I was on the phone to Tarek Iskander in the middle of lockdown, and we were talking about what it would mean if everything taking place in an arts building was free. Like the NHS, Tarek said, free at the point of delivery. The more I think about Tarek’s plan for a National Arts Service, the more I like it.
I said I think it would make each play or workshop more like a party. I started thinking about what makes a party. I remembered a friend who threw a birthday party but charged everyone £10 for a ticket and how as soon as he did that, it wasn’t a party any more. It was an event.
We finished the call and I sat down and wrote this and sent it to Tarek.
…
What if we stopped talking about shows and classes and workshops and events and started talking about parties instead? What if, the next time you started to plan a programme for your building, you made every event a party?
What would that change?
You could have parties in which everyone sat down and watched one person perform.
You could have parties in which you all learnt something from an expert. Or from each other.
You could have parties in which you didn’t know what you were going to do until you started.
You could have parties that looked like raves and parties that looked like tea parties. Dinner parties, surprise parties, knitting circles, formal dances, funerals, performances, story-telling circles, carnivals, weddings, family gatherings, reunions, speed-dating or illicit gatherings in playgrounds after dark.
Some parties would be hosted.
Some parties would just happen spontaneously.
Some parties would be created with the help of an expert party planner.
Some parties would start as one thing and end up as something totally different, just because of who turned up - and what they did.
Some parties would only be interesting to a few people. Some would be for everyone.
None of the parties would charge for entry, because as soon as you do that you turn a party into an event and an event is something that is done to you rather than something you participate in.
None of the parties would be more important than the others, because they’d all be equally important to the people who hosted and organised and participated in them.
Your whole programme would become a list of invitations to join in, to engage and participate, to be a part of something, rather than someone who just sits there and watches.