um, and I guess that that's to manage expectations around that. But what we are doing is really excellent work, um, because we're connect and we're connect and also hopefully trying to build partnerships, which is building partnerships tough, takes time. Um, but yeah, I'm really excited about our artistic program. I cannot wait.
00:42:05
Speaker
to get the new website and to get it all on so that we can start to focus on that. Cause at the minute it's all about, we're just totally in the midst of new website, brand new brand, new name, all of that stuff. I think something that we keep, like I keep reminding myself.
00:42:24
Speaker
especially kind of touching on, like it might not look like loads right now. It's like a lot of our team are brand new. So like, we're kind of, if you think of, obviously the building has been here for years and years, but this team is basically a theater company in my head, like a theater company that started six months ago. Do you know what I mean?
00:42:50
Speaker
even if we're doing huge, huge, huge things, when you consider that Ben started in August and I started in January. And like- That is wild that you started. And the rest of the team are also like quite new to the roles. So we're getting so much done. And of course it's with like,
00:43:19
Speaker
If we didn't have the university, then maybe we wouldn't have got as much done. Or if we didn't have these partnerships that we're trying to build or, you know, we are trying our best and also have this amazing help and amazing partnerships to work with as part of that too.
00:43:39
Speaker
But yeah, that's something I always remind myself and I'm like, oh God, I've not got everything done that I need to get done. And I'm like, it's okay. We're a six month old theater company, it's fine. That's nice, that's a good one. Well done. I think, I think the, the, if you can reflect.
00:43:57
Speaker
from this point, from launch week back to January and back to August and think about how much sort of you have achieved in that time. Do you both look back? Well, do you expect you'll be looking back with a little pat on your backs for the amount of work that has been put in here? Yeah. Yeah. But without complacency, I think. Nice. Yeah. Because it's, I don't know, it's really hard to not always be looking forward.
00:44:25
Speaker
So I think it's really important to look back and reflect on what we have achieved, particularly in terms of those back-end processes. To be totally transparent and put it bluntly, we were an organisation that were engaging in room clashes. When I arrived in August, that was the level of discourse.
00:44:53
Speaker
room like room clashes. As far as I'm aware, I don't think we've had a room clash since August. Like we're not talking about that anymore. So it's great to say that, but equally like, let's not be complacent about it. We are operating at pace, you know, something that has that room clash thing hadn't been fixed for 13 years and we fixed it in two weeks. Nice.
00:45:24
Speaker
But the level of effort that that requires is significant. So I think we probably all deserve a little holiday around the same time and then get back straight back on it because it's, yeah, there's a lot to do and I'm really excited about it and it's a privilege.
00:45:45
Speaker
A really close friend of mine who has been in the cultural scene in Lincoln for a while and has got way more experience than I have always said to me, every meeting I see him, I feel like he mentions it and I'm really glad he does. He says, I was always told that it was a privilege to be in the position that you're in.
00:46:06
Speaker
And whilst sometimes it feels really exhausting and really annoying and really frustrating, and quite often you can carry that a lot with you because you're constantly thinking of the future and what we haven't done and what we've yet to do. But actually, you've got to remind yourself that it's a privilege to be in the position that you're in, and it is, totally is. And I guess when I do stuff like this, I realize that, which is really nice, actually. It's nice to chat about the processes because you realize that
00:46:35
Speaker
We've done a lot. It's a lot to do, but we've done a lot. And yeah, let's keep going. Nice. One final question from me. Fast forward the clock, three years, and we are at that point of review. How do you two measure success from this project? What does it look like to you?
Metrics for Success and Audience Impact
00:46:58
Speaker
That we'd be in a position that Arts Council England would invest in is again.
00:47:05
Speaker
the university across the board feel like we are open to collaboration and that there's evidence that we've done that. That people are starting to copy us and steal our ideas. I think it'd be really nice. Like I've stolen other people's ideas. That's the barometer of success is if people are Googling you to find out how they dealt with this. So that would be nice.
00:47:35
Speaker
that we have a cohort of associate artists that are really embedded in the work that we do and that they're connected to us. And that the student work that we're co-producing continues to go from strength to strength, but also that increasingly they're connected to industry, which is what I see our role in that work is that they're increasingly connected to industry in interesting and new ways. So, you know,
00:48:02
Speaker
if if we do do um christmas shows or christmas science lectures or um these podcasts or whatever they whatever comes out of the product that we're creating that they're connected that they're that they're having a life beyond beyond their the time the students time here uh so yeah that for me that would be i mean there's quite a few different things but for me and also a happy team like if people are so happy and so enjoying it and stuff satisfaction is still high um
00:48:31
Speaker
that's crucial as well because you know there's a lot to do and it feels quite intense and quite precious sometimes um but equally we need to make sure that we're still smiling and enjoying it um so yeah that'd be for me
00:48:45
Speaker
You've gone really in depth. My first thought was like there's audience members that I see regularly that come to the stuff and like, you know, like you recognize them and you can smile and say hello. That's probably my last job was as a box office manager. So that's probably the box office manager and maybe in like his people that I know and being able. Yeah. The regulars. Um,
00:49:13
Speaker
I think a lot of people might think we've obviously talked a lot about audiences and to me success isn't that we're selling out every show but it's part of those questionnaires that we send out and actually we're getting
00:49:32
Speaker
people that have been changed in some way or another by this stuff. I think a great example of that is fatherhood that just passed in that we didn't sell out. That's that. But in the post-show discussion, we had some just incredible moving feedback from it.
