Unrecognised investment? Nobody ever communicates!

Using community infrastructure for arts and culture


It is generally known that many minority communities have been slowly but surely developing new, high quality infrastructure for their religious and community programmes. There are excellent examples of bold and innovative projects such as ‘The Peepul Tree’ in Leicester where the largely Gujarati community has won acclaim for successfully developing a major capital programme that has created new capacity and generated opportunities for cultural producers and audiences from many backgrounds. A visit to the Peepul Tree project would be timely; it would seem that there is a lot to learn and report. In the early days a ‘rumour mill’ was very active suggesting that the project was opposed by several parties. Was this indeed the case and if so, why?


However, almost every major city in the country will have a Hindu or Sikh temple and also a mosque where new capacity can offer ‘acceptable’ cultural programming. For example, any accommodation connected to a Sikh temple may be used for suitable programming but smoking and the consumption non-vegetarian food is always forbidden. It is only right and fair that religious places and some of the multi-use buildings are used to offer culture that is acceptable to the owners . However, there are also concerns that opportunities are being missed and that existing capacity is not being creatively used at a time when communities are seeking more funding for new cultural facilities. What are the constraints? Where is the problem?


Management boards of minority-led community centres have the prerogative; they must make the choices about the type of provision that their members need. However, there is a need to highlight the choices available to community leaders- how they may be able to use informal volunteering programmes to attract internal talent as well as create new audiences. However, a review of using community infrastructure to create new cultural product may also be helpful. The evidence from audience research seems to suggest that in the case of South Asian cultural experience, many community-led annual celebrations of Diwali, Vaisakhi or Eid may also need to be reviewed. There is some concern that audience interest in ‘more of the same’ Diwali nights may be declining and that the contribution of the informal artists should not be taken for granted. There is pressure for change especially where the quality of output needs to be upgraded.


Community leaders should benefit from new funding opportunities as they explore the scope for replacing ‘tired’ and ‘Bollywoody’ cultural escapades with home grown projects. However, where is the pressure for change coming from? This is quite clear and needs urgent investigation. More on this some other time.