Culture Corner: Jim Cathcart

WABN: Describe a day at work.

JC: “Unrelenting pressure operating in the boiling fulcrum of artistic, entrepreneurial administrative toil.”

WABN: What is the best piece of advice you can give someone to motivate a team?

JC: “Well, apart from big financial inducement, I think as a manager you have to be enthusiastic about what it is that you’re doing. You have to share that enthusiasm or inspire your staff with enthusiasm.”

WABN: What was the most challenging event in your career?

JC: “When I got caught in an organisational restructure which meant that my existing autonomy and authority was compromised, and although I knew and could see what was happening I was too slow to move on. What I learned from it was to read the signs and trust my judgment.”

WABN: What’s the best measurement of your performance, and can you name a highlight in your career?

JC: “I suppose the highlight of my career has been getting this job, it sounds extraordinarily sucky but this really is the best job that I’ve had. The highlight has been to be able to improve, to change and make improvements at the arts centre and to expand the programming, diverting the programming, build revenue and connect it with more artists and a bigger and wider audience.”

WABN: What is the main quality you look for from your team members?

JC: “You want to employ people who want to work at the Fremantle Arts Centre; they have to express an enthusiasm to work here.

“Normally when you work in the arts, when you work in a successful arts organisation, it is always full of people who love the arts and have pride and care for what it is that they’re doing.

“With the Freo Arts Centre, I’m looking for people who, no matter what their role is, across all the jobs, have an enthusiasm and a pride in working here.

“Obviously, the people who are connected to artistic programming must have a sophisticated and diverse appreciation of the arts and an interest in connecting the arts to an audience.”

WABN: Is there an organisation/business model that you strive to achieve?

JC: “You want to maximise the revenue, whether that’s through your business activities; you want to maximise your revenue through sponsorships, partnerships and grants and at the same time operate at a peak in terms of your artistic programming.”

WABN: What frustrates you the most about your sector and what would you do to change it?

JC: “Because formally the arts centre is part of the City of Fremantle, working within the government sector is frustrating for all the predictable reasons – it can be slow and it’s overly bureaucratic.

“But at the same time there are incredible advantages in being part of the local government which outweigh the disadvantages considerably.”

WABN: What are the specific hurdles that you meet on a daily basis in your sector?

JC: “The hurdles are like in any business, there are so many competing demands. It’s always the issue of not losing sight of the long-term planning when you’re engaged in the day to day; it’s sort of a hallmark of any business organisation.”