Why we need your help - Gala Dinner 2016

At our recent Gala Dinner 2016, we welcomed nearly 300 VIP guests to celebrate over 100 years of Hippodrome Heritage. The evening included sensational live performances from stars including Ria Jones, Allan Stewart and Stephen Triffitt, plus an astonishing 10-piece band.

We are extremely grateful to our sponsors Genting Hotel and Laurent-Perrier Champagne, and to all the generous table hosts, donors and auction bidders who made sure the evening was a stunning success.

You might like to read below a summary of the speech made on the night by our Chief Executive & Artistic Director, Fiona Allan.

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen.

It feels such a privilege to be here with you all tonight and to be meeting so many new faces too. I’ve been in Birmingham just six months now, and am just loving the energy of the city and how welcoming everyone has been. It’s a fantastic time to arrive at the Hippodrome – Stuart has left the business in terrific shape – and my lucky job is to use that as a platform for the future.

Birmingham feels like a city where you can come and make a real difference.

My very first visit to Birmingham was back in 1994, when I was tour manager for the Australian Youth Orchestra during a month long tour of Europe. We played only two dates in England – we had a sell-out Prom at the Royal Albert Hall – and we also came here  to perform at Symphony Hall. Now, we had been performing in some of the major concert halls around Europe – but it was the acoustics of your concert hall here in Birmingham that completely blew us away. I also have a vivid memory of after the concert, going on a mission to find the local culinary delicacy. This exotic dish was completely unheard of back in Australia – and there was no way we adventurous Aussies were leaving Birmingham without trying… a Balti.

Birmingham Hippodrome has an incredible reputation for the productions it is able to attract to this stage and this city – and coming here with fresh eyes I can promise you that all the big producers like Cameron Macintosh, Disney, Qdos Pantomimes, The National Theatre… they all position us as the key date on their tours. Likewise, Sylvie Guillem, Carlos Acosta, the Mariinsky Opera, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan here earlier this week, are choosing Birmingham to include in their international touring schedules.

What is often less visible – perhaps because it doesn’t always take place in such a glamorous setting as this – is the work through Hippodrome Creative. I have been genuinely taken aback by the depth and breadth of all that goes on behind the scenes, and how many lives are touched – and I’m not ashamed to say that there has been more than one occasion when I’ve been moved to shed a tear by the work that we do. I hope that our short film gave you a good glimpse of those special moments.

I’ve heard our business described as having a charitable heart but with a commercial head. So how do we bring together these two different sides? Since I’ve started, I’ve been working with John and the Board to look at how we harness both our charitable and our commercial ambitions, to create an all-encompassing strategy visioning what we want to achieve over the next 10 years and beyond.

I’m particularly interested in the role that theatres can play in forging a city’s sense of identity and pride. My years working at the Sydney Opera House certainly fueled my passion in this area. It is perhaps one of the world’s greatest examples of placemaking – a cultural centre that has become not just a symbol of a city but a source of immense pride for a whole nation.   So, looking forward, how can the Hippodrome develop a broader civic and social responsibility, and help shape a future Birmingham?

We need to be thinking always in terms of a triple bottom line. For us that would be social, artistic and financial. Theatres that look to the future strive to be the beating cultural hearts of the cities that they serve. So by social bottom line, I want us to work towards the Hippodrome being truly a theatre where everyone’s welcome. Where age, ethnicity, income, background and ability will never be a barrier to having a cultural experience either on or off stage. To be a theatre of the future, we must be inclusive, young and diverse – just like Birmingham.

And by artistic bottom line – we want to share our vision of a world-class Birmingham arts scene, with the Hippodrome centre stage. How can we help grow artistic talent – whether it’s young hip hop dancers through to the next generation of choreographers or producers of brand new British musicals? And how can we better collaborate with partners across the city and region to do so? The arts and cultural sector is a fragile and complex ecosystem. We ALL need the subsidised sector – those for whom revenue grants are a crucial part of their business – to continue the important work they do in ensuring research, brand new productions and talent development can continue. Without this there will not be another Les Miz, or War Horse, or Matilda. At the Hippodrome, we sit absolutely centre stage (like you are doing right now) of Birmingham’s cultural ecosystem, and we need to branch out to support smaller organisations to ensure that our cultural provision continues to match all the other great ambitions of our city.

