A year of inspiring experiences

Reflecting on disruption

Our Managing Director, Sir Nicholas Kenyon, on the impact of the global pandemic on the Barbican and the wider arts sector.

The sudden enforced closure of the Barbican and other arts venues in March 2020 was a devastating blow to us all: artists, organisations, and audiences.

We were deprived of the experiences that enable us to connect, to share, and to be inspired. It was a cruel blow that at a time when we needed the arts most, our doors were shut, and activities stopped. It was inevitable that at the point when we needed to gather, we were told to keep apart, but it went against every instinct we have developed over the generations to bring people together.

However, it made us reflect both on the value of what we have and on the ways in which we could continue to connect with audiences. Like many arts organisations, we already had a digital offer that we continued to develop for online audiences. We were able to offer again some spectacular moments from the past, for example, Simon McBurney’s extraordinary one-man performance in The Encounter, made available by his company Complicité with its innovative use of technology. Digital art has become ever more important in our live offerings, for example in the theatre productions of Ivo van Hove and Katie Mitchell. Richard Mosse’s powerful installation Incoming in the Curve used advanced surveillance technology to capture and report on a humanitarian immigration crisis. Joy Buolamwini’s Gender Shades project revealed AI’s hidden biases and prejudices.

Now we are considering how the digital offerings that have become so much a natural part of the audience’s life during lockdown can be integrated into future blended models of presentation. With still limited numbers of live audiences in our theatres, cinemas and concert halls, work can be designed to communicate effectively through digital as well as live channels. One aspect of this will have to develop: the generous provision of much work online during lockdown was made freely, to maintain connections with audiences. This was a necessary and welcome initiative, but that work has a value that must now be returned to artists, performers and creative teams, so we have to work towards a model where those digital initiatives can earn a return to those who originated them.

It was one of the great ironies of the lockdown that it penalised both freelance artists who had no means of support other than through their activities, and those organisations that had most successfully met the government’s agenda to reduce their dependence on subsidy. At a stroke, all income disappeared: earnings, box office income, and the commercial income on which arts organisations had come to depend. The arts in this country have a successful model that is based on a complex ecology of support from government and other public sources, agencies, private fundraising and earned income. It is too early to say how many organisations will fall victim to the crisis and find it impossible to work towards a new business model, and it will be a tragic outcome of the pandemic if organisations close and jobs are lost in the creative industries that benefit this country so magnificently.

The crisis has caused us to reflect on other critical issues. Sustainability is a massive consideration, particularly the impact of international touring, with its large carbon footprint, energy use, and the relationship of our work to local communities. The economic health of our great cities – fuelled by culture, especially in London – depends on tourism, which may take a long time to recover. The diversity of our workforce is a constant issue, and the recent months have raised awareness of inequality and power that large organisations like ours have to confront boldly. We are increasing our urgent work on anti-racism, equality and inclusion.

Everything points to a more humane approach. We need to start small and rebuild trust, and as I write we are just beginning to reopen parts of the Barbican including our Gallery with its superb, Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, our green Conservatory, and our new Curve commission by Nigerian-American artist, Toyin Ojih Odutola. We will continue to expand this opening offer in line with Government guidelines. What we offer in the arts must feel vital, connected, and valuable in the recovery of our national life. We will play our part in the continued revival of London as a world centre of commerce, culture and creativity. As a result of the pandemic, we can say that we will be back, but we will not be the same.

Rediscovering an icon

Jane Alison, our Head of Visual Arts, on how our critically acclaimed exhibition of Lee Krasner celebrated the impact of her century-defining work.

In summer 2019, we opened our landmark exhibition, Lee Krasner: Living Colour, the first retrospective of the American artist held in Europe in over 50 years. One of the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism, Lee Krasner (1908–84) was a defining artist of the 20th century.

The exhibition brought together nearly 100 works – many on show in the UK for the first time – from across her 50-year career. Deftly curated by our own Eleanor Nairne, the visitor was taken on a journey through Krasner’s career, including her striking early self-portraits; a body of energetic charcoal life drawings created under the tutelage of Hans Hofmann; little-known collages; and, of course, a comprehensive selection of her most impressive large-scale, abstract paintings. Finally allowing her to receive the recognition she deserves, the exhibition was a true revelation of an artist with tremendous attitude, verve and ability, always challenging herself, always willing to explore new paths.

