Culture to the left of me, culture to the right of me…

I do flatter myself that I am a relatively cultured soul. That is despite the minor detail that I read little fiction, go to the cinema only on rare occasions, don’t tend to visit galleries or museums when I travel and, even when I lived in London, was hardly a devotee of the city’s vibrant cultural scene.

I do, admittedly, enjoy classical music, and travel to interesting and (often) faraway places. But I’m not a participant and, for the most part, haven’t been much of an observer either. That is, until now. With our new urban existence has come opportunities to engage with the cultural scene of our county town.

We have three theatres, two of which we’ve attended in recent weeks, there is a bit of classical music - we attended a performance of Bach’s St John Passion (admittedly, I prefer the St Matthew Passion) at Easter - and, thanks almost entirely to Ros, a few launch events at The Hold, Suffolk’s quite new archives and exhibition space.

We also have Dance East, on Ipswich’s waterfront, two multiplex cinemas within walking distance of the house, the Ipswich Institute, celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, and the Corn Exchange with its arts cinema.

However, whereas in London there are millions of tourists to support the spectrum of arts and culture, Ipswich, and Suffolk, have to be a bit more self-reliant. In other words, if you want a diverse cultural ecosystem, you have to turn up occasionally, and hand over some cash to support those who create and perform.

A key funder of the arts in rural counties is local government, and Suffolk has been no exception. So, when budget proposals from the County Council were released, proposing to axe the entire arts grant budget, there was something of a wailing and gnashing of teeth across the sector. But, more importantly, there was a strong response from the public, sufficient to persuade the Conservative administration to row back on the idea - at least for now.

But local government finances aren’t likely to get any easier in the medium term, and thus it’s necessary to find and develop other income streams, be it through fundraising or by diversification. So, for example, Eastern Angles have their Copperfield Supporters programme, which allows you to make small(ish) regular donations to support their productions and their highly regarded outreach work, taking theatre to the smaller towns and larger villages across East Anglia.

So, I suspect that I might be attending a few more events in the coming months. I ought to get out more, I suppose…