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 b efore 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 cultu ral organisations coming t ogether 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 sim ple 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 O deon 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

There has been a recognition of the importance and value of ins titutions 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 a ppeal 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, pl aces like the Holburne rely o n 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, d iscussion 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 Aw ard 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 v oices’, but o ur 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 ci nemas are one of the more complicated areas to m anage: 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, despi te every generation d oom 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 a nd 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 u topia 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

Ian Stockley

Chief Executive Bath Festivals

As we approach four months since lockdown, Bath Festivals is well underway in planning a ‘new normal’, even with the challenge of the unknown and uncertainty still very much with us.

Lockdown came two weeks into our May 2020 Bath Festival sales period and ticket income, which now represents nearly 50 per cent of our total revenues, came to a grinding halt.

I n recent years we have moved to bring the wider community together with the festival, promoting the impact that music, words, books and performance can have on people’s lives. Ticket sales have risen from 30 per cent of revenues prior to the Literature and Music festivals being combined in 2017. The continuing reduction in public funding – whic h now represents eight per cent of total r evenues compared to 30 per cent in 2017 – together with the strategic direction of the board of trustees to programme a festival of the highest quality that appeals to a much wider part of our communities means that growing revenues through increasing ticket sales are essential to our survival.

The pandemic has hit the festivals very hard, at a critical point in o ur transition to a combined arts community festival w ith dramatically reduced public funding. However there are very definite positives that can, and we’re sure will, come out of this crisis. We have been hugely encouraged and immensely grateful for the generous financial support received from our audience and community.

The challenges remain great but we believe Bath Festivals can and will return stro nger, changing challenge into opportunity, as we once again play our part in contributing to what the arts bring to our communities. Improved communication and the openness to share ideas locally and nationally have been very evident and rewarding. New and strengthening existing partnerships will be key to the new normal.

Nobody yet knows when social distancing guidelines will be sufficiently relaxed to allow the return of full houses in venue h osted events. Audiences’ attitude to risk will vary, with many preferring to continue to experience the events virtually. It means we are looking to return with a ‘blended’ offer of physical and virtual events where we will dial up and down the virtual strand, as a certainty starts to return, as it surely will. Notifications of cancelling and closing down of events and v enues will start to be replaced by the opening up and announcement of new creative thinking and innovation in artistic planning. n

• bathfestivals.org.uk

“Bath Festivals can and will return stronger, changing challenge into opportunity, as we once again play our part in what the arts bring to our communities” Midge Ure OBE

Musician

At the end of February, I took the 1980 tour to New Zealand and Australia, stopping off at Dubai on the way back. When we got to New Zealand, news about this weird virus flying around China had just hit.

We managed to get around New Zealand and do some of the Australian shows, but venues were starting to reduce numbers. By the time we got to our last show in Perth, the gig was cancelled. Information was changing on an hourly basis and my big concern was... will we e ver get home? But we made it, and the family were all safe and sound – and then everything went on hold: the festivals, the follow-up tour I was planning for the autumn of this year – all gone. And we all had toilet roll concerns to deal with too!

Three months on, and I’ve got two albums on the go: the new one I’ve been working on for a couple of years, and a second orchestrated album that we’ve made i nroads into. To do that kind of thing, you don’t have to be in the same room as the people you’re working with; a lot of the creative process is one person in a box at the bottom of the garden fiddling with knobs and making noise – and I’m fairly used to that! But the novelty of singing into a webcam wears off very quickly so I’ve kitted out my studio for doing live broadcasts, videos, Q&As, that kind of thing, so I can carry on doing w hat I love doing.

Adaptability is key, at the moment. If you’re a creative soul, you’ll find a vehicle that gives you the platform to exercise all the talents you might have. Lots of creative people have taken the whole social media thing above and beyond videos of bands performing in the bathroom, and that’s been fabulous. But I miss touring! And I miss not being able t o go to a restaurant, or the cinema, or the theatre, too. T hank goodness, though, that the arts are finally getting some funding to support an industry that’s teetering right on the edge.

