I took the train to Graz. Beautiful scenery - wooden houses, snow capped mountains, lowly goat herds, men drinking beer… Having banished Ultravox from my internal iPod, I now had Julie Andrews on a continuous loop.

I saw the huge station clock. I’d left Vienna at 2pm; the journey to Graz was three hours, yet the clock said 7pm. I then noticed that the clock was transparent and mounted on clear glass. It was 5pm. I walked through a door, above which was the sign ‘Tourist Information’. I queued, walked to the desk, asked the kindly gentleman for a street map. He told me they don’t have maps. I asked if this was Tourist Information. “No”, he replied, “Tourist Information is the phone over there in the corner”. He then gave me a street map. A very disorientating welcome to the city.

Things got better. Graz (population around 220,000) was Capital of Culture 2003. It’s a beautiful city and boasts four contemporary structures including the Cafe in the River, and the Künsthaus - both funded by the Cultural Capital of Europe programme, managed by Graz 2003 Ltd. Both buildings opened in 2003. More later.

It has a thriving small/medium arts sector and I visited as many organisations as I could. I’d set up three meetings prior to my arrival and inevitably each meeting led to a further three. I’ve found that this is the best way to establish a varied and focussed programme. Too many pre-organised meetings through internet/e-mail limits the possibilities. My two key organisations in Graz were Theatre im Bahnhof (TiM) and IG Kultur who are at the centre of the small/medium arts sector. TiM was also a co-founder of a networking organisation Das Andere Theater, set up in 1998 and the closest I’ve found to SMAC (Liverpool’s collective of small/medium arts organisations led by Hope Street Ltd).

There are around 80 (mostly unfunded theatre companies). I attended the Best Off Styria Festival (Styria being the surrounding region) and saw one or two productions each day (www.theaterland.at). I also met with the directors of a number of festivals and organisations including Tanz & Theater Zentrum, Steierischer Herbst’s International Theatre Festival, Forum Stadtberg and Theatre am Ortweinplatz. Individuals who informed my research were Eberhard Schrempf (Graz 2003 Ltd, Producing Director), Hansjürgen Schmolzer (Graz 2003 Ltd, Marketing Director) and Thomas Wokinger (member of the programming team for youth and young people and culture journalist).

Of course there a differing opinions of the impact 2003 had on the arts infrastructure. One thing was agreed by all: no thought went into what happened to the arts and cultural life of the city after 2003. Everyone’s efforts were focussed on the year itself. No cultural strategy was written, no-one from the local council took responsibility for art and culture and no money was invested in sustaining the small to medium arts sector.

The ‘party’ in 2003, according to the majority was fantastic; all local arts organisations and artists were involved (though some not in the way they thought they would be); there was a sense of real celebration of arts and culture.

The ‘hangover’ kicked in towards the end of 2003 and it lasted for two and a half years. Artists and arts organisations were left exhausted and burnt out. Many of those employed by Graz 2003 Ltd. moved on to other jobs and all but the large institutions (the venues and government cultural institutions) received cuts of around 5% from the local council each year. The larger institutions continue to receive increases of around 1% each year.

Like Porto, the political party changed from left to right after 2003 and so the debt and problems that arose during 2003 were blamed on culture, leading to a disinvestment in culture by the newly elected local government. An auction of props and scenery at the end of 2003 was meant to benefit emerging artists. Instead, the 100,000 Euros raised went to the council to help pay off the debt.

One person I spoke to regrets that the council and politicians were not more courageous. They took the easy option of investing money in large scale ‘impressive’ buildings and photogenic large events (cf. Thessaloniki). Instead they should have invested in the small and medium arts organisations and theatre companies and into developing and strengthening the arts infrastructure.

During 2004 and 2005, when the ageing artists (thirty to forty-somethings) had exhausted themselves, there was an uprising of young artists, a subculture (that had had no connection with 2003) who began to make new and exciting work. This was not planned for but it breathed new life into the arts and is something that I felt excited about, that we can actually prepare for this in Liverpool - after all, it’s one of the things we do best. We just need to make sure there is investment and there is a commitment from funding partners and politicians.

It is agreed by all, that the professionalism of all the small to medium organisations was aided by 2003, but not necessarily artistically. Few felt that the quality of production had improved, and this is regrettable as this was a golden opportunity for arts organisations to increase their levels of artistic quality. But all felt that improvements had been made in evaluating projects, financial accounting, managing larger projects, marketing and liaising with the press. All important of course…

Just wait until they discover risk assessments…

As I step up onto my Health & Safety soap box, I recall the evening at Theater am Ortweinplatz’s production of “Kabale und Liebe”. The theatre was full. Once all the seats were filled, the front of house staff brought out extra chairs and put them in the aisles. Once all the spare chairs had run out, people sat on the steps of the seating block. Everyone got in, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the play and no-one died. This time…

After the ‘hangover’ things have finally begun to improve. I was encouraged by the energy and enthusiasm of all the arts organisations and artists, who understood that after 2003, things were going to take a dip. It would seem things are back to what they were around 2001/2002.

Graz helped me focus on what Liverpool’s future strategy should be. We need to give the ‘legacy’ some substance and we can do this through the collective work of LARC (Liverpool’s Big 8 cultural organisations - the building based ones)and SMAC. We have a direct route into the Cultural Strategy. We have a voice. No doubt we will be heard, but it’’s more important that we’re listened to.

The advice given from the artistic community here was that Liverpool should invest in its future generation of theatre makers and artists, it should focus on 2009 and beyond and concentrate its effort on developing a cultural strategy that invests in the future of creativity in the city, and that there should be investment in the small and medium sized sector on an equal level to the larger organisations. I’m looking forward to feeding this information into the strategy. But I can wait. The journey’s not over yet…

On my last day in Graz, I heard the news of another shake up at Liverpool Culture Company that Phil Redmond has become Artistic Adviser to the 2008 programme and that the leader of the council, Warren Bradley has been appointed Vice Chair of a greatly reduced board of directors. I hope things settle quickly and everyone gets on with the important business.

As I sent my thank you e-mails I recalled the two part question posed by Victoria Kaup-Hasler, Director of the International Theatre Festival here in Graz:

Culturally, where will Liverpool be in 2015? What will be its future archive?

The answer should not be, “only time will tell”. The answer(s) should be embedded in the cultural strategy. Let’s learn from others’ successes - and not make the same mistakes. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s not rocket science.