BRITISH COUNCIL GOES MOD
Jolly Jane Westbrook comes off the phone in Sydney, excited. ‘One minute I’m talking in to the Royal Shakespeare Company and the next, the Arsenal Ladies Football team.’
And she’s happy to report: ‘The girls are coming, plus their coach and staff. And they are the current world champions.’ She means the football team. But at the end of the day when Jane should be winding down and London is arriving bushy-tailed to work, it isn’t always clear.
Jane is Director in Australia of newIMAGES, the idea (that’s almost got out of hand) someone had three years ago to commemorate 50 years of the British Council’s presence in Australia. ‘It sort of grew,’ admits 14-hours-a-day Jane; the Foreign Office got involved and the Department of Trade and Industry.’ And now there is a team of 30 in all parts of the globe that will make this a blockbuster year for the awareness of Britain-Australia co-operation and partnership as "dynamic, innovative nations."
The idea of newIMAGES was hard to sell at first, Jane admits. ‘Perceptions of Britain and Australia are out of date, stereotypical and outmoded. We have to break away the image of Britain as a sort of Merchant Ivory set where everyone takes Devonshire tea and lives in thatched cottages. We have the problem of breaking through these ideas without destroying them; there’s nothing wrong with them as such; it’s just that they don’t present a contemporary picture of Britain right now. We just want to bring reality up to date.’
newIMAGES will (so far, but it’s still growing) have 167 programmed events, far outstripping the wildest optimism of the thinkers who started it. ‘It won’t be a Roman candle lasting just for a year; nor is it a chest-beating exercise,’ says Jane, ‘the objective is to create links that will remain well after next year.’
Apart from the Arsenal ladies, there will be scientists talking about medical discoveries; exhibitions by new British artists; the Diversions Dance Company of Wales; performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company "in a production that will surprise and delight"; British aircraft and cars on display at air and motor shows; and politicians from both sides of the world discussing the Westminster system.
The idea has taken over 80% of staff output at the British Council in Sydney. Two staff are working at the Melbourne office of the Consul-General co-ordinating commercial events. Two more staffers are working full-time at the British High Commission in Canberra handling political and national co-ordination like the "dear John" letters exchanged between Prime Ministers Major and Howard promising an "exciting and exhilarating year for Britain and Australia." Staff at the Foreign Office in London keep the phones and faxes ringing. ‘I don’t know where we’d be without e-mail, faxes and video conferencing,’ sighs English-born Jane, who is a former executive officer of the Performing Arts Board at the Australia Council and Director of Sydney’s Powerhouse.
‘I’ve spent half of my professional life in England and half in Australia. So I’ve got an idea how people think.’
