KF뉴스레터-Learning from the Experiences of the British Council

Learning from the Experiences of the British Council

During the summer, I spent two months in the United Kingdom for a special training program at the British Council. The council is the world's largest international exchange organization with some 70 years of history. It is an organization that the Korea Foundation has adopted as one of its models.
After accepting the Foundation's proposal for the dispatch of a staff member to their organization, the British Council developed a specific program for my training activities. Since I have been working on mainly art-related projects at the Foundation, the council made sure that a considerable part of the program focused on various art projects. The council staff also suggested that I visit not only its London headquarters but also its offices in Manchester, Scotland, and Wales to experience various programs of the council as well as the characteristics of regional cultures of the United Kingdom. As a result, I was able to acquire a variety of experiences, while staying in Edinburgh for four weeks (May 13 to June 9), Cardiff for a week (June 9 to 16), Manchester for another week (June 16 to 24), and finally London for three weeks (June 24 to July 13). Unfortunately, the space allotted in this newsletter article is not enough to describe all the details of the 63-day-long program, although so many interesting things happened. So, I would like to focus on introducing the council's "Venice Biennale" project and its "Strategy 2010," which I studied with great interest during my stay in the United Kingdom.
　
U.K. Artistic Creativity
Since my training program was focused on art-related projects, I was assigned to the teams responsible for such projects at the British Council-Scotland and British Council-Wales offices. I observed how those teams undertook their operations and also visited local museums and art galleries.
The Venice Biennale project is one of the representative art programs of the British Council-Scotland and British Council-Wales. The British Council, its London headquarters in particular, has been responsible for organizing the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale since 1938. Separate from the British Pavilion, however, the council's Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland offices have been organizing exhibitions to present the contemporary art of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland since 2003. These exhibitions, by region, were related to the fact that the British Pavilion usually presented exhibitions of individual English artists, almost without exception. As such, there were relatively fewer chances for artists from other parts of the U.K. to be represented. According to the British Council offices in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the separate group exhibitions, featuring new promising artists from their country, are designed to introduce a wider spectrum of the contemporary art of the U.K., since having just a single prominent artist shown at the British Pavilion could not fully represent the diversity of British art. But, in the organization of the separate exhibitions, there seems to be something more at work than simply supplementing the British Pavilion.
As is known, Scotland revived an independent parliament, after passing a referendum in 1997, following about 300 years of integration with England. As a result, Scotland implements independent policy in most fields, including its economy, education, health, culture and arts, public welfare, transportation, and trade, but not foreign affairs and security. Especially, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Scotland, which maintains a unique culture that is distinctive from English culture, focuses heavily on the culture and arts in its state policy. It can be said that the autonomous Scottish government strategically utilizes the Venice Biennale to introduce the creativity of its artists to the international community. Wales and Northern Ireland, which followed the lead of Scotland in setting up an independent legislature of their own, are also active in making the most of the Venice Biennale, although their policy to promote culture and arts is not as significant as the Scottish emphasis. I mentioned only the Venice Biennale project because of the limited space here, but the arts section of the British Council is the second largest group within the organization, which is responsible for various fields, ranging from literature to music, theater, cinema, design, and creative industries.
　
Innovative "Strategy 2010"
While the first half of my program at the British Council was mainly related to the art projects of Scotland and Wales, the second half in Manchester and London enabled me to observe the systematic management of and support for the council's offices around the globe. The British Council is a huge organization with some 220 offices in about 110 countries in the world and more than 7,000 staff members. The two headquarters in Manchester and London are like operation bases to set up and manage a system to oversee such a vast organization in a smooth manner. In these offices, therefore, more emphasis is placed on strategy development, performance evaluation, marketing, and working with the central government, than is the case with the other British and overseas offices.
When I visited the headquarters, the British Council was funneling all its efforts, under the "Strategy 2010" campaign, into developing a strategy for implementation by 2010. "Strategy 2010" is an all-out innovative strategy to enhance the quality of the British Council's programs and organization. Quite a few changes are expected to be made to the British Council's programs and organizational operations beginning in the spring of next year, when the restructuring gets underway in accordance with the overall strategy. "Strategy 2010" includes a clear goal of doubling the number of people, who experience the U.K. through the British Council, to 50 million by 2010 and to provide improved services. Ultimately, the British Council seeks to implement programs with more visible outcomes to effectively increase awareness of the British Council's contributions to the U.K. and the international community, along with enhancing the significance and value of its activities.

Need for an Innovative Strategy

Summer exhibition annually presented by the Royal Academy in London. In the courtyard of the academy, "The Virgin Mother" by Damien Hurst can be seen.

We should pay attention to these efforts of the British Council to elaborately map out a strategy for its future. The strategy of an organization is like the basic framework of a building. A solid framework is needed to guarantee the building's safety. I am rather embarrassed to admit that the Foundation has thus far focused its efforts on implementing individual programs rather than developing a strategy to establish an organizational direction for the future. This is like having only a body of flesh without a supportive skeletal structure. I do not mean to say that what the Foundation has achieved so far is off track. But I think we now need to build a solid framework as well because an organization without a strategy is more prone to losing its direction and being jolted by even minor external shocks.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Foundation. The Foundation has done many good things over the past 15 years to make Korea properly known to the world, in addition to expanding greatly with the establishment of its five overseas offices and the Cultural Center. However, it still faces quite a few problems that can weaken its effectiveness, such as uncertainty related to its financial stability and envisioned relocation to a local city. It is thus urgent to establish a practical and innovative strategy, like "Strategy 2010," to address these problems so that the Foundation can firmly take root as the leading international exchange organi-zation of Korea.
The 63-day training program was like a wonderful gift. It was a special opportunity to work for two months at such a prominent international organization as the British Council. Moreover, the content of the program was specially tailored for me, to match my work area and interests, so I found each day exciting and fruitful. It also gave me lifelong memories from visiting so many cities in the U.K. and experiencing various regional cultures. In fact, I studied in the U.K. for two years in the late 1990s, but I think I learned more during my recent two-month stay than during my previous two years of study. It was also an added bonus that I had a chance to meet with my friends, from seven years ago, and visit my alma mater there. Related to this, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to Director Ian Simm and Information Officer Ko Yu-mi of the British Council-Korea office, who prepared such an enriching program for me. I am also grateful to all the staff of the British Council who so generously gave of their time and effort despite their own busy work schedule.

Picture 1. The British Council's Headquarters in London
Picture 2. Opening ceremony of an exhibition at the Glenfiddich Gallery, in Dufftown, attended by staff members of the British Council's Scotland Arts team. The gallery is operated by Glenfiddich, the world-known maker of scotch whiskey.
Picture 3. Individual exhibition of Bedwyr Williams of Wales being installed at the Collective Gallery in downtown Edinburgh. Bedwyr Williams was one of the artists featured at the Wales exhibition of the Venice Biennale 2005.

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Learning from the Experiences of the British Council

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