My golden thread
One of the many joys of setting up on your own as a freelance consultant is that it forces you to question what you offer and how you offer it. Before I started consultancy, I’d had a fun-packed career in delivery, management and leadership across a series of fabulous and fascinating cultural, heritage and landscape places. Reflecting, I realised the golden thread taking me from that work into my freelance career were three fundamental principles: authenticity, sustainability and creativity.
In my next three blog posts I’m going to delve into why I think these are important in my work, and why I think they’re vital for any cultural, heritage and landscape place.
Part one: Authenticity (spirit, spirit and specifics!)
Spirit of place
I began writing this blog post in my head as I was weeding our vegetable garden ready to sow seeds in the rapidly warming soil. Sometimes more recent friends are surprised to learn that I spent the first ten years of my working life learning to be a gardener and then looking after and developing two starkly contrasting gardens. One (Barrington Court in Somerset) was structured, formal, intense and designed by renowned garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. The other (Glendurgan in Cornwall) was informal, defined by its natural geography, natural, relaxed and had been gradually evolved by successive members of the same modest family.
In landscape design the phrase ‘spirit of place’ is used by the best practitioners – centuries ago and today. Essentially – this is the act of absorbing all the characteristics of a location. It’s the nature, the moods, the features, the obvious stuff and the subtle nuances. It comes before determining how and where to begin making interventions.
I’ve run several spirit of place workshops now for various places (museums, archaeological sites, countryside – certainly not just for designed landscapes). It is one of the more challenging tasks as it involves a fair number of stakeholders, a lot of subjectivity and plenty of intangible things too. But – for all the complexity in defining spirit of place, it becomes a brilliant anchor for future shared decision making.
It isn’t known whether the people who initially laid out Trelissick estate in Cornwall embraced folklore and fairies. However the fairytale Water Tower at its entrance and magical woodland setting make it synonymous with such fantasies for children and adults - hence these characters in their winter lights trail.
Most people I encounter through my work are passionately and spiritually connected to their place of work. The chances are that if put on the spot they could already describe the things that make that place unique, distinctive and cherished. You might be a 400 year old historic house, an inner city community venue or a coastal walk – there will be things that make you significant (statutory designations, history, collections, permanent features) and things that make you relevant (love from community groups, part of locals’ daily life, intellectual stimulation).
Spirit of place workshop in action
Spirit everywhere
Controversial opinion: I think that less than a quarter of places get their food and drink offering ‘right’. By this I mean that it might be high quality, it might generate some profit to look after the place, it might be run by a third party and therefore be one less headache for the team on the ground to deal with. But except in rare situations, it won’t live out the uniqueness of the whole place. People will arrive or be about to leave, they’ll enter the food and drink area and the magic begins to fade. Those wonderful experiences you’ve just had are now forgotten in a world of chill cabinet compressors whirring, predictable menus, generic prints by local artists on the wall and staff too pressured to be conscious of the reason many people come to the place.
Eating and drinking offers are complex – I get it. However, I’m a believer in sometimes using the approach of ‘change one thing’. Rename one of your existing cakes after a landmark or person in your portrait collection. Ask one of your community groups to design a new cocktail / mocktail / smoothie based on one of your key themes. Run a photography competition inspired by the beauty and fascination on your place with a nearby school and feature prints of their work on the walls. Ask some of your café staff to swap with your curatorial / ranger team on various days. Take the first step. And then think what your destination would look and feel like if you took this approach in your marketing, your events programme, your fundraising approach and even the nature of your monthly internal team meetings!
When the café at St Michael’s Mount simply renamed ‘Rocky Road’ ‘Chapel Rocky Road’ in honour of a rocky outcrop and ferry departure point - sales visibly increased!
Something for everyone?
Really? Really?!
If so – great! But my final point about authenticity is one of honesty. The chances are you offer or have to potential offer wonderful experiences to several different audiences. Some places will reach many more different audiences than others for various reasons, but I encourage everyone everywhere to be honest about what they offer and who they offer it best to.
Clearly understanding what a place offers makes it much easier to see if you’re a good fit whether someone is a potential donor, visitor, volunteer, community partner, sponsor, participant or ambassador. Yes – you might not be their thing, but equally if you are then they’ll feel confident in their decision.
Feel Good Club in Manchester has a simple but powerful mission to create online and physical spaces where people feel safe, comfortable and feel good being themselves. Words of affirmation on a mug of tea and soft fluffy grass flower heads all strengthen this spirit.
I feel like I’ve got on my soapbox here – but I think every place has so much uniqueness and distinctiveness that it’s a crime not to embrace it fully. If you’re ready to do this – get in touch and let’s plan how to release the magic.
Otherwise – I’ll get off my soapbox and back into that calming vegetable garden.