Culture 2013 bid must be special
What should Derry include in its UK City of Culture bid? GARBHAN DOWNEY (right) and friends have a few suggestions - including a Siege of Derry film, twinning with Berkeley, reviving Field Day and inviting a few graffiti artists along . . .
Derry's arts-lovers need to weigh in behind the council's UK City of Culture bid NOW, argues Garbhan Downey.
I was in Liverpool visiting my brother the week it was announced the city was to become European City of Culture for 2008.
The day after the news broke our taxi driver refused our tip, telling us the value of his house had just doubled.
Glasgow had a virtually identical experience when it was awarded the title for 1990. The prize became the driving force in the city pulling itself out of a dire economic slump.
The wider economic impact of top cultural prizes, in terms of inward investment is immeasurable.
The UK City of Culture 2013 prize, which Derry hopes to win, could lead to considerable funding for both home-grown events and international productions.
And it would also see the city host the Brit Awards, the Turner Prize, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and the RIBA Stirling Prize.
So, in eight months time, when the winning city is announced, I very much hope that Derry taxi-drivers are turning down tips as well.
And why shouldn't they be? Derry, whether it ever wears the crown or not, is a true and endless originator of arts and culture.
Two weeks ago, Ilex announced three champions to lead our bid – Seamus Heaney, Bronagh Gallagher and the Undertones. Given the talent emanating from this city, they could just as easily have announced 50. And, indeed, I'm sure that's something Ilex will be thinking about before the second-round bidding closes next week.
I could spend a thousand words now, just listing the names of writers and musicians, who could make a much more eloquent case for Derry's elevation to UK City of Culture in 2013 than me. We're talking Nobel laureates, Gold and Platinum disc winners, Tony Award winners, Whitbread Prize winners, Number One pop stars – and that's before we even mention two of the fastest-growing, global singing phenomena, in the form of Celtic Thunder and The Priests.
Likewise, I could now write another thousand words explaining how the northwest is a world leader in film (Oscar nominations, IFTA and BAFTA awards), fine art (Turner Prize nominations), dance (Riverdance producers), animation (Celtic Film awards) and architecture (last complete set of Elizabethan battlements in Europe, first cathedral built after the Reformation, etc, etc).
But the big fear is who, or what, do you leave out?
'Step change'
The City of Culture contest, however, is not only about what has gone before. Derry's bid, and our proposed calendar of events, must be able to prove that the title will bring about a measurable "step change" for the city. It has to provide us with a lasting cultural and economic legacy.
Derry City Council's outline plan, as revealed to a number of council-funded community organisations at a meeting in the Playhouse a fortnight ago, is impressive as regards the economics. And its proposals to celebrate diversity and maximise community involvement, as part of the bid, are likewise commendable.
But the actual Draft Cultural Programme for 2013, as detailed in Appendix 3 of the outline bid, requires development – and considerably greater input from the public.
For example, it would appear from the draft that a city which has produced world-renowned writers from Colmcille to Berkeley, from Farquhar to Friel, and from Johnston to Heaney, isn't scheduling a single keynote literary event.
There were undoubtedly some time constraints which meant that a wider range of arts organisations (including some funded by the council), professional artists and indeed the public at large couldn't be consulted for their ideas.
And, in fairness, there's absolutely no onus on the council to provide its full schedule of events at this stage of the bidding.
But it is imperative that the final bid, when it is presented, is as comprehensive as it can be.
There has, however, been some progress since the outline bid was drawn up. Last week, in the wake of the Playhouse meeting, the council circulated a 15-page 'Programme Ideas' document, which is compiled from around a dozen more recent submissions from arts groups, consultants and individuals.
This discussion paper is, without argument, a valuable supplement to the Draft Cultural Programme, and contains some innovative and groundbreaking suggestions. Again, however, it is limited to a number of specific areas.
More is still needed. A lot more. So, after this document emerged, the filmmaker Margo Harkin suggested that a few of us, who work full-time in the arts sector in Derry, would draw up a fresh set of further ideas and submit them to the council in time for the second-round application next week. It is my understanding that others are doing the same thing.
We are all one hundred percent behind the city's bid and want to do all we can to make it succeed. The council has made a bold start in its crusade to win this title and deserves our thanks, and congratulations, for instilling such energy into this campaign. It is essential, however, that the rest of us help out in whatever small way we can.
What follows here are ideas; we are not attempting to set anything in stone. But we feel it is important that we contribute our own expertise and involve ourselves in this fight.
Culture, we accept, isn't for anyone. It made Goering want to reach for his gun. But for us, it is our lives and our livelihood.