Birmingham attracts international talent. And the Hippodrome plays a large part in Birmingham’s internationalism. We invest in a comprehensive international programme (largely funded, as I’m often reminded by my team, by our excellent Panto and ice cream sales – Oh yes it is!). As an example – since 2008 over five editions of IDFB – that’s International Dance Festival Birmingham – the Hippodrome has invested more than £1m of its surpluses in making sure that the very best dance companies in the world visit this very stage. Later this year, we are paying for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Cape Town Opera, and the Vamos Cuba company, to come to Birmingham and give people of this city and region the opportunity to see the world’s very best. We have recently formed a new partnership with Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, and The Lowry in Salford – as the three biggest dance presenters in England together we want to create more large scale international work for our stages. I plan to build on what we have already achieved and to ensure that we are recognised for that investment too. The Hippodrome should be renowned internationally for the quality of the cultural work that we curate, commission and present: nothing but the best.

Having been an audience member at the Hippodrome over more than a decade before moving here, one thing I knew for certain was the quality of the welcome that the public receive once stepping through our doors. Here at the Hippodrome, we like to do things with flair. But what about the experience our public has BEFORE they step through the doors. How can we help to make every aspect of a visit here a joy? And I look particularly to our immediate neighbourhood, around Southside. We may be just on the doorstep of John Lewis and Grand Central, but at times we feel much further away.

Just outside our front doors is an under-utilised space, ripe for development. For those of you who have ever brought your family to our annual Summer in Southside festival – you’ve seen the thrill of free entertainment spilling out across the streets. We want to do much more of it, for a new “Hippodrome Square” to be redeveloped as part of a larger and more welcoming public realm. From the Angel of the North to the Pompidou Centre, from New York’s Lincoln Centre to Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, from Glastonbury to Glyndebourne… culture leads placemaking.

For an even wider public to truly enjoy their cultural experiences at the Hippodrome – our external environment must come to match the beauty of what lies inside.

Birmingham has so much more to offer the world than shopping and conferences. We have an extraordinarily rich cultural offer and time and again we are told that this is one of the main reasons companies choose to relocate and invest here, and students choose to study here. I want to develop the Hippodrome as the cultural heart of the city, a destination in its own right, in the way that you might think of the Southbank Centre or the Barbican in London – to be open daytime and night for both ticketed performances and a host of free and low cost activity to serve a city that is diverse in every way.

We may sell over half a million tickets every year, but let’s engage with at least half a million people again through our community and learning programmes. And let’s ensure that ALL young people growing up in Birmingham today can share in the Hippodrome magic and make culture a part of their lives.

To that end, we are in early stages of scoping plans for an extension to our building, for a creative learning hub and studio spaces, where we can engage with young people, students, adult learners and develop much needed career pathways for those wanting to build a future in the arts. Its working title is ‘The Hippocampus’ and as our plans develop I’ll be delighted to tell you more.

Back when I was in my twenties – searching for a late night Balti along Ladypool Road with a ravenous bunch of young Australian musicians – I never for a moment imagined myself standing here and now on this stage, describing to you a whole range of projects that come from the Hippodrome’s charitable heart.

I spoke earlier of our triple bottom line – social, artistic and financial. I haven’t forgotten the financial bottom line – with our charitable heart always comes our commercial head. We have a sound business model and an excellent financial track record. But we cannot do this alone.

For us to continue to develop the ambitions I have been outlining – and to deliver them both for the benefit of Birmingham’s people and for the reputation and growth of our city – we need partners.

Your support tonight, and ongoing, is hugely important. Please spread the word, donate what you can for our projects, talk to our Trustees.

Thank you for listening and enjoy the evening.

(Sat 14 May 2016)