If it doesn't happen in London it Never Happened

Susan Moffat, 13 July 2012

It seems that fabulous work that happens in the regions is overlooked and not looked over, and it gauling that when similar work (sometimes inferior work) occurs in London it suddenly hits the headlines and regarded as fantastic innovative ground-breaking

etc etc…

Does it matter? Yes! So Why?

1) Because there is STILL an uneven distribution of resources and funds into London compared with the regions… Money is power and money talks… Perhaps that is one of the reasons why people are not talking about the fabulous innovative ground-breaking work that happens in the regions loudly enough or often enough

2) it is demoralising and dissapointing to talented creative and innovative artists and practitioners when important work being done is not (outside of London) is not acknowledged or recognised… particulary by the industry

Why are Headlines and Recognition important?

1) because it gives additoinal value to the work and it therefore has a better chance of of continuing, gaining further funding and therefore longevity

2)It helps to gererate interest and new partnerships and opportunities

3) it is important for the individual creatives and artisits to be valued and recognised

4) When work is acknowledged it attracts talented and creative people which is beneficial to the artisits already in a region and to the communities in the regions

5)When the work within a region is not recognised local talented artists get pulled towards London and so the cycle continues. This generates a talent drain from the regions into London.

Some addtitional comments

“there is a snobbery within the profession…actors who live outside London are not taken seriously… A Stoke on Trent based actorwent for an audition with a ‘London’ director in Liverpool and was asked what he did as a job… The director was amazed when he said ”I'm an actor"

I also spoke to a casting director based in Leeds. She said that the directors of Emmerdale think that the local actors they call for the small parts are not actors at all but are real farmers…

Please comment on any of the above and addtionally think of an answer to the question: What could be done about it?

One comment from the live discussion was ‘Cutting local government funding didn’t help'

Tags:

london, funding, Funding, creativity, Headlines, Innovation, London, Regions, Creativity, Talent-Drain, Longevity