I think we will come out of all this, but we’re pre-empting it a bit too quickly. I’m not sure what the ‘new normal’ will be and I don’t think anything will ever be exactly as it was before March 2020. But the whole e xperience has given us an o pportunity to reboot our thoughts on climate change, and think about how business is conducted: do you really need to jump on a flight to Tokyo three times a month? We’ve all become very accustomed to doing Zoom meetings, talking to people anywhere on the planet and being able to see them; that’s something that I don't see going away.

I’m not venturing out and about yet – I’m p laying the game. P eople with infinitely more knowledge than I will ever have are telling me to stay in and be careful. If you could see a virus floating around, you might think twice about going out too. I’m waiting until science tells me that it’s safe to change my mind, not politicians. n

Betty Suchar

Chair of Management, BRLSI

How can you have an exciting visitor experience when the doors are shut? Or attract an audience to an event when the speaker isn’t allowed in the building?

These were just a couple of the problems BRLSI confronted on that fateful day in March 2020 when the government’s Covid-19 regulations came into play, forcing our institution to close its doors.

Overnight the building, which sees the comings and goings of up to a hundred people a day, was in lockdown and the revenue from putting on world-class talks and opening the building for use by educational, charita ble and commercial entities came to a frightening halt. But we were very lucky. A proud history of almost 200 years meant we were determined to find a way to keep going, taking advantage of new technologies that, frankly, we had been slow to adopt.

Instead of physical meetings, three intrepid volunteers rallied to record talks and upload them to YouTube. Next we began to offer live interviews with worl d-class speakers on s ubjects ranging from Wordsworth and Jane Austen to Determinism, Free Will, and Monetary Policy. Even better, our audiences could participate asking questions and giving their opinions. Buoyed by the results, we reached out further. Our regular Saturday coffee mornings were made possible via Zoom, we added fun quizzes, even our book club went online. We have been able to bring our com munity closer together w hile drawing in people from around the world.

Of course, we are still struggling. But with our handful of staff and our many volunteers, we are doing a pretty good job at keeping going. Through virtual offerings and Zoom meetings our operations have continued. Eventbrite are handling ticket sales for our live online events. Top of the chart so far was a Jane Austen talk with over 140 tickets sold – more people than can fit in our largest lecture room.

We are not sure when life will return to normal, but we are slowly starting to gear back up. A new exhibition inspired by our Instagram feature, Take 5, will go on show in August. Only a click away on our site is a gem of 3D photography introduced by Professor Ichthyosaurus. Another exciting project in the preparation phase will enab le our historic o bjects to be included on Google Arts and Culture, the latest go-to place for museum treasures.

As for room hire, we have the advantage of architecturally beautiful rooms that overlook Queen Square that are large enough to manage social distancing.

So BRLSI has survived yet another difficult period in its history and we look forward to sharing with the people of Bath not only what we are doing in 2020, but what we hope t o do for a bicentennial celebration in 2024. It should be very exciting and we welcome any help that members of our community are willing to give. BRLSI’s mission to offer knowledge and debate to the community could not have happened were it not for the talent and dedication shown by its community of volunteers. And for that we are grateful. n • brlsi.org

Nick Steel

Director of Bath Comedy Festival

Bath Comedy Festival relies entirely on ticket sales and corporate sponsorship, and neither of these have been forthcoming of late. However, our crowdfunding appeal is progressing extraordinarily well, considering the current proliferation of needy causes.

We also received some wel come support from B ath Council’s discretionary grant scheme, having fallen through all the gaps in the government schemes, and the overstretched Arts Council ran out of funds before getting round to us. So, the show will go on, just about. We are playing it by ear, and depending on the lifting or loosening of social gathering regulations, there may well be some one-off special events before Christmas. Widcombe So cial Club, one of our core venues, is being thoroughly s pruced up and made Covid-safe even as we speak. Keep an eye on our website for updates.

Next year’s festival should be well into the planning stages by now. Of course artists and managements are highly sympathetic to the situation, as are audiences. In fact most ticket holders for the non-existent sold-out 2020 shows have been willing to treat it as a postponement rather than a c ancellation. We aim to honour as many events as possible that were in the pipeline before the pandemic (oh, what a line-up we have in waiting!)

