Halima El Ghamarti started her new job just before Corona: 'The new normal? That's my normal here.' (Podcast and video)

Barely three weeks into her job when the corona pandemic and lockdown came. So, for Halima el Ghamarti, who started as director of the Jongeren Cultuurhuis Kanaleneiland and Overvecht in mid-February, there is no other normal than the new normal: working from home, and doing so with an organisation whose main purpose is to get young people in Utrecht involved in art together. Yet not everything was negative about corona, it turns out.

'I was first of all in shock and then mainly figuring out how to proceed now. In the first week, I mainly had to make it clear to my team and the municipality what the frameworks were.'

Normally - say, that which Halima el Ghamarti did not actually experience - the mornings would be filled with work meetings, while in the afternoons the culture coaches would be busy working with creative young people from the neighbourhood in the complex's studios. 'Making beats, putting recordings online, getting inspiration. Theatre groups making community theatre out of things they've experienced.'

But they also make a huge amount of plans in the Youth Culture House, with the young people themselves, or with cultural partners from the city and the rest of the country.

Then suddenly it must be tremendously quiet, after such a lockdown.

'We are fortunate that we work with young people and they are particularly digitally savvy. So we can meet them online, on all the channels where we are connected to them anyway. So we are on Insta-live with them, or we share things with each other with Insta-stories. Zoom sessions we also did a lot with each other. Workshops were also very good online. After that first week, we actually continued with the whole programme online. The community theatre also did its sessions, the recording studios also went online.'

'A lot of young people were inspired by the corona crisis to set up a recording studio at home too. They could turn to the culture coach for help. We have seen young people at home, in their private environment, in their pyjamas, with all their hair still tousled. Which is incredibly special, because you don't normally have that. They started songwriting at home.'

'The nicest thing you could observe was that the youngsters were much more focused now. They also started to appreciate the time with their coach much more. It was sometimes their only contact, they like it, they were helped. There was much more appreciation.

So working from home is a blessing for you?

'In any case, we have decided, because it went so well, to make the online component much stronger. Live contact remains necessary in creative processes, but we are going to facilitate those online sessions much better.'

That sounds like something uplifting in these hard times for many people.

'We have the advantage that everyone is young, and can adapt. And they had the time. That did make our work easier. But life really starts when you sit together and can look each other in the eye. Brainstorming together, reacting quickly to each other. That's much more fun. So we are happy that more can be done now.'

'The young people themselves see that now. We have good studios here, so now when they come here again from their home studio, they suddenly see shore what else is possible. That appreciation has gone up, though.'

'There was also an added dimension, because during the corona crisis, we were like this together. We were all equal. The restrictions were the same for everyone. And you saw each other at home, everyone was alone. That gave an intimate atmosphere. That gave the cooperation a lot of added value.'

Never waste a good crisis?

'This does sound very happy, but: yes. We didn't sit back but looked at what could be done, and we took that up.'

Other lessons learned?

'It is very important for the team to have a set rhythm. And you have to, with digital communication, say a lot more things out loud to each other. You can't assume that people can sense you. There is much more room for noise, because you don't see each other directly. I have learnt that. We have set moments for business things, and also moments on our socials where we can socially catch up. We need to keep that in. As a manager, I need that, but the creatives really need that too.'

'Above all, I learned to trust the creative thinking in this sector. Always thinking from possibilities, and we are in it together. That did help me personally.'