History - Part 4
Getting The Job Done
The new committee quickly realised that the draft Business Plan which had been commissioned from Concept Management Services had made some unrealistic assumptions; after much work, a revised version was adopted early in 1996. It became increasingly clear that many estimates of costs for necessary capital improvements had been optimistic, while predictions of future revenue were inevitably speculative. Generous sponsorship would be necessary if the vision of a permanent Arts Centre was to be realised. A grant of '30,000 from the Foundation or Sports and the Arts allowed the committee to proceed with some urgent improvements to the premises; but the essential sponsor for the more costly investment needed would be the Lottery funds controlled by the Scottish Arts Council. But it would take time to prepare a detailed application, and Woodend would be required to raise a quarter of the total cost of their programme from other sources.
While this laborious work proceeded, the committee began to develop an artistic programme which would attract, and enthuse, audiences to the Barn, and so generate some working revenue. There were some notable successes during 1995. The popular revue company 'Scotland the What' came out of retirement to donate a performance; Banchory Contractors sponsored a performance of La Boh'me by the touring company of Scottish Opera. This was a great success and Bancon sponsored six more annual visits. Liz Lochhead and Michael Marra brought a new programme of poetry and music from the Edinburgh Festival. Community theatre with Doric dialogue returned when Alastair MacDonald's Aberdeen based Bouncers Theatre Company produced a play about the Jacobite rising of 1745, Caul Hairst, followed by a parallel production from Uig, which used Gaelic dialogue. But this collaboration, though an artistic success, generated some ill-feeling, when a verbal agreement proved an inadequate basis for the allocation of financial and other responsibilities. WAA had to learn to balance artistic enthusiasm against the need to fix charges, for use of its premises and for admission to its own events, at sustainable levels. Some early promotions and workshops, while helping promote the Barn to adults and children, did not produce sufficient revenue to contribute to such overhead costs as heating, maintenance, publicity, and administration; they could only be mounted at all through the enthusiasm of volunteers, or the generosity of professional artists. 'Jeep' Irvine not only devoted much time and skill to the lighting and sound requirements of visiting productions, but, with Simon Spoor, provided evening programmes of contemporary music for young people, entitled 'Spirit of the Moment'.
WAA was anxious to contribute to artistic education in the community, and developed its links with local primary schools and with Banchory Academy (whose Rector joined the Management Committee). In-school workshops were arranged for visiting musicians and artists, and the Barn continued to provide space for school productions. At the other end of the age-scale the District Arts Forum sponsored a day of 'taster' arts workshops for older people in August 1995. A year later performers from Azerbaijan and the Ukraine, who were participating in the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, provided the first of many trans-cultural occasions. At first music was provided by an upright piano, gift of the writer Erlend Clouston (whose Banchory-born mother had died shortly before the Crathes 1992 event). But later finance was secured to buy a grand piano, which was quickly in use by such visiting musicians as Murray McLachlan and Hugh Watkins.
But at the end of 1995 the financial future of WAA still seemed precarious. A further '25,000 had been generously granted or promised by foundations, companies and individuals, which could be used either for capital works or to sponsor performances. But the costs of maintaining and heating the building, and administering the programme were expected to rise from '22,000 in 1995 to '57,000 by 1999, even though volunteers were taking over many of the duties for which Turner had budgeted in cash. Membership of the association was approaching two hundred, but at ten pounds a year they could make only a limited contribution. And it proved difficult to enlarge this membership. Many people in Banchory still seemed reluctant to embrace a project located on the periphery of the town, and difficult of access to those without cars; and there was now to be no cinema, which Turner had hoped might bring in a steady income. Some local people seemed to have an instinctive distrust of landowners; rumours circulated that Jamie Burnett, or even the Hope family, would make large profits from the Barn, though in each case this was the very reverse of the truth!
Local government might offer some hope of salvation. The reform of local government in 1995 placed responsibility for the arts, as well as education, in the hands of the new single-tier County Councils. Even before this, Kincardine & Deeside District Council had begun to assume greater responsibility; it appointed its first Arts Development Officer, Mindy Grewar, in 1992, and among her first duties she launched a District Arts Forum with a small budget in March 1994. There was much sympathy for the Woodend project among experienced officials who joined the new Aberdeenshire Council's arts staff from other Districts, and a visit to the Barn by Councillors produced encouraging reactions. But in January 1996 Gill Carling, Head of Arts Leisure and Recreation in the Aberdeenshire Council, had to tell the Hopes that there was no prospect of any grant for revenue funding before 1999. However the Council did allocate a grant of '30,000 in 1998 towards the Association's programme of capital improvement.
But realistically, the bulk of the money needed to convert the Barn into a modern venue for the arts would have to come from the Scottish Arts Council (SAC). Its officers had encouraged WAA to prepare an ambitious request for '350,000 in the first phase, plus another '150,000 subject to a further feasibility study. But the application could not be considered until WAA produced evidence of a secure long-term tenancy of the Barn, and this was likely to involve a heavy commitment for annual rent. At this point Fiona and Mark Hope had to appeal once more to Jamie Burnett's sincere and growing dedication to this project for the constructive use of his patrimony. He had already invested considerable sums in basic improvements to the building, granted credit for additional works undertaken by Bancon Construction, and received no penny in return. Nevertheless, budgeting had so far assumed that Leys Estate would shortly require annual rental payments of '8,000 for annual rent, the agreed commercial figure. But in January 1996 the Hopes warned that, if this meant WAA incurring debts it would never be able to meet, their only course might be to abandon the lease and dissolve the Association. Again there was a generous response; Jamie Burnett agreed to waive rental payments until the end of 1997, and gave a formal assurance that he would never litigate to obtain back-payments from members of WAA. With this assurance the lease was signed, and application made to the Arts Council for 75% of a total grant of '500,000.
But the personnel and policies of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) had changed since their early encouragement. In August 1996 the Assessor they had appointed submitted a very negative report, completed largely on the basis of telephone conversations, which among other things suggested that running costs had made unrealistic assumptions about what duties could be fulfilled by the services of volunteers. In his detailed response, Mark Hope emphasised how much had already been achieved by voluntary community effort since 1990. Although the SAC eventually accepted this point it was much less encouraging about funds available. WAA was advised to withdraw its original application, abandon the provision for a second phase, and reduce the cost of the first phase to '223,000, one quarter of which WAA would have to provide from other funds. This had the unwelcome effect, as the SAC did not fail to point out, of reducing the proportion of the investment going to primary artistic purposes. About one third of the estimated cost had to be used to allow motorists smoother access to the Barn along the uneven farm track from the Hirn Road, and to provide better parking on their arrival. These costs were unavoidable; the allocated parking area was badly drained, in bad weather the entrance could only be reached through wet soil and grass, and when rain fell during a performance committee members had to be mobilized to push customers' cars out of the mud. Inside the Barn too much expenditure was needed for such basic needs as flooring, electricity supply, kitchen facilities and heating, and so it was necessary to economize on lighting and sound systems, flexible seating, back-stage dressing-rooms and administrative offices.
Nevertheless, the SAC was persuaded that these basic investments were essential if the arts were to flourish at Woodend. WAA was also successful in securing the balancing 25% of the revised budget, thanks to substantial grants from Aberdeenshire Council, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and many others. The SAC formally approved the revised application (for '167,250) and reconstruction began towards the end of 1997. After an extended winter closure the Woodend Barn Arts Centre re-opened in April 1998, with all building work complete. The planned improvements to seating, lighting, sound and office equipment was completed during the following nine months.
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