So, Bath Comedy Festival 2021 will rise Phoenix-like with the by-line “Now, where were we when we were so rudely interrupted?”, with the bonus of a whole load of year-round events starting as soon as we can run them.

We’re also looki ng forward to working with the new Bath I nstitute of Laughter next year. Set up by former Edinburgh Fringe boss, Hilary Strong, the institute will offer a range of practical workshops and creative labs aimed at people who sometimes miss out on opportunities to be funny. In particular, Hilary plans exciting workshops for children in sketch and stand-up comedy.

Widcombe Social Club (of which our esteemed d irector is l icensee, wearing one of his other hats), is gearing up to open for whatever is allowed by current rules, not least resurrecting the popular Friday Night Social – without live performance at the moment, but with added value supplied via the big screen TV, and new interesting Film Nights are due to be announced. The club scores well on the safety aspects expected from venues just now – being bl essed with large, light and airy f unction rooms it is a very attractive alternative to the cosy pubs and clubs.

Watch this space everyone – good things are coming – if you are not already on the mailing lists, visit our sites and sign up to be the first to know about the exciting new developments we’re working hard to bring to fruition.

See you all soon – let’s all look forward to plenty of laughs, drink s, and many happy times to come. n • bathcomedy.com; widcombesocialclub.co.uk

Danny Moar

Director of Theatre Royal Bath

It was a Theatre Royal Bath board meeting like no other… We had just begun the business section of the meeting on the evening of 16 March when the news came through that the Prime Minister had advised that it was unsafe to attend theatres due to the brewing coronavirus crisis.

In swift succession I took calls from the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End, where our production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit starring Jennifer Saunders had just opened to glowing reviews and a huge box office advance, a nd also from the producer of the stage version of Band of Gold, which was due to open its week-long residency at the Theatre Royal that evening. In both calls the message was the same – the show cannot go on. Overnight the entire UK theatre industry closed down. At the time of writing, three and a half months later, there is little certainty about when it will reopen. For all the obvious reason s, an activity which i nvolves hundreds of people gathered closely together in an indoor space was never going to be easy to reinstate.

“There is nothing that makes us appreciate something as much as the prospect of losing it”

Why then am I feeling so hopeful? It is not because I am looking forward to a new era of home-working and a quieter and more reflective approach to life. Far from it. It is the very noisy unpredictability of theatre, both on and off stage, that I enjoy the most. Rather, I am hopeful because, a lthough the many on-line theatrical offerings from various enterprising arts organisations have been appreciated, including by me, it is clear that they do not come close to replicating the real thing. The real thing in this case is rooted in the very thing that we are supposed to be avoiding –social proximity; in other words a group of people up there on stage telling a story to a nother (we hope larger!) group of p eople down there in the audience.

My firm prediction is that when we have found a way of either preventing, curing or living with the virus, audiences will rebound extremely strongly and we will continue as an industry the wonderful streak of form we were all enjoying before that fateful evening in March. After all, there is nothing that makes us appreciate something a s much a s the prospect of losing it. n

• theatreroyal.org.uk

Richard Wendorf

Director of the American Museum & Gardens

It all happened so quickly, didn't it? We had spent months preparing the American Museum & Gardens for its opening in mid-March. The new exhibition, on fashion and photography in the 1930s, had been handsomely mounted.

We had just won best in show in the 'Leisure and Tourism' category of the Bath Life Awards. We had recently been featured in two magazines, Gardens Illustrated and The English Garden. Our café had been renamed and one of its two rooms redecorated; the revised menu was ready to go. And yet, within a week of our opening, like every other cultural institutio n, w e were completely closed.

Lockdown imposed hardships of various kinds: cancelled trips and events, extended isolation, many colleagues on furlough, a skeleton crew working hard to keep the operation safe and secure. But lockdown also posed possibilities, the opportunity for the senior management team to think about how best to position the museum in what will be an altered financial and cultural land scape. Given that it will take some t ime – months if not years – for travel and visitation to return to anything like its previously normal state, what will work best?

