A ‘Samling För Scenkonst’ was where I was today. Anyone who is anyone in Östergötland’s performing arts world, plus lots of somebodies who are nobody were there. But what was it? It wasn’t a conference, it wasn’t a meeting, it wasn’t even a gathering… no I was in attendance at an ‘Open Space’ a new way for officialdom (in this case Östsam) to pay lip service to the people that they are supposed to support. Open Space, we were told at the beginning, is a revolutionary way to gather information and opinions from a large and diverse group. We were also told that it is used in conflict resolution and has been used in Israel/Palestine negotiations. I couldn’t help but observe that this wasn’t the best advert for the method, however, when it comes to the rather less volatile world of performing arts, it worked very well.
Before we could get to the meat of the Open Space we had to listen to various luminaries giving their vision of the arts scene in Östergötland. Painful is not the word. My life slipped away in 5 minute increments as each speaker lead me a twelfth of an hour closer to my grave. I used the time to look around the circle at the other delegates or open spacers as perhaps they should be called. They were mainly old, white (hair and race) and grey (hair and personality). There were a few younger people there and I don’t mean to be judgmental, but the majority of them had desert chic scarves round their necks (perhaps they had stuck around after the Israel/Palestine talks?). There was even one woman in an orange knitted poncho.
When the Open Space proper began, participants had to write down questions that they would like discussed on a piece of paper. Things like: “Why doesn’t the government raise taxes to pay for kids’ bassoon lessons?” or “Is there such a thing ‘bad’ quality?”. I was tempted to write: “Why is everything so shit?”… but thought that this may be judged as a ‘bad’ question.
We discussed issues in breakout groups. I met a few nice people and a few people that made me want to weep. I realised that I cannot be an ‘arrangör’ as I do what I do as a private enterprise rather than as a non profit hobby. … and then listened to a group of septuagenarians try to understand why their non profit theatre association was having difficulty attracting young people to the theatre. At least they are eligible for a grant to quarter fill the theatre which is more than I am….
It’s easy to be cynical, of course, but I’m quite glad that this day took place even if it has only served to confirm my opinion that when it comes to arts funding in Linköping, concrete support from the county or the kommun, is a wide open space.
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On a less moany note. I was on the telly last week. My interview can be seen here. And the whole programme can be seen here as a series of short clips on SVT Play.
