Last Word

Strength in numbers
I’m going to come clean. An hour before we signed off the final tweaks to what I do think is a particularly joyful issue of AP, and I was stuck with a blank page and a brain shrugging under the weight of what to write. It’s not that plenty hasn’t happened in the last fortnight of arts world: positive news comes in the form of several theatres re-opening all refurbished and refreshed (p2), and the potential creation of 100 new jobs for young people left unemployed by a depressed jobs market (p3). It’s a sunny sign of hope amid the usual news of arts gloom. Perhaps the most encouraging story this week, though (as we’ve reported exclusively on p1), is the happy sight of the sector working collaboratively – with the public and with one other – on the I Value the Arts campaign.
But, as summer winds to an end (and I write this under autumn’s reassuring shade of grey thundercloud), it’s difficult to look back over what was supposed to be the annual silly season and move forward with the big stories for the coming months. In truth, this year, it feels as if the sector hasn’t really stopped: the great and good have been busying themselves over the summer writing letters to the broadsheets decrying arts funding cuts; meanwhile, numerous smaller sector cliques have huddled together to try and find ways to influence the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review; and finally, as my inbox will testify, crucial work on research and strategy has still been chugging on for arts organisations, funders, quangos, and – despite the parliamentary recess – Government. Maybe I’m alone in missing the back-to-school-spirit that usually marks the first weeks

of September. But judging by countless conversations I’ve had with press officers, artistic directors, curators, critics and fellow journalists in the last couple of weeks, it does feel like holiday-mode never really kicked in.
It’s why the importance of a campaign such as I Value The Arts then, is of real, well, value. Strength in numbers can’t be easily ignored; a galvanised arts sector presenting a coherent and united front to politicians and policymakers – especially when it works within the Coalition cabinet’s vision of a Big Society – is an attractive proposition. For an industry often derided for being disorganised, often flying, by necessity, from the seat of its collective pants, it’s also a really solid starting point.

Action learning
On the matter of organisation, senior (and even not-so-senior) bods should find plenty to chew on with our meaty special feature on organisational structures (pp6–8) and Sarah Thelwall’s guide to generating new income streams (p13). Being inherently nosy, developing an excuse to uncover the ways in which other people work is always a plus for me. Potentially inspiring? Yes. A useful way to compare and contrast your own management methods against those of your peers? I’d hope so. Getting to grips with the success of real-world case studies has to, in my mind, be an easier way to consider building new strategy. Easier than bunkering down with yet another weighty business tome anyway.