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I arrived at Curve theatre three and a half years ago. I had accepted the role of chief executive with some trepidation, having seen local media coverage ("Bill seven times what was expected" and "An expensive lesson for the city" come to mind) and having looked through the accounts for the first two years of operation with a nervous laugh.
My experience of opening a brand new – and at the time much derided – major cultural venue, the Wales Millennium Centre, taught me that the first few years of a new business can be fraught: the audience doesn't necessarily respond as quickly as hoped and it can take a few seasons to find the right rhythm and balance for an artistic programme.
I was absolutely determined to get it right. I cut my teeth heading up artistic programming at the Sydney Opera House, so I knew first-hand how a cultural centre could have a twin life both as an artistic powerhouse and a significant tourism and visitor attraction. This is what I wanted for Curve and I could see how it could help shape Leicester's sense of place. It was all there for the doing.
My predecessor, interim CEO Pat Weller, had already begun the turnaround and implemented many of the required changes. She'd made the books balance for the first time, via an expenditure and staffing freeze, Arts Council England Sustain funding and by programming Leicester's favourite musical, Paul Kerryson's 70s glam-rock musical Hot Stuff – a sure-fire winner at the box office and bar. I have every respect for the work Pat did, but balancing the books once is a different thing to creating a sustainable business model for the future, which is what I set out to do.
Several things were clear: Curve is a unique and well-specced building, perfect for large-scale conferences, and we needed to bring in expertise to develop that business. Kerryson is an extraordinary director of musicals, and we needed to be playing to that strength (and making more money from it). The building needed to be at the hub of Leicester's community: to become a place that everyone feels welcome at any time of day. We also needed to promote Curve more broadly, making it a destination venue for visitors to the city.
Along the way, there were setbacks. Leicester's elected city mayor made headlines in 2012 for declaring Curve as "the most expensive and most disastrous project this city has ever seen in its history," unhelpfully reigniting the negative publicity from our opening. The fact he was talking about the management of the building project itself seemed to be left out of the national coverage.
But we've proved ourselves not to be. Since opening five and a half years ago, Curve has increased ticket sales by 130% – not bad in a recession. Our last two produced musicals, Chicago and Hairspray, both directed by Kerryson, sold at 89% and 93% capacity respectively. We are now planning to add 100 seats to the main theatre in summer 2015 to cope with demand.
We've been awarded the Visit Britain Gold Award for access, reflecting our pricing, special needs performances and commitment to free and low-cost artistic activity (we had 130 free events last year) and our associate director Tim Ford has quadrupled learning and participation activity. We've hosted numerous large-scale national conferences and expanded the team, both artistically and commercially.
We've achieved so much, but the statistic that sums up our progress is this: when we opened public funding accounted for 63% of annual turnover. With growth in ticketing and commercial revenues, that figure is now 30%.
How have we done this? A much closer alignment of our programming and communications teams, using audience insight to drive artistic decision-making and marketing campaigns, and building our reputation for musical theatre has paid off at the box office.
Bringing on a second associate director, Suba Das, to champion artist development programmes and community projects has formed much deeper links locally. What also helped was restructuring the senior leadership team, with an artistic director, commercial director and chief operating officer working closely with me.
Finally, the time spent building relationships across the public and private sector has ensured Curve is recognised as a major asset for the city, playing its part in driving economic development.
And the city mayor? He's now a big supporter.
But even given our resources, the task ahead is daunting. To offset continued funding cuts, to maintain our capital asset management programme, and to ensure we can continue to produce incredible professional productions and commission and support emerging talent, the business needs to be bringing in an additional £500,000 per year, net, in commercial revenues. I'm confident now that we have laid the right foundations from which to continue to grow. Bring it on.
Fiona Allan is chief executive of Leicester's Curve theatre – follow the venue on Twitter @CurveLeicester
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