In this episode Naomi talks to Sarah Blowers, Founder and former Artistic Director of Strike a Light in Gloucester.

Sarah talks about the complexities of accountability and how important it is to be accountable to the people we are working with. She talks about getting funding for co-created work without detailed activity plans as this is to be determined through the process. For her the accountability is less to funders and more to the people she is working with. She has often worked with people who are on benefits and while she believes that people need to be paid for their work, there are unkind systems in place that prevent this.

She talks about the system being really exclusive to people who could be better suited to working in their community. Larger organisations have the infrastructure to be accountable to funders but smaller grassroots organisations have the networks to be accountable to their community.

Sarah talks about the grassroots organisation GL4 and the transformative impact that the accountability to the community has had. She argues that the models of accountability are outdated as the systems don’t work for small organisations.

She tries to work in a way that is not always top down, Artistic Director led. She talks about the diversity of audiences that are attracted to see work in their community and programmed by community producers - this just doesn’t happen elsewhere. She says that the Artistic Directors need to leave their ego at the door and be accountable to the community.

Sarah talks about the importance of proper monitoring and evaluation which paint a picture of what is really happening to be accountable to both funders and the community. She is clear that it is public money and that there need not be fear about accountability. Sometimes it is hard to hold people accountable, particularly if you are working with a friend. She thinks that to be ambitious and to have high expectations is good, but the resources need to be used wisely and to be accountable for their actions. This is particularly hard for producers of co-created work.

In terms of having difficult conversations she thinks it is important to name it early and not let it go on too long. She thinks this is particularly challenging when the systems which artists and arts organisations work in are not very accessible. It is hard to ask for help, especially when working in a world that is so deeply biased. Always approach accountability conversations with care and kindness. Most people working in this field are over-worked and under-paid.