Interview: DCA Director Beth Bate

By Jen McLaren, 05.06.2024

Dundee Contemporary Arts, Museum of the Year Finalist, 2024. Image courtesy of Dundee Contemporary Arts. © Erika Stevenson

Art Fund annually shortlists five outstanding museums recognising projects from autumn 2022 through to winter 2023 with audiences and communities at their heart. Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) is the only Scottish organisation to make the shortlist. The other four museums are: Craven Museum (Skipton, North Yorkshire); Manchester Museum (Manchester); National Portrait Gallery (London); Young V&A - Victoria and Albert Museum (London). Last year, the winner was The Burrell Collection in Glasgow.

Director of DCA, Beth Bate, says the team couldn’t be more thrilled to be nominated for this prestigious award in what is DCA’s 25th birthday year: “It’s been a lovely thing to be able to share with our audiences and stakeholders, particularly after a long winter of working on our Multi-Year Funding application for Creative Scotland.”

“This is really a celebration, not just of what's happened for us over the last year, but over the last 25 years. DCA opened its doors in March 1999, and has really delivered on that early promise and vision to bring the very best of contemporary art, printmaking, cinema, and learning and engagement activities to all sorts of audiences from across Dundee, Scotland, and further afield.”

In the past year DCA has showcased five artists in the galleries: Matthew Arthur Williams, Saoirse Amira Anis, Zineb Sedira, Rachel Eulena Williams and Michelle Williams Gamaker. These exhibitions spanned painting, sculpture, moving image and installation. In June 2023, DCA was also the lead partner on Art Night Dundee, a major contemporary art festival held outside of London for the first time.

Beth goes on: “One of the things the judges were impressed with is the quality of our partnership working and our engagement with audiences from across the city. This has been embedded in what we do, alongside national and international working, as a genuine and impactful commitment to working with people.”

DCA works in partnership with all kinds of organisations as well schools across the city and surrounding regions thanks to its Discovery Film Festival for young people. Meanwhile, the strength of DCA’s connections within Dundee played an intrinsic part in the success and impact of Art Night, which welcomed over 15,000 visitors from across the UK, delivered 10 commissions and 12 projects with local collectives across 35 sites.

Arts organisations across Scotland and the UK are battling hard to survive against growing financial pressures, and DCA is no different. Beth says the recognition this shortlisting – and, hopefully a win – gives the arts centre is incredibly important and timely.

She explains: “Being able to make the case for arts and cultural institutions and heritage organisations in cities and towns outside of capital cities – and the role we can have in placemaking and giving people a sense of wellbeing and of community and engagement with the wider world – is absolutely key. We want to use this as an opportunity to really advocate for what museums and galleries and cultural organisations can do in towns and cities right the way across the UK.

“We're not afraid to stand up and say that if you don't support the cultural sector, there is enormous risk. You cannot take these organisations – and institutions like ours – for granted. We need to be supported, people need to be paid properly, and that requires funding. The opportunity to be able to make the case for the wider sector, of which DCA is part, is so important.”

Like hundreds of other organisations across Scotland, DCA has submitted its Multi-Year Funding application and awaits news in October of its funding provision for 2025 – 2028.

“This covers a huge swathe of cultural organisations right the way across Scotland, from the very large to the very small. So it's a fund that’s going to have to work extremely hard for the sector and for Creative Scotland,” Beth says. “Organisations have been drawing on reserves to be able to keep them going, which is not a situation anybody was expecting to find themselves in. But we are still living with the aftermath of the pandemic and audience numbers picking up brilliantly, which is great. But of course, your income doesn't return quite as quickly as all of your costs do.”

Beth adds: “Luckily, the sector is incredibly resourceful and creative. The sector is very good at finding ways to fundraise – it's one of the most entrepreneurial and resourceful sectors that I've ever come across.

“We are running organisations that aren't just arts centres or cultural institutions. We are running hires, cafes, bars, events, shops, as well as big programmes of fundraising and donations and patrons. You name it, organisations are out there doing their absolute best to be able to fundraise.

 

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“But all of the funding we need from our core stakeholders – these are investments. This isn't just about pouring money into institutions and never seeing impact. These are investments in the wellbeing and the health and the economic successes of our society. So all of the cash which goes into supporting the cultural sector reaps huge benefits in the short, medium and long-term.” 

 

The winner of The Art Fund’s Museum of the Year Award will be announced on the 10^th July 2024

 

 

Find out more about DCA’s work and current programme.