ART

Helen Legg took over as director of gargantuan artists’ complex Spike Island six months ago. Steve Wright pays a visit.

“May you live in interesting times” runs the (allegedly) ancient Chinese curse. Helen Legg is certainly living in interesting times, in both possible senses of the phrase. Previously curator at Birmingham’s world-famous Ikon gallery, Helen took over as director of Bristol’s vast artspace and artists’ community Spike Island in September last year. Within a month, George Osborne had announced the Coalition’s Spending Review, also known as The Biggest Cuts to UK Budget Since World War Two. And the arts, facing 30% cuts to their funding body Arts Council England – cuts which will start to bite next month – were big losers.

Not the easiest of introductions, Helen? “Things must continue: there’s no point sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves,” Spike’s new strategist-in-chief tells Venue. “If something positive can come out of this, it’s that organisations will be thinking very hard about what they do and how to make themselves more sustainable in the long term. It might also separate the wheat from the chaff artistically; good work will always be made and seen.”

In fact, Spike Island isn’t among Bristol’s most funding-dependent institutions – its Arts Council award for 2011-12 is £152,847, as compared with Bristol Old Vic’s £1,221,303 and Arnolfini’s £994,933. The artspace’s income is drawn from a range of sources: most comes from renting out workspace in the building, an enormous former tea-packing warehouse that dominates the eponymous Spike Island. Elsewhere, Spike goes to trusts, foundations and overseas agencies for extra support for individual projects – and also runs its own café and Spike Design, the South West’s largest incubator for small design firms. Nonetheless, that relatively small chunk of Arts Council dosh is still crucial, says Helen. “Spike Island is really successful at raising the majority of its own turnover, with just 22% coming from public funding, but what we get makes a huge difference. The gallery programme wouldn’t be possible without it, and studio rents would also have to rise.”

Helen was at Ikon for five years, during which time she produced exhibitions from some big names in world contemporary art – Ron Terada, Pavia and Gusmao, Damian Ortega, Darcy Lange and John Smith among others. She also worked on the development of Ikon Eastside, a second gallery-cum-performance space based in an ex-factory building in Birmingham’s formerly industrial suburb of Digbeth, which has since re-invented itself as a dynamic cultural quarter. On this evidence, Bristol’s art audiences can look forward to fruitful times down on Cumberland Road and, indeed, elsewhere.

So: Birmingham to Bristol. Culture shock, or seamless transition between cultural giants? “Bristol’s a beautiful city: telling people that I’d be moving here became boring very quickly, as the response was always the same – ‘Oh, Bristol’s lovely!’ Culturally, it’s highly regarded too; beyond its borders people do think of it as musically innovative, with a strong creative profile. In terms of the contemporary visual arts, Arnolfini, Picture This, Works/Projects and, of course, Spike Island are all well respected, although it’s the way artists have managed to generate their own activities and spaces that’s perhaps most commented on. There’s a sense that artists have been stronger than the institutions.”

Bristol is, she says, a very different sort of place in which to live and produce culture. “Birmingham was heavily bombed during the war and rebuilt in the 1960s and 70s, so many older buildings were lost. Now the city’s going through that cycle again, with 70s buildings being torn down and replaced. Architecturally, this leads to a pretty bland environment that lacks texture, and quality too, since few new buildings are designed to last. The opposite is true of Bristol: old buildings are well preserved here, although there’s a dearth of great contemporary architecture.” Bristle also distinguishes itself, she says, with its strong independent culture. “There are tons of shops and bars with individual identities, whereas Birmingham is completely blighted by chains.

“The thing I most miss, though, is Birmingham’s multiculturalism. It’s something I took completely for granted until moving to Bristol, where the mix really isn’t so evident. I realise now how special that is and the richness it brings to a place. Culturally, I think both cities are ambitious, although, of course, the cuts will impact significantly on what is possible over the next few years. I’m heartened by the way Mike Bennett [Bristol’s Director of Place-Making, interviewed in Venue issue 958] talks about promoting Bristol through its culture: recognising the role culture plays in improving quality of life and in making people want to visit, live and work in a city is really important, and while Birmingham paid lip service to it, it never committed to a long-term strategy.” And , from what you’ve seen thus far, does Bristol sell itself well culturally? “Probably not as well as it might.” 

Like most in the arts and beyond, Helen sees the recent cuts as a bad case of too much, too quickly. “I feel that the cuts have been too deep and too fast and that a plan for growth that needs to sit alongside them isn’t yet in place. It’s hard not to see the cuts as at least partly ideological. The arts have been hit particularly badly: Arts Council budget reductions will have to be passed onto organisations and therefore to artists and audiences; cuts to city councils will impact, and cuts to education at school and higher education levels will undermine the relationship of a whole generation with the arts. Philanthropy can’t fill this gap.”

She fears that the funding cuts for universities and, in turn, arts courses would harm the very (young) people that fuel organisations like Spike Island. “I think it’s a threat that needs to be recognised and addressed. Young people in education right now are the artists, designers, musicians, writers and curators of the future; they’re also the audiences of the future. If they aren’t being introduced to the arts now, when will they be? Some of my most memorable art experiences took place when I was a teenager. That’s when you fall in love with books and music and these things shape you. I wouldn’t want a single person to miss out on that.”

Can’t resist asking, Helen: what is good art, in your view? “Of course there are works around which critical opinion conforms, but the most interesting voice is always going to be the one that steps out of line and takes a different perspective. Good art for me is whatever makes me look at the world in a new way or challenges the way I think. It needs to do more than merely deliver information, and it’s often work that on a first encounter I’ll struggle with or actively dislike. If it grows on you, keeps coming back to you, then it’s worth paying attention to.”

And what are the excitements and frustrations of the new job? “The main frustrations are familiar: time and money. Spike Island is one of the country’s largest arts organisations and, of course, that costs money, no matter how careful and efficient we are. Like most of my colleagues I’ll be spending a huge amount of energy raising money. On the plus side, the cavernous and very beautiful gallery space is an exciting prospect and I’m looking forward to making my first exhibition there this spring [‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’, a solo show by Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman – an ambitious archive seeking to map the planet through thousands of digital images]. I also look forward to collaborating with colleagues working in other artforms across the city, something I found really rewarding in Birmingham.”

The building itself is a sufficiently inspiring challenge – particularly the impressive, snow-white exhibition spaces which, Venue suggests, have occasionally dwarfed certain exhibitions. “I’m a fan of buildings from the 1960s and I adore the curved concrete ceilings in the studios and the blocky frontage of the building as it stands. The south facing café is blissful when the sun shines and the gallery presents a really exciting challenge to artists. The spaces aren’t forgiving, but on the other hand they’re an opportunity for artists to work on a grand scale. All kinds of work can be accommodated, but shows do need careful planning and preparation if they’re going to work.”

Spike’s particular USP, Helen insists, is as a place where artists and the public can meet. “If you go for coffee in the café, chances are you’ll wind up sitting next to someone from the studios or a visiting artist who might be from anywhere in the world. The building is occupied by fantastically creative people who are producing new work and experimenting with new ideas every day. It’s the potential of this encounter between artists and audiences that interests me.”

SPIKE ISLAND 133 CUMBERLAND RD, BRISTOL, BS1 6UX. OPEN TUE-SUN 11AM-5PM. FFI: WWW.SPIKEISLAND.ORG.UK
 

Copyright Steve Wright 2011

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