Conclusion
Chapter 2. A Year at an Arts Centre
2.3 Work Patterns of Programmers
One obvious result of the ‘busi-ness’ of arts centres described in 2.1 is that without exception, programmers have a mixed work load. The number of productions and the range of art forms each programmer deals with vary, but generally they are large and very wide. Developing the programme, supposedly the major area of programmers’ work, is however often only part of their responsibilities. A programmer who books 40 productions may well be in a small organisation and responsible for a wide range of work involved in venue management such as fund-raising, marketing, PR and managing staff, paid and/or unpaid. Carrying out educational and community-related activities can be another addition to his/her brief.
Due to the huge volume of work to be done—perhaps all too familiar across the arts— programmers tend to work long hours: 50 to 60 and up to 80 hours a week. In addition, their ‘private’ time is very often spent on attending shows at venues other than their own. In an average week, they would have two shows at their own venues to attend and one to two performances to watch elsewhere from September to May. At home, they would scan video
tapes sent by companies, and while driving they would listen to demo tapes sent by music agents and promoters. Even so some programmers expressed their dedication to their work (or vocation for that matter) and the sense of satisfaction, or what economists may call high ‘psychic income’ (Towse 1996, p14):
I’ve got friends from college...who aren’t in the arts business and think that I’ve got a fantastic, glamorous job. And even though they know that I don’t get paid much,...they know that I get a lot more reward than they do.
A lot of my friends are also working in the theatre. Anything social I can do is from 10pm at the earliest. My children grew up around here [the venue], exposed to most queer things from their infancy.
However, a major implication of such a mixed and heavy work load is that despite programmers’ emphasis on proactive ways of finding interesting productions, there is often less time and budgets available to make that way of working possible. As programmers commented:
It is extremely difficult to remain outward-looking. I am spending more and more time on looking inward. Ideally I would like to go out and see more, but then the building would have to be shut on that day [because there is nobody else to keep the centre open and running].
One of the film programmers interviewed thinks that ‘programming’ as such (choice of films for screening) takes the smallest proportion of her time (about three days in a two month period) among other works she has to do such as writing grant applications, chasing up the arrival of film prints and so on.
Furthermore, booking itself involves a range of tasks, for example, discussing details of the deal such as ‘contras’ with companies or their promoters, confirming the deal in writing, contract preparation and liaisoning with technical and marketing staff of the venue. On the day of the performance, programmers should make efforts to attend the performance, which is important in order to observe its quality and audience reception. Then after the performance, programmers receive invoices from the companies and other technical services which they have to check for approval.
As has been mentioned, many programmers, despite the pressure and demands of their work, enjoy it. However, there are some programmers who feel they might switch to different jobs in the near future, partly (or largely) because of the heavy pressure they are under. Not surprisingly, ‘burning out’ is said to be a serious issue among them.
Summary
Arts Centres are busy places with a large number of professional productions in various art forms to present. There is almost no discrimination against any particular genre. Popular as well as esoteric, accessible as well as difficult and contemporary in addition to classic work is represented. These productions are chosen from the existing suppliers by arts centre programmers who have a number of considerations to take into account. Programme choice is firstly constrained by seasonal patterns of consumer behaviour and the arts centre’s geographic location in relation to general arts provision in the area and its audience characteristics. A particular production needs to be of the right size and available at the right time in order to be booked by the arts centre programmer. The programmer then considers the suitability of the product in the light of its costs, audience potential and artistic quality. One major characteristics common to arts centre programmers is the heavy and varied work load they have, not only related to programming as such but also in other managerial/operational areas. As a result, they tend to spend less than the desirable amount of time in researching products in a proactive way.