Last updated 10:01, Friday, 19 September 2008

Parked cars and shopping trolleys mark the site of Carlisle’s last theatre. The final curtain fell on Her Majesty’s in 1963.

New game: Transforming the Sands Centre’s sports hall into a concert venue

This Lowther Street landmark became a bingo hall before falling into disrepair. It was demolished as the 1970s ended and the space it left is now the Iceland store’s car park.

For those who decry the state of the arts in Carlisle, this serves as a painful metaphor. While the city’s retail sector has thrived, culture has been left in the bargain bin.

Carlisle is the regional capital which has not had a major theatre for 45 years, which has never had a dedicated arts centre and which has just scrapped the post of arts development manager.

News that Carlisle City Council is making this role redundant as part of arts cuts worth £50,000 has handed ammunition to those who see Carlisle as a cultural desert. Arts development manager Mick North told colleagues about his departure in an email last week. “I’m saddened and angry that the council values the arts so little,” he said. “Do senior councillors understand the value of the arts? Probably not. Is the council seriously skint? Yes.”

In most parts of the UK a regional capital is a magnet for surrounding towns. People travel to a city from outlying areas for cinema, theatre, music and visual art. In north Cumbria the reverse is often true. People travel from Carlisle to much smaller places with better arts provision.

Keswick (population 5,000) has Theatre by the Lake: a main theatre with more than 400 seats, a newly refurbished studio theatre, a rehearsal room, two gallery spaces.

Kendal (population 28,000) has the Brewery Arts Centre: a concert hall with room for 450, a 260-seat theatre, a photographic gallery, a gallery for visual arts, a drama studio.

In Dumfries (population 32,000) the Robert Burns Centre film theatre mixes blockbusters with foreign-language films and documentaries; the kind of programming which is hard to find regularly in Carlisle.

And Carlisle, the Great Border City, (population 72,000, plus a huge catchment area) has West Walls Theatre – a 150-seater which stages productions by the resident Carlisle Green Room Club.

The Sands Centre is the city’s largest venue, seating 1,450 people with room for 1,750 standing. It has staged everything from opera to stand-up comedy. But the Sands is primarily a sports hall, with all the aesthetic and practical problems that brings. Two years ago The Who could not be accommodated because of a martial arts competition.

The campaign for a combined theatre – with somewhere in the region of 500 seats – and arts centre with similar facilities to Kendal’s Brewery has gone on for years.

Meanwhile venues like Whitehaven Civic Hall with its 600 capacity attract acts such as Morrissey, The Zutons and We Are Scientists, which might have gone to Carlisle if a similar sized venue existed there.

The Lonsdale on Warwick Road, which closed as a cinema in 2006, is Carlisle’s most popular option for a theatre and arts centre. Mike Fox is chair of the Lonsdale Arts Centre Trust. He feels the lack of action reflects a lack of political priority for culture in Carlisle. “The city council said an arts centre was on their agenda but in the past couple of years there seems to have been little evidence to support that,” he says. “Now the decision to dispense with the post of arts development manager raises the question of where direction is going to come from.

“If the city is to have any vibrancy it needs strong culture or it ceases to be attractive for locals and visitors. Over the last 20 years Carlisle has made a big effort in terms of retail. That drives people in but it reflects poorly on the city when there’s little for them to do culturally once they’re here.”

Money is, of course, a factor. Carlisle missed out on the 1990s’ National Lottery funding boom which gave £4.8m to Theatre by the Lake and £3m to the Brewery Arts Centre. But the city is also losing out on other funding streams.

The Brewery receives £59,000 a year from South Lakes Council and £265,000 from the Arts Council. In Carlisle, however, the Arts Council is withdrawing its annual grant of £72,000 to the city council. The Arts Council now favours funding arts organisations directly rather than via local authorities. In Carlisle, though, there is nowhere like the Brewery to benefit from the money.

City council leader Mike Mitchelson says the loss of Arts Council funding is the reason Mick North has been made redundant. “We are still committed to our arts activities,” he insists. “None of Mick North’s projects will be affected. We’re just having to reshape how we do it. We have an arts budget of £2m a year. Culture is important in developing Carlisle as a regional capital.”

Big changes may be on the way. A study commissioned by the council to look at transforming the Lonsdale is expected by the end of the year. The plan is for any new theatre to be run by a trust, like that which manages the Brewery, partly staffed by volunteers and supported by the Arts Council.

