Friday Interview with Leila D’Aronville

By Lucy Nichol

As one of the original team who opened Sage Gateshead in 2004, Leila has since continued to dedicate her career to the arts – with a particular passion and focus on inclusivity and opportunity. Leila tells us what drove her to set up the now 1,500 strong Tyne and Wear Cultural Freelancer’s network, and what it was like chatting to Keir Starmer about a critical lack of government support while bouncing a two-year-old on her knee.

You’ve had a long and varied career in the arts. Tell us about some of your favourite moments.

I think there might be too many to mention! I have been incredibly lucky…One of the obvious highlights would have to be the opening of Sage Gateshead. We were living in an amazing time back in 2004, and it feels like a completely different world now. But the camaraderie and connection I still have with the team who opened the building is immense.

I’ve also been a part of the team who ran a youth theatre called Mongrel UK which was based in Sage Gateshead. We were an open-access group who carried out targeted recruitment to engage young people who had refugee or asylum seeker status. We held activity for the majority of the year with an intensive period and large-scale performance in the Summer Holidays. I got to work with some of the most amazing and creative friends, colleagues and young people, but also, the work the company created was of such high quality. A particular high was a show we did called ‘A Journey Home’ based on a Shaun Tan book ‘The Arrival’.

I also love what I do today, my role with Northern Roots and my work with other creatives who don’t feel like they have a voice. I have been that person too so it’s great being able to provide opportunities for people to feel listened to, connected, heard and valued.

Enter COVID-19…most freelancers lost all their work overnight! Freelancers then missed out of all of the employment-focused government support schemes, and it took the chancellor over two weeks to announce SEISS (Self employment income support scheme) – which then didn’t kick in until May and will end in August.

It’s also worth noting that it is likely that only around 40-50% creative freelancers are entitled to SEISS due to various factors (there are around 3 million people who have been ‘excluded’ from government support packages across the whole country). For some people this might be because they are working 2 or 3 jobs and the government scheme set out clearly that you needed to earn a minimum of 50% of your take home salary from self-employed work.

The recovery package of £1.57bn presented by government is very much to save the bricks and mortar and the more established organisations – it is not for freelancers. We have been told this very clearly.

Mental Health of the sector is also very concerning. Most people I speak to are talking about stress and anxiety in a way they never have before. The sector has collapsed, it is hard to see when work will resume, funding is scarce, and people feel anchorless in many ways. People are talking very clearly about leaving the sector – which when being in the creative sector is such a big part of your identity, means things are really bad.

I know, joyful right?

What led to you becoming the voice for a struggling sector?

Firstly I would say I am one voice, and there are many others…off the top of my head: the Freelance Task Force – led by Fuel in London with regional representatives; all of the unions; Excluded – an organisation lobbying for those who have been excluded from government support; MPs like Tracey Brabin; other regional champions such as Culture Vulture and Crystallised; What Next? Chapters in Newcastle/Gateshead, Sunderland and Durham. I know I will have missed loads out…

But to answer your question about Tyne and Wear Cultural Freelancers – we are a network made of around 1,500 people. I set it up with three things at its heart; participation, purpose and passion. I initially set it up for freelance friends, and friends of friends, to be able to ask each other questions…it went a bit wild overnight! However, it has filled a gap which really needed filling and I am really glad it exists and hopefully gives people a structure to speak and feel heard.

I am using the privilege I have from being in the sector for as long as I have, to try and unite and amplify the voices of others.

Can you share any examples of cultural projects or events that would not have made it into our lives had freelance creatives not been involved?

It would be easier to tell you events that would not have happened without freelancers! Almost every event or activity you have experienced – in or outside a venue – will have had a creative freelancer somewhere on its staff! Whether that be the actors, musicians and artists, or the technicians, marketers or producers.

You’re not the first woman in your family to have made a significant mark on the cultural scene. Tell us a bit about your mum, Judi’s career.

Ah my Mum is amazing! She has been an actor all my life and she is just brilliant at it. When I was younger, she was a key member of the Tyne and Wear Theatre in Education company who toured original issue-based theatre around schools and communities. She then went on to be a key member of Bruvvers Theatre Company, another community focused company of actors, based in the Ouseburn. More recently she has been in Key Change – an award-winning show by Open Clasp Theatre company which went on to do a run in New York! She has worked all over the North East and with so many inspirational creatives.

She has always worked hard to be a great actor, a generous person and an amazing Mum. She has worked to take theatre to some of the most forgotten communities in our region – she would put as much effort into performing in a community venue in South East Northumberland as she would performing at the Edinburgh Festival or Battersea Arts Centre.

Can you tell us a bit about Northern Roots and what’s on the horizon for the organisation?

Northern Roots is a music promotion and development agency. We have an amazing performance programme – Jumpin’ Hot Club – which is on pause at the moment, and we also do a large amount of work to support artists who are not readily represented in our region’s venues and organisations. We have worked extensively with artists such as Radikal Queen, Kema Kay, Kay Greyson, Georgia May, Tex Johnson, Collective Identity and Voices of Virtue.

It should have been our 35^th birthday event this year and we were planning a celebratory programme of activity focused around women and artists of colour – but we will just have to have all of those celebrations next year.

We continue to work with our artists and have been developing exciting projects based around need. For example, Kema and Kay are currently working with groups of young people of colour who want to develop as rappers.