And so to Istanbul for a mixture of research, networking and looking for artists to work on Hope Street’s projects in 2008. The four days in Istanbul were full-on. I was fortunate enough to meet with 10 organisations, all had plenty to say about European Capital of Culture 2010, when Istanbul shares the title with Essen (Germany) and Pécs (Hungary).

It’s interesting to hear about the anxieties that artists and organisations have about the expectations, how it is being organised, the themes (of Earth, Fire, Water etc). There are organisations that are embracing the year and have high hopes and will stage ambitious projects (Semaver Kumpanya) and there are organisations that believe that their contribution to the year is what they do (Garaj Istanbul), that there is a need for the infrastructure of the arts to be strengthened and that their ambitious and ground breaking continuous programme of work is what should be embraced by 2010. So they are not doing anything additional, because they believe that what they do and what they want to do in 2011, 2012 etc is what 2010 should be about.

I was inspired by my meetings with Semaver Kumpanya and Garaj Istanbul and have learned from both organisations. I’m keen to continue a dialogue with them and we are approaching the artistic director of the former to direct one of our projects in 2008. They are interested in involving actors from Hope Street in their 2010 project.

I met representatives of the Contemporary Performing Arts Initiative and members of the 2010 Artistic Programming Committee associated with Santral Istanbul who were concerned about parts of the programme, the lengthy committee meetings, the in-fighting and 2010’s legacy. Their concerns mirrored much of what has been, and is being discussed in Liverpool.

Istanbul has numerous festivals every week, art and ‘culture’ is embedded within the fabric of the city. What they admittedly lack, which Liverpool has been good at for the last 20 years, is engaging communities in the arts, contributing to the social and political development of the city, and making a difference to excluded communities. The models I described were of interest to several organisations. I was asked if models that Hope Street has developed are transferrable and I’ve been invited to speak at a conference in November.

The Tünel Street Art Festival was in full swing during my stay. There was a varied programme and I met with some of the artists and the festival director. The organisation had just been given the use of a dilapidated building in the centre of Istanbul, a prime spot with loads of potential. A rich Italian businessman offered them the use of the building for free.

Rich business persons in Liverpool interested in offering us a building to develop as our Creation Centre should contact me at peter@hope-street.org