It’s hard to imagine that it’s only just over one week since Department in Ryde was officially opened.
As reported by OnTheWight last week, the transformation of the former department store into a new cultural arts centre, was met with high praise from the likes Phil Gibby, Director of Arts Council England South West Area.
OnTheWight managed to grab some time with Phil at the launch event, after he’d spoken not only of Shademakers‘ inspirational vision and determination, but also the incredible critical mass of creativity on the Island.
Revitalising dormant buildings
In the conversation between Simon Perry and Phil, which you can listen to in full below, highlights include the Arts Council boss emphasising the role of local government in revitalising dormant buildings (and as everyone knows, we have a few of those on the Island), as well as the Arts Council’s role in facilitating conversations and supporting artists.
He also stresses the importance of sharing best practices, across the country, from successful projects like this one in Ryde, to inspire and guide future cultural capital projects.
The Isle of Wight’s creative environment
The Isle of Wight has been “a priority place” by Arts Council England for a number of years. This status comes with many benefits, but Phil explained why the Island was chosen,
“One of the reasons is that it’s not just the number of artists, it’s the ambition of the artists, and it’s the mindset on the Island.
“So you’ve got artists who’ve grown up here, you’ve got artists who went away and came back. You’ve got artists who have come here for the first time. Some of them are in theatre, some of them are in music, some of them are in the visual arts, but every day, that community of artists is getting stronger.”
“One of the unique things the Island has to offer”
He also highlighted that the lack of cultural infrastructure on the Isle of Wight as a double-edged sword, providing artists with opportunities to create and develop new audiences without much competition.
Phil added,
“On the Isle of Wight, where there is a bit less of that infrastructure, you can can find an old department store and transform it, or you can set up your own festival, or you can take on an old telephone exchange in Ventnor and transform it into a record shop and a cafe and a performance space.
“Those aren’t opportunities you can get everywhere. And that, I think, is one of the really unique things the Island has got to offer.”
“There’s something slightly superhuman about Shademakers”
OnTheWight wrote last week about the tenacity and energy from Shademakers in driving forward the vision of Department. Phil felt the same, adding,
“There’s something slightly superhuman about Shademakers, I think, because, on the one hand – they’re one of the world’s great carnival companies who make extraordinary outdoor work and are famed from China to Germany and worldwide.
“And at another level, at a really local level, on the Isle of Wight, they are animating communities every day, and whenever there’s a problem or an obstacle, they find a way to overcome it. Their problem solving is quite extraordinary, and they seem to do it as though it’s the most natural thing in the world. But so few people operate in that way and at that level, in the cultural sector, with that sense of entrepreneurship. It’s something that we should celebrate more.
He finished by saying,
“Not only do we have a fantastic transformed building in the heart of Ryde for the people of the Isle of Wight to engage with and enjoy, we’ve got some real case study potential that we can take to other places and say, ‘look how they did it in Ryde’.
“So the Isle of Wight brand is getting taken back onto the Mainland and around England.
“This project is a really good example of how you should go about doing cultural capital projects.”
Listen to the conversation
The conversation between Simon Perry from OnTheWight and Phil Gibby lasts just under ten minutes. You can listen by clicking on the play button below. You can also pause the recording, jump back 10 seconds or forward 30 seconds.
Our thanks to Vincent Dupont-Blackshaw for sharing his photos of Simon and Phil taken at the Department launch.