00:49:59
Speaker
of people saying, like, thank you for putting this on. It's so great to see people that look like me on stage. And so that whole event that artists meet up to fatherhood in my head was just an incredible success because we had that feedback, but we sold 80 out of 300 tickets. So maybe someone else might look at that and say, well, that's not successful at all, but that's not,
00:50:29
Speaker
In my head, it's not how many tickets we sell, it is who comes and how it's impacted them. And that they come back and then I can see them and say hello. And that's how the day's been and how the weekend was. That bombs on seats thing, right? That purpose for them being here. Of course, we want as many bombs on seats as possible, but equally, we want to know why they're here. And that they're inspiring or challenging or
00:50:59
Speaker
delightful time with us, which I think that's really key. Yeah, neither. Okay. That was a really profound moment. It was the moment where I was like, Oh God, this is what we need to do this. Yeah. This is why we do it. Right. That that's exactly like it happened. And I was like, Oh yeah, this is it. I mean, this is why, you know, we need to be realistic about that and find ways that that can happen. So if we're not selling out,
00:51:26
Speaker
And we build to the place where we are setting out with that kind of stuff. And we take an audience on a journey with that and do really good audience development work around it. So all that wraparound activity that we put around that show was about that. And I think, you know, we did pretty well broadly for that tour. And like to know that that was just the beginning is quite an exciting moment.
00:51:52
Speaker
Um, and also that we know that, you know, we can put accommodations around that then that enable us to, for it to not have a, you know, it's the financial implication of not selling out, um, is mitigated through all the means. And we just, we have to build that in. And that's, that's part of the business planning. Um, which is so crucial. Perfect. Thank you so much for your time today.
00:52:18
Speaker
Kaylee and Ben, we really appreciate you giving up an hour of your day to tell us about this really exciting milestone in the journey of Lincoln Art Center.
Promoting Upcoming Events and Activities
00:52:28
Speaker
I would like to give the chance now to offer space for you to promote anything, social channels, events, anything like that coming up. Go on Kaylee, over to you. That's your job. Just got to wait. Before I go into it, so when's this coming out on the 22nd? No, on the 21st. Friday the 21st.
00:52:46
Speaker
Okay, so if you're listening to this today on the day that it comes out, we've got demo on eight till 10 tonight. Three incredible artists showing new work. It's a great time to think critically about art and a great time to meet some cool people and ask questions. Tomorrow, we've got fashion revolution, which is
00:53:13
Speaker
a one-day mini festival. If you went to go see Giant Jeans at Project Space Plus, it's Kerry Gibson again and it's like fashion swapping and there's going to be a catwalk and there's going to be all these different people here and like those are really cool clothes and vintage and sustainable fashion. And we'll also have the Lincolnshire Soundscapes which will be in Studio X
00:53:37
Speaker
where you can create your own soundscape of Lincolnshire but already selling out yeah as of recording the second session is already sold out so it might be that the first session has sold out too i'm really hoping so we have the laryngectomy choir on the night
00:53:53
Speaker
of June, which Ben's chatted a little bit about. And hopefully, all of the Christmas shows will be on sale. Maybe? Maybe? Yeah. Yeah. So the Christmas shows
00:54:14
Speaker
We'll be on sale, the Christmas lectures. Get that on your YouTube list? Yeah. So I need to make a poster for those as soon as I can. It looked like Kayleigh came really close to revealing what the Christmas show was. Yeah, I know. That's not information we can give you just yet. I don't know if it is. No, we can't give too much away. Too many exclusives, I think. Yeah, to be fair.
00:54:40
Speaker
But stay tuned on all of the social and digital channels, as well as in Lincoln Art Center itself for that reveal when that is due to happen sometimes, I guess, later in the year. Yeah. On Instagram, we're on Instagram, a links art center on Twitter with link art center right now. And then on Facebook will be Lincoln Art Center.
00:55:06
Speaker
Perfect. Would you find us on our website, linkinartscentre.co.uk. Wonderful. That's everything from me. That's everything from our guests, Ben and Kaylee. Thank you so much for joining us. See you next time on ArtsPod.