What is wonderful about the Barbican as a multi-disciplinary Centre is the opportunities it provides to join with colleagues to complement the exhibition with a full range of events. The exhibition presented the perfect platform to explore what was happening in film-making and music in the 1950s and 1960s, when artists across all disciplines were advocating for freedom from convention and the expression of real feeling. Alongside a full range of talks with Krasner scholars, the Art Gallery hosted live jazz performance – including trumpet player Mark Kavuma’s musical response to one of Krasner’s favourite jazz records, Thelonius Monk’s 1957 album, Brilliant Corners.

The creative inventiveness and cutting-edge style of Krasner’s work also inspired an exciting programme of events for young people and a family day attended by over 800 visitors. Our Creative Learning team organised drawing workshops led by artists, Esther Bunting and Florence Peake, and we ran a reading workshop with poet and tutor, Tamar Yoseloff, exploring the ways the written word influenced Krasner’s imagery. Through our Community Views, we invited community groups and charities to see the exhibition for free, including refugee and homeless groups, groups for elderly people and individuals with learning disabilities – many of who had never visited the Barbican before.

We were delighted to partner with art institutions of stature across Europe to ensure that many more people could see this wonderful exhibition – the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, and the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. None of this would have been possible without the cooperation, support and confidence of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and countless lenders across the world. We are also grateful to all those who generously supported this exhibition, in particular the Terra Foundation for American Art, Art Fund, the Lee Krasner Exhibition Circle members and our sponsors, tp bennett and Sotheby’s.

Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning’s ten-year anniversary

Our Senior Producer, Lauren Monaghan-Pisano, on ten years of supporting people of all ages and backgrounds to access and engage with the arts.

In autumn 2019, Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning celebrated ten years of supporting over 100,000 people of all ages and backgrounds to develop creative skills for life. This vital work spans art forms including film, music, theatre, dance, visual arts and poetry, and continues even in these challenging times.

This milestone anniversary was marked with the publication of Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning: 10 Years in Review, featuring highlights from each year of Creative Learning’s extensive work, telling a wider story about the depth and richness of our programme. We were delighted to include an essay from children’s author Michael Rosen, a regular collaborator on our flagship schools programme, Barbican Box, and a poem by Kareem Parkins-Brown, an alumnus of our Young Poets programme. Both artists are valued members of our ever-expanding creative community.

Our achievements over the past decade were made possible by the brilliant partnerships we have – with schools, teachers, artists, young people and community organisations – locally, nationally and internationally. These partnerships are a core part of our programme and ensure that genuine exchange, co-creation and two-way learning are at the heart of what we do.

Since the formation of Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning in 2009, the department has gone from strength to strength and our team now delivers more than 40 programmes and events alongside 150 partners to over 22,000 direct participants every year. This is testament to the demand for our work, the generous support of the programme’s funders, and to all those who continue to support us on this journey.

As our Creative Learning programme steps into a new decade, the work will be underpinned by three core pillars: Education, Employability and Enrichment. In our ever-changing social and political times, it is vital that the Barbican and Guildhall School continue to lead the way in championing a wide range of voices and stories, advocating for the unique role that arts-based learning can play in supporting us all to realise our potential. We know that the arts have the power to transform lives and we will continue to work with our partners so that everyone can discover and engage in an enduring love of the arts and develop their own creative skills for life.

Find out more about supporting our future Creative Learning programmes.

Reflecting on an exceptional year of cinema

Gali Gold, our Head of Cinema, on the most successful year for our cinema programme to date.

This year Barbican Cinema achieved its best-ever performance, with strong income and great audience attendance across our entire programme. Anime’s Human Machines in September 2019 was our most successful curated season ever. We hosted sold-out screenings and visiting artists from Japan – including Shōji Kawamori, who contributed mechanical design work to two pivotal films in our season, Patlabor: The Movie (1989) and Ghost in the Shell (1995) – took part in ScreenTalks, workshops and live events. The impressive selection of eight landmark films covered a variety of perspectives on humanity and technology. It was a significant moment for many visitors to enjoy these films, which are rarely seen on the big screen.

We welcomed some of the most prestigious film-makers of our time, including Bong Joon-ho in a preview of his latest film, Parasite, prior to winning three Academy awards; Pedro Almodovar in a preview of Pain and Glory; and, Syrian film maker, Waad Al-Kateab with her Oscar-nominated documentary, For Sama, hosted by Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

Our Borders and Boundaries season marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and looked at how man-made borders across the world have been represented and challenged in film. Hidden Figures showcased the work of notable directors who deserve greater recognition in the UK, and the Family Film Weekender presented thematically curated family programmes of international films for young audiences.

