Vivacity

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE VIVACITY IN FIVE YEARS TIME?

KT: First of all, I’d like us to still be here! Let’s not beat about the bush, these are incredibly difficult financial times and there are other organisations in different cities, whose services are being reduced in size. We have actually grown in the last two years and I anticipate, and fully expect, Vivacity
to be bigger and stronger in the next five years. I see us as being financially more stable, I see us providing more services, and I actually see us – within that time frame – providing services to other councils beyond the Peterborough area.

SS: I think also that, in five years time, we’ll be able to offer more to Peterborough. I think that the cultural offerings in Peterborough will, by then, be of a higher standard and that there will be more variety. In terms of the services we offer, there will be an improved quality, much of which will be on a national scale so that people will actually come to Peterborough because we’re putting on things that are worth travelling for.

PETERBOROUGH ISN’T REALLY REGARDED AS A CENTRE OF CULTURE. DOES THAT MAKE VIVACITY’S CHALLENGE A GREATER ONE – HELPING TO CHANGE THAT PERCEPTION?

SS: I think that, within the council’s structure, culture got a bit strangled. It needed an organisation
that was free to take some risks, to be a bit more innovative and free to develop the quality of activities on offer. In a large bureaucratic stablishment that’s just too hard, and there weren’t any independent organisations that were able to take it on on behalf of the council. Since creating Vivacity, we’ve been able to lever much more national money into Peterborough than was ever possible before, simply because we’re an independent organisation and able to do independent cultural work in a way that couldn’t be funded before, because the Arts Council simply doesn’t fund local authorities. So being able to bring more money into the city has been an important part of what we do and, in five years time, the effects of that will be really noticeable.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO IMPROVE THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE IN PETERBOROUGH?

SS: We have a unique story in Peterborough which we need to pull together and sell. I think, up until now, we haven’t been terribly good at pulling together that package of what’s here in the city. We probably have something from every significant historic period, from the Jurassic Period to the Bronze Age and right the way through to the development of the New Town. I don’t think we’ve packaged that and sold a cohesive story very well so that’s something we can work on. In terms of art and theatre, Peterborough has a history of peaks and troughs; we’ve done some fabulous things but haven’t been very good at sustaining the peaks. I think the role that Vivacity can play is to have a look at those things that Peterborough has done really well, and engaged lots of people with, and use that as a platform to start building more of that kind of activity. And I think we’re learning a lot through the festivals that are held in the summer. The arts festival, for example, has really improved in terms of the artistic quality and performances within it. We’ve learned lots of lessons from that and we need to build on what we’ve learned. There is a programme in place for that and we are very much on that journey now. But it’s not just the festival – we’re now beginning to see the Key Theatre turning a significant corner. We’re not there yet but it really is starting to feel much more alive and much better used, and there’s much more variety in the kind of people using it. Our ambition is to have the Key Theatre buzzing from 8am until midnight every day. It’s a lovely space in an incredible location and I don’t ever want to see it with the lights out when it could be being used. For too long, Peterborough was saying “Oh, we can’t host that show because we only have a 400-seat theatre.” We have
to forget that attitude and start finding ways to make things happen. There’s a real buzz to the theatre now and there seems to be a real cultural awakening going on in Peterborough in general.’

SO DESPITE ALL THE CUTS TO COUNCIL BUDGETS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, THERE’S STILL ROOM FOR OPTIMISM IN PETERBOROUGH?

KT: Yes, we are optimistic. Obviously the austerity measures are still in place and we have to make sure that we use our resources very, very keenly. But we’re doing that so we just hope that the resources keep coming in so that Vivacity can keep doing an excellent job.