We have been asking ourselves some fundamental questions: what do we do best, and how can we enhance those elements of our current offer? What is more peripheral to the mission and success of the museum, and can we prudently curtail or eli minate some of those activities? How will the s udden downturn and subsequent volatility in the financial markets affect our fiscal health? How will changes in the financial markets affect our development efforts? Should we alter our priorities for fundraising? How much more can we tighten our budgetary belt? Do we have the optimal organisational structure for reaching our goals? How can we take better a dvantage of our views, lawns, and g ardens to promote well-being? How can we ensure that we contribute fully to the life of the community, especially through the opening of our new Children’s Garden?

We have made progress in answering these questions, but we have just re-opened the museum and gardens, the pandemic is still with us, and the psychological effects will, I predict, stay with us for some ti me. The three Bath i nstitutions that are now open – The Holburne, The Roman Baths, and The American Museum – have worked closely together, and we have done everything we can to provide a safe, reassuring welcome to the thousands of people who are hungry for the stimulation and inspiration that museums and heritage sites provide. I doubt that this hunger will ever fade, but we do know that international tra vel to Bath will suffer.

All cultural institutions are now facing uncertain futures. It is our hope that those who support heritage and the arts will do the right thing in these straitened times. Make a visit. Become a member. Offer to volunteer. And yes, please make a financial contribution. In short, enjoy (and promote) one of the strongest cultural enclaves in the entire nation. n

• americanmuseum.o rg

Peter Andrews

Chair, Transition Bath

At Transition Bath we believe the future can be exciting and fulfilling. But in order to march, heads held high, into that glorious future we need to make some serious changes to how we live and we need to make them very, very soon.

Transition Bath is a local charity that sets out to build local resilience in the face of dwindling resources and climate change. We believe that this massive social experiment we are living through w ith the C ovid-19 pandemic has shown that some of the things we need to do to ensure the future really are better than what we did before. The big examples are the air quality in Bath and food.

When lockdown started the streets became deserted. The air became cleaner and things looked brighter as pollution levels had dropped. To walk or cycle about Bath was a joy. The city began to look like a place des erving of its Wo rld Heritage status again instead of a giant, noisome traffic jam.

If we shut off the centre of Bath to all but essential traffic what would happen? If instead of more traffic lights, and view cluttering signage junking up Queen Square we just banned traffic, would the world end? Would the tourists stop coming? Probably not, but the experience of getting around Bath would be better for t hem and for u s, the residents. And that is without mentioning the reduction in CO2 and NOX emissions that are eating away at our beautiful Georgian buildings and our children’s lungs.

When lockdown started an empty supermarket became a place to avoid. The supply chain we had all taken for granted looked more precarious. You couldn’t buy all the exotica you used to and some staples became hard to find. Th e vegetables existed, but they were in t he wrong place or there was no one to pick them.

At this point everyone looked to our local producers like Chris Rich and the Community Farm in Chew Valley. But they were Jerry Gill

Manager, Bath City FC

How good it felt to be back out on the grass at Twerton Park after we were finally given the green light that the playoffs will go ahead. ...It’s certainly been tough for all of us, with little purpose or reason to start the day off positively while on lockdown, but as football people we have found it very odd after the season was abruptly ended with us in such a strong position in the league.

As a group of staff we went about our work to keep the players fit both mentally and physically. Individual fitness programmes were sent out along with fitness testing schedules. We also set up staff and player Zoom meetings to check how everyone was doing. I was busy doing CPD hours to keep my coaching qualifications validated with online coursework and FA seminars. Hours have also been spent on game reflection, watching back clips of areas for us to develop and what we have been very good at. Going forward, we have to fall under the

overwhelmed and couldn’t keep pace. An allotment couldn’t be had for love or money and the evenings reverberated to the sound of spade on sod as people started to grow their own.

Here Bath showed it s best side. C ommunity initiatives sprang up to keep us in fresh produce, from the admirable Bath Veg Box project that has ended up supplying hundreds of people with good quality veg, to people shopping, sharing and helping each other out.

We have proved yet again that access to food is vital and if we want to avoid shortages like this we need a plan to grow more locally. We couldn’t get hold of strawberrie s from the other side of t he world whenever we wanted but when the local ones turned up from Cheddar how much sweeter they tasted.