Equality and inclusion are a central part of our cinema programme and over the past year, we have shown many films and hosted on-stage events and talks promoting the work of women, LGBTQI+, Black, Asian and minority ethnic people, as well as other marginalised voices. One highlight was Forbidden Colours, a programme celebrating rarely seen, queer-focused films from places where LGBTQ+ people still suffer societal oppression and struggle for equality. Barbican Cinema also received the Autism Friendly Award from the National Autistic Society in February 2020, a real milestone for our relaxed screenings programme.

Sadly, our successful year came to a halt with the Barbican’s temporary closure in mid-March. We had just opened the Human Rights Watch Film Festival to a full house, and we were counting down the days until the launch of Chronic Youth, the Barbican Young Programmers’ annual festival of vibrant and inspiring films for and about young people scheduled to take place later that month.

The creative energy and drive to connect people and ideas through film does not stop, however, and cinema has been developing its digital offer, making the best use of technology to connect with our audiences.

We look forward to our return to the Centre and our venues, and continuing our commitment to provide the collective cinema experience that we all miss and crave.

The power of collaboration

Toni Racklin, our Head of Theatre and Dance, on what makes a successful co-production.

You may have seen some amazing, inspiring, even life-changing shows at the Barbican. But how do we bring these productions to our stages?

This year we were extremely fortunate to work again with Viviana Durante Company, to stage their dynamic triple-bill, Isadora Now; with Mthuthuzeli November on the world premiere of Ingoma (Song), performed by Ballet Black; and with Trevor Carlson on his intimate one-man multimedia show, Not A Moment Too Soon.

How did we get these projects off the ground? Firstly, by establishing close working relationships with Viviana, Mthuthuzeli, Trevor, and their wider teams; secondly, by giving them time, space and a financial contribution to turn ideas into reality; and thirdly by supporting them throughout the creative process.

We had many collaborative discussions with Viviana Durante Company from the outset on the artistic direction of the performance, which supported the company in shaping the project into a triple-bill. Performed by an ensemble of seven women, it celebrated the pioneer of contemporary dance, Isadora Duncan. Her rarely seen, Dance of the Furies, was followed by Frederick Ashton’s Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan. The evening was completed by our specially commissioned world premiere, Unda, choreographed by Joy Alpuerto Ritter. It was exciting to see the influence of Duncan’s feminist legacy on this generation of dance practitioners.

Ballet Black has an important place in our programme and always attracts full houses. In between performances, our team regularly visits the rehearsal studio in west London. For this year we commissioned company member, Mthuthuzeli November, to choreograph his first full-length ballet, Ingoma (Song). Based on a landmark moment in South African history, it was nominated for an Olivier Award.

Not A Moment Too Soon was a revealing insight into the life of the visionary American choreographer Merce Cunningham through the personal and professional testimony of his former executive producer and performer, Trevor Carlson. Presented in the year of Cunningham’s centenary, the work-in-progress version we first saw was in Spain, Trevor’s adopted home. We seized opportunities to talk to him about the show that eventually developed into an astonishingly distinctive work, which we paired with Night of 100 Solos in our Theatre. Both were heartfelt tributes to a giant of contemporary dance on what would have been his 100th birthday.

Ambitious programming and sublime music

Huw Humphreys, our Head of Music, on a year of invention and celebration for classical and contemporary music at the Barbican.

Some standout highlights of the last year have been our weekenders: the classical music festival Sound Unbound in May 2019, and the Beethoven Weekender in February 2020 supported by DHL. Weekenders always bring the Barbican to life in an inspiring way. Our Beethoven Weekender explored the composer’s life and music at the beginning of what we hoped would be a year of celebrations for his 250th anniversary. With Beethoven’s works presented in fresh and informal ways, performances from five of the UK’s top orchestras, plus an exhibition from his birth house in Bonn, audiences were able to explore the music in a relaxed festival atmosphere.

