Meet Paul Smith, director of the British Council in Germany
Der British Council ist Großbritanniens internationale Organisation für Kulturbeziehungen und Bildungschancen. NADIA LAWRENCE sprach mit Paul Smith, Direktor des British Council in Deutschland.
My name is Paul Smith and I’m director of the British Council in Germany. I’m pleased to say that I don’t think there’s a typical day for me. My days are varied, diverse and full of the unexpected. This is the 12th country that I’ve lived in, doing very different kinds of work for the British Council. But, of course, there’s a certain routine to a day anywhere.
Mine is a job that is absolutely people-oriented. It’s about building relationships with people – in schools, at universities, in the arts and in society. So, my typical day involves meeting people, developing ideas for partner projects and then collaborating on those projects.
My mornings and afternoons involve getting out of the office as quickly as possible once I’ve replied to all my e-mails. In my job, I need to see people in their environments. I go to talk to young people, visit our projects, meet senior leaders at universities and arts organizations, and so on.
While Britain has left the EU, it hasn’t left Europe. All our future projects will need to prove that – and that’s a big agenda. Our main task at the moment is to rebuild the reputation, visibility and credibility of post-brexit Britain’s arts, education and society.
For the British Council, the three most important values are equality, diversity and inclusion. These values are core to all world issues. Britain and Germany are still absolutely bound together in terms of addressing the issues that really matter in the world and creating opportunities for their people.
I believe that everything related to culture in the broadest sense – people’s education, mobility, religion, sense of identity, their legacies – is a deeper concern than politics or economics, which are what we see every day. Culture is the force that lies beneath the surface. That’s the work of the British Council: developing cultural relations, in our case, between Germany and the UK, in ways that go far beyond the shortterm concerns of the EU exit.
I’m a cultural person, I love the arts. Under normal circumstances, I’ll be out most evenings, taking advantage of invitations to galleries, performances, lectures and films. One of the great privileges of being posted to Berlin was knowing that the arts here are rich and serious and wonderful.
The cultural dimension that exists between Britain and Germany is one of the richest in the world. It’s deeply intellectual and emotional. There’s an extraordinary likemindedness between the two countries, going back hundreds of years.
Our ultimate ambition is to return to, and to maintain, the rich engagement in movement of the arts and education in all areas between our two countries.