The key to a lot of the good things that have happened is community. People helped others and they enjoyed it. They talked to their neighbours, worked out who needed help, got things done, made their neighbourhood a better, cleaner place to be.

When giving talks I like to e nd by asking my audience a couple of questions. Which would you rather have – the right to drive your car where you want, when you want, or clean air for your children to breathe? A society consisting of a resource-rich elite who make (and flout) the laws, or a more resilient society in which everyone has a stake and our great grandchildren can look forward to a bright future?

M any moons ago Bath declar ed itself a ‘Tr ansition City’ yet change comes with glacial slowness and not always for the better. We have to make the serious changes needed now and we need to hold to strict account those who want business as usual.

But some of those changes can really be rather fine. n

• transitionbath.org

National League pr otocol for training. All players and staff have to b e Covid-19 tested weekly along with regular temperature testing so we can monitor every individual closely. It is not the best experience in the world but we know it has to be done and to date we are all clear. Twerton Park is deep-cleansed, including equipment, pre and post sessions. This has already become our new normal and very much part of our rou tine.

We entered phase one of the return to training programme at the end of June, which means we were all social distancing as much as we could with sessions being based around technical and conditioning non-contact drills.

Our target is to get every player fit and at their peak for the playoff eliminator against Dorking at Twerton on 19 July. There will be a lot of hard work taking place on and off t he pitch.

A ll of the protocol demands – along with us having to extend player and staff contracts – comes at a huge cost to the football club. The idea to set up a Crowdfundraiser has proved key in making sure we can afford to participate. We set £35,000 as a fundraising target, the estimated cost to the club. As I write this piece I am overwhelmed by generosity of the fans and residents of Bath with our new total s itting at £48,000!

It’s not only our fans but sports and football fans all over the country and overseas that have kindly put their hands in their pockets and taken up one of our well-thought out package options.

Looking to the future we hope to see supporters back in Twerton park when it’s safe to do so. This is imperative for us as a football club to survive, with average attendances well o ver a thousand, with t he gate receipts allowing us to live as a club week to week.

For now the focus is on the pitch as we await 19 July where we will be doing all we can to put some smiles back on our supporters’ faces as we try to bring our wonderful club further success. n

• bathcityfc.com

Rev. Canon Guy Bridgewater

Rector of Bath Abbey

‘An Oasis of Peace for All, at the heart of the city’. As I look forward, that’s my big prayer for Bath Abbey. To be a place for both joyful thanksgiving and tender commemoration, when as a shared community we finally emerge from the pandemic.

...And looking further beyond, to be a beautiful ‘still centre’ for the reflection, prayer, and pastoral care that we’re going to need as much as ever. Much has been said about the ‘new normal’ of the post-Covid world. Even before the dreadful impact of the virus, the focus of city centres has of course been changing. For our visitors, and for many locals too, the centre of Bath is a stunning heritag e backdrop … chiefly for the important b usiness of ‘just mooching around’. Long may that continue!

Many of us do our serious shopping online, or else at some out-of-town retail park with parking. But can that seriously compete with a leisurely trawl around Bath’s beautiful streets, grabbing a coffee and rating the buskers with our friends, just soaking up the gorgeous atmosphere?

City centres these days are where we love to shop not just for stuff, but for experience. And Bath has it in spades. I just pray our fantastic businesses and attractions do survive this huge pandemic challenge, for they deserve to bounce back fast.

A s for Bath Abbey, it fits perfectly into that wider city scene, just as prominently as its architecture. We exist precisely to offer an experience of God’s love and gracious hospit ality; to be ‘an Oasis of Peace for All’.

A lso I pray that the abbey will be a beacon of light. Next year will see, God willing, the completion of the major Footprint restoration and exciting fit-out of the abbey building for the 21st century. It means we will be equipped to serve the people of Bath, and its visitors, better than ever.

