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Paul Glinkowski on the circumstances around cultural barriers and how they can be breached or transformed.

Like the tidal bore that surges up the Severn estuary which separates Wales from South West England, conversations and ideas during the Quo Vadis event eddied and swirled unpredictably as the weekend unfolded. A relative stranger in ‘them thar parts’, I reflect here, with interest and imagination rather than with any presumed authority, on the thoughts that have lingered longest. All the quotations used are based on contributions or references made by participants of Quo Vadis.

“The sea was so broad, the fame of the Bore of the tide so formidable, the wind made the water so rough, and which was worse, the boats to carry over both man and horse appeared so very mean, that in short none of us cared to venture: so we came back'” Such was Daniel Defoe’s explanation – in a travelogue describing a Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain in the 1720s – of his failure to attempt a crossing of the river Severn from Gloucestershire to South Wales. Even in the eighteenth century then, artists could find it difficult to take the cross-border plunge.

Nearly three centuries later, the premise underlying Quo Vadis, that the cultural exchange between the two pre-eminent cities in south west Britain (Bristol and Cardiff) is unequal to their status and proximity, can hardly be explained either by the perils of the separating tides, or by the inadequacies of one of Europe’s most dysfunctional transport systems. What, then, are the circumstances which lead to or explain the apparent presence of cultural barriers? And how can such barriers be breached, to turn what might formerly have been a boundary to be avoided or ignored, into an inviting threshold to be crossed?

“The only reason people came over to Bristol from Cardiff was for shopping, the zoo and IKEA. But now Cardiff has its own IKEA'”
Michael Manson, Bristol-based local historian

The pursuit of commerce, exoticism and style have provided reason, it would seem, for the denizens of Cardiff and the South Wales valleys to be tempted over the Bristol Channel. But are there deep-rooted local cultural allegiances and, perhaps, long-standing suspicions or fears which set quite shallow limits to the cross-Channel engagement between the two localities?

“Two lands connected by a bridge so wide
And all the fares collected' at the English side.”
Max Boyce, latter-day bard, comedian and Welshman, commenting on the unilateral toll system which operates on the major road bridge across the Severn

Built on the proceeds of slavery, the prosperity of Bristol (and its promiscuous international trading links) in the seventeenth and eighteen centuries set it apart from the Welsh capital. Did this lead, on the Welsh side of the border, to the beginnings of a resentment and distrust of the wealth, power and cosmopolitanism of its most proximate English city? In Bristol, were the seeds being sown of an attitude of self-confident superiority which tended to regard the independent culture growing up in Wales as parochial and inward looking?

“Swansea is further away from Cardiff, and more expensive to get to than Bristol, but more traffic and collaboration happens there.”
Chris Brown, artist (Welsh-based, English-born)

Current patterns of cultural exchange between England and Wales are, perhaps, defined and determined by historically entrenched ways of thinking and behaving which have become embedded in the structures of the respective societies. These structural determinants tend to override other kinds of influence. In the case of artist-led space g39, for example, the cultural roots of exchange continue to be defined, primarily, by the national boundaries of the host country despite the influences brought into the organisation by artists with roots in England. The respective national funding and policy-making agencies which support cultural activity help to perpetuate this. I worked for seven years in the national office at Arts Council England and never spoke to, let alone met, a representative of the Arts Council of Wales. We are all part of a political entity (dare we say ‘nation’?) called the UK, yet it is not generally possible to get funding to tour cultural work across the borders of the UK’s constituent countries. You’re part of us, we love you really, but don’t expect to profit from our taxes'

“We are sheep shaggers, but we do show our work both locally and internationally; there’s not a problem of parochialism here.”
Philip Babot, artist (Welsh-born and based)

Does to be rooted (or rutted?) mean your horizons are necessarily limited or fixed? Clearly not. There is much cultural activity in Wales, particularly in the areas of live art and multi-media collaboration, which feeds on and contributes to international dialogue and exchange. The studios and project space tactileBOSCH, for example – an artist-led organisation which operates, without core funding, out of a residential suburb of Cardiff – has been highly successful in developing international projects, even with relatively out-of-the-way centres of production such as Sao Paolo and Havana.

