In August this year I visited Craignish Village Hall in Ardfern, a beautiful, remote part of Argyll. The venue had been selected to host the Touring Network’s 2016 Spring Gathering, a three-day annual conference where promoters, performers and others interested in rural touring gather to share experiences, network and learn from each other. As the Touring Network’s new CEO, I was there to meet two local promoters and plan the event.
Craignish, as it happens, inspired a work-in-progress shown at the 2015 Spring Gathering. Fable, by the Flanagan Collective, had started life with a random pub conversation during a Highlands tour; the result was a thought-provoking show performed at the Edinburgh fringe and across Scotland. It is stories like this that make rural touring special – chance encounters inspiring work that feels absolutely connected to a place.
At Craignish Village Hall I was struck by something else that’s special about rural touring – the amount of time, effort and dedication the two promoters were able to put into the process, how well they knew their audience, and how important it was to them to create an event that was inclusive for all community members. Running the gathering would require all hands on deck, from setting up the space to manning the bar. It was quite a different approach to that of a professional venue, and very refreshing.
Community, connection and inclusion are crucial to rural touring – particularly as migration patterns change and rural populations get older. Our commitment to the Highlands and Islands is to support promoters in ways that empower them. As a central point of information and expertise, we can help them to finance, market and present touring shows, with funding, face-to-face support and advice – vital when you are short on time and resources. We also help create new shows locally by connecting artists with community groups; we are currently developing a significant new piece of work with Red Note Ensemble which will work with community choirs across the entire region.
Volunteer promoting requires dedication, time and skill. Promoters are often very busy members of the community with limited time and no formal training in the arts. As people inevitably move on, succession planning is a pressing issue, which we are now addressing with the launch of Get In, a free programme for 16-26 year olds that trains 20 young people each year to become volunteer promoters, working alongside existing promoters and engaging in a highly developed programme of mentoring, training and Go See opportunities. Other networks, notably North East Arts Touring (Neat), are similarly delivering a youth promoter scheme. Attracting younger audiences and promoters is crucial to sustaining the longevity of the network; as communities get older, programming inevitably reflects this. We want to ensure a range of programming which caters to a more diverse age group, and offers younger people chances to get involved in their communities.
Why is all this so important? Because I strongly believe everyone should have access to high-quality artistic experiences, regardless of location. Also, this kind of provision helps make rural locations more vibrant places to live, visit and work in; it should be an important part of any strategy to grow and maintain communities in remote locations.
In Scotland, connecting such geographically diverse regions is a huge challenge. The Touring Network represents half the landmass of Scotland with more than 400 volunteer promoters and more than 700 performances each year. And resources are ever more squeezed. Regular funding from Creative Scotland enables us to offer a planned programme of support and development, but as local authorities’ budgets are slashed and funding from trusts and foundations becomes more competitive, the more exciting and challenging projects are becoming harder to support.
Technology offers ways to meet some challenges, such as offering a central point of contact and information. The Touring Network has developed a subsidiary project, Innovation Lab, to harness the power of digital technology to connect and support performing artists, touring companies, promoters and venues to make high-quality, professional performance accessible to everyone.
The most significant project to date is Tourbook, a digital platform connecting performers and promoters across the region, allowing performers to market their work and promoters to access a wide range of available work. Currently running in beta, it will be re-launched in the new year with upgraded functionality allowing greater connectivity, visibility and information services. Tourbook has significant potential to be this central point of contact and information for Scotland, and indeed further afield.
We operate with minimum staff and overheads, and have adapted many services to be made available online. However face-to-face support cannot be replaced by technology. The pound-per-head cost of these interventions is high as the geographic spread makes it impossible to deliver services to large groups of promoters. Understanding the importance of these encounters, particularly for emerging promoters, is crucial to ongoing financial support. Without this type of support many promoters would feel they lacked the relevant experience to confidently present professional performances in such remote and basic venues.
Meanwhile, our Supported Programme addresses artistic, financial and geographical gaps within the network, providing a targeted approach to reduce financial and personal risk to promoters, and to enable performers to understand the complexities, restrictions and opportunities in rural touring. A good example is this month’s performances of The Devil’s Larder by Grid Iron, at the Rockfield Centre in Oban and at Melvich Hotel. Site-specific theatre presents particular challenges, and the Touring Network was essential in enabling these shows to happen, helping Grid Iron and emerging promoters to identify suitable venues and deal with production issues.
Promoter and performer networks exist to ensure that even the most isolated communities can access high quality artistic performances.