Another new venue is also possible. A report into building a new Sands Centre sports hall will be published soon. This would free up the existing arena for concerts only, allowing it to be made more aesthetically pleasing. Mike Mitchelson insists that this project would not affect plans for a theatre and arts centre.

The power of culture is well understood by Bryan Gray, chairman of the board of Carlisle Renaissance, which has been tasked by the council to spearhead Carlisle’s regeneration. Gray’s many roles include chairman of the Liverpool Culture Company, which helped smooth the city’s transition to European Capital of Culture 2008. He has seen the spiritual and commercial benefits the arts can bring.

“Culture is the glue that binds places together. We’ve seen this very strongly in Liverpool. It’s a bigger city than Carlisle but the principles are the same. Liverpool has the Tate and the National Museums. Carlisle has Tullie House and the cathedral. The castle and cathedral could be used as a backdrop for performances. Carlisle’s got some wonderful buildings. The city is a stage.”

Gray is keen to meet the leaders of local arts organisations and encourage them to work together. “They have a hugely important role. Sometimes people wait for other people to take the initiative. Organisations sometimes feel they are too small to do anything themselves. The power is when they join up. Huge things can be achieved. In Liverpool in the first half of this year six million people have visited a cultural event. The visitor economy is booming.”

And what about Carlisle’s big cultural question: a theatre and arts centre in the Lonsdale? “I would like to know more about the Lonsdale. Often the problem is people looking at a building and saying ‘What should we do with that?’ rather than saying ‘What are the priorities?’

“With the university and the historic quarter, there are opportunities. If there is a feeling that a theatre is something Carlisle needs, as the university builds up could a theatre be part of it?

“Places like Keswick and Kendal have succeeded and Carlisle can do the same. The formula is, people get together with a real drive and vision, saying ‘This is what we want and we are going to get it.’ Money’s always hard to get. But money is always available for the right project.”

Exciting times in prospect. And still... 45 years without a theatre. No arts centre. Another sobering fact: theatre lovers in Carlisle have not had a visit from the Royal Shakespeare Company for more than a decade.

In the past two years the RSC has performed at Ellesmere Port, Littleport, Melton Mowbray, St Austell, Dumfries. In 2002 it played at Lakes College in Lillyhall. But the company has not visited Carlisle since 1995. Largely because, it says, it has not been asked. It is sometimes hard to escape the feeling that the people of Carlisle have been short-changed.

Conrad Atkinson from Cleator Moor is arguably Cumbria’s most influential artist. Atkinson believes the arts are not highly valued here. “The loss of Mick North makes us seem parochial,” he says. “We have to recognise the culture industry is important. Everyone thinks that arts are a frill on the edge of industry but tourism is the largest industry in the world and arts are key. Carlisle does not punch its weight culturally.”

Perhaps a vicious circle is at work. Lack of venues over so many years has led to frustration, stagnation, loss of the habit of going out to events. Exactly the wrong conditions for culture to thrive.

Sam Sherwood promoted Don’t Mention The Floods, a comedy night at The Brickyard on Fisher Street, before pulling the plug two months ago due to disappointing audience numbers. Sherwood feels that playing it safe plays a part in Carlisle’s cultural malaise.

“Carlisle has a strong ‘Tea and TV’ culture,” he says. “People prefer to venture out when one of the names they watch on TV is performing so they have a better idea of what they’re going to get for their money. It’s difficult to get people to some of the more fringe events that are often more interesting and enjoyable than those dictated as being good by TV producers.

“The lack of arts funding, which should be used to publicise those arts which may have more critical acclaim than mainstream coverage, worsens this situation. It puts British culture in danger of revolving around reality TV stars and soap actors.”

There are reasons to be cheerful. The city council funds or contributes towards many cultural events such as Brampton Live, concerts at the Sands Centre, the international summer music festival, and Tullie House. Carlisle’s museum is a cultural success story with workshops, touring exhibitions and the Monday Alternative film season.

Many talented and dedicated individuals run and support groups for artists. The Brickyard, Carlisle’s only dedicated live music venue, has brought acts like Arctic Monkeys and Babyshambles to the city, although it has run up troubling debts in the process.

As long as Carlisle’s interested parties continue to do their own thing rather than working towards shared goals, until passion is married with planning, they can expect more of the same: a city of parked cars and shopping trolleys.

RLytollis@cngroup.co.uk