This comes at a significant and timely moment. Many of us have found lockdown and the threat of the virus to be an a lmighty prompt, to reflect deeply upon the true values and priorities in life. Rethinking our approach to community, consumerism, life-work balance, Black Lives Matter, climate change … these issues are huge for all of us, whatever our faith or background. The abbey will be a wonderful, revitalised space in which to explore together the deep questions in ou r hearts.

S o I pray that Bath Abbey may work with others across our city to offer a beacon of light – a place to be enlightened by excellent public debates and lectures; illuminated by fabulous concerts and services, displays and exhibitions; inspired by godly wisdom and the shining lived examples of others around us.

One of the time-honoured tags of Bath Abbey is ‘The Lantern of the West’. May God’s li ght shine from the abbey, h elping equip and ready our city for the many challenges, and also the joyous celebrations, yet to come. n • bathabbey.org

Tom Boden

General Manager, National Trust Bath Portfolio

During lockdown we saw more people visiting the Bath Skyline, seeking solace in this wonderful landscape. We understand the importance of our beautiful local green spaces to the people of Bath and and the boost to wellbeing that they ca n provide.

Through the Bathscape Project, we will work with partners to manage our landscape so that people and nature can thrive, and together do all we can to address the climate and ecological emergency.

We reopened Dyrham Park and Prior Park Landscape Garden in June, using a b ooking system to manage safe numbers at our properties. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, showing how much our members value getting back to the places they love. Pre-booking could well become the norm and help us manage the flow of visitors in the future.

The closure of organisations during lockdown meant cultural interactions had to move online. I can’t wait for us to open the house at Dyrham so that visitors can see the c ollection with their own eyes and I’m looking forward to returning to the wonderful museums in Bath. I hope that this forced absence will encourage our community to value and support their local cultural organisations who have been hit particularly hard, especially as visitors from further afield might not return soon.

Lockdown has also given us time to reflect on the way we i nterpret the history of our properties, particularly in response to the Black Lives Matter campaign. Many National Trust places have direct and indirect links to slavery and colonialism, and we must do more to share these histories. At Dyrham Park, we have been working with local communities through partners Colonial Countryside since 2017 to explore and share its story, but we still have much more w ork to do.

We alth generated through the appalling exploitation of enslaved people also helped finance the building of Georgian Bath and we are working with partners to look at how the city, as a World Heritage Site, can address and not suppress this legacy. This work feels ever more vital and urgent to help our community to be inclusive, diverse, welcoming and resilient.

Looking back to those surreal days of full lockdown, I’m s truck that this very difficult experience also gave us space to slow down, notice nature, enjoy a traffic free city with clear skies and find new ways to connect with our neighbours. Octavia Hill, co-founder of the National Trust, recognised the importance of space when she wrote in 1875: “We all want quiet. We all want beauty… We all need space. Unless we have it we cannot reach that sense of quiet in which w hispers of better things come to us gently…”

I hope we can avoid returning to the frenetic pace of life before lockdown and reap the benefits of taking time, travelling less, connecting with nature and each other. Maybe this can lead us towards a greener, kinder and more sustainable future. n • nationaltrust.org.uk

Caroline Kay

Chief Executive, Bath Preservation Trust

Like most organisations Bath Preservation Trust has been hit very hard by the coronavirus crisis, which has had an immediate and lasting effect on the organisation. BPT closed its museums on 17 March, which meant an immediate loss of 90 per cent of our income.

An emergency team of trustees and staff prioritised a continuation of the planning and advocacy work of the Trust: the care and safety of our museum buildings and collections; the provision of online educational outreach; the initiating of fundraising and the seeking of grants; together with finance, personnel and governance, all carried out by a small temporary skeleton team.

We have used the furlough scheme heavily, and we have been successful in securing some of the grants we have applied for; at time of writ ing we are waiting to hear whether we have received National Heritage Lottery Fund Emergency funding. We have reviewed all spending and looked how the Trust can still aim to emerge from the crisis. Whatever happens, our resources have been severely depleted just keeping going.

Throughout the lockdown, the core advocacy and planning related work of the Trust has continued with staff working from home and with Zoom committee meetings, and we are committed to keep this going. Planning and listed building applications have not ceased coming forward and we wish to continue both to support householders with advice and also to contribute to the planning process via our expert volunteer panel. Some of the government’s announcements for planning liberalisations may be welcome, but we will always strive within t he planning system to champion the integrity and authenticity of the historic environment in a way that is also responsive to change.

