From city festival to global catalyst: 5 years of Mediale

In a decidedly 'un-British' moment of reflection and pride, I wanted to share some of what we've learnt, what we've done, and where we're going, exactly five years after our first commissions and events during York Mediale 2018. I’ll also attempt to answer the 'aren't you still a festival?’ question by explaining how we've made the shift (within just five years and in the midst of the pandemic) to an international media arts organisation based in North Yorkshire, working nationally and internationally. We work with technologically innovative and ambitious artists, producing, commissioning and curating art with human connection, empathy and experience at its core.?

We were tentatively established in 2017 as a direct result of York gaining UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts status. The plan, which had been pitched to UNESCO , was to build a major biennial festival of media arts in the city. There had been much conversation, many workshops, countless circular discussions about what 'media arts' actually are... so we were walking into a heady mix of assumptions, ambitions and frustrations from the off. Our first task was to firm up many of the supportive but slightly vague conversations that had been going on with institutions in the city, so that we could have a strong and symbolic base of financial and strategic support to go out and fundraise from. We then had to raise money, build partnerships, somehow turbo charge some credibility (as a brand new organisation) in order to build a festival programme. The way we did that (focussing solely on new and site specific commissions, working across 23 venues in York, mixing world leading international artists with UK and local talent) is possibly a subject for an entirely different article - it wasn't simple or without its issues!

The first festival in 2018 was a roaring success. Commissioning and producing 24 new works and presenting them simultaneously across a small city was an epic undertaking, without epic resources to do it. Some projects were less successful than others - but if you're delivering a primarily publicly funded arts programme, risk taking feels to me like a responsibility. In terms of highlights, for me, first off it has to be the opening night. It felt as though there was electricity in town that night. The vibrancy and energy in both York Art Gallery , and York Theatre Royal , felt special. Both venues were packed, but packed with crowds who, I’d guess, those institutions don’t often see. People of all ages, shapes, colours, sizes, backgrounds. A good friend, and supporter of the festival, said to me at the end of the night, “this is the most excited I’ve been in this city for ten years. It feels like the first day of a revolution”. I won’t name them publicly, but that’s the single best bit of feedback I think possible to receive (and you know who you are, thank you). JustJam with Moses Boyd and Kamaal Williams was a feast, triumph and one heck of a whirlwind. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever been involved in commissioning, producing and presenting.?

Another festival highlight that year was Deep Lab UK’s ‘Can You Die if You Don’t Exist?’ by Tamara Al Mashouk. It was a hugely significant piece of work to be involved in, and we’re extremely proud to have been able to present its world premiere in York. I spent most of the day with the work as its lead producer, and the conversations and interactions it generated were so powerful, emotional and urgent. York is the UK’s first ‘Human Rights City’, and it was a privilege to be able to present such a powerful piece of public art and performance.?

Following the 2018 festival (highlight reel here), we made some ambitious declarations about plans for the 2020 edition. Local support was harder to come by second time round - the thrill of the new had faded somewhat, and a distinct lack of joined up thinking around the city meant we were building from very shaky foundations. Despite this, our profile and reputation nationally and internationally had grown significantly, even after just the first festival. Co-commissions and funding from partners and supporters nationally and internationally were growing significantly. The festival cycle was Autumn 2018 (27th September - 6th October), then Autumn 2020. This meant that by the beginning of March 2020 we were in the final stages of contracting and confirming sponsor relationships, funding relationships, and a lot of artist and collaborator contracts.?

Then mid March 2020 happened...?

It seems we're all supposed to pretend that the pandemic didn't happen now, and all soldier on as though it didn't impact us, our lives, our families, our work and our entire society. There were far more fundamental challenges and deep suffering that unfolded (and continues to) during that period, but for what it's worth, from a Mediale perspective it's safe to say it was grim - taking a fragile but growing organisation and completely upending the entire model on which it was based - including the entire turnover of the organisation being based exclusively on short term project funding.?

2020 and the pandemic forced our hand. That spring and summer spent anxiously and furiously trying to find a way through things, and create anything approaching a 'viable' model for Mediale, was odd to say the least. Particularly while trying to come up with something that vaguely resembled a home schooling routine for two very energetic kids, by two complete workaholic parents... Eventually we settled on trying to take what opportunity we could from the situation, and accelerated a plan I'd had in the back of my mind since before joining Mediale (since about 2013 honestly). The plan was simple:?

• acknowledge there is only verbal and minimal support for a city based festival, which makes that not a viable thing to continue (not even getting into the big and fundamental questions about climate catastrophe and the justification of short term international festivals as a whole)
• acknowledge the growing frustration of the festival as a model - working with artists intensively to smash together a premiere of a project in amongst 20 others, not giving it the attention or oxygen or time it deserves, then collapsing for two months after it, so not following up or working long term with anyone, on anything
• acknowledge the gap in the sector you've been thinking about for a decade (and telling anyone who'd listen) commit to an organisational model that could work
• Don't be naive, and as Rafael Lozano Hemmer would say - do your research. Take into account those who've tried something similar before, particularly two people I hugely admire, Keri Elmsly and Joana Seguro - who both built impactful businesses and made amazing work

So off we went in the latter part of 2020, building projects and relationships for work and collaborations not bound by a date or a location. It was certainly not as simple, painless or immediate as this probably implies, but the rest has been ridiculously good fun. A big highlight, and by a stretch the biggest project we'd worked on to date, was Observations on Being which we produced with MARSHMALLOW LASER FEAST for Coventry City of Culture in the summer of 2021. It was and is a remarkable work, and our only frustration is that because it was at the tail end of the height of the pandemic, not quite as many people saw it as it deserved - fingers crossed we can find another context to present a version of it in the near future.?

Another example of an important project for me is People We Love, by Kit Monkman. A lot has been said and written about this project, originally commissioned in 2020, and has since gone on to present six different versions all over the world. As I write this I'm on the way back from its opening in Viborg, Denmark, and it is concurrently showing in Pittsburgh, USA, and Castle Howard, much closer to home.?

Lastly Navvies, and the shortly to be opened 'Island in a River' by Matt Rosier. Matt is an exceptional artist, who it's a pleasure to work with - not just because of the quality of his productions, aesthetics or scale of his work (all high end), but because of the integrity and depth of the storytelling and community engagement and trust fundamental to all of the projects. He's a perfect example of an artist who focuses on the process and the depth of engagement, while also managing to create scale and impact at the 'finished piece' stage.?

There are many, many more wonderful projects with incredible artists we've produced, supported or developed since 2020, and we're only just getting started - it's been an enormous privilege to tentatively build out something of a 'roster' (an uncomfortable term for our bit of the arts!), essentially long term relationships with associate artists, in several projects and contexts.?

All of the commissioning and producing is underpinned by talent development. Not in a generic, vague, box ticking sense but in a tangible, progressive and evolving programme we call 'Immersive Assembly'. We're just wrapping up IA3, and about to announce IA4 - the structured and carefully designed artists support, mentoring, prototyping and development programme is growing every year, and we're really passionate about it. It's a six-ish month programme which is part residency, part prototyping programme, and part support network - for artists working with, in and around digital technology. So far it's involved partnerships with Goldsmiths, University of London , XR Stories and XR Network+ , Jerwood Arts , 英国文化协会 , The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and more to come.?

We want to make work about human connection, empathy and experience, and support the artists in our ecosystem. We are delighted to have been included in the Arts Council England 's national portfolio now, and so have a more stable footing to build longer term and larger projects from. We're in approximately 20 exciting conversations for every one project that comes to fruition, but the excitement is growing, and the odds are improving. Not bad for five years eh...