As newly-appointed Programming and Creative Director of Aberdeen Arts Centre, Eve Nicol is currently taking stock.
“I’m very much in learning mode, seeing what’s working,” she said.
“I don’t want to be constantly shifting and changing things because, while leadership might change, the community will stay relatively similar.”
Noting that many people have a connection to the Arts Centre, she said: “It’s glorious. It’s like, that’s their stage. I love that.”
Eve said the centre wouldn’t be able to operate without the support of its volunteers.
“You’ll be more aware of them going forward because they’re getting some swanky new uniforms, so they’ll be much more visible.”
When the P&J caught up with her, Eve had just given some potential volunteers the grand tour.
“We took them up on the stage and even with the house lights on, you could see they were in awe.
“And every backstage is different. It’s imbued with all the people who have passed through it and all the stories that have been told there.
“It’s like going down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.”
What are Eve Nicol’s ambitions for the Arts Centre?
Eve was brought in to deploy her particular skillset of artistic development and production.
“The aim has been to professionalise the Arts Centre to improve the offer for local performing companies and local artists,” she said.
“There aren’t many avenues, close to zero, for actors or playwrights early in their careers. They’re pulled to the Central Belt or to London.
“I’m keen to move towards is getting more locally-made, in-house productions on stage and providing opportunities for early-career artists in the area.”
Castlegate Arts Limited has been running the centre since 1999 and there is a board of around a dozen trustees.
It has made five new appointments, including Eve, since November.
Eoin Smith has been appointed communications advisor; James Welsh is taking care of front of house as hospitality manager; Adrienne Duncan is now centre administrator and Julia Smith takes up the role of fundraiser.
They join existing team members Barry Sherriffs, technician, and Leah Christie, creative facilitator.
“There’s so much energy to get things happening,” said Eve.
“And because we’re all new, we’re not bogged down by a sense of, ‘Oh, well, this is how it’s always been done’.”
“We’re really careful to protect what’s working, but there’s a great sense of, ‘Well, we could do this!’.
Revitalisation of Arts Centre
“There are also some new board members, so it’s a really intentional revitalisation.
“There’s focused investment from the board in the budgets to make that happen.
“Already, we’ve seen how by having a new front of house manager, our bar sales this year compared to last year are almost double for the month.”
Eve sees advantages in the building being “a bit rough around the edges”.
She said: “You can knock about a bit and not be too precious with it. But over the past 60 years (when it became the Arts Centre), technologies and processes have really moved along and improved.
“We’re bringing the Arts Centre along with that, keeping it up to speed with what audiences and practitioners expect, so that we’re equipping them for when they go out into the wider world.”
The aim is to bring more people through the doors and not necessarily for a performance.
“It’s surprisingly harder than it seems to get those front doors open,” said Eve.
“But the whole team is really keen to make that happen, even if it’s just people dropping by.
“Once they’re inside, they see what’s going on, they can drop into the exhibitions. We are in an old church and it has that grandeur.
“Just getting people up those stairs can be a barrier. We can be more open, more inviting.”
Eve keen help young creatives
Eve said that building up a pool of freelance facilitators is important for the creative learning programme, which includes Saturday workshops and the Castlegate Theatre Company.
“Right now, we’re running these projects with a skeleton crew of very experienced people who have been doing excellent work. But if one of them is off sick, the class gets cancelled.
“We need to ensure we’re properly resourced. It’s my task to find excellent artist facilitators who can work with young people and get them excited and inspired.”
Eve is keen to work on productions with early-career and young professionals, offering them space even just to rehearse.
“There’s so much creativity and energy in Aberdeen that I think, unfairly, the rest of Scotland doesn’t give it enough credit for.
“There are a lot of people trying to put on shows who end up spending thousands of pounds just for rehearsal rooms.”
Looking to the Arts Centre’s future
Aberdeen City Council had been one of the centre’s core funders and owns the building.
However it has not approved the centre’s funding request for the upcoming year.
Eve said: “We’re still figuring out what that means for us for the next year. We’ve had a good relationship with the council.
“We’ve been supported and funded by them for over 25 years. They contribute about a fifth of our overall running costs. Since we can’t rely on that for next year, we’ve been growing more sustainable, relying more on other income streams.”
As well as a 350-seat theatre, there are two exhibition spaces, conference facilities, apartments used for costume storage, and workshops in the basement.
Eve said: “It’s a mammoth, sprawling space, and my ambition is to fill it with as much activity as possible.
“Whether that’s people doing the 24-hour film challenge, shooting a horror film in our creepy, rubble-filled basement, or artists repurposing old costumes.”
Bid to get Children’s Theatre in use
Top of Eve’s to-do list is to get the adjacent Children’s Theatre – which was founded by children’s theatre pioneer Catherine Hollingworth in 1942, at 31 King Street, up and running.
It was refurbished a few years ago to become “a beautiful 60-seater auditorium” but it lacks the in-built infrastructure of the main auditorium.
“Currently, we need to haul in lights and sound for every show. My ambition is to get it up and running as a studio space, which doesn’t exist in Aberdeen right now.”
She points out that for a production, even The Lemon Tree, which is relatively small, has about 170 seats.
“It’s a big jump for people doing intimate, bespoke work, work that could go on to become something huge, like Fleabag, which started as a one-person show and became internationally successful.
“The space has its own entrance and facilities. It will take a lot of work, but my particular skills are kind of DIY, punk, let’s do it here, sort of shows.
“I’ve made shows in abandoned swimming pools, rooms in pubs and forests. There’s always a way to make things work.
“It’ll feel super special for the 60 people who get in. There will be a buzz about it, a sense of trying to get in. It’ll be a great place for messy mistakes and glorious triumphs.”
Developing local artists
Eve added: “I’m excited about the opportunity to develop a cohort of local artists. I’m not starting from nothing, there’s already talent and skill here.”
She went on to say: “I’m looking forward to corral them into one space, making the centre a bit of a clubhouse for them. I’m excited about opening the doors for young creatives. Having come from a freelance career myself, the grind and hustle is not that far behind me.
“The emails I respond to the quickest are from artists. I know what it’s like to be waiting for a response with just a dream of an idea.”
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