For our museums it has been harder. Our – and others’ – digital Kathryn Davis

Chief Executive Officer, Visit Bath

As Bath’s tourism industry starts to re-open and businesses in our hospitality and visitor attraction sector begin to navigate the ‘new normal’, we are looking forward to welcoming visitors back. What we do know is that the reopening will be gradual for many –slow and steady for our visitor experiences between now and next spring. Some are open and ready to go, others will hold back and wait to learn from the operation in the new environment. It might be some time before we start to see our long-haul international visitors returning, so domestic tourism, and our regional audience, will be key to support ing the local economy in the immediate short-term. E ncouraging residents back into the city with their friends and family to make the most of special offers and incentives is a priority; for

offers have been a small window on our work during lockdown but heritage and museums are about real objects in authentic spaces. Whether this is exemplified by a John Wood building such as the Circus, or John Wood ’s actual drawing instruments with which he may have drawn the Circus’s designs, a 2D computer image is not the same as the real thing.

Though lockdown is now easing, museums have only just been given permission to open, and developing a ‘social distancing’ model of opening in our small, essentially domestic museums is challenging in its own right and still more so at staffing levels that are viable. The to urist market is not predicted to recover for two or three years and domestic tourists are focusing mostly on outdoor offers.

We are nevertheless determined to get something moving in the ‘new normal’. Wehope to trial a Covid-secure opening of No 1 Royal Crescent in August: to trial some garden stargazing events at the Herschel Museum of Astronomy, supported by the Herschel Society, later in July; and w e continue to deliver the lottery project for conservation and re-interpretation of Beckford’s Tower in its landscape. We would encourage you to join us: we will not open the doors if we felt we could not do this safely and enjoyably for visitors.

We know that whatever happens we will have to continue to be adaptable in how we respond to the changing world around us. Our focus will remain on our dual c haritable purpose of protection of heritage and landscape and education through museums. Bath Preservation Trust survived World War II, the Sack of Bath and multiple recessions – we are determined to stay part of Bath’s heritage scene for some time to come. n

• bath-preservation-trust.org.uk

example, guests of Discovery Card holders and B&NES residents are able to receive a 25 per cent discount on entry tickets for the Roman Baths.

We have been working closely in a partnership with Bath Business Improv ement District and Bath and North East Somerset Council d eveloping specific marketing messages aimed at locals, day visitors and those inspired to stay in the area on a short break or holiday. We have also been collaborating closely with national partners, working towards participation in domestic campaigns and supporting businesses to participate in the Visit England ‘Good to Go’ programme, giving co nsumers and staff confidence in business o peration.

We know there is a long recovery road ahead, but we have the reassurance of the quality of the tourism and hospitality businesses in Bath and beyond, so many of whom have worked hard to adapt their operation in order to continue trading during lockdown and reopening into a challenging environment. Some businesses will reopen with a fresh face, as a numb er of major refurbishment p rogrammes are completed. There are also a number of future developments in the pipeline with future new openings next year including Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein and The World Heritage Centre, all of which will continue to inspire visitors to visit Bath – the beautiful city, local towns and villages and the stunning countryside landscape that surrounds. n

• visitbath.co.u k

Mike Killpartrick

Senior Partner, Ellis and Killpartrick

It’s now over four months since the world changed for all of us, and as an optician and business owner contracted to NHS England we, like everyone else, have had to massively adjust both the ways we do things and the way we think.

Advice and guidelines from the government and the optical regulatory bodies has been an ongoing and ever-developing process as we discover how little we really understand about the effects of Covid-19 and how it is transmitted.

Should we be surprised that this has happened? Not really, and I certainly became interested in the possibility of pandemics when still at school after learning about the 1918 Spanish flu which caused more deaths than all the deaths from the First World War. The more I read the more it became clear how little we understand about pandemics and also the evidence for other previous pandemics that have occurred throughout recorded history.

