It is not easy to admit when mistakes have been made.

But in a honest interview, the director of Colchester’s contemporary art gallery Firstsite has done just that.

Matthew Rowe was speaking after the Arts Council scrapped the gallery’s three year grant of £2.4million due to continuing concerns about its sustainability.

Instead, it allocated £814,000 for the next year and said the gallery had to reach a series of “rigorous milestones”, including a new business plan.

Mr Rowe said the decision had not been a bolt out of the blue and work had already begun on the “process of change”.

He said: “Yes, the business plan did not work and there were mistakes made, but I think we need to look forwards, not back.

“Not enough was done to reach out to the community to demonstrate we are a friendly, open organisation.

“We are making changes.

I hope people can give us a second chance.

“Clearly, moving forwards, we need to diversify our income generation. That means getting the message out there more effectively, including demonstrating the great work we do in the community, our work with schools and young people.”

Mr Rowe said more also needed to be done to get more people through the doors.

The gallery had a target of getting 150,00 visitors a year, but has only seen an average of 140,000.

Mr Rowe said: “In the last year, including the dark period (when there were no exhibitions) it will be nearer to 110,000 and, clearly, we have to grow that.

“The organisation has not communicated or made exhibitions accessible enough.

“Whether they were the right artists or not is water under the bridge. We are where we are. We are in the process of change and we have to move on.

“The Arts Council saw the potential in Firstsite and will support us with our transition and howwe move on from the business model, which was unsustainable.”

Mr Rowe is philosophical about the challenges ahead.

He said: “In a sense, it is useful to look at Firstsite as a business. A lot of new businesses do not break even in the first three to five years. It takes a long time for a business to develop its customer base.”

 

 

In addition to working in the community, Mr Rowe said Firstsite would also look to develop a new programme of exhibitions celebrating the work of East Anglian artists starting in the autumn, to be repeated every other year.

He said the gallery already worked with developing artists in the region and they would get the opportunity to exhibit in the gallery and the new cafe.

The cafe will have “quality and distinctiveness”, he promises.

But while change is needed, Mr Rowe said Firstsite also had to stay true to its principles as a contemporary art gallery.

“We are not a museum and there are other art venues in the town.

“We have to play our part as part of that infrastructure to celebrate living and developing artists.

“We are confident we can become a real asset to Colchester. We are in close dialogue with Colchester Council, in terms of howwe can help develop a new strategy around tourism and a vibrant economy.

“We do not want to be seen as an isolated organisation.”

Mr Rowe described the enduring critics of the gallery as “a challenge”.

“There will always be nay sayers,” he said.

“Contemporary art is a challenge, it is human nature for people not to like a challenge as such.

“We need to be more effective in howwe communicate the programmes we have – and we do some amazing work.”

Mr Rowe said the free Saturday workshops would be developed, as would the art programmes to encourage people of all ages.

In addition to the Arts Council grant, Firstsite also receives £143,000 from Colchester Council and £100,000 from Essex County Council.

Mr Rowe said: “The stakeholders will be monitoring our progress.

“We have developed a more open relationship with them; without them we would not be here.

“This year is incredibly important. We will do enormous amounts of development and planning, but turning the reputation of an organisation around takes time.

“It is easy to offend people. It is so much harder to win them back.

“I think everyone is aware it will take longer than a year to turn Firstsite around, I am under no illusion about that.

“At the end of the day, Firstsite is here and we are working as hard as we can to make it a success and to make it something the town is proud of.

“I think we should look forward, not back. This is a major long-term project.

“I hope people can see we are genuine. We are not trying to continue to pull the drawbridge up.

“This is a crossroads for Firstsite. We have learnt from this, but we must move forward."