Conversations

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been making studio visits with Anneka French to artists we are going to be working with in the Long Gallery. Although they were not all at studios, the conversations were all equally inspiring, albeit very different.

On the 18^th, we started off in Birmingham, at All Bar One, then Urban Coffee (by way of the New Art West Midlands show at BMAG), and finishing the day in the Centre for Fine Art Research at the Birmingham School of Art. This week, we were in London, initially at an artist’s home studio in Mile End, followed by the Chocolate Factory in Dalston.

Today we were back in Birmingham, going from two artists working in the studios in Great Tindall Street out to Edgbaston, (by way of the Ikon). It's such diverse group of artists that I'm starting to get a sense of how radically their work is going to alter the space it's going into.

We've two more artists to visit, in London, in a couple of weeks time. Who are they all? Well, once they're all confirmed, we'll be releasing more information.

Everything Speaks…

...but what's it saying?

I was at the NT conference on visitor experience (called Everything Speaks) a couple of weeks ago, and inevitably it has given me cause to reflect, both on what we’re doing, and what others are doing (both within and without the NT).

There was a mixture of keynote talks and smaller sessions (called, I suppose, ‘breakout sessions’.) The external keynotes were done by Lloyd Grossman, Bernard Donoghue (AVLA) Sarah Roots, (Warner Studio Tour - i.e. Harry Potter tour), Sarah Goodfellow, (14-18 Now), Tracy Borman, (HRP), and Sarah Lockwood (National Maritime Museum). We also had Molly Oldfield (QI Elf) as our guest speaker on the Thursday (awards) evening. All interesting to hear for different reasons, the most innovative project was probably the one at the 

NMM, which is a game/immersive theatre experience for children devised with Punchdrunk.

I find the relationship between the NT and other organisations a fascinating one. On the one hand, we’re all working in the same, heritage visitor attraction industry, but on the other, we’re competitors. Are we learning from one another, or stealing ideas? (If ‘stealing’ is the right word.) And although companies like Warner are way ahead of us with their digital interpretation (and always will/should be), and we do have things to learn from other organisations, the NT does have a number of centres of innovation.

In terms of NT speakers, James Grasby was by far the most entertaining, and of the sessions I went to, LouiseGovier (Mottisfont) had a very level-headed appraisal of simple things done very well. Overall, it was a reassuring couple of days, both in terms of making me feel like we’re not alone at Croome in trying to do things differently, and because in many ways we’re ahead of the curve (as we should be.) We’re still finding our voice, perhaps, but we do have plenty to say, and will become more articulate over 2015, both through our Croome identity work with Polimekanos, but also our two main projects of the year, the story of the Lost Tapestries of Croome, and the sculptures in the Long Gallery.

You talkin' to me?

I’ve been thinking a lot about audiences/visitors/public/s recently, and trying to answer the question: ‘Who are we talking to?’ Of course, it’s not a simple question to answer as we’re talking to all sorts of audiences/visitors etc. Perhaps I should be asking: ‘Who do I want us to be talking to?’ But then that begs the question: ‘What do I want us to be saying?’

And then there’s the question: ‘How many audiences/visitors etc. can you talk to at once?’ The obvious answer might be: ‘One’, but even at the cinema there are different types of audience viewing a single film, let alone the different films that a cinema shows. I suppose those audiences etc. are varied because they want to get different things out of going to the cinema, and that’s the trick: to offer a single thing that appeals to, and satisfies, a range of audiences. But it’s not that straightforward. Cinemas just show films, theatres just plays and galleries just art. We're trying to 'show' lots of things.

We often talk about engaging ‘new audiences’, but do they exist? And what of existing audiences? A ‘new audience’ means a new audience to us – they’re not new new - but they probably already exist, it’s just that they’re going somewhere else for their enjoyment/engagement.