In the summer of 1997 Tamworth Borough Council caught a whirlwind of change, and the Leisure Department was broken up. The line management that had supported me retired or left, and I too jumped ship, while the going was good, and found myself Director of Portsmouth Arts Centre. This rather shabby old school building in the backstreets of a heavily residential area of Southsea had recently been inherited from Hampshire County Council by the newly unitary Portsmouth City Council. It was in a hopeless state.
- I developed Arts Policy for the Centre, including programming and especially refurbishment.
- I won a £6000 grant from Southern Arts towards Programming.
- I worked on a Lottery Funded Feasibility Study for an independent Film Theatre and related media facilities in Portsmouth
- Disatisfaction with Portsmouth City Council, with Portsmouth Arts Centre, with Portsmouth, with local government, and with Venue Management as a whole, compounded by personal differences with the City Arts Officer, persuaded me to instigate a career change towards more academic pursuits, and I went off to Salford University.
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