01 rethink comms 5 Stephens/Tarquini.qxp_Layout 1 10/07/2020 12:32 Page 1
the big rethink
RETHINK | COMMENTARIES
Chris Stephens Director, the Holburne Museum
During a recent conversation with the Holburne’s trustees, we agreed on the catch-phrase of the moment: ‘Nobody knows’. How long will this last? Nobody knows. Will visitors come in their droves, or mostly stay away? Nobody knows. Will we be back to normal before Christmas? Next year? Ever? Nobody knows. What will the ‘new normal’ look like?... And so on. The Covid-19 lockdown has been devastating for museums and galleries and I am sure there will be some who go to the wall as a result. But there have been many positives for our sector. I have been struck by the levels of cooperation and support. This is especially true locally, with Bath’s cultural organisations coming together to share ideas, concerns and opportunities, but also nationally and between different sectors of the economy. Many of us have moved activity online and found a ready and engaged audience. This was achieved in the absence of most staff and the energy and creativity of reduced teams has been exciting to watch.
Holly Tarquini Executive Director FilmBath
The situation for people who manage independent cinemas still looks pretty bleak. There are fears around opening in autumn and then being forced to close again if/when a second wave comes in the winter.
There is concern over wearing masks. If everyone in the cinema wears a mask that adds a powerful layer of protection to audience and staff, but feedback from audiences is that they don’t want to wear them. If there was a government directive that masks HAVE to be worn, that would be incredibly helpful – though of course masks would impacts on popcorn and snacks which is income cinemas rely on; there is no simple solution at the moment. We are looking into many different options for our November festival – the most exciting of which is a collaboration of regional film festivals, working together to produce an online festival as well as hosting physical events in our own areas. You’ll have to sign up to our newsletter to find out more about how we get on with this... If we can only sell tickets to a third, or even half the seats in the Odeon or The Little then we would make a loss on every screening: we are a small arts charity and we cannot run all our events at a loss. We usually sell out around 60–70 per cent of our films so this kind of reduced capacity would annihilate us. In lockdown I have been up-skilling like mad – learning how to 26 TheBATHMagazine 2020 212 | suMMer | issue XVIII TheBATHMagazine 2020 212 | suMMer | issue
There has been a recognition of the importance and value of institutions like the Holburne locally and nationally. I sense acceptance of the fact that Bath’s unique ecosystem of small museums is of real value to the visitor economy as well as to residents, and unquestionably the Arts Council and DCMS have recognised that independent museums who have found ways of operating without any public subsidy are the most at risk. For the Holburne, the most moving signal of our value was that our emergency crowdfunding appeal attracted hundreds of donations from people we did not know. When the BBC News posted a rather alarmist report of our situation on their website, we got over 200 donations in 24 hours. And that provided the most important reminder in these strange, reflective times: that museums are about people, individuals and communities. Without public funding, places like the Holburne rely on ticket sales for survival, but it’s not just about numbers, it is also about the depth of our impact. Art and museums really do matter to people at a visceral level, and they really do change people’s lives. Museums and galleries are where you encounter extraordinary things in ways that no virtual experience can emulate, and they are social spaces for shared wonderment, discussion and debate. Our enforced closure has helped us recognise our place in the community and the coincidence of this crisis with the renewed energy of the Black Lives Matter movement has emphasised how vital it is that that place is open to everyone. With our friends at the American Museum and the Roman Baths, we are finally welcoming back visitors and celebrating the opportunity to resume what we exist to do. Museums and galleries face a challenging future but I believe we approach it strengthened by a reinforced belief in the value of what we all do and energised by a true commitment to do it better and more inclusively. n • holburne.org
simulcast with streaming platforms using Skype as a multi-camera shoot. On 9 July we live-streamed our annual IMDb Script to Screen Award with three judges, 19 actors and a huge audience: much larger than we could have accommodated in Komedia, where we usually host the awards (watch this on our YouTube Channel). I love learning new skills, so although the process has been painful at times, it has also been exciting. The overarching aim of FilmBath is to ‘amplify diverse voices’, but our ability to fly directors, actors and writers around the world is limited. Lockdown has shown us that we don’t need to fly them here – we can include those voices in the festival with live digital links: it’s something we have been trialling for a couple of years, but this has galvanised us to do more. It seems likely that Coronavirus will affect everything we do for at least a year and cinemas are one of the more complicated areas to manage: we are all inside, close to one another, for at least 90 minutes. But Bath’s cinema managers are fantastic problem solvers and I am sure that solutions will be found. We have all been missing the cinema: the experience of sitting in the dark together and sensing how those around us are reacting to the film on screen is irreplaceable. It’s why, despite every generation doom mongering, neither radio, TV, video or streaming have killed cinema. Watching great films on a big screen with Dolby Surround sound, in a packed cinema is heaven: Netflix doesn’t come close. My optimistic vision is that the pandemic will ensure that the NHS is protected from privatisation; that education becomes properly funded; that we find new and better ways to support rough sleepers and homeless people; that institutions and individuals will acknowledge systemic racism and do everything possible to achieve equity; that the workers who really matter (nurses, care workers, teachers etc) become the most financially valued members of society and that we start adopting best practice rather than using essential services as a political football. The reason I can even imagine such a utopia is partly thanks to film which opens up the whole world to us and is such an elegant tool for exploring the possibilities of what we could be. n • filmbath.co.uk