Part of the reason for this may lie in the eagerness of a small country, with a recently devolved national parliament, to establish its credentials as a forward-thinking international player (Look at us! We too have artists who do weird and wonderful things!). Why invest in sending your artists through the tunnel or over the bridge to Bristol or London (from where they might not find their way back) when you can fund them to blow their artistic trumpet for Wales on a world stage?

In England, the issue is, perhaps, different (yet in some ways the same). The major challenge on this side of the border is to set up regional centres of culture from which international exchange can take place; to build the more robust foundations that are still lacking to enable a new artist-led federalism to flourish.

“Thinking of doing a project with LA is crazy. We should be more realistic about getting local things going that are more sustainable. Artist-led initiatives will come and go but, collectively, they will create a kind of artists’ economy that will continue longer term.”
Julian Claxton, Bristol-based artist and member of the Clean Collective that is planning a project with Los Angeles artists’ groups in autumn 2005.

London has for long enough exercised a disproportionate influence on the cultural and economic life of Britain. Now, fuelled by the coffers of the National Lottery, it seems that the time has arrived for our cultural assets to be spread further and wider. In a New Labour landscape of RDAs (Regional Development Agencies) and devolved legislatures, each fragment of the national architecture must have its cultural keystones. And keystones only hold up when they have an infrastructure to support them. New buildings aren’t enough; every Baltic and Lowry Centre needs its local scene of artists. Is it any coincidence that the Centre for Visual Arts in Cardiff came (September 1999) and went (November 2000) before g39, tactileBOSCH, Trace, et al had made an impact on the scene?

“You need artists who retain links to the locality but bring in people from outside: a home-grown scene but with continual external input and reach. You must have both internal and external focus and connections to allow a city-based scene to grow and develop.”
Kwong Lee, artist and co-director of Castlefield Gallery, Manchester

Some local scenes are getting there. Manchester is generally regarded as the English city outside of London which has travelled the furthest in recent years. It’s partly a generational thing. The young and thrusting artists graduating (and staying) in Manchester today have an older generation to look up to (and rebel against), who in turn have another generation to look up to (and rebel against). Three generations and you’re approaching a mature situation. The godfathers (and mothers) of the Manchester scene have built up their global networks but still look upon, and return to, Manchester as their cultural heimat. They don’t need to go to London to feel they have made it.

“You need to be prepared to leave existing networks and to constantly reposition yourself within the arts and wider social infrastructure. It’s not good enough to stay still; you must strive to position yourself at the top and on the inside.”
Gordon Dalton, artist and infiltrator

What though, of the cultural nomads whose allegiances and orientations instinctively shift as the tides of opportunity and energy ebb and flow; wandering minstrels, perhaps, of the cyber age? They too have their place in the story. And the boundaries they percolate are not just geographic. Increasingly, artists and artist-led organisations are positioning themselves as players in the development of localities. They are becoming savvy about the value to urban (and post-agricultural rural) planners of what is called ‘culture-led regeneration’. They are on the doorstep of the corridors of power. Their task, if they make it across the threshold, should be to promote what curator Charles Esche calls “The condition of thinking differently or of imagining things other than they are”.

If strangers are just friends that you haven’t yet met, then maybe barriers are just bores that you haven’t yet surfed.

Paul Glinkowski is a visual arts writer, researcher and consultant.
paulglink@btinternet.com

This article is part of a specially commissioned set of writing resulting from Quo Vadis, a NAN event devised by Chris Brown and Louise Short that took place in Cardiff and Bristol, 27-28 November 2004.

NAN facilitates exchange, dialogue, and collaboration amongst visual artists, whatever their practice and location. It offers a focus for critical exchange and feedback and through research and mapping seeks to develop greater awareness of the value of artists' initiatives and of their changing professional needs. For more information about NAN go to Networking networks or contact emilia.telese@a-n.co.uk

Paul Glinkowski

Paul Glinkowski is a freelance journalist, writer and arts consultant. From 1997 to 2003 he was a visual arts officer at Arts Council England (ACE), where he led on the development of a national programme of support for visual artists studios. He played a key role in the development of a series of three studios conferences in July 2003: Creating Places at Tate Modern, and Making Space and Opening Doors at Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield (see http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/information/publication_detail.php?sid=12&id=393&page=2 for conference report ‘Supporting artists’ workspace’). He also wrote the 2003 ACE publication Open Studios (see http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/documents/publications/282.pdf)

First published: a-n.co.uk February 2005