By James Vegnuti, Programme Manager
Having been with the company for 4 years, I have been lucky enough to see our work reach huge stages nationally and internationally as well as see the impact of our outreach work on a local level. There’s a balance that we try incredibly hard to maintain whilst striving to connect people, break down barriers, raise critical issues and amplify unheard voices.
One of the values that sits at the core of our work is “we are rooted and responsive” and I’ve been asked to write about how we interpret this in to the programming of work and how it informs our decision making.
I see these the two sides of this particular value very fitting for the work we commit to and the audiences we strive to reach. I see ‘rooted’ as the work we do in communities, heritage, lived experience, and long standing partnerships. The other side of that coin is ‘responsive’, this is showcased by listening, adapting, responding to the city and changing course when needed.
‘Rooted’, for me can be broken down in to three major categories: communities, history and trust.
Our community work keeps us firmly rooted in the local area, whether it’s with dance groups, wellbeing outreach work, or working with cultural organisations, embedding ourselves in community provides the foundations for a huge portion of our work.
History and culture is a cornerstone for us and we are grateful to be able to carry this forward in a respectful, interesting and fresh way. Working with artists who want to honour their heritage and reaching audiences who want to see their story told adds to the cultural memory of our programme.
Trust is earned, our rooted approach encourages trust in our ongoing relationships allowing for honest conversations and risk taking with both our audience and our professional partnerships.
We remain rooted across our programme with flagship events across the city that our patrons have become very familiar with, Midday Mantra and Asian Spring to name a few. This consistency builds trust and provides a solid backdrop for our work to thrive against.
‘Responsive’, for me, does not just mean ‘reacting’, it signifies intentional adaptability and space for us to respond to a wide range of possible unknowns. Social, political, and cultural moments that deserve to be spoken about through art with little to no lead in time can sometimes produce the most exciting events. In the aftermath of Covid we learnt these lessons quickly – with ever changing rules our adaptability kept us part of the picture.
This responsiveness is built into our programme. We work with a wide range of artists and freelancers whose needs, circumstances and pressures are constantly evolving and we try to shape our ways of working around that reality rather than expecting people to fit a fixed model.
Audience feedback and attendance patterns play a large part in how we behave, evaluation forms and post-show debriefs shape a lot of our thinking for what the city enjoyed and what the city is currently lacking.
After all the above has been thought out and altered there are of course factors completely out of our control that can force a response from us. These are practical realities that we have become used to dealing with – funding shifts, timelines being adjusted and capacity of our team members.
Why does it matter?
This way of working is core to how Sampad has worked in the past and ever more crucial as a way to continue. In this time of uncertainty and constant change we rely more and more on both our roots and humans ability to adapt. As we move forward, it is this commitment to being both grounded and adaptable that will enable us to keep creating work that resonates, challenges, and connects audiences, locally and far beyond.