Our longstanding international orchestral partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel continued with another electrifying residency marking their centenary year and featured guest performances from pianist, Yuja Wang, as part of her Artist Spotlight series, and jazz legend, Herbie Hancock, in a concert complementing his visit to the Barbican as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival 2019. Another highlight of the residency was an open rehearsal with the Tuning into Change orchestra. The orchestra comprised of young artists from the UK and the US who performed together in the Hall, conducted by Dudamel. In 2019, we also saw the second residency from our International Associate Ensemble at Milton Court – the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Players demonstrated typical versatility with performances ranging from Bach, to Stravinsky, to Vasks, plus collaborations with Guildhall Musicians, and Luminous, a multimedia project in collaboration with Australian photographer Bill Henson.

Other examples of new and inventive programming included Ada Lovelace: Imagining the Analytical Engine in November, generously supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, which celebrated the work of one of the early pioneers of the computer. The event included Barbican-commissioned world premieres, performances with newly created instruments, and discussion, all curated by composer, Emily Howard. In April, Minimalist Dream House brought together a group of genre-pushing artists featuring pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, with David Chalmin, Bryce Dessner and Thom Yorke. And in July, the London Contemporary Orchestra performed Clint Mansell’s otherworldly score for Duncan Jones’s Moon, side by side with a screening of the film for the first time.

With other Barbican-commissioned projects such as Max Cooper’s Yearning for the Infinite and collaborations with our family of orchestras, the past year has been defined by ambitious and boundary-defying programming to bring sublime music to our audiences.

Questioning the line between human and machine

Luke Kemp and Patrick Moran, our Co-Acting Heads of Barbican International Enterprises, on our major exhibition AI: More than Human, which looked at our relationship with artificial intelligence.

What does it mean to be human today? That was the central question of our 2019 exhibition, AI: More than Human. Curated by our Barbican International Enterprises (BIE) team, which develops touring exhibitions with a focus on contemporary culture, emerging technology and digital creativity, this was a comprehensive survey of creative and scientific developments in artificial intelligence (AI), looking at the relationship between humans and technology.

Part of Life Rewired, the Barbican’s 2019 cross-arts season, this exhibition brought together artists, scientists and researchers to unravel the rapidly developing story of AI and its place in society. The exhibition covered AI’s extraordinary ancient roots in Japanese Shintoism; Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage’s early experiments in computing; and AI’s major developments from the 1940s to the present day. AI: More than Human spanned literature, film, robots, and scientific hardware, as well as several newly commissioned contemporary artworks to show how an age-old dream of creating intelligence has become today’s reality.

Over the course of four months, more than 90,000 people visited the exhibition to experience first-hand the capabilities of AI in the form of cutting-edge research projects by DeepMind, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Neri Oxman, and to interact directly with exhibits and installations from artists including Es Devlin, Mario Klingemann, Massive Attack, and Japanese art collective teamLab.

Alongside the main exhibition, we presented a thought-provoking programme of conferences, talks and free public events in spaces across the Barbican for schools, young people and communities to examine the subject from multiple perspectives and through different interactive formats.

We are grateful to Bupa Global, CMS and The AI Summit for generously supporting this important exhibition. BIE tours each exhibition internationally for between three and five years, and the first tour venue for AI: More than Human is the exhibition co-producer Forum Groningen, which opened in December 2019. This will be followed by exhibitions in Liverpool and Madrid in 2021.

Always open, always free

Our Senior Producer, Siddharth Khajuria, discusses how a programme continues to turn our public foyers into an experimental platform for people to explore art and ideas about the forces shaping our lives today.

On Level G, our programme of experimental installations, artist residencies and public events sits beside all those who visit our foyer spaces every day: freelancers working on laptops, students revising, parents and toddlers playing, and audiences rushing around with coffees and beers before concerts and conferences.

We use this busy environment as a platform for projects that ask questions, spark conversations and bring people together. With a commitment to nurturing new forms of cultural activity, our work is shaped by collaborative practice and developed with people from a range of sectors – including science, media, and tech – to create space for perspectives from the arts and beyond.

One of the highlights of last year’s programme was the Life Rewired Hub, a micro-venue hosting a programme of more than 90 talks, workshops and exhibitions examining the impact of technological change on society. Topics included the future of humanitarian work in India; the link between genetics and schizophrenia; the future of food consumption; and dating in an age of technology. Developed in collaboration with the British Council, Royal Society and Wellcome, the Hub welcomed nearly 30,000 visitors during the year.

