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Q&A with Matthew Caines

Q&A with Matthew Caines, Editor of the Guardian’s Culture Professionals Network

For the last three years, the Guardian Culture Professionals Network has been exploring what goes on behind the scenes of the art, culture, and heritage industry. With a diverse range of stories, as well as plans to expand the network to cater for a more global audience, we spoke with the network’s editor Matthew Caines to find out about some of the latest developments in the cultural and touring exhibitions community.

TEN: What is the Guardian Culture Professionals Network and what does it do?

Matthew Caines: The Guardian Culture Professionals Network is an online platform and blog for those working in arts, culture and heritage. The site is a living, breathing online community and resource for arts professionals across a range of verticals: museums, music, performance arts, visual art, design, film, books, music and more. We cover these through a wide variety of content types and styles, from in-depth comment articles and long-form features to community-focused webchats, galleries and interactives.
Our mission is to augment the Guardian’s cultural coverage in order to make it truly 360-degree.
For example, if the core culture editorial team was going to cover the next big film to hit UK cinemas, review it and interview its big-name stars at the red carpet premiere, the Culture Pros Network would want to find out and write about all the work going on behind the scenes: funding, management, direction, production, press, marketing, audience engagement, technological innovation and so on.

TEN: When was the network set-up? Was this to fill a particular need for people working in museums and across the arts?

MC: The network launched in November 2011. We were (and still are) a very small team.
Our intention was and still is to connect arts and culture professionals regardless of artform, location, age and seniority, so they could share inspiration, best practice, make connections and maybe even start new projects. Our hope was that a small gallery in Edinburgh could speak to, say, the National Theatre in London. The issues that face UK arts and culture – from funding to technological innovation – impact all organisations and individuals, regardless of where they are, who they are and what they do.
It’s through education, collaboration and sharing insight that the arts will triumph in this age of cuts. Culture Pros hopefully caters for and enables that.

TEN: The term “culture professional” is a great one – what kind of people are engaging with the network?

MC: Hopefully lots of different people from across the arts, culture and heritage spectrum.
We commission with a view to making sure the site caters for everyone, so if we haven’t covered film for a while, I’ll make sure we do. Likewise, if we haven’t catered for our younger readers, we’ll run a piece or two around careers or education. It’s a bit of balancing act, but that what makes it interesting – representing and telling the stories of all these diverse voices from the sector.
We also want to tell stories about the work going on outside the UK. On an average week, 55% of our readership are from outside the UK, so that’s something we’re working on for 2015.

TEN: Does the network have any insights into touring exhibitions?

MC: We ran a great piece in April 2014 from Fiona Baxter, associate director of Farnham Maltings, about touring work internationally. Sure, it was aimed at the performing arts, but I think there are some insights that ring true for anyone thinking about taking exhibitions abroad.
> theguardian.com – stage tips touring theatre internationally
One of her tips in particular was about expectations. “Don’t set out with the same expectations you have grown comfortable with from UK touring,” she said. “From country to country, the notions of health and safety, technical support and so on differ greatly, so expect nothing and be prepared for all eventualities.”
Another great insight was about being realistic and flexible. “Don’t make assumptions about who your audience will be,” she wrote. The average museum attendee in Russia or Spain may not be who you expect. Finally, she advised, consider context: “Always bear in mind the cultural context of your work as many things can get lost in translation – both visual and verbal – and may be interpreted very differently to how you intended.”

TEN: Have you noticed any other ongoing trends or particular changes or advances in the cultural sector?

MC: A look at our most-read pieces from 2014 is a pretty good indicator of the trends affecting the sector. > theguardian.com – top stories 2014
Among them were two revealing reports on how little visual artists and composers are paid, which goes to show how much further the sector has to go when it comes to supporting the creatives who work within it and prop it up. This isn’t a story specific to music and the visual arts; it’s a problem facing all artforms and cultural settings.
> theguardian.com – paying artists nothing uk talent
> theguardian.com – future new music composers report pay
Another thing I’ve witnessed since we launched in 2011 is just how much technology and digital platforms have changed the way we make and engage with arts and culture. Our App story series is a great showcase of how intelligently and innovatively mobile technology is being used by museums and arts institutions.
> theguardian.com – app story
Similarly, our Tech talk interview series with young people doing interesting things at the intersection of culture and technology is a really good representation of the young makers, creators and thinkers who will soon be staffing our theatres, museums and galleries. They’ll be bringing their digital creations and learnings with them.
> theguardian.com – tech talk
Technology has fundamentally changed the way we live our lives and communicate with one another. I think back 10 years ago, when I was a young lad with a Nokia 3310, dial-up internet and a Dreamcast, and I’m amazed at just how far we’ve come. I’m really excited about what the next 10 years will hold for arts, culture and heritage.

TEN: What’s happening specifically in the museum and exhibitions sector at the moment?

MC: Again, it’s the technology angle.
Mia Ridge and Danny Birchall of the Museums Computer Group wrote an excellent piece for us towards the end of last year about post-web technology and what’s next for museums. From mobile to social media to more ambitious projects involving virtual reality, many museums are beginning to ride the digital wave of change and are doing it very well. Plenty are doing it without breaking the bank.
> theguardian.com – post web technology museums virtual reality
But, Danny and Mia also made a good point when they said that while tech evolves so quickly, museums evolve and move more slowly:
“The people walking through the galleries can update their phones on a whim,” they wrote. “Museums have to live with their decisions for a long time.” There has to be more flexibility, I think, when it comes to museums getting their hands dirty with digital and tech. While I realise that’s easy for a digital-first Guardian journalist to say, experimentation in small doses is the key. It’s what we do on the Culture Pros Network: we keep and scale up what works, and throw away what doesn’t. There’s no harm in failing; the key is to learn from it.
In terms of exhibitions, another piece that comes to mind is Roger Mann’s on how Casson Mann brought the first world war to life at the Imperial War Museum. I visited the exhibition they designed not too long ago and found it really fascinating. In his piece, Mann gave a useful tip about not allowing technology to trump the creative or experiential elements of an exhibition. “With technology we have a more diverse palette of interpretation techniques to help make objects speak,” he wrote. “But preserving the contemporaneous in a modern gallery is a delicate thing … done well it can be a powerful tool to evoke visceral experiences that connect younger generations with difficult stories and concepts, but to ensure a seamless experience, they have to be used with great care and sensitivity to both the object and the history.”
> theguardian.com – first world war imperial war museum
It all comes back to that idea of balancing, which I think is what museums and other arts organisations will have to mindful of in 2015, whether it’s budgets, resources or their use of tech.