So, in reality, it was never a question of whether, but when such an event would occur again, really no different to other catastrophes which have occurred throughout earth’s history such as asteroid strikes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Clearly this time we could also predict more rapid global transmission with t he popularity of mass-population air travel. Allison Herbert

Chief Executive Bath Bid

At the BID, we have been learning to adapt and support others to adapt their business model to the new constraints on the high street. We have provided practical help with social distancing and hygiene measures – providing rainbow floor stickers, hand sanitiser and cleaning services and sharing all the best practice guidance so that the city is able to continue to welcome people.

We anticipate that these measures will stay around until we have a widely available vaccine. As the lockdown has been easing off, we have seen the footfall counts increasing steadily, but we are still a long way from last year’s figures and the city’s businesses need local support as they take their first steps towards recovery. Saturday 4 July was a good day for Milsom Street, and as the restaurants are opening again we anticipate an uplift in evening footfall. The reopening of the Roman Baths and the Holburne make up the final element for visitors to choo se Bath for their day or weekend visit and we are working closely with Visit Bath to ensure that people are aware of all that Bath has to offer in these post-Covid times. Changes in the road layouts will make it easier for pedestrians and we would hope that the utilitarian style will give way to more appealing street furniture with planters, seating and attractive bollards replacing the

At the onset of lockdown and classified as ‘vulnerable’ because of my age I decided I would be more usefully occupied by selfisolating in our practice. This enabled me to deal with potential emergencies by learning ‘remote triaging’ to try to ensure as far as possible that only real emergencies were sent to the hospital. This was just as well as within the first w eek a patient presented new to the practice who was found to have a retinal detachment who was fortunately dealt with very promptly, being seen with 24 hours by a retinal specialist.

With all our staff furloughed I was taken completely out of my comfort zone, having to learn lots of new front desk and administrative skills, including how to take payments using a credit card machine. Manning the phone sing le-handedly was certainly also a challenge and dealing with patients running out of contact lenses and breaking their only pair of glasses was at times interesting!

Gradually, as restrictions have been eased, we have started to unfurlough staff and we are are now allowed to see all patients, both NHS and private. So life returns to a kind of normal, “life, but not as we know it” to paraphrase Spock’s f amous Star Trek line! n

• ellisandkillpartrick.com

red and white plastic. There is an appetite in the city for a wellmanaged public realm which reflects the city’s role and reputation.

The high streets haves been evolving for a few years, and it would seem that the recent crisis has precipitated some of the changes and brought them to the attention of the public. Of those businesses which were struggling pre-Covid, many, unfortunately, won’t be able to survive, or will have to have a big rethink as to how they trade and we anticipate that the city will look different over the coming months.

Before Covid, online shopping was around 20 per cent of total retail sales, but during April and May that figure went up to over 30 per cent. That leaves a lot of shopping still being done in person, but our challenge is how to make it ‘easy’ for people and blend the offline and onli ne presence of our shops. There is an opportunity to make it easier to buy the size and colour you want and have it delivered to your workplace, without losing the vibrancy of physical premises.

Places are becoming more focused on their social activity and what they offer in the way of a ‘lifestyle’, rather than just ‘things’. Successful retailers will earn a place in people’s hearts and become a part of their lifestyle. Brands which have engaged online with a personality during the Covid crisis are coming out of it successfully since reopening. Bath can learn from this. We have a lot of advantages as a lifestyle destination offering culture, historical discovery, well-being, green spaces and nature as well as shopping and eating, and a shared communication of these assets will also be crucial to the city’s succes.

Longer term, there is a need for the city to consider its community and its role as a hub for the region. Access to the city remains a challenge for employees of our levy payer businesses and this will intensify as we adapt to a cleaner, greener transport model. Alongside that, we are working with the business community and education bodies to understand how the city can evolve a wide r range of employment opportunities for its citizens.

We have also had the chance to take stock and rediscover some of what’s around us – ‘live like a local and explore like a tourist’. Here at the BID we are hoping that this means that people will spend more of their money locally, and that people’s lives are a bit more communityfocused, with the ‘hub’ of the community being the high street. n • bathbi d.co.uk