In October 2019, New Suns, a platform for feminist literature and art-making curated by Sarah Shin in collaboration with Barbican producer, Razia Jordan, returned to the Barbican for a second year. Comprising a bookfair and a day of talks, workshops and screenings, this year’s edition explored the relationships between contemporary feminism and technology. Over 5,000 visitors spent time on Level G or took part in discussions, with speakers including writer Reni Eddo-Lodge and the joint winner of the 2019 Turner Prize, Tai Shani. The dozens of publishers present at the bookfair included Feminist Library, Granta, Hachette, Independent Alliance, London Review Bookshop, Penguin Random House, Peninsula Press and SemiotextI / MIT.

Becoming London’s Most Accessible Venue

Accessibility is an important aspect of our work as we want all audiences to enjoy our programme. But these efforts are not limited to our artistic offer; we also aim to ensure people visiting the Centre – whether to perform, take part in a workshop, or simply to relax or study – can access the facilities they need so that their visit is comfortable and welcoming.

In February this year, we were incredibly proud to be named London’s Most Accessible Venue for audiences by disabled access charity, Euan’s Guide. The award highlighted our wide range of accessible performances, including audio-described, sensory friendly, captioned and BSL shows, plus our Changing Places toilet facility.

We were also delighted to receive the National Autistic Society’s Autism Friendly Award in recognition of adjustments made to our cinemas and surrounding spaces, making them more welcoming spaces for neurodiverse audiences. We are determined to roll out these changes across the wider Centre where possible, so that all audience members feel at ease in their surroundings.

We recognise that accessibility is a process – something we must constantly consider in all our work – rather than an end goal that can simply be achieved and ticked off the list. It’s therefore very important to us to programme performances that are accessible to a wide range of audiences.

For example, in December last year we staged To the Moon and Back, an immersive, participatory experience from M-SET (Multi-Sensory Educational Theatre) jointly commissioned by our Theatre and Creative Learning departments. The show, inspired by the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, involved a multi-sensory journey of discovery into interactive spaces of touch, colour, sound and special effects aimed at children aged three months to four years old.

The show began performances for primary and special educational needs and disability (SEND) school groups before beginning its sold-out public run. All performances were relaxed, meaning audiences were welcome to move around and make noise during the show, which is particularly suitable for those with learning disabilities, sensory or communication needs. In addition, we ran CPD sessions for primary and SEND teachers, inspired by the techniques used in the show. We were very excited that the production received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Family Show.

Another year of extraordinary performances

We’re proud to be the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company in London as it continues to bring its outstanding work to our stage.

This year’s performances saw As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure transferring from Stratford-upon-Avon to the Barbican. This trio of works explored themes of morality, love, power and gender – strikingly resonant for today’s audiences. Every one of the 27-strong ensemble starred in at least two of the productions.

As You Like It, directed by Kimberley Sykes, ingeniously paired the Forest of Arden with the backstage area of a theatre in an immersive, behind-the-scenes look at Shakespeare’s lively characters. Justin Audibert cleverly subverted gender stereotypes in The Taming of the Shrew, highlighting issues the play throws up about abuses of power. Meanwhile, RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran drew on contemporary debates post #MeToo to create an impactful, Measure for Measure.

To round off the season, we jointly hosted Towards a Creative Curriculum, a one-day conference for teachers and arts professionals working in schools that featured keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops and a provocation by artist Bob and Roberta Smith.

The LSO, the Barbican’s resident orchestra, enjoyed another year of great collaborations

In June 2019, we collaborated with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) on two striking, semi-staged concerts of Janáček’s opera, The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and directed by Peter Sellars. The traditional all-British opening concert for the 2019–20 season featured another Barbican commission for Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO, Emily Howard’s Antisphere. The LSO joined us in celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year in early 2020, playing a series of concerts pairing Beethoven’s works with music by Alban Berg. The opening two programmes included Beethoven’s Symphony No 7, with later performances of two great choral works: the Ninth Symphony and the rarely performed oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives.

In May 2019, the London Symphony Chorus (LSC) and LSO Discovery’s composers and musicians from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama represented the orchestra at the Barbican’s biannual, Sound Unbound festival in a programme featuring, Carmina Burana, directed by Simon Halsey, and Amir Konjani’s ambitious installation with video art, performing sculpture and movement at LSO St Luke’s.

LSO Discovery also collaborated with Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning and the National Open Youth Orchestra (NOYO) and on 19 February 2020, NOYO completed a taster workshop as part of LSO Discovery’s Make Music Day for young people with learning disabilities and their families. The session was led by NOYO Assistant Musical Director Charlie Groves and workshop leader Bea Hubble, alongside Leo, a current member of the NOYO ensemble.

