Presenting the Animateur d'Art in a liminoid and communal space: the first archivalesque study of Jim Haynes

James Almand (Jim) Haynes (1933-2021) was an influential American cultural innovator in Edinburgh and London from 1957-1969. As a cofounder/ contributor to Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre Club, Festival Fringe, international book festival and others, Haynes made significant contributions to British culture. This study is the first to utilise Haynes’s lifetime archives (JHLA), alongside the Traverse Theatre Club (TTCA) and my personal collections (MLBC). Decker and McKinlay’s (2021) archival ethnography are used to create my new theory of ‘archivalesque’ assembly of these materials. Philosophical underpinnings of Barthes (2010), Gornick (2002), Schopenhauer (1966), and Taylor’s (2003) archive—repertoire inform the archivalesque. The result is a first/new comprehensive ‘evidentiary narrative’ of Haynes’s approaches and processes for bringing forth creative work. Haynes’s documented processes contributed to what remains the world's largest performing arts festival, a 60-year legacy theatre and unique arts-production and book retailing strategies. Turner’s (1969) theory of liminality and communitas are engaged to analyse Haynes within an emerging role of Animateur d’Art, and argue that Turner’s 'liminality' is frequently misused. Applied correctly, Turner’s theory supports my new ‘non-strictly commercial’ approach for bringing forth creative work via my ‘Animateurial Practice Palette™’ model. My methodology engages an adapted, ‘mixed/multi-method’ approach with participant observation expanded via experiential learning to ‘participatory’ observation. This hybrid approach contextualises my positionality from long-term personal experience with Haynes/his cohort as a ‘participatory’ observer to identify patterns of behaviour in action. Ultimately my study issues a critical challenge to the current Neoliberal ‘creative industries’ framework — asserting a nonstrictly commercial approach via a new role of Animateur d’Art to address current struggles within the arts. The key contributions to knowledge are the new evidentiary narrative, theoretical applications of liminality and communitas for gatherings/group dynamics, animateurial practice model and behavioural marketing strategies; and new methodological modalities for participatory observation, archivalesque assembly of materials and mixed/multi-methods.