Culture Club – Cheltenham Festivals

The homegrown Cheltenham Festivals began life in a bid to lift the nation’s spirits through art, music and literature. Today, its purpose has even more meaning…

It was the French artist Henri Matisse who famously quipped that true creativity takes courage, a phrase that must ring true for artists across any sphere. Add to that a passion for social impact through creativity, and you know you’re onto something quite extraordinary. 

And this is the aim of Cheltenham Festivals, a charity that works across four sectors for social impact through education, learning and culture. 

Each year this work is celebrated with four ever-expanding festivals, and whilst these pull in global superstars from their sectors, it’s the year-round program that has kept the charity not just relevant but world-leading. 

One of the driving forces is Co-CEO Ali Mawle, who ran the National Gallery’s education programme before taking a role with Cheltenham Festivals in 2013. 

‘The first Cheltenham Festival was music and launched in 1945, conceived to help lift the human spirit out of the darkness of the Second World War. It focused on British composers and still does today,’ she says. 

Cheltenham’s rich connections with authors (Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, et al.) perhaps made the arrival of the literature festival in 1949 an obvious next step in celebrating arts and culture. Now sponsored by The Times and Sunday Times newspapers, it is one of the largest literary festivals in the world and attracts the publishing world’s great and good as well as emerging new voices. As we chat, Ali is just weeks away from the start of the 2023 event with the likes of Richard E Grant, Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Yomi Adegoke, Tim Peake, Richard Curtis, Jojo Moyes, Sebastian Faulks and Michael Rosen appearing on some of its many stages.

The Cheltenham Jazz Festival launched in 1996, with the now globally renowned Science Festival following in 2002. The synergy between music and literature seems obvious, but science? ‘Cheltenham has the biggest cluster of cyber-tech companies after London,’ Ali says. ‘GCHQ [Government Communications Headquarters] is here too. We saw a real opportunity and need for more academics to present research… we set up FameLab, which trains early career scientists to present their research to the public. This year, there were 10 countries across four continents competing for The Best Science Communicator in the world.’

All this incredible work nearly collapsed once the global lockdown began, and the management team had the choice of ‘go digital – or die’, so they pivoted to online delivery of as many events as possible, resulting in a mini-revolution for their operations, from data-driven decision-making to improvements around inclusivity and accessibility. 

‘We are so grateful to sponsors like Attivo because we need their support to continue with what we do.’

Being true to the charity’s sustainability pledge means, since lockdown, the FameLab element of the Science Festival continues to take advantage of digital communications, the plus point being every country that wants to participate can, regardless of funding. With tens of thousands of schoolchildren in the UK benefitting from their science outreach programmes, the ambition to create the science communicators of the future is well underway. 

With the challenges all live events still face, corporate partnerships are more critical than ever and vital for all the essential educational outreach work. 

‘We hit 2019 firing on all cylinders, and then COVID obliterated everything. We’ve had to make so many cuts to survive. We’re building back, but everything is 40 per cent more costly. We can’t pass all that on to the ticket buyer; we’re in a cost-of-living crisis and must rely on fundraising and sponsorship to make up that gap. We are so grateful to sponsors like Attivo because we need their support to continue with what we do.’ 

Attivo Chair Stephen Harper explains: ‘We like to support a broad range of activities across the arts and business so that we can spend time with our clients and potential clients sharing bespoke, memorable experiences with them’.

Previous Attivo-sponsored events have included Stanley Tucci’s appearance at the Cheltenham Literary Festival in 2022 and jazz artist Gregory Porter at this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Two years ago, the charity launched its Relaxed concerts, a new concept created for children with SEND. Last year Attivo, which has its head office in Cheltenham, sponsored these concerts. 

Ali adds: ‘These were extraordinary. The concerts were developed with the teachers and the space in which they experience the concert was designed for the children’s exacting needs. It makes such a huge difference. If we had more funding, we would do more of this kind of event.’ 

Another part of the music festival is to introduce young children to classical music with a range of concerts devised by students from Birmingham Conservatoire, creating themed musical storytelling backed up by workshops and interactive sessions. 

One of a four-strong management team, Ali’s passion for her work is palpable. ‘Our vision is a world in which everyone experiences and creates culture, so we’re doubling down on our commitment to who we put on our stages, making sure that it’s a diverse group of people and voices, as well as commissioning the best culture.’ 

Another part of the music festival is to introduce young children to classical music.

The outreach programmes connect with tens of thousands of young people with the intention of enriching and empowering them, so what does she want for the charity over the next few years? ‘Financial stability,’ she says instantly. ‘And to continue to be making a positive change to society, to be producing incredible culture to the widest possible audience.’ 

Natural light is also a source of psychological comfort, notes Louisa, so the studio incorporates it as much as the garden, or a cupboard that opens into a desk during the day, but which you can fold away when work’s over.” One of Melissa’s current clients is a yoga teacher who wants a quiet zone in her busy London flat where she can do handstands. The architect says lighting will be crucial in delineating the space. “A good minimalist scheme will feature general mood and task lighting. Lighting can completely change the dynamic of a space. It’s a crucial thing to spend your money on.”

As are an architect’s services. If you’ve ever been frustrated by a builder’s failure to inject your home with the calming simplicity you envisaged when you hired him, you are probably being unfair. “Architects understand spaces in ways that most people don’t,” says Melissa. “I’ve yet to do a project where the client doesn’t say, ‘I never thought of that.’ We know what all types of buildings can and cannot do. You need an architect to look at your property holistically to get the most out of your property. This is what we’re trained to do.”

Although you can hire an architect by the hour, get a design concept, and then hand it over to a builder, it’s invariably better to have one on board throughout your project, whether it’s an extension to your home, a head-to-toe renovation, or a new build. That’s how you end up with truly beautiful projects such as Ditton Hill House, below.

As well as coming up with the original design concept, an architect will ensure the materials used to execute it are coherent. In many instances, this is what minimalism comes down to: a select palette of materials that speak the same language. Some architects will specify furniture that speaks the vernacular, too.

“People sometimes confuse minimalism with a lack of choice, but what it really means is being very thoughtful and reductive,” says architect Oliver Leech. “There’s a guiding light. You don’t specify the red, plastic worktop you love if it doesn’t work with the overall scheme. You use the same materials again and again.”

Neither does minimalism equal plain, he says. “Our project Pink House is very characterful, but also very minimal,” he says. “There’s a single theme throughout – the plaster is exposed, the concrete floors are on show, the house’s timber and steel structures are there for all to see. We called it Pink House because of the pinkish hue of the gypsum plaster and Douglas fir beams.”

“People confuse minimalism with a lack of choice, it really means being very thoughtful and reductive.” 

When the practice sits down with a new client, the architect asks for words that describe how they want their home to feel. ‘Calm’ always comes up, he says. He thinks Oliver Leech Architects’ projects achieve this partly because they feature minimal ornamentation. “Their warmth and character comes from the texture of the materials we use and the way the light then plays with them.”

If you’d like to explore your options for financial planning, why not talk to Attivo? Our team of Chartered Financial Planners happy to help to make the process a smooth one. Call us on 01242 585444 or Clientservices@Attivo.co.uk.