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Having worked with the arts charity and theatre for over a decade, the recently-appointed CEO of Contact sat down with Hadley Stewart to discuss how he is championing the diverse voices of Greater Manchester through the arts.
When Jack Dale-Dowd found out that he had been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Contact earlier this year, there was a moment of doubt. “I wasn’t sure I could lead Contact on a permanent basis,” he shares over video call from his office in Manchester. It’s understandable: the arts sector had been struggling since the pandemic and Contact was no exception. In the wake of lockdown, the charity was facing its own financial hardship. Dale-Dowd was tasked to “stabilise” the organisation on an interim basis, before being called to the top job. What’s more, there was the added pressure of Dale-Dowd’s long history with Contact. “It was the first venue in Manchester where I really felt that I belonged,” he says. “I felt like I needed to save it.”
Dale-Dowd had been working with the Manchester-based youth arts organisation, on and off, for over a decade when he became its CEO. He moved from the south of England to study contemporary theatre and performance at Manchester Metropolitan University. I touch on this, because it seems at odds with the migration of aspiring creatives from the north of the country, who often move to London to pursue a theatre career. He agrees his path might be somewhat unique, but is equally quick to point out all the creatives who are working around him in the region. “The north-west is a hugely thriving artistic and creative scene,” he says.
Having graduated from university, Dale-Dowd opted to stay in the north-west. He first worked as a children’s entertainer for holiday parks, then moved into managing restaurants and bars. Subsequently, he got into technical theatre, something which he says was always his passion, initially joining Contact as a freelance technician, before working in stage management and production. He left Contact for a time to train and work as a teacher, but returned in 2019. “We were closed and part way through a big refurbishment project,” he recalls of when he returned to Contact. “I came back ready for us to move back into the refurbished building and relaunch with loads of really exciting shows and projects. But then, obviously, we had a pandemic that none of us were expecting.”
The pandemic sent shockwaves across the arts sector, shuttering theatre productions overnight. It would be a long and slow return for audiences, with some venues struggling to attract the same audience numbers as pre-pandemic, even today. At Contact, the financial ramifications of the pandemic meant restructuring the organisation. In 2022, Dale-Dowd was appointed head of operations, a role that saw him “managing the day to day operation of the business.” When the then Artistic Director and Chief Executive stepped down in 2023, the Board of Trustees asked him if he would step up on an interim basis for a year.
Reflecting on this unprecedented time for Contact, Dale-Dowd argues that in some ways the organisation was fortunate. “We weren’t running a building at that time,” he says. “It was being finished off, so we were running activities in our local communities instead.” Of course, the re-opening of Contact’s building was pushed back as a result of Covid, which meant what the organisation had planned was put on hold. “It was really tricky, because we started to pivot the way we plan to do activities,” he explains, saying that the organisation shifted its focus to supporting artists in the north-west who were struggling as a result of the pandemic. “We really wanted to do what we could.”
As it became clear that fully reopening the building to audiences would take quite some time, the organisation then began looking at ways for people to take part in shows and activities remotely. “We did various different shows and festivals live streamed from our building,” recalls Dale-Dowd. “We do a queer festival every February called Queer Contact, and so we did that completely remotely for the first time, which was a learning curve.”
Five years on since the first lockdown, I ask Dale-Dowd if he thinks the creative arts sector has recovered from the pandemic. “I definitely think that the sector hasn’t recovered,” he replies. “So many people left the sector and I think we are still suffering from a skills shortage across the board.” Although things are, in his view, getting better, he highlights the impact the pandemic had on freelance creatives that organisations like Contact rely on. “I think that the freelance communities around the sector were just not supported very well during the crisis, and so a lot of those people have moved on,” he says. “There’s quite a lot of work going into developing people to fill the roles that we need in the future. But it’s definitely tricky.”
Perhaps this notion of facing adversity and coming out the other side is something that feels apt for an organisation that has tasked itself with breaking down barriers for young people accessing the creative arts. Whilst many might know Contact for its theatre venue, the charity that was founded in 1972 also works in local communities to inspire young people through creativity. “We’re trying to change the face of UK culture, which is about representation as much as the impact of it,” explains Dale-Dowd. He adds that the organisation is focused on supporting global majority, queer, disabled, neurodivergent and working class communities in the region.
Dale-Dowd is unquestionably passionate about engaging young people through the arts. “We’re not an organisation that’s here to work with the privileged elite that the arts have historically served,” he says. As for his own privilege? “I recognise I’m super privileged,” he reflects. “I’m a white, middle class man running an arts organisation, I am privileged. But my job is to use my position and our resources to help lift up those communities that have been less well resourced.”
It’s an article about working class voices on the small screen that catches my eye before I join the video call with Dale-Dowd. Adolescence, the Netflix series that is set in Liverpool, has ignited the conversation around both working class storytelling and the hub of creative activity in the north of England. Whilst Dale-Dowd hadn’t watched the series at the time of our interview, he tells me that he’s encouraged by the fact the series has started a national discourse around class and the performing arts. “We’ve been working with these communities for such a long time, and trying to champion the place that the people we work with have in society,” he says of creatives from working class backgrounds. “Then eventually, things happen and the rest of the world catches up.”
The notion of the rest of the world catching up is something that Dale-Dowd argues Contact is all too familiar with. The organisation, he tells me, has never shied away from tackling societal issues facing the young people they work: Black Lives Matter and trans rights have been on Contact’s radar even before they became part of the national conversation. “We’re a small arts charity in Manchester,” he adds. “And we want to have a really wide impact.”
As someone who moved to Manchester from the south of England, Dale-Dowd says that he’s keen to dissolve the ongoing north-south divide when it comes to the creative arts. “I think that one of the biggest frustrations I have is when London centric language is used to talk about other areas of the country, but as being lesser than just because we’re outside of the capital,” he sighs, pointing to the thriving arts scenes in Manchester, as well as in neighbouring Leeds and Liverpool. “I’m really proud to work here and to champion the work of north-west creatives.”
Reflecting on moving to Manchester as a queer person from rural beginnings, Dale-Dowd remembers finding “an amazing queer community with so many different facets” when he arrived in the city. More recently, he says he has noticed a “branching out” of local queer businesses, projects and initiatives that are not focused on alcohol consumption; namely the bookshop QueerLit and coffee shop Social Refuge. Contact continues to amplify queer voices too by working closely with queer artists, something which Dale-Dowd is particularly proud of.
As for when it comes to being a queer person in a position of leadership, Dale-Dowd believes that LGBTQ+ visibility and representation is hugely important for both the organisation and the wider community: “I definitely think that representation at leadership level is super important, because I think it helps to create a more inclusive space.” He wants the team at Contact to represent the diversity of Greater Manchester. “That’s a constant piece of work,” he says. “When people are coming into our building and coming to see a show, they want to be able to see themselves here. They want to be able to belong. This building is for all of the communities of Greater Manchester.”
Jack Dale-Dowd is Chief Executive Officer of Contact.
