Sam Thorne - Adding Nottingham to the cultural map with Nottingham Contemporary

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders

Sam Thorne says Britain can rely on its artists to help guide the country through post-pandemic economic and cultural change.

The director of the Nottingham Contemporary believes one of the biggest challenges for modern leaders is dealing with uncertainty.

And his experience – he was director at Tate St Ives in Cornwall, before arriving in Nottingham – is that artists are peculiarly well-equipped to plot a path into an unreliable future.

“I enjoy uncertainty,” he tells the NBS Business Leaders’ Podcast.

“It’s often said we’re living in unprecedented times. I would imagine that anybody, in whatever decade of whatever millennia, would always think themselves living in uncertain times.

“But it seems like there’s something particular about the current moment. It’s difficult to think a year or two ahead. Or even a month or two ahead. Because of the speed at which things are changing. We’re at a point now where we’re working in the dark.

“This is when artists can really lead… when I would listen to artists most. Because artists are always in tune with not only what is happening now, but also what is going to be happening tomorrow.

“Contemporary art centres have always, since their inception, been thinking about what happens next. It feels to me like this is a particularly resonant, particularly exciting time to be working with that kind of uncertainty.”

Sam’s love of uncertainty – developed during a career as artistic writer, curator and critic – has served him particularly well as he attempts to raise £1m every year, to keep The Contemporary in business. (The museum does not charge visitors.)

“Less than fifty per cent of our funding now comes from public money,” he tells Honorary Visiting Professor Mike Sassi.

“A huge part of my role is about fundraising. Every year we have to raise more than £1m just to keep the lights on!”

Aside from this commercial imperative, he believes leaders are also now more focussed on the wellbeing of their staff.

He says: “Within the cultural field there has been more focus on mental health, on development, on progression. These are things that, when I first came into this field, were often overlooked.

“It’s coming from a younger generation… people who were coming out of school or university in the wake of the financial crisis, into a very challenging jobs market.

“There’s a real divide between people who graduated before 2008 and after. They [post 2008 graduates] have very different demands of their employers and the teams they want to the part of.”

And Sam’s advice to Nottingham Business School graduates, who are starting out on their careers in this uncertain world?

“Find your mentors. Build a family. If there is somebody out there doing work you admire, reach out to them,” he says.

“Very few people are going to say no to the offer of a coffee or a phone call. And when you’re starting out, those conversations can be really helpful.

“Don’t be shy! My experience is that leaders are really interested in what young people are thinking about.”