Management
My initial involvement in Beaford’s management began with a financial crisis, for John Lane’s former pupil and later assistant at Beaford, Harland Walshaw, had for the past two or three years run an exciting programme, but at an unsustainable cost. Solvency was regained only through the sale of the house originally built by the Dartington Hall Trustees for John Lane and his family and latterly used as an annexe for the residential courses.
For a year or so, the helm was temporarily taken by a locally-based poet, travel writer and playwright, Paul Hyland. In his gentle, pipe-smoking manner, he would continue to support Beaford’s work for the best part of a decade and was a good friend to me. Together with others, we were involved in appointing a new director, Diana Johnson, an Oxford music graduate who during her first marriage had worked in arts administration in Australia. Thus began an enduring friendship that was enhanced by Diana’s second marriage to John de la Cour, then music officer for the regional arts association, South West Arts.
Until concluded towards the end of the decade by an extended period of maternity leave accompanying the arrival of Diana and John’s son Elmley, her reign at Beaford was characterized by a distinctive fusion of competence and élan. She related well to Paul Chamberlain and his successor Nigel Bryant as artistic directors of Orchard Theatre, as well as to James Ravilious and his wife Robin. The well-established programme of events in local towns and villages, the theatre company’s tours and the continued development of the photographic archive were supplemented by a succession of special projects. One involved a residency by an ensemble led by the celebrated clarinettist Alan Hacker culminating in young people having their GCSE music compositions professionally performed in Crediton parish church. Of another, involving performances and workshops by the Alberni String Quartet, the distinguished critic David Cairns wrote in The Sunday Times that, along with Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, it was
as significant for the long-term health and vitality of our musical existence as anything I have encountered in the more celebrated centres.
But these projects were by no means confined to classical music, for a residency by Lanzel African Arts featured North Devon’s first Yam Festival.
Beaford came to national prominence when The Observer published an article critical of the views and policies of the arts minister, Richard Luce, a piece based in large part upon interviews with staff at Greenwarren House concerned with the difficulty for rural projects remote from the centres of commerce to supplement public subsidy with business sponsorship. To his credit, the minister went out of his way to understand the situation better by talking directly with Diana and her colleagues, which led to his expressing praise for Beaford’s work in both the House and the press. Subsequently, in a letter he wrote to me in July 1990, he added a handscript note to the effect that:
I am a great admirer of the Beaford Centre and all that you achieve.
In 1987, Beaford’s 21st anniversary, HRH Prince Edward had come to visit, so these were good years for Beaford and, while the fact that the books balanced may have caused John Lane to question whether still more might have been ventured, it was a great comfort to me, so that Diana and I worked together with much harmony.
Following the interregnum resulting from Diana’s lengthy time away on maternity leave, when Paul Hyland again came to the rescue, Bob Butler was appointed director in mid-1990. He immediately put Beaford firmly back on the map in the public’s mind by staging a North Devon Festival upon the lines of the one with which John Lane had originally launched the Centre. I opened the whole venture in Victoria Park, Bideford, with the local MP Emma Nicholson, who wrote to me afterwards with thanks for
a splendid afternoon. The parachute jump was spot on time … I was glad of the opportunity to be with you.
Bob Butler’s personality was very different from Diana’s: there was much energy, but also rough edges; he attracted great loyalty from some, but rooted antipathy from others, as will become apparent. However, it should be borne in mind that his family life was darkened as the decade progressed by the breast cancer from which his wife Wendy eventually died in 1999. Be all that as it may, Bob and I became good friends and remained so until his death a few years ago from a rare form of cancer. He felt at home with what he called my “remote control” form of chairmanship, an inevitability given the international nature of my professional life. However, there was in fact an inexorable proliferation of committee work and I came to spend increasing amounts of time travelling to and from North Devon, a 60-mile round trip at a minimum.
Bob deserves credit for three principal achievements during more than seven years at Beaford. Firstly, he negotiated a secure, air-conditioned home for the negatives of the photographic archive in the North Devon Record Office in Barnstaple. He then responded with great purpose to an appeal from Torridge District Council and other people for Beaford to take under its wing the Plough Arts Centre in Torrington, which was at imminent risk of closure. This was a major undertaking, with far-reaching financial implications as well as the difficulties inherent in managing a split-site organisation, our astute vice-chairman during this period, Prebendary Anthony Geering, reminding us how the children of Israel came to grief when they ceased being nomads and took to building the Tower of Babel. Finally, Bob worked tirelessly on a bid to the National Lottery Fund, which yielded sufficient funds not only for substantial refurbishment of the facilities at Greenwarren House, but also for major improvements and extensions at the Plough.
Jennie Hayes, a photographer by background, succeeded Bob in the spring of 1998. By this time, the challenge of funding all that Beaford was doing had become acute, the volume of work and level of staffing having increased markedly over the past few years, but at a time when public funding levels from the local and district authorities as well as South West Arts were in steady decline. Jennie focused our minds on the need for Beaford to equip itself for survival well into the new millennium. To this end, it was necessary to revisit its primary purpose. A consultant, Adrian Watts, was engaged to guide the process and, following extensive internal discussions and consultation with the funding bodies, a series of public meetings was arranged.
The principal conclusions were that (i) through Beaford’s efforts over the past few years, the Plough was now strong enough take back its independence; (ii) running children’s courses had never been core to Beaford’s role, but rather an expedient to ensure that Greenwarren House was fully used; and (iii) if Beaford could reduce its fixed costs, it would gain the flexibility to adapt its arts activities to changing rural and cultural conditions and respond to, influence and benefit from new opportunities for funding and creative partnerships. Greenwarren House and its grounds were thus to be sold and a modest office base found from which a team of peripatetic arts workers would operate throughout the North Devon region. In so doing, an endowment fund would be created to underpin the organisation’s long-term survival.
It was a radical solution, but undoubtedly timely. I had hoped all along that Jennie would remain in post to manage the transition, but she was determined to make way for a new director. For me, after almost a decade and a half in the chair, it was certainly time to go, although (as will be seen) I was to play a lasting role in the support of Beaford. I was touched to receive a letter from Nick Capaldi, the chief executive of South West Arts and future head of the Welsh Arts Council, to the effect that:
We have certainly shared some moments of high drama. But even when the latter have appeared to be at their most challenging, I have always valued your quiet authority and wisdom. I shall miss this hugely.
Sad to say, it took Beaford the best part of another fifteen years to implement the new plan in full. The grounds to the rear of the house were sold for the development of executive dwellings, but Greenwarren House itself was retained and the children’s courses continued. The fact was that, for more than thirty years, these courses had never been adequately financed by the local education authority and a large part of the proceeds from the sale of the gardens was absorbed in trying out a variety of further means to render them economic. Meanwhile, for a few years, directors and board members came and went and considerable instability ensued until Mark Wallace was appointed director at the beginning of 2007. Over time, he has more than realised the vision for a mobile, flexible and clearly focused arts team responsive to the changing world around it and, despite repeated attempts to secure the children’s courses on a sustainable footing, eventually accepted the need to leave Greenwarren House behind. The organisation, with an office base in South Molton, is now back in good heart and well regarded locally, regionally and indeed nationally.