Denna Jones: Community arts organisations show they can thrive among the cuts to government funding

‘BE BOLD” was my advice on these pages last year to Scottish arts organisations struggling in the wake of savage cuts to UK arts funding.

Creative Scotland’s sector initiatives are making positive changes, but austerity requires bold attitude be joined by bolshie entrepreneurial outlook. Successful organisations will leverage these skills with the next generation of corporate social responsibility – “Creating Shared Value” – and consider new models of incorporation as the permanent binder for new thinking.

North Edinburgh Arts (NEA), at Muirhouse, and Opera Holland Park, London, were my two case studies. What’s changed for these organisations in the last 12 months? Holland Park and Muirhouse are dissimilar in many ways, but the two organisations share a trait. Their directors are savvy pragmatists who realise “act, don’t react” is a central competency of shared value thinking. Create a sustainable strategy before public funding withers.

The borough of Kensington and Chelsea has subsidised Opera Holland Park with an annual grant of £750,000 since its creation in 1996. But by 2013 the opera plans to be an independent charitable company limited by guarantee. Michael Volpe, the CEO, says: “We’ve been pushing this for years. This is not a rescue plan, this is an entrepreneurial goal. We want to flourish, and we need the ability to make quick decisions. We want to give the company and our community a sense they can have an ownership and a stake in the company.”

In the autumn, Volpe will deliver an options paper and business plan to the council, which includes a final, reduced grant of £450,000 per annum for three years and transfer of physical assets. The council and opera are committed partners. Bet on their success.

NEA is closing the gap with Opera Holland Park. By 2013, its funding from City of Edinburgh Council is predicted to fall by 25 per cent from its 2007 peak. Director Kate Wimpress’s entrepreneurial ideas have created a climate where becoming a co-operative is being actively investigated by an interested board. Co-op values such as quality of life, education and training, and benefits distributed to community members in proportion to effort, fit well with NEA’s “shared value” outlook.

The garden at NEA is the hub of shared value thinking. In partnership with Edinburgh-based Gross Max Landscape Architects, the redesign will include a terracotta social enterprise pottery inspired by regional legacy but also by Scottish architect Mary Fraser Tytler Watts, whose terracotta Grade I-listed Watts Chapel in Surrey is an exemplar of sustainable community enterprise and participation.

“Our major purpose is accessibility,” says Volpe, and Wimpress agrees. Both directors are creating lean, community models based on access and participation. The “real alchemy” Volpe seeks is under way in North Edinburgh.

•  Denna Jones is Creative Scotland Futures Fellow at North Edinburgh Arts.