The challenge we now face is how to stay true to ethos of
genuine equality in our debate while at the same time taking recognition of the
fact that we are also in many other conversations, as a group, simultaneously. As a group we are also talking to the mainstream media, to Creative Scotland, to the
political system and to the general public. Whilst many in each of those groups
are interested enough to trawl the layers of communication in various media and
understand the nuanced debate, most will extract their information from the
mainstream media and, in the worst case, the headlines only.
Todays 'Creative Scotland accused of treating artists ‘like benefit scroungers’ as crisis summit held' is a complete disaster for us.
I believe that, as a sector, we need to build a working
relationship with the journalists that are reporting ‘The Creative Scotland Story’.
The majority of artists will have complex and well-formed critiques of the
modern mainstream media – about the dumbing down of dialogue and the
simplification of events into an ever re-cycled set of nursery storys….maybe?
We have two options…either we attempt to exclude the mainstream media from our
debate (censorship?....not our style?) or we must form a working relationship
with the media (like Creative Scotland and everyone else in this scenario).
At the moment we risk ‘our story’ being morphed into two
media archetypes together: ‘Celebrity relationship hits problems’ and ‘David
and Goliath’
Taking Ashley and Cheryl first…….the way this one goes is
that there is an initial throwing of accusations and hurt by the ‘injured
party’…..the public’s appetite is whetted for a fight….the media wants the
story to roll…nudges are given to both parties ‘psst…tell YOUR side of the
story’. We, the audience, start to hope for something genuinely dramatic to
happen (on camera preferably) – but what we forget, very quickly, is that this
is actually about two people trying to happy and support each other(well
possibly not in the Cheryl/Ashley example…but u get the point) – what THEY need
is to take time out and do some genuine reflection together and decide what is
best for them….NOT what will make the best headlines.
We have done the first shouting…the work of the letter to
Sir Sandy Crombie and Stramash etc al has been brilliantly effective in making
an opportunity for us to forge the future we all want…..lets not forget that
this is NOT about destroying Creative Scotland – we are artists and we believe
in what we do and want our country to have the best possible system to
encourage and grow creative practice for the benefit of everyone. I believe
that this is what Creative Scotland want too.
Moving to David and Goliath….we are not well served by this
archetype either. There is only one endpoint in that story – the giant falls.
And then what happens…we bring down Creative Scotland – what next….do we get on
a roll and think about forming a government? Not for me I’m afraid…. and for another
thing – I do not want the arts to be an underdog any more I want us to loud and
strong, confident of our worth in our society.
I believe we need to work fast and hard to pull back the
‘story’ (in the public mind) from ‘messy divorce’ and/or ‘plucky underdog
growls’. Journalists like Phil Miller, Joyce McMillan and Charlotte Higgins
have helped us get around the right tables with Creative Scotland and their
masters – we now need to reinforce to these folk that if they really do want to
continue to help us they need to genuinely understand what we want to achieve
here and then maybe they might even advise us on how we could use their media
to assist us in our goals.
Anyone up for an artists and journalists open space?
