Small is beautiful, but can small-scale programming survive within growth markets?

As blockbuster shows fill up arts calendars everywhere, the value of smaller scale arts projects is being neglected to the detriment of the wider arts ecology.

24 Jan 2025 9:00

Jo Pickup

small scale performance: three people sitting around a table at a library. One person has their back to the camera and is posing to the other two who are the audience members in a small scale performance work.

Performing Arts

Small-scale performance work ‘Dance Library’ by artist Dimenti Produções (pictured centre), presented at Tiny Fest, November 2024, Ōtautahi/Christchurch. Photo: Petra Mingneau, courtesy Tiny Fest.

A few years ago, a performing arts manager and I were talking about the kinds of productions producers liked having on their books from a financial point of view.

Given the choice between a six-week season of a 2000-seater theatre show and a one-night-only 60,000-seat stadium Beyoncé-scale concert – which was the better pick?

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ArtsHub's Arts Feature Writer Jo Pickup is based in Perth. An arts writer and manager, she has worked as a journalist and broadcaster for media such as the ABC, RTRFM and The West Australian newspaper, contributing media content and commentary on art, culture and design. She has also worked for arts organisations such as Fremantle Arts Centre, STRUT dance, and the Aboriginal Arts Centre Hub of WA, as well as being a sessional arts lecturer at The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).