'Passionately Frustrated': Negotiating Tensions and Sustaining Collaboration in Scottish and Northern Irish Community Theatre

Beirne, M. , Jennings, M. and Knight, S. (2015) 'Passionately Frustrated': Negotiating Tensions and Sustaining Collaboration in Scottish and Northern Irish Community Theatre. 9th International Conference in Critical Management Studies, University of Leicester, 8-10 Jul 2015.

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Publisher's URL: http://www2.le.ac.uk/conference/cms15

Abstract

Scotland and Northern Ireland share a distinctive tradition of community theatre and community arts that support grassroots engagement and collective cultural development. A high proportion of the artists who nurture and sustain this work emphasize the role of participants, members of the public, in driving the artistic process, and interpret their own role as helping people to find creative ways of expressing themselves and addressing local issues. Many are influenced by the critical pedagogy of Paolo Freire (1972) and the ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ techniques of Augusto Boal (1979). Their approach is bound up with the challenge of enabling local communities to play an active part in shaping their world, not only in terms of culture, but also politically and economically. Those working in Scotland trace the roots of their practice to the housing schemes of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee during the 1970s and ‘80s where it became a catalyst for community development and the mobilization of disadvantaged groups that could make a case for improving their situation or surroundings through art capable of “touching” local politicians. In Northern Ireland it evolved as an expression of cultural resilience and resistance to both state and paramilitary power during “The Troubles” of the late twentieth century. This approach to collective art-making has attracted enthusiastic approval and support from participants, though also politicians and state agencies, including Creative Scotland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. It captured attention and funding because it appeals to political notions of social inclusion, and has grown as part of wider political programmes to revitalize whole communities. However, pressures to institutionalise the approach have also increased, perhaps most obviously in Northern Ireland where community arts were pulled into public policy agendas on peace-building after the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. These developments have complicated the work of the arts practitioners, adding constraints and dual role compromises that have taken a toll on artists and their projects. Some now express nostalgia for earlier periods when their practice was more obviously independent, authentic and less compromised. Others worry about the pervasive influence of official reform agendas, rehearsing long-running concerns about the applied relevance of the arts and their reduction to instruments of elite interests (Taylor, 2003) or patronising forms of artistic social work (Knight, 1998). Others again focus on the gap between appreciative rhetoric, poor terms and conditions and oppressive managerialist demands, which have increased in tandem with ‘official’ interest and related funding opportunities. This paper offers a comparative analysis of the contextual influences and experiences that affect community artists, highlighting their various means of negotiating tensions and institutional constraints, including the development of group ties, informal support networks and patterns of community engagement that help to sustain their work, despite the involvement of official agencies. Drawing upon interview data and records of participant observation in recent community arts projects, it supports the consensus view that the outcomes are often progressive and widely appreciated, though also accounts for some of the front-line frustration and anger that now has a bearing upon the future of this tradition. Parallels are drawn with critical studies of management-led empowerment and worker participation schemes in the commercial sector, raising doubts about the sincerity and efficacy of regulatory interventions and the strings attached to funding initiatives. The impact of administrative cultures and managerialist regulation will be examined, with particular attention to the metrics mentality and effect of imported preoccupations with attendance numbers, models of good practice and creeping standardisation. What some may consider to be nascent processes of professionalization will be shown to have destabilising effects, both for the art, for the artistic logic of approach and for the employment situation of the arts practitioners.

Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item
Keywords:Creative workers, Artistic agency, Community arts, Arts Management
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Knight, Ms Stephanie and Beirne, Professor Martin
Authors: Beirne, M., Jennings, M., and Knight, S.
Subjects:H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
College/School:College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management

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