The theme of the Make Music Day was ‘How to Build an Orchestra’ and Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony. NOYO created a soundscape of a sunrise in response to the first movement, and after each workshop the piece was performed to all participants in the Hall in sharing sessions.

Supporting our programme

Natasha Harris, our new Director of Development, on the transformative support of our donors, funders and corporate partners.

I was immensely proud to be given the opportunity join the Barbican as the new Director of Development at the start of 2020. Though we’ve weathered considerable challenges since then, this doesn’t prevent us from reflecting on what a tremendous year 2019/20 was for the Barbican, and how lucky we are to have such an amazing group of donors, funders and corporate partners to enable our artistic and education work to flourish.

We have seen some truly amazing projects in 2019/20, realised with the help of several transformative grants and sponsorships. We engaged diverse audiences with health-related themes in the Life Rewired programme – spanning cinema, visual arts, music, theatre, creative learning and public programmes – thanks to a generous grant from Wellcome. We made strides in improving public access to the Barbican Guildhall archive collections, using funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to engage audiences and communities with our heritage. Our visual arts programme benefited from vital exhibition sponsorships, including Grosvenor’s support of Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art and Calvin Klein’s support of Masculinities: Liberation Through Photography.

We extend our gratitude to our brilliant community of supporter groups, first to our wonderful Patrons for their unwavering belief in our work, especially those who have joined our new highest-level group, the Director’s Circle, whose launch was recently hosted by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress at Mansion House. Many thanks, also, to our invaluable network of corporate members who support the Barbican’s work while giving their staff and stakeholders special access to our programme. We are delighted to welcome Howden M&A and Pinsent Masons as our newest members of this network. We are also pleased to note that this year marks five years of support from corporate member Aberdeen Standard Investments.

This has also been an excellent year for audience giving. We raised just under £100,000 from our loyal audiences during 2019–20, including from those making a donation while purchasing a ticket, responding to an appeal, or using one of our on-site donation points.

Our thanks to everyone for their support over the past year in raising just under £2million. Every penny helped us to deliver another outstanding artistic programme, providing support for our artists and associates, and access for community groups, families, children and young people. To keep our programme accessible to everyone, and to invest in the artists we work with, we need to raise more than 60% of our income through ticket sales, commercial activities and fundraising every year.

People

Rehearsing for change

Rachel Smith, Senior Producer in the Beyond Barbican team, on nurturing community, connection and our collective imagination.

In July 2019, we celebrated the sixth edition of the annual Walthamstow Garden Party. I’m lucky to have been involved in the festival since its inception and remember clearly the rainy February afternoon when I first set foot in Lloyd Park, the festival’s home, for our first recce. Walking around the beautiful gardens and landscapes of the park with colleagues from the Barbican, Create, and Waltham Forest council we began to imagine what a festival might look like. A music stage here, a food market there – the world we hoped to create began to come alive in our imaginations. Just five months later, the first festival took place. I had no idea then of the journey we had begun nor the many festivals that were to follow.

From the outside, it might seem that not much has changed since that first festival. The weekend has always been hugely popular, consistently attracting over 30,000 people each year. However, beneath the surface there has been enormous change and learning, each year’s festival a rehearsal for the next, enabling us to embark on greater experimentation and to build deeper connections. Six years down the line, the festival is no longer simply programmed by the handful of people who walked around the park that rainy day back in 2014; it is now collectively imagined by more than 300 local organisations and 1,500 local people who work year-round with each other and our producer, Lara Deffense, to share, connect and nurture it into existence.

In October 2019, we began a fresh adventure with Leytonstone Loves Film, a new festival developed as part of Waltham Forest’s year as London Borough of Culture. With all the hindsight of our work on Walthamstow Garden Party, we began this process from a completely different place. Our producer, Wilna Fourie, brought together over twenty local film-makers and exhibitors at the very beginning of the process to imagine together what the festival would become. We invested less on creating the event itself, and more into creating space for the collective imagination of others. Leytonstone Loves Film did this spectacularly well, bringing together a diverse array of perspectives and creating a joyful celebration of the multiple stories and narratives that make up a community and a place. Over the course of the weekend, we screened 130 films and around 8,000 people from the local area and beyond joined the festival.

