York's Arts Barge fights back against 'vanity project' label

How about Blood + Chocolate, in which hundreds of local actors took to the streets in 2013 to recreate the experience of York’s chocolate workers during the First World War?

Or for that matter, what about In Fog and Falling Snow, the story of the ‘Railway King’ George Hudson that opens at the NRM later this week and which features a cast of more than 200 local people?

Each of these ‘community’ productions has represented York at its very best: creative, enthusiastic, engaged and involving ordinary people young and old from all walks of life.

Would you call any of them ‘vanity projects’?

No, thought not.

So why is the Arts Barge a vanity project?

It is another community-based arts initiative in York that aims to create a floating arts and performance space on, you guessed it, a barge moored on the River Ouse. Admittedly, it is not on the same scale as a Blood + Chocolate, or a full-blown production of the mystery plays.

But a reclaimed barge as an arts centre for York: isn’t that a great idea?

Mike Kenny certainly thinks so. You might have heard of Mike: he’s the playwright who wrote, co-wrote or adapted the scripts for all the big community theatre projects mentioned above. And he also happens to be the patron of the Arts Barge.

To him, supporting the Arts Barge is a no-brainer. York has no arts centre: and there is something about a barge that makes it a great space to stage arts events, he says. “It’s the temporariness of the barge, the on-the-edge-ness of it, which encourages creativity.”

Sunday at The Arts Barge Riverside Festival, 2014. Photo: Kluens Photography

It certainly seemed to do so when the group of local performers, musicians and artists behind the Arts Barge idea rented a barge temporarily in 2011 and moored it beside Skeldergate Bridge.

There was a bar, food and events held day and night. It wasn’t elitist, snobby and just for ‘arty’ people, says Hannah West, the Arts Barge’s artistic director: it was for everybody. “There was a salsa night, a sing-along-a-film night, magic shows. We had two different magicians, and we put a partition on the barge, and had one magic show on one side, and one on the other side.” The barge was even turned into a theatre to stage a play, Knock!, written by Hannah’s son Kai. It was a dark, spooky, atmospheric play, and the barge suited it perfectly, Hannah says. “We did five performances in one night.”

The barge event was no one-off, however. Both before and since 2011, the people behind it have continued to stage Arts Barge events in whatever spaces they could beg, borrow or rent, while all the while dreaming of the day when could buy their own barge to act as a permanent floating arts centre for York.

Their first event was at the Clementhorpe Working Men’s Club in 2009. They hired a room, and put on a Jools Holland ‘Later’-style event in which there were different performances taking place on different stages set around the room. And what did the working men’s club think? “They thought it was really weird,” admits Hannah. “But they liked the fact that they ran out of beer.”

Since then, with the help of Arts Council funding, the Arts Barge has staged events at the York Boxing Club in Walmgate, and was a regular for several years at the Galtres Festival and at the York Festival of Rivers. These events were all bargeless, of course, all staged on dry land. But they served as showcases for what the group hoped to do once it got its own barge, says Hannah.

York’s previous Labour administration clearly liked the idea. In 2013 it made available £100,000 from the council’s Economic Investment Fund capital programme to enable the Arts Barge to buy its own barge. And that was when the problems began.

An initial £25,000 was handed over, and used to buy a disused grain barge moored at Rotherham: the Selby Tony.

The Selby Tony

But there was a backlash, says Jane Veysey, Hannah’s fellow artistic director at the project. Some people clearly weren’t happy at the idea of money being spent on a barge rather than on repairing potholes: even though the money came from a ring-fenced capital budget so would have had only a comparatively small inpact on council frontline spending.

Disheartened by the criticism, the Arts Barge team began to wonder whether they could raise the rest of the money they needed to do up the barge, get planning permission and a permanent mooring and bring it to York themselves, so that they wouldn’t need the remaining £75,000 of their council grant.

Then, when the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition took over in York, they suddenly found themselves being labelled as an example of a ‘vanity project’ in the new administration’s 12-point plan for governing the city.

“We know they were using that term as cannon fodder against Labour, and that they weren’t saying the arts themselves were about vanity,” says Hannah. “But that was what people understood when they read it.”

