Henry Little

Alongside the arguments for the economic value of the arts, and the influence of the subsidised arts on the commercial arts sector, reading through this week’s issue, I’m struck by some powerful examples of partnership: in Margate between arts professionals and local people, and by the creative dialogue between artists, engineers and local communities on plans for the new bridge at Charmouth Beach on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. The collaboration between the eight festival directors in Edinburgh is further evidence of the power of the quality of partnership working, which is an increasingly important element of the future arts economy.

The Henley review of music education emphasised the importance of partnership working between schools, area music services and music organisations, to consistently deliver quality music making and listening opportunities for young people, framed within a National Music Plan.

Flexibility, entrepreneurialism and the willingness to adapt are key ingredients for successful collaborations. At Orchestras Live, partnership is at the heart of everything we do. We work with over 100 different partners from local authorities, music services, festivals, promoters and orchestras to bring orchestral music to underserved audiences and communities throughout England. Our partnerships depend upon a complex and co-dependent ecology linked to national and local Government investment. And they are championed by a strong degree of local ambition for the best marriage between excellent orchestral product and its audience.

At last week’s Association of British Orchestras conference we advocated for partnership working to be a priority if the orchestral sector is to survive and thrive. We explored how orchestral music can be an effective vehicle for community engagement and social cohesion, and in a climate when much of the new orchestral music written today fails to get beyond the first performance, we showed how dynamic relationships between orchestras and promoters can help new music find more performances and reach different and diverse audiences.

For me, one of the most heartening examples of partnership in practice is found in the relationship that we have helped to develop between voluntary music societies in Cumbria. Four promoters in Cockermouth, Keswick, Penrith and Egremont have worked with us since 2005 to bring orchestral programmes from several of our finest chamber orchestras to full and very appreciative audiences in a remote rural region. At a time of such uncertainty over ongoing investment and increasingly bad news emanating from several metropolitan councils making swingeing cuts to their cultural infrastructure, here is an example of how local voluntary support can be mobilised to offer inspirational artistic experience to audiences in rural areas through partnership working. Perhaps this is what the ‘Big Society’ is all about; but if these collaborations are to survive, that same quality of partnership between public investment and local ambition which fires the imagination in Margate and Dorset is essential.