The stifling, dead hand of bureaucracy … that is the reason Jo Duffy quit as Artistic Director of culture extravaganza, Ten Days on the Island …
This Hag learnt last night on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams whilst taking a little Green Fairy with culture-vulture mates.
And this morning Hag did a little research on the rather vague remembered facts …
And learnt …
The Ten Days’ board comprises:
Board of Directors
Chairman: Sir Guy Green
Secretary: Scott Dawkins
Board members:
Peter Althaus,
Bill Bleathman
Julia Farrell,
Noel Frankham,
Scott Gadd,
Jacqui Allen
Past Board Member Mark Kelleher (until July 2012).
Now to Hag Sir Guy is a dear old stick, but really darlink, hasn’t a clue about the arts. I would judge that Bill is not interested, Noel Frankham is there to push ‘contemporary art’.
And Scott Gadd … pause, reflect. Now that is incomprehensible, even to this old drunk. What for Green Fairy’s sake, does Mr Gadd know about The Arts? Perhaps he’s there to keep it all nice for the (dumb-it-down) Masters: John Hawkins, heritage landscapes, Scott Gadd, Graham Corney, Peter James and David Bedford
In Hag’s humble opinion, the original concept is flawed anyway …
If it is to continue to exist it should be an annual festival. A sprinkling of ‘culture’ every two years is not going to transform Swansea into Salzburg. Every other multi-arts festival in the country is annual.
And,
• The ‘Island’ notion is far too prescriptive and may be seen also as patronising. It excludes work from Europe, America, South America AND the entire Indian sub-continent. The organisers were drawing a long bow when they compared the UK to Tassie. How about this bulls…?: “Performers from the United Kingdom explore themes unique to island inhabitants: Isolation, reliance on others and how our actions impact on those around us.” So are we supposed to imagine that ‘experiences’ of Britain (Population 63 million) parallel those to Tasmania (Population 500,000).
• The name sounds like a sentence. We sentence you to Ten days on the Island.
• It’s touted as ‘international’. It’s no such thing. It’s a parochial festival peppered with a few deeply obscure internationals.
I reckon it pulled no more than a dozen or so paying customers from the mainland. I was told the board of the Australia Council came down and saw how their money was being spent. They were not amused.
My prescription: Re-build it, re-brand it or forget it.
There’s enough money (around $3 mill isn’t it?) there for two festivals.
Hag’s culture-vulture mates told me last night Hobart Baroque put on its L’isola disabitata ( TT here ) for a measly $350,000 — and got phenomenal international and interstate publicity.
And, the vultures told me, the ABC is broadcasting three performances and offering it internationally …
It just goes to prove … the best of anything is organic … it grows from the ground up. Remember Future Perfect ( http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/jurassic/adams.html ), the 50-odd artist protest at Forestry Tasmania sponsorship of Ten Days on the Island?; a brilliant alternative festival done on a shoestring and with Nobel Laureate Gunter Grass as patron.
It wasn’t imposed by a bunch of top-down remote bureaucrats with agendas and Masters to Please …
