THE director of Scotland’s leading light festival has spoken of the “uphill battle” to persuade politicians and business people to recognise the value of investing in culture.
His comments come ahead of Aberdeen’s Spectra festival which returns next month after a year’s absence.
The event will include the Catalyst Conference with the theme “Culture is not a Luxury” and will bring together pioneers within the arts from the Nordic countries, Scotland and the rest of the UK.
The festival itself lasts for three days with free artworks from acclaimed UK and international artists lighting up the city.
It began in 2015 and was voted a success after attracting 35,000 visitors in its first year. Aberdeen City Council has now renewed the festival contract for another five years with organisers Curated Place.
READ MORE: Manipulate festival celebrates physical theatre, puppetry and animated film
Director Andy Brydon said it had taken the first few years of the festival to develop a stable platform for an event unique to the city but praised the council’s cultural team for their support.
He added that the renewal of the contract would enable the company to employ a full-time team in Aberdeen and expand opportunities to deliver more year-round activity in the city.
However, he said: “It is still an uphill battle to get the support of many political and business peers to recognise the value of investing in the cultural infrastructure, particularly those who have until recently seen more immediate returns on investments in the city’s high-street economy.
“But as the high street changes, as retail dies a slow death and as Aberdeen shifts to a new economy that is looking beyond the energy sector, it is essential that leaders – whether events, organisations or individuals – in the cultural sector start to promote and fight for our place in the city as the essential drivers of the city not just as the decoration over the economy.”
Brydon said the conference would explore how the value of culture and creativity could be shifted to the forefront as towns cease to be merely a centre for retail and commerce and are required to become places where creativity, art and culture are essential to their future.
READ MORE: Marchmont House hosting a '21st-century' celebration of textiles
“This is a chance to share ideas and develop networks and there will be representatives there ready to connect delegates to overseas projects, programmes and funding, providing a great opportunity for arts organisations to internationalise their partnerships,” Brydon said.
The speakers will share their experience of creating and sustaining meaningful cultural programmes that have a demonstrable impact beyond the arts.
They include Adele Patrick, founder of Glasgow Women’s Library, Helene Ødegaard, Stavanger Kommune Smart Cities arts advisor, and Kim Simpson, curator and producer of Scotland in Brussels 2019.
They will explore the hidden benefits or true value culture brings to the city’s economy, identity and well-being. The conference will promote culture as a human right and map out strategies to cement culture as a “must-have” for Aberdeen.
“They will be able to share their vast experience with us and hopefully serve as a catalyst for future projects as we look to continue growing Aberdeen’s vibrant cultural offering,” said Councillor Marie Boulton, Aberdeen City Council culture spokesperson.
“Every year, Spectra lights up Aberdeen with fantastic artworks and the Spectra conference will also be lighting up the city with ideas, talks and challenges, igniting our creativity and serving as an important focus for Scotland’s culture sector, while the main event happens in the streets around the city centre.”
READ MORE: Unseen Alasdair Gray work to be displayed at Glasgow Print Studio
The conference will take place on February 14 and 15 in the newly refurbished Music Hall.
Spectra runs from February 13-16 and this year’s festival is inspired by the Year of Scotland’s Coasts and Waters and includes artists Designs in Air, Heinrich and Palmer, Seb Lee-Delisle and Sara Stroudý.
Richard William Wheater’s new commission for Spectra will be an industrial recreation of the Aberdeen coastal climate descending on the city as neon rain on an epic scale, while award-winning artist Seb Lee-Delisle will stage Marine Flares, a newly commissioned large-scale light installation.
Computer-generated fireworks will be projected on to the front of Marischal College using state-of-the-art lasers.
In a new co-commission between the RSPB and Spectra, Double Take, the Scottish company specialising in creating immersive visual experiences will create a new projection bringing the sounds and sights of Aberdeen’s Harbour to the city centre.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here