‘Could artists bring the bustle back to Whitefriargate?’
The Joe Must Go On, a column by Joe Hakim
A look at Arts & Culture, and not always through his rose-tinted monocle
Rather than write about City of Culture again, I think it’s time to get on with the business of actually enacting the legacy and taking the lessons we learned, both good and bad, and putting them into action.
Even though I don’t consider myself to be a cultural commentator as such, I’m fortunate to have a platform with The Hull Story, and I don’t want to use it as just a space to vent, so what I would like to do is to make a couple of observations.
I’m hoping to address and explore some of these areas/issues with my own development as an artist and producer this year, so this is an attempt to open the door to discussion and collaboration as well.
A couple of disclaimers: this isn’t an attempt to provoke finger-pointing – a key part of addressing many of these points is transparency and co-operation; most of these points aren’t unique to Hull as such, and are emblematic of wider issues with the arts and creative industries.
Many opportunities within the arts and creative industries tend to be placed at the extreme ends of the spectrum. A lot of commissions tend to be geared towards young or emerging artists, and at the other end, larger projects and opportunities geared towards established companies who employ established artists with representation directly. I think this points to a larger issue around a lack of skills and experience.
There’s a presumption that by the time artists have reached a certain level they have mastered the ‘game’ and are largely self-sufficient. However, it can be very difficult to get to grips funding and self-management.
Speaking from personal experience, in my early years of working as a freelance writer/artist I had my hand held to an extent; I was looked after by the nature of the fact that the opportunities involved working with producers who would sort things like bank transfers for fees and such.
And then I hit a massive brick wall, because I simply didn’t know how to do things like invoices, tax-returns and applications/bids. I hit a brick wall. Smashed into it.
‘Let’s get better at selling ourselves’
An aspect unique to Hull is a reluctance to ‘sell yourself’, and I know many great writers and artists who could happily spend an hour telling you what’s wrong with their work, but squirm when given a thousand words to talk about their achievements.
In 2020, UK consumers spent £162.4m more on subscription streaming than they did in 2019. Yet I know musicians in Hull with millions of streams on platforms like Spotify who are paid in pounds and pence.
And now that, following Brexit, musicians are no longer guaranteed free touring visas, bands that once had the opportunity to hop on a ferry to do a quick set of gigs in Europe may be robbed of that opportunity.
It’s never been more difficult and disheartening to be a working musician, and this is indicative of larger trends in many of the creative industries. The publishing industry has also seen a massive surge due to record numbers of book sales, but the primary beneficiaries are the online retailers.
It’s easy to think of Li Po: the artist sits on the doorstep of the rich.
However, Hull has an ace up its sleeve: a deep DIY indie spirit forged from years spent being ignored.
We can see this in independent bookshops like JE Books and Wrecking Ball Books supporting indie presses and local authors; Element Studios and LIFE’s Moon Factory around Bankside; galleries like Bankside and Studio 11 which offer facilities and opportunities.
I’ll have missed loads of things out like this (word-count and that) so feel free to join in.
The point is, we have the means to produce and sell our own art and the ensuing merchandise (look at the phenomenal success of the badges that accompanied Back to Ours’ Dean’s Film Club) so we need to double down on that.
It’s terrible shame that Whitefriargate lost the £22m Future High Street Fund, but if we’re at the What do we do now? phase of discussions where anything goes, I want to throw my suggestion into the hat.
It’s simple and probably naïve, but turn it over to the artists. There have been a few projects down there already, so investigate what other possibilities and connections are there with the wider cultural economy.
‘IS IT TIME TO TURN WHITEFRIARGATE OVER TO THE ARTISTS?’: Joe Hakim
The past few years has seen the Old Town used as a film set, so is there any way we could help to facilitate more those relationships? Channel 4 is in Leeds after all, and a large outdoor set that could accommodate staff and resources would surely be attractive to film-makers and production companies.
And in terms of equipment, technology and experience, there’s nothing stopping Hull from producing BBC Radio 3/4-quality content, or films/plays that could be pitched to Netflix UK.
And this leads to my final point for today…
‘Collaboration is the key to everything’
I don’t know how 2020 has affected the timeline on Connexin’s CityOS project, which aims to make Hull the first ‘Smart City’ in the country with its own operating system, but what I do know is that 2020 forced everyone within the artistic and creative community to engage with digital platforms and technology in way they’d never done before.
The scramble to reconfigure and adapt work and material into digital broadcasts and experiences has created some truly interesting work, and has also thrown other projects into a new light.
Digital Democracies – a collaboration between Freedom Festival, Frequency Festival and Brighton Digital Festival – was a project that was set into motion before the pandemic, but has gained a new urgency and perspective following a year when outdoor and communal festivals and activities were cancelled across the board.
In addition to digital infrastructure, Hull is also at the forefront of developments in renewable energy, and conversations around green technology with the arts and creative industries can help to highlight that work.
An example of this being the work of Dr Christina Roggatz at University of Hull, working with The Deep to bring young people into the conversation around climate change and a possible zero-carbon future in Hull.
I’m going to leave it there for now, but as I say, this my attempt to not only jump-start conversation, but collaboration also. Because I think collaboration is the only solution to pretty much everything.
In a world beset by division, let’s start the twenties in Hull by working together. Let’s put community, co-operation, and creativity at the centre of what we do, what we produce, and who we’d like to be.