HOW DO YOU JUDGE QUALITY?
Is it the number of people taking part, and their response?
Is it the number of audiences coming to watch, and their response?
Is it in the professional reviews/awards received?
Is it in the way the work is perceived by the wider cultural community?
Is it in the way the work tries new things/pushes the envelope/is bold?
Is it in the legacy?
Is it in how it makes you feel as an artist creating it?
It is all so highly subjective.
We all have favourite artists and books, and films, and fashion choices … and what one person likes, someone else doesn’t - so how on EARTH are we supposed to judge ‘quality’?
As someone who has run a small grassroots participatory theatre company for the past 23 years, I’ve seen monitoring increase more and more over the years, with tangible ways to measure impact and judge the ‘quality’ of what we do needed, in order to justify our funding (and place in the world)!
As someone who has run a small grassroots participatory theatre company for the past 23 years, I’ve also seen the disconnect between funders wanting to support the vital work of grassroots organisations, while also asking for a disproportionate level of monitoring from these organisations who just don't have the resources available.
Grassroots level organisations are led by a small, dedicated team, who multi-task and multi-role … from writing the bids to apply for the funds, to gathering evidence and writing the impact reports, to ensuring all necessary monitoring and safeguarding is in place, to recruitment and marketing … the list goes on – and all of this is on top of the actual delivery.
In all honestly, the ‘business’ of keeping a grassroots level organisation going, with all the expected ‘extras’ falling on the shoulders of (often) one person, (often) takes away from the joy of why we do what we do in the first place - as the time and energy given over to delivery of the actual project/art-form gets diminished … but (speaking from personal experience here) … the ‘quality’ doesn’t diminish for others involved (the participants, other artists, audience) – what I would argue DOES get diminished, is the quality of enjoyment, and a burn-out of practise, for the grassroots facilitator.
At a grassroots/freelance level, having ‘quality’ time and space to create shouldn’t be a luxury.
I’ve encountered freelance directors and facilitators who have been lucky enough to hone their craft in the comforts of a much larger organisation – an organisation that takes care of the funding, and the monitoring and the quality control, allowing the artist the space to create.
Although I would also argue this doesn’t always produce ‘quality’ … what’s that old saying … necessity is the mother of creation … and (again, speaking from personal experience), some of my past work that I am the most proud of – that I would deem the best ‘quality’, came from a lack of time and a lack of resources … it also came from a lack of needing to justify my impact and the ‘quality’ of what I was doing … again, it allowed me the luxury of time and space to create.
I’ve also witnessed and been involved in projects from ‘quality’ organisations, that look good on paper but have in reality been far from it … in fact, one of the driving factors for starting my own company was the experiences I had as a freelancer, going in to work on projects that ‘looked good on paper’ but were fundamentally flawed in their practice … and it’s usually down to (in my opinion) three fundamental issues:
1. lack of communication
2. lack of experience in the project management and leadership
3. lack of learning
Notice that none of these three steps judge the subjective ‘creative quality’ – it’s all about logistics! Which makes me think that we should be promoting and supporting Arts Administration and Cultural Project Management roles more. Developing people who are committed to enabling artists to do their best work, who understand the creative industries (which believe me – is important)!
(Side note – that doesn’t mean to say I’ve not experienced/witnessed bad practice from facilitators and artists … I have … but usually it’s down to inexperience and lack of mentoring … which is another fundamental flaw when it comes to the isolation and need of a mentoring network for freelance drama practitioners!).
So should I be so judgemental of people with a lack of experience - well, um - yes! If they’re tasked with doing a job, being paid to deliver a service, holding themselves up as a leader of ‘quality’ on a project - then yes, I’m going to hold you to a high standard … ESPECIALLY if you’re not willing to be flexible, learn and take responsibility for when things go wrong.
Major case in point: MANY years ago, I was employed as a freelance drama facilitator to run a 10-week course for 8 – 12 year old SEN children and their siblings. What I walked into was children aged from 3 – 16 years, with highly complex disabilities, and with parents believing it to be a respite group. Now I’ve done respite groups, which allow parents the opportunity to have time off, but certainly not without appropriate trained staff for children who require 1:1 medical support … so you can imagine my reaction to the project manager when I explained how insanely inappropriate and dangerous this would be on so many safeguarding levels (not to mention the different age range I had to accommodate vs what I was told to expect and plan for)! I did however have 4 young trainee teachers volunteering on the project and a drama therapist … but the project manager hid (yes hid) in her office and didn’t want to know about the challenges I was facing, didn’t help with the communication to parents, and basically left it up to me to organise. She was more worried about justifying numbers for her funders than delivering a project of ‘quality’. We got through the first day … but things only got worse from there … (including a clash with a birthday party that had been booked into the space at the same time as the weekly drama group)!
Now I would argue that I produced the best work I could given the circumstances, but that the overall quality of the project was diminished due to the three points I mentioned above:
Lack of Communication
Lack Project Management & Leadership
Lack of a Willingness to Learn
Now I’m not saying my own practice hasn’t had its issues or incidents over the years … of course it has – in fact, when I’m running training days now, all of my advice and activities are prefixed with details on my various ‘f**k ups’! Why? Because I have a ‘willingness to learn’!
This is perhaps the biggest issue for me. I can forgive a lack of communication and experience IF there is a willingness to learn. But we are now living in a culture where we are unable to fail. We can’t make (or admit to) mistakes. The funding model won’t allow it.
We have to hit our targets.
Exceed our expectations.
Demonstrate our impact.
Show the quality of our work.
As I've said time and time again - it’s exhausting (I think this must be the reoccurring theme of the industry right now - sheer exhaustion)!
So, how DO you judge quality?
I guess like most things, you can’t really put it into words, but you know it when you see it/experience it/feel it.
For me it’s the little things … it’s not about the reviews, or the industry taking notice, or the data I put into a funding report … it’s the comments made by someone who has taken part in one of my workshops/shows/projects, or witnessed it, or been surprised by it. The reaction from someone who has challenged themselves, or had the courage to try something new, who has come in with an expectation and left changed, has impacted on someone else, has created moments or memory that will linger and last … those small drops in the ocean that have the biggest impact - that’s how I judge the quality of my work.
If only the funders, and (I would argue) the wider cultural industry could see that … as so often this vital, memorable, ‘quality’ work we do as grassroots facilitators, flies under the radar.
Books I'm reading this month:
Multi-sensory Shakespeare & Specialised Communities,
by Sheila T Cavanagh
Devising Theatre: A Practical & Theoretical Handbook,
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