Reflections on books and the arts from the New Statesman culture desk
Arts Council England announces its new funding plans after cuts to its budget.
Arts Council England yesterday revealed the effects of a 29.6 per cent government cut to arts funding. 638 organisations were denied any funding by the Council, with 206 of those having previously received funding from them. However, 110 organisations were granted funding by the Council for the first time.
Small theatres received a little extra funding: FUEL is up by 203.9 per cent, Ockham's Raxor by 173.2 per cent, Punchdrunk ... read more
FILM: Theatre under threat from the cuts.
Banner Theatre's 1 May Band perform a number from their new show, Cabaret Against the Cuts, on a visit to Chelmsford TUC. Banner has been performing community theatre for over 35 years but now face the withdrawal of their Arts Council grant. See www.bannertheatre.co.uk
Michael Chanan is professor of film at Roehampton University. His video blog documents the emerging anti-cuts movement and will lead to ... read more
"The state has a duty to be a good patron," the sculptor tells the NS.
The sculptor Antony Gormley, interviewed for the NS by Samira Shackle, speaks out against the government's cuts to arts funding:
What do you make of the coming cuts to arts funding?Disastrous. You should definitely cut defence before you cut art. Art is the way that an individual and a nation express their vitality. Without it, we might as well not be alive.
Should the arts receive ... read more
Will Jeremy Hunt take up the offer of a public debate on the UK film industry?
The film producer and Labour peer David Puttnam has an essay in this week's New Statesman, in which he deplores the recent decision to abolish the UK Film Council. Charting the history of film funding in Britain, Puttnam argues that the Tories have displayed an ignorance of history:
Tragically, instead of building on everything that has been learned, the present government has set about destroying the ... read more
Jeremy Hunt's comments show he does not understand the reality of art in modern Britain.
"Public money will no longer be given to arts organisations simply because they hire a high proportion of women or ethnic minorities, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned," reports the Daily Mail.
And here were we at the Asian theatre company Tamasha, labouring under the misapprehension for these last 21 years that the Arts Council fund us because we stage plays ... read more
The UK Film Council wasn't perfect, but we need a high-profile campaign to support home-grown movies.
What a rum time for British cinema. Recently it was announced that the latest James Bond film, which was to have been directed by Sam Mendes, has been moved to the back burner because of financial problems at MGM.
Daniel Craig, appearing at San Diego's Comic-Con on Saturday to promote Cowboys & Aliens in which he stars opposite Harrison Ford, would not delve into the matter when a question about the ... read more
But amid the gloom, is there some good news for British film?
The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has announced that the UK Film Council is to be abolished. It is the highest profile name in a list of 55 public bodies that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport wants to cut, merge or "streamline". (The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council will also be abolished.)
The Film Council issues grants and lottery money to develop new films and ... read more
Cutting the arts is the last thing the coalition should be doing.
Shortly before the general election, I was talking to the head of one of London's great cultural institutions about Jeremy Hunt. "I hope they keep him at the DCMS," he said. "But he's probably too good for that." It was a compliment to the Tory Culture Secretary, if a rather mournful observation about how low the arts are in the pecking order of government.
Hunt is still looking after the same ... read more
Should the Department for Culture, Media and Sport be hiring more artists?
Damien Hirst as minister for culture? Mike Leigh as his deputy? Elton John as head of the Arts Council? It sounds unlikely, but perhaps we could learn a thing or two from our Brazilian friends.
Yesterday the Southbank gave its Purcell Room stage to two of Brazil's most prominent artists -- the poet T T Catalão and the actor and director Tadeu di Pietro -- not ... read more
Politicians are right to make this an election issue.
You'd expect the tabloids to belittle the government's commitment to the arts, but from the Guardian it just sounds weird. In a blog headlined "Don't vote for 'arts policy'", Jonathan Jones argues: "At these kinds of times, when the nation's future is held in the electoral balance, you realise exactly how silly and trivial the media fiction of 'the arts' actually is." He concludes his piece with the ... read more
Ben Bradshaw, Jeremy Hunt and Don Foster struggle to disagree about the future of arts funding.
Last night, I went to listen to a debate, hosted at Kings Place in London by the Cultural Leadership Programme, between the Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw, and his Tory and Lib Dem shadows, Jeremy Hunt and Don Foster. The question the speakers had been invited to address was: "What lies ahead for the cultural and creative industries?"
They were introduced by Liz Forgan, chair of the Arts Council, who ... read more
Is this the first stage of a wider crisis in the arts?
The Institute of Contemporary Arts, founded in 1948, has promoted some of the most exciting arts movements of the postwar period, so the news last month of its financial crisis was disappointing, to say the least.
The crisis, a deficit of £600,000 that will result in redundancies for a third of the ICA's 60-strong staff and could even lead to its closure, has been explained as an unfortunate consequence of ... read more
I enjoyed the book, the first section which dealt with life in an oppressive pre First World War France was I thought better than the chapters involving the war. Although, the pieces dealiing with...
From John Dessauer, 13 February 21:40
Love Adele, however, besides some Country music, most new stuff is gar-baaage!
From John Cheese, 13 February 17:48
Sad. Shades of MJ. Always makes me wonder about the inner circles, not intervening due to a paycheck, ala MJ, Elvis, Anna Nicole Smith, etc??
From John Cheese, 12 February 22:19
Can the UK achieve it’s commitment to carbon reduction targets by 2020?
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