As a team, we have been enriched and transformed by others through our collaborations. We have learned that cooperating with others and working towards a common goal achieves more than would be possible on our own. As we look to the future, we are committed to creating safe and inclusive spaces for people to come together to stretch and strengthen our collective imaginations. We are rehearsing not just for our next project, but for new ways of being, learning and connecting. In a world that can feel fractured, this is more important now than ever.

Place

Sustainability

Our Sustainability Manager Charlotte Lythgoe discusses the Barbican’s approach to reducing our environmental impact.

What’s the Barbican’s approach to sustainability?
We know our activities as an international arts centre have a significant impact on the environment and we’re committed to considerably reducing these. We still have a long way to go, but steps we’ve taken so far include switching to 100% renewable electricity, introducing low energy and LED alternatives in many areas of our building, and taking steps to removing the use of single-use plastics. Promoting environmental awareness among our staff, audiences, visiting companies and artists, encouraging everyone who uses the building to think sustainably, is also something we’re invested in.

What are some of the achievements from the past year?
Over the past year we’ve been making progress in implementing our Sustainability Policy. A couple of highlights include setting up a new organisation-wide sustainability group open to all staff members, to give everyone an opportunity to get involved in finding ways to reduce our environmental impact, as well as working closely with our catering partners to provide more vegetarian and vegan options and to source food as locally as possible. We also won Best Sustainability Initiative at the London Venue Awards and our free summer festival Walthamstow Garden Party, which we produce in partnership with the London Borough of Waltham Forest, was voted one of the most environmentally friendly festivals in the world by the Greener Festival Awards.

Could you tell us what some of the plans are for the coming year?
Addressing our environmental impact is a major organisational priority for us and we’re currently in the process of reviewing our strategy and targets to ensure we continue to reduce this impact to as low a level as possible.

In the meantime, a key focus this year is to expand our sustainability work and develop some new measures to advance the cultural sector’s environmental practice. For example, we’ve recently joined the highly regarded Accelerator Programme – run by Arts Council England and Julie’s Bicycle – to develop new and innovative ways to reduce the impact of festivals on the environment. We’ve also recently started collaborating on a pilot study with Julie’s Bicycle to develop a set of guidelines on what sustainable touring for exhibitions could look like.

Could you give us a quick insight into your typical working day at the Barbican?
No two days are the same. My daily activities at the Barbican could range from chairing a meeting of our Sustainability Steering Group, climbing through a plant room with an energy consultant, or checking on our wildlife by sitting on the Lakeside counting the ducks. It’s an incredibly varied and exciting role.

Culture Mile

The Barbican is one of the leading partners of Culture Mile, the City of London’s cultural district stretching from Farringdon to Moorgate. It’s an ambitious, long-term initiative led by the City of London Corporation with partners, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London Symphony Orchestra and Museum of London. Culture Mile aims to transform the area with lively outdoor events, support its thriving local economy, improve the links between cultural venues and the wider public, and take advantage of every opportunity to develop life skills through creative participation.

Last year, Culture Mile launched its first ever summer season of events, 100 Days of Play, which explored the value of play and creativity in everyday life, featuring an interactive sound garden, lunchtime programmes of yoga, music and mindfulness for City workers, and London’s biggest play street.

In November, Culture Mile Nights explored the night-time economy of Smithfield with a series of after-dark events, including candlelit tours of St Bartholomew the Great, events at iconic nightclub, Fabric, an immersive spoken word event and a Smithfield pub quiz.

In 2019, Culture Mile and Foundation for FutureLondon at East Bank partnered on the Fusion Prize, a competition with a £50,000 prize fund. We invited schools, universities, charities and businesses to work together and pitch innovative ideas that develop the creative, communication, organisational and thinking skills of London’s young people through cultural experiences. Six finalists were selected and the winner is due to be announced later in 2020.

The Barbican Archive

Bringing our history back to life.

As we approach our 40th anniversary in 2022, a team of researchers at the Barbican has spent the past few years delving into our archives to discover our origins and chart our remarkable journey across the decades.

On completion, this exciting project will become a key collection of architecture, design and the performing arts. We aim for the Barbican Archive to tell the stories of how the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama buildings came to be, how they work, and how artists and audiences have defined them.