It was particularly hurtful because nobody from the Arts Barge project makes any money from it, they say: they all have jobs, and give their time to the Arts Barge for free.

Even worse, nobody from York’s new ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition even bothered finding out about the project before labelling it, adds Jane Veysey. “They have never come to ask what we do.”

They have now resolved that, unless they get the full support of councillors, they won’t try to claim the rest of the £75,000, but will seek to raise the money elsewhere.

They still need planning permission to moor the barge on the Ouse somewhere in the city centre, however.

Council officers themselves have suggested two possible sites: beside Tower Gardens, and at North Street opposite the Guildhall.

The Arts Barge team hope to put a planning application in soon.

So with or without further city council funding, the Selby Tony might hopefully one day soon still find a mooring in York as the arts centre the city badly needs.

For Mike Kenny, however, there is a broader point: one about our attitude towards funding the arts generally.

In a very real sense, culture and arts make us better people. They broaden our understanding of who we are and of the world we live in; they help us to understand and reflect upon the mistakes of the past, and to look ourselves in the eyes and resolve to try to do better in future.

“The arts are essential for a healthy society,” Mike says. “They’re not some kind of built-in treat that you allow if you can afford it.”

At the most cynical level, a vibrant arts scene can be a money-spinner, he says. “Where the arts go, people follow, creativity follows, businesses follow... money follows.”

But they are much more important than that. “They’re important for society itself,” Mike says. “People in fascist societies don’t give money to the arts. They take it away.”

Arts council boost

Arts Barge has just received £15,000 of Arts Council funding. The money will be used towards:

• Paying for performers and workshop leaders to provide free music, dance, arts and crafts workshops during the five-day Riverside Festival at the end of July and at the Great Yorkshire Fringe
• Attending a conference in Mons in Belgium so Arts Barge can become part of a Europe-wide arts barge network, Artways
• Admin costs and promotional material for the Riverside Festival and Great Yorkshire Fringe. Printing costs have been covered by local firm Inc Dot.

Arts Barge still needs to raise funds to bring its barge, the Selby Tony, to York, however. To find out more, to check out upcoming events, or to get involved, visit theartsbargeproject.com/wp/

What the politicians say

Conservative council leader Coun Chris Steward:

"I would be happy to meet with the operators of the Arts Barge to find out more about what they do. Whilst I have no doubt they are doing good things and as a council we must continue to support the arts unfortunately the way Labour funded it was wrong. Without providing councillors with information, any assessment of the benefits of the funding or cross party involvement, they simply allocated some money. These are times of tough budgets and that is money that could have been spent on frontline services. It is not how we would have spent the council’s money, but that in no way means the project is not a good one.”

Liberal Democrat executive member for leisure, culture and tourism Cllr Nigel Ayre:
“In the face of cuts to public spending ...the last Labour council had stark choices to make about where to spend public money. The Lib Dems called for basic services to be protected and areas such elderly care to be prioritised.
“The term vanity project came from the idea that the Labour group were prioritising spending projects designed to promote their image without reference to the merit of any actual project or to the need to deliver basic services .
“This was not an attempt to criticise projects like the Arts Barge, but an effort to make sure that money was spent where it was needed most.
“We do value the arts and will support them where possible. I am happy to meet with supporters of the project. However, when faced with tough choices where to spend money, it will not come at the expense of the most vulnerable in our city.”

Labour group leader, Cllr Dafydd Williams:
“The Lib Dems have such courage in their convictions that they now can’t even defend their previous opposition to this project.
“What they are saying is they only support ‘establishment’ arts funding like the museums, the Theatre Royal and the art gallery rather than smaller community-led schemes like this one. Their criticism has a hollow ring to it when you consider that arts barge has received a total of £25k, in 2013-14, when the others combined received nearly £1.5m. All are valid yet for some reason the smallest recipient is the one singled out for criticism by the Lib Dems. This had nothing to do with vanity, it was about supporting community level arts which for many would’ve been more accessible and affordable than other arts venues in the city.”