Cultural leaders in a globalised world – Tate Liverpool, 23 January 08
On the face of it, said Jack Lohman, Director of the Museum of London, when opening the ‘Cultural Leaders in a Globalised World’ debate. The photographs produced by Magnum photographers would appear a perfect example of globally-aware work. They were clearly humane, persuasive, and expressive. But look more deeply and, he argued, a different aspect would present itself - a persistent sense of the outsider, a quality of exoticism, a sense of looking at ‘the other’. In short, he concluded, Magnum’s internationalism was illusory for it had been affected by photographers’ own cultural conditioning.
The question of connections across cultures lay at the heart of this Dialogue. All four speakers spoke strongly for the need for them, but the problems of attaining it meaningfully and appropriately exercised both them and the audience at large. Discussion brought up many issues.
· Might partnerships across cultures be possible?
· Is there a commonality or an area of possible sharing?
· Does an imbalance of expertise make a partnership invalid?
· When different value systems collide, could there, or should there, be compromise?
Everyone acknowledged the need to rethink the whole system of global connections in the light of the present-day world. For Lohman, it meant that museums should emerge from the storeroom and get on the road with their collections, and respond to major themes like development. Yvonne Ike, Head of J P Morgan West Africa advised policymakers to shift their view from the conventional targets of the booming economies of the BRIC world, of Brazil, Russia, India and China. A wider view would definitely yield dividend agreed Yvette Vaughan Jones, Director of Visiting Arts. The N11 countries , singled out by Goldman Sachs as likely major players of the future – all offered a different and distinctive potential. The eleven N11 countries - all had a complexity that would make engagement with them both diverse and extremely creative. But operating globally, said Ummaya Abu-Hanna, the Cultural Diversity Coordinator of the Finnish National Gallery, required a change in mindset; it involved acts of respect that could be as simple as starting to learn other peoples’ languages.
‘Language’, participants agreed, could be taken metaphorically as well as literally. It could mean – as Lohman had indicated – an awareness of the way in which ones own values and way of thinking were relative rather than absolute. Thinking and acting globally meant, said Lola Young (the dialogue’s Chair) a shift from the more common and accepted forms of ‘internationalism’. A number of people in the audience had a broad experience of working across cultures, and helped to concoct the start of a profile for global connections.
· It needs a readiness to be open, but also to welcome the chance to shed some of one’s preconceptions. ‘Travelling with baggage starts to weigh on you when you are on someone else’s pitch,’ reported one participant.
· It needs the flexibility and the ability to look ahead and to respond to new geo-political realities.
· It needs the realisation that culture in other countries might not always be immediately recognisable or be cast in such familiar settings. Arts centres are uncommon in West Africa, instanced Yvette Vaughan Jones, where culture makes its major base in museums and universities.
· It needs empathy, and the ability to step into another’s shoes. ‘Listening back,’ said one person, citing the way in which Australian aborigines aim to pay attention.
· Lastly, while it needs a clear realisation of ones own ‘cultural filters’, this in no way implies surrendering ones own values. Faced with dilemmas where cultures might clash, ones baseline should be ‘clarity and honesty of intention’.
Looked at from the other side, culture brings very distinctive strengths to the mix. Because it springs from the imagination, it has a built-in tendency towards empathy and intuition. It understands complexity – it sees the danger of the belief that ‘there is a single narrative’: artists themselves are at home with the subtlety and uncertainty of multiple narratives. They are explorers and questioners and take no barriers for granted. A risky business, commented Ummaya Abu-Hanna – and so it should be. If artists do not have a 20% failure rate, she said firmly, there was something wrong.
The future has to be through partnerships, but partnerships where the rules of engagement demand a very particular approach. It cannot be a matter of simple exchanges but rather of ongoing relationships over time in which nothing is set in stone and everybody accepts that their own stances will be likely to change. Diversity no longer fits into boxes, said Abu-Hanna. The broad panorama of shifting populations and greater global connections means that multiple identities are becoming more and more common. In the new scenario, culture and cultural leadership, have a very poignant role to play.
For further reading please refer to 'Getting out into the world – and staying there' by Jack Lohman attached to this page.
