Dear
Poetry Trust –
I
cancelled my Friends standing order, at your request, with a heavy heart. At least I think I did: there’s no record of
the cancellation in my account or of the order itself except that it was last
paid, appropriately, in November. If the
money arrives again next November, that’s too bad… Electronic bank transactions aren’t much good
for metaphors so I can’t help thinking that a cheque will fall on the doormat
at your Halesworth attic, the letterbox clatter echoing in the emptied office.
Thank
you for going ahead with the 2015 Festival despite accumulating financial and
other worries. Everyone who was there, packing
out Snape and Aldeburgh rooms of all sizes, will have been grateful
for that. Of course there were rumours. One of the things being
said was that you’d been encouraged by your sponsors to risk the ambitious move
to Snape, and perhaps they were now letting you down.
When
you made your announcement in December there was a predictable outpouring of dismay,
lamentation, support etc. From signed-up
Friends and supporters but also from people who don’t go to Aldeburgh, or only
occasionally, but still value the festival as a vital part of UK poetry
life.
Since
then it’s gone quiet but that doesn’t mean people aren’t still thinking and
talking about it: what’s going to happen?
I
haven’t tried to contact anyone for inside knowledge. I know that you the trustees (and maybe some
of the former staff?) are being careful about what you say – fair enough, any
comments would spread quickly. There is
a rumour going round that there either won’t be a festival at all in 2016 or it
will be very informal, symbolic, enough to prevent a total break in the
27-year-long chain.
Before
looking forward I want to go back – to your annual report & accounts for
2014/15 (up to March 2015), see here. On
the face of it, despite the loss of one major donor (the Garfield Weston
Foundation) and box office income not rising as hoped, your financial position
looks OK, with £270k income and £265k spend over the year… except that any
organisation (especially with low reserves) relying on Arts Council Grants for
the Arts funding and/or charitable donations is constantly on the edge of a
North Sea cliff.
While
showing appropriate caution about future funding, the plans suggest a certain
optimism. Your report (p8) set out an
ambitious fundraising programme, including a public appeal and a search for
major donors to complement Grants for the Arts money. This is matched by the ambition of the
artistic programme built around the Festival, which includes:
A year-round programme of events and
projects …a re-introduction of the Schools programme, an increased youth offer,
a move towards partnerships, and a widening of access to the benefits of contemporary
poetry, delivering a year-round live and digital programme, creative education opportunities,
courses, prizes and publications.
Clearly
this didn’t work out for various reasons, perhaps chiefly a combination of
staff changes and over-ambition? I don’t
know enough about this and it’s easy to be wise after the event. A
business guru would say: stick to your core competence, which in this case is –
DELIVERING
REALLY GOOD POETRY FESTIVALS YEAR AFTER YEAR.
Other
near-integral elements, part of the Aldeburgh brand, are the Aldeburgh Eight (though
as a former participant I’m biased) and the First Collection Prize. The rest sounds positive but isn’t
core though I’ve heard that the work you did with English teachers, helping
them teach poetry in schools, was really good.
Someone should be doing that.
By
now you may be asking, why am I writing to you?
Hardly to say, stick to the
Festival, since I’m sure you’ll already have worked that out. I think I’m writing into what has felt, since
Aldeburgh in November, like a vacuum. I
realise you must have decided that you need quiet time for your strategic
review, without intrusion from the poetry crowd: fair enough.
But
nature abhors a vacuum. I can’t fill
this one so I’m sending a letter into it. It’s a plea for communication.
Do
you know how much goodwill there is out there, and might it be a good idea to
have it working for you /with you? If
you could consult and involve us in your decisions – or at the very least,
update us on how your thoughts are evolving – you’d be repaid by Friends,
audiences and supporters feeling some ownership of the future Festival and
whatever shape it takes.
This
blog should be illustrated by a photo I failed to take in November, of a notice
on the sea side end of the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh saying that renovation
plans were being developed (which at the time made me wonder if a return there might
be an option). Anyway the Jubilee Hall website is now announcing public meetings in February, with presentations and
discussion on the future of the Hall. One
building can’t be compared to a whole, complex Poetry Trust, but still it seems
like a good idea.
While
writing this I’ve kept thinking about what I read in November on one of
the local
history signs by the sea path south of Aldeburgh towards the Martello tower. Fishing
families used to have houses there which would get flooded during sea
surges. They knew about this so their
houses were constructed accordingly. They
left the doors open on both sides so the sea washed through and back again. I’m not sure what this is a metaphor for
(there’s got to be one!) Perhaps it’s
about human / festival adaptability. Or
about letting us all in.
My
Aldeburgh friends (ie the ones I always go with) and I are thinking of booking
a stay in Aldeburgh around festival time.
If you’re not there we’ll hold our own festival under the stars, by/in
the sea, on the marshes and in the pub. Perhaps
others will come and do the same. But we
hope very much you will be there too.
All
the best
Fiona
All Festival photos by
Peter Everard Smith