Over the past two years, and thanks to help from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, discoveries from the archives project have already begun to emerge. The Barbican Archive Residency took place across Level G in October 2019, with a weekend of free talks, workshops, films and pop-up installations showcasing found material. This included the Barbican Archive Jukebox, which toured a series of sites across the Centre throughout October. The jukebox featured an interactive display with contributions from the first employees and residents of the Barbican that brought our 1982 opening back to life.

Work is continuing to further build our archive in advance of our anniversary, so that this landmark can be celebrated with a new oral history of the Barbican and our surrounding area, and a digital archive available for all on our website.

Crafting a retail offer

Exclusive gifts and events in the Barbican Shop

In our spacious two-floor shop by our Silk Street entrance, a second shop in Barbican Art Gallery and an online store, we showcase the designers of today and tomorrow, creating bespoke products and exclusive new ranges. Our shop also provides room for events, where in spring 2019 we explored the influence of Brutalist architecture on contemporary craft and design through a series of workshops.

Over the past year, a lot of our retail offer and fashion pieces were influenced by exhibitions in our Art Gallery. For Lee Krasner: Living Colour, we launched a collection of accessories incorporating Lee Krasner’s artwork, including a silk scarf, umbrella and tote bag. And for our autumn exhibition, Into the Night, design label, Wolf & Moon, created a stylish range of jewellery inspired by the elegant aesthetic of the Belle Époque era of Paris, as depicted in the show. The Brutalist-inspired workshops and the exclusive exhibition ranges were typical of Barbican Shop’s aim to offer unique gifts and experiences for our visitors that capture the spirit of the building.

Barbican for hire

Jackie Boughton, our Head of Business Events, on a record-breaking year of hosting events.

The Barbican provides a striking backdrop for a range of commercial hires that take place across the building, including conferences, product launches and weddings. Led by our Business Events department, the success of these hires directly supports our arts and learning programmes.

Before we had to temporarily close the Centre in March, the Business Events team had already achieved its most successful financial year ever, with almost £3 million secured in business events for 2019–20. Repeat bookings were also up 2% from the previous year, with successful ongoing relationships including the Institute of Fundraising, Mind the Product and the NHS.

Our efforts and achievements were recognised with several awards during the year, including the COOLest Venue for Award Ceremonies & AGMs at Prestige Event’s COOL Venue Awards, and Best Sustainability Initiative at the London Venue Awards, acknowledging our continued commitment to reducing our environmental impact.

Some of the biggest event highlights of the year included the inaugural Life Lessons weekend presented by The Sunday Times, an in-conversation evening with Emma Thompson presented by Guardian Live, and a collaboration with WIRED and Barbican International Enterprises to produce a joint conference during the AI: More Than Human exhibition.

The Barbican also continued to be a popular location for film, TV and fashion shoots. Notable among the events from the past year are fashion shoots for Vivienne Westwood, Burberry and Primark; video shoots for a number of music videos including Cher Lloyd; and filming for a Netflix production.

The financial successes and award accolades over the past year are all testament to a continuous strive to host unforgettable business events, and we look forward to welcoming our commercial clients back into the Centre.

Finance

_{These results represent the outcome of the 19/20 financial year, which Covid-19 interrupted just two weeks before its close.}

_{Principal funding sources City of London funding for 2019/20 is £17.4m. This represents 39% of total income down from 41% in 2018/19. Box Office income for 2019/20 is £7.8m, up from 2018/19 due to the additional summer exhibition - AI: More than Human. Trading & Other income for 2019/20 is £17.5m, up from £15.4m in 2018/19. This fluctuates due to audience-driven income. By building our touring and partnership income over the last few years this has added some stability to this income line and increased it. We also were successful in claiming orchestral and galleries tax relief. Donations and other grants represented 5% of income in line with previous years.}

_{Attendance The attendance figures shown here include all ticketed events, visitors at The Curve gallery and estimated attendance at Commercial events. The Centre has other non-ticketed activity in foyer spaces, offsite (e.g. Sound Unbound and Walthamstow Garden Party) and international touring which are not included in the attendance figures shown here.}

Who's Who 2019/20

Management

Partners

Cultural and Education Partners

With thanks to

The Barbican is very grateful to all our supporters listed here and the many thousands who have made a donation when purchasing tickets or who have contributed to the Barbican Centre Trust.

The Barbican Centre Trust Ltd is a registered charity in England and Wales (no. 294282)

Centre Partner

Corporate Partners

Corporate Members Premier

Corporate Members Plus

Corporate Members

Corporate Insiders