Let’s develop our local talent

Firstly, thank you Toby Wood for your courageous article in last week’s PT, challenging the status quo in a subject area that has seen many brave announcements over the years, but as you recognise, no lasting integrated vision for the arts has been articulated and the arts have not been consistently supported.

You rightly recognise that we have talent and that should be encouraged and supported. For over a decade I have been part of the push to revitalise the public realm in the City Centre, but despite my civil engineering background, I have always been conscious of the ‘elephant in the room’ that gets forgotten - physical structure is as nothing without people to perform and audiences to enjoy within that structure. Whether outside, such as in Cathedral Square, or inside, such as in St John’s which is the nearest Peterborough gets to a ‘concert space’

with wonderful acoustics in an iconic building.

Before the pandemic there were at least 25 amateur music groups in Peterborough with a combined membership of over 1000 dedicated and talented people. This is where I depart a little from the thrust of your argument. I believe we should look to developing, promoting and integrating our local talent, not relying on an expensive circus of visiting commercial talent that by definition are ‘here today and gone tomorrow’, leaving a vacuum behind.

It’s a little known fact that St John’s CIC (a community interest company founded as a joint venture between the church and the City Council in 2009) has put on over 40 musical and other performance events per year over recent years on a tiny budget deliberately encouraging local talent, attracting local audiences, integrating our diverse communities: and you might be interested to know that Keely and Pete, who you mention, were part of this incubation.

As an example of talented amateur music societies, Peterborough Opera celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2019 and over the years have, like others, successfully performed in St John’s together with outdoor performances for the Italian Festival, Christmas lights switch on and many other occasions.

I am delighted you mentioned Cllr Steve Allen as he is, apart from many other roles, a board member of St John’s CIC, and, I know, is fired up on the issue of producing an integrated vision for the arts which could boost the vibrancy of Peterborough as a ‘go to’ city for the arts rather than ‘go from’.

So, yes, let’s go for High Definition City, but please let’s focus on and develop local talent, and our under used high quality venues such as St John’s, integrating heritage buildings and outside opportunities with performance art to the benefit of today’s and tomorrow’s citizens.

With the promise of easing of Covid restrictions hopefully we can plan for a vibrant future.

All ‘power to your elbow’! Clive Morton OBE Former Chair of St John’s CIC, President, Peterborough Opera, Former Deputy Chair, Opportunity Peterborough

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