Inside the arts festival-navigating culture today

We know from studies such as the Cornerstones of Culture (Local Government Association, 2022) report that cultural infrastructure and engagement with culture contributes to community wellbeing, and that it can also help to combat isolation and loneliness — which, since covid, we are all much more aware of. We also know from data collated by organisations such as the Cultural Learning Alliance that engagement with culture in the education system has been dropping at a worryingly high rate over the past 10 years, presenting an ongoing challenge with regard to recruitment in the cultural industries. Relevant, too, is the Arts Council’s Let’s Create strategy, which calls into question both the position of Artistic Directors, and also the identity and core purpose of organisations.

My research into leadership and team dynamics within UK arts festivals considers all of these factors, all of which relate also to questions of inclusivity, accessibility and diversity. Beyond recruiting from an ever-shrinking pool of potential recruits, festivals then face the challenge of creating safe spaces where their teams feel like they belong — which in turn expands into creating a space where other members of the wider festival community also feel welcome. With the challenges relating to funding, festivals (along with other arts organisations) find themselves striving to jump through levelling-up hoops or to deliver projects that tick Let’s Create boxes — whilst simultaneously asking the questions of how these new activities align with their core purpose, how they retain their established identity for the outside world, and how they continue to present a clear, consistent vision internally.

We consider here the importance of good leadership practices, how teams retain strong communication links in an age of home-working, the power of the sense of belonging and the crucial issue of tackling wellbeing from the inside out. My research looks inside the festival eco-system, asks questions about what does and doesn’t work, and considers the external and internal factors that have a bearing on this.

Naomi Taylor is Creative Director at Chiltern Arts and a second-year PhD student at Birmingham City University. She holds a Collaborative Doctoral Award from Midlands4Cities for the project with the working title ‘Re-imagining the Arts Festival in Times of Crisis’, working in partnership with the British Arts Festivals Association. Her research focusses on festival team dynamics, and considers changes within the sector since the Covid-19 pandemic. Chiltern Arts runs an annual Festival in May in venues across the Chilterns and has recently announced its seventh season