There are many others out there, we know, who feel the same way. So for those of you who can see the value and importance of this award for the city as a whole, remember there is still time to make submissions for the second stage bid, which goes in next week, on December 11.
Our proposals* include:
• Twelve Keynote International Literary Festivals: There would be one for each month of 2013, including native specialities such as the novel, poetry, drama, political writing (The John Hume Summer School), play-writing, crime-writing and chick lit (The UK Guys and Dolls Festival), historical writing (The Bishop Frederick Hervey Winter School), screen-writing and comedy-writing. The long-term legacy would be to establish (some of) these as annual events on Derry's cultural calendar.
• The Old City Walking Play: This would be based on some crucial aspect, or aspects, of the 400 years since Plantation, and use the city's walls and historical landmarks as its stage - the audience following the action from place to place. Venues would include St Columb's Pro Cathedral, First Derry Presbyterian Church, The Memorial Hall, St Augustine's Church, The Verbal Arts Centre, and the Guildhall. There are evident multi-disciplinary aspects to this idea, with scope for musical accompaniment and perhaps even food on offer. This event could form part of Maiden City Festival or coincide with an apt historical date.
• The Big Global Orchestra: A process of workshops would be held with musicians reflecting the diversity of culture in the city and would lead to a series of performances on the walls and around the city. It would include: traditional musicians, Irish and Ulster Scots; lambeg drums, uileann pipes, bagpipes, brass and flute band players; and musicians from other ethnic groups, other Celtic countries, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The legendary Scottish composer Jim Sutherland, creator of La Banda Europa, would devise an original composition for all of the instruments used in the workshops. The city's two musical traditions, combining with other world traditions, on the walls, would be a powerfully symbolic statement of unity in difference.
• The Walls as a Canvas: The city would commission a major multi-disciplinary, contextual art work using the walled city as a canvas. This could involve mass public participation or interaction - and be relevant to the theme of healing or creating a diverse, harmonious city. Music could also be an important element of this.
• Siege of Derry – The Film: A top-class screenwriter would be commissioned to tell this great story. It has huge potential international appeal and could attract big name actors.
• The 'Let the Walls Speak' Photographic Exhibition: This would trace the linkages of and between the various walls in the city and parallel this with the stories, histories and lessons from other famous walled/painted sites from across the world, i.e. Berlin, Jerusalem, Dubrovnik, Carcassonne, Avila, York and Lucca. It could also include some of the very imaginative graffiti artists from around the world. This could run in tandem with an international festival of muralists from Sydney to Derry to New York.
•The Field Day Revival: The internationally-renowned arts company would restage (at least) one of their classic plays such as 'Translations', or commission the walking play referred to above.
• Art Reach Community Satellite (ARCS) Programme: Using the concept model of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, classical artwork, literature, music, drama etc would be re-packaged by local groups and artists (with the help of professionals) to make more art-forms accessible to the wider community. Performances would take place in community and non-traditional venues such as shopping centres, bars, gardens, streets, etc, i.e. venues where the audience feel relaxed, accepted and perhaps safer. The legacy would be that this would create a sea-change in their thinking about, and approach to, the arts – i.e. that arts are not just for the middle and upper classes who go to "fancy" venues up the town to watch events that only intellectuals can appreciate or enjoy.
• Berkeley Twinning Celebrations: The university city of Berkeley in California, is named after the former Dean of Derry, George Berkeley. Both cities were also at the forefront of social justice campaigns in the 1960s. In honour of these links, the two cities will twin up, and Derry will host a conference on their tapering histories.
• From Shore to Shore: A specially-commissioned pageant focussing on arriving planters and departing emigrants, to be performed (May-June) on some of the north-west's most picturesque beaches from Hervey's Downhill to Red Hugh's Rathmullan. This would feature the stories of northwest immigrants such as John Dunlap (Strabane), who went on to print the American Declaration of Independence, and William Massey (Limavady), who became Prime Minister of New Zealand. There would also be an international tie-in with Scotland, Liverpool and Newfoundland.
• Rivers and Neighbours: A musical, storytelling, boating event from Strabane to Derry taking in all the tributaries of the Foyle, Mourne, Strule, Faughan, which would explore our rich river folklore.
• Digital Artistic Archive (DAA): This would involve the creation of the definitive digital archive of everyone who contributed to the city's artistic development over the decades across all art-forms. This information could be presented and made accessible on a website. Support and publicity could be garnered from the city's many current "star names" and cultural champions.
*All of these ideas would aspire to the highest level of professional production values and have an international appeal within a local context.
This article was written by Garbhan Downey on behalf of 'Artists Supporting Derry~Londonderry's Bid for UK City of Culture 2013'.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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