How can artist managers help tackle the climate crisis?

Brexit and Covid have tended to dominate this column in recent times. You noticed. But could the wrestling with such challenges come to be seen as so much well-intentioned fiddling while the very Earth itself is in danger of burning? Just how far the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow this autumn can/will make real progress few would hazard a guess.

A good few conversations in recent times have touched on how the music industry and artist managements can assist in mitigating climate change. Among those managements embracing green measures has been the HarrisonParrott office, in keeping with its long history of innovation and lateral thinking. Now comes its contribution to COP26: the ‘Culture Portals’ project. ‘The British Council invited bids for the creation of culture-based initiatives to be featured at Glasgow,’ explains Henry Southern, Manager of Tours and Projects at HP. ‘The focus had to be on the 18 to 24 age group in countries around the world — the custodians of the future of the planet.’

HP beat off stiff competition to win its grant and has duly formed a promised collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Scottish Ballet and Shared_Studios. Based in the USA, Shared_Studios is in the business of locating magically modified shipping containers — ‘portals’ — in significant locations around the world. At the same time, the company has been building its portal clientèle — ‘a global community of inspiring artists, entrepreneurs, change-makers and community leaders, that share their stories and inspire others in the spirit of making the world a better place.’ Barack Obama has been one member of this ‘global community’.

At the heart of the inbuilt technical wizardry is the facility by which those inside connected portals can observe each other up-close on large screens, head-to-toe, while sharing all manner of content and opinion. The feeling of being in the same room clearly engenders an extraordinary intimacy and sense of connectedness. On the line from Kigali in Rwanda, S_S’s representative there, Jay Nsanzi, describes how the portals enable him ‘to travel the world without leaving home and without the need for a passport. It opens me up to other communities and other perspectives on the world that don’t get covered in the media.’

Shared_Studios were to have worked with HP in 2020, says Teun Hilte, S_S’s director of global operations. ‘We were discussing the idea of a Bergen International Festival event involving a young Norwegian maestro conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra live through the portal in Bergen. Covid-19 threw a spanner in the works, but we’ve have been searching for ways to collaborate since.’

COP26 offers an ideal opportunity to test how this facility can be used as a vehicle for change on the basis of shared concern and practical experience. ‘At Glasgow we’ll reckon to have connections via the portals to at least ten countries,’ says Southern, ‘among them, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iraq, Rwanda and Uganda. There’ll be three types of content — open connections embracing multiple conversations and interactions; performances of various kinds including music, dance and theatre; and the use of the portal as a multimedia exhibition space.’

The precise content of the ‘Culture Portals’ offer remains under wraps, but Professor Jeffrey Sharkey, principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, is confident the project can make an impact. ‘The storytelling power of the arts has long been a powerful vehicle to inspire change. 'Climate Portals' is an exciting way to come together with communities from around the world where we can learn from each other and spark ideas and conversations that will provide a diverse range of approaches to solving the climate crisis.’

So, with Brexit put in perspective, let me nonetheless return to a notion expressed in my last column — and indeed talked up by government, including (most recently) chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost. Namely, that the UK music industry should urge counterparts in EU countries to lobby individual governments to break the impasse over post-Brexit problems directly affecting the ability of British musicians and performing groups to operate in the EU — issues such as musicians’ visas/work permits, restrictions on periods of residence, and haulage regulations as they affect, for example, touring orchestras.

In Hannover, Cornelia Schmid — chair of the International Artist Managers’ Association and managing director of one of Europe’s leading artist managements, Konzertdirektion Schmid, is sceptical. ‘I agree that lobbying is the right approach, but which European organisations will be most effective at doing this? As an artist manager I don’t have the connections or the capacity in my company to lobby effectively. If there’s an initiative from elsewhere I would of course sign up to it. Apart from anything else, tackling the effects of Covid leaves us so little time and energy to deal with Brexit issues, even though UK artists and especially orchestras are of course important to us.

‘However, I don’t see the classical music industry as being likely to have any real influence. The wider entertainment industry is much better equipped in this regard. Politicians essentially don’t have sympathy for cultural matters… they’re much more likely to take notice of those in the world of sport.’

Austria is one country where post-Brexit problems loom large. Vienna-based Christian May of the Melos Konzerte office points to the fact that Downing Street turned down an EU offer to mutually agree exemptions to normal regulations for artists/performers, in the name of a ‘pure’ Brexit. ‘I’d be afraid that when lobbying in favour of UK artists, EU governments would respond by arguing: “We offered this, they didn’t want it, so it’s their decision and not ours”.

‘What I could imagine however is that promoters, managers and opera houses in Austria and Germany might lobby their governments to make the situation in general easier for incoming artists from all countries — to sort out and avoid administrative issues, to make red tape less complicated. I wouldn’t link this to the UK or to Brexit: that might result in a blame game, fingers pointing at each other, with no result coming from it.’