May 13, 2025
Athens, GR 14 C
Expand search form
Blog

Hand-wringing over hapless Arts Council England

Hand-wringing over hapless Arts Council  England

The Observer/Guardian outdoes itself today with an editorial that gives itself a hernia in its efforts not to offend. Here’s all you need to read:

The classical music sector feels particularly aggrieved, rallying behind its highest-profile casualty, English National Opera, which – after a period of hard bargaining – will for the next five years lead a dual life between its old London home, the Coliseum, and Manchester. The deep fears among classical musicians that “nobody is listening to us” at a time of exceptional hardship were articulated last year by John Gilhooly, chairman of the Royal Philharmonic Society, who suggested that ACE should recognise that “for the entire nation to prosper we need London to prosper”, and that it should adapt its levelling up strategy “to embrace this new landscape”.

In the other camp, an open letter to Dame Mary (Archer) last week, signed by 249 arts leaders representing 220 organisations around the country – including many from London – made a case broadly in favour of the current policy, while voicing their own fears of a “concerted effort” in some quarters to give the impression that the arts world was in open revolt against ACE….

What’s the point of an editorial that cannot bring itself to take sides?

Any idea who wrote it?

The post Hand-wringing over hapless Arts Council England appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

Sax, 17, is young Scot of 2024

Next Article

Jacobs names Ukrainian piano professor

You might be interested in …

Leading flute dies, 56

Leading flute dies, 56

The death has been announced of Berlin’s ensemble mosaik founder Bettina Junge, after a long illness. Originally from Cologne, she was passionately committed to contemporary composers, taking board positions with Berlin’s Gesellschaft für Neue Musik […]

Winners and losers at the NY Phil

Winners and losers at the NY Phil

WIN: Matias Tarnopolsky played hardball in compensation negotiations when the NY Phil came after him in the summer. That’s why it has taken four months to make the appointment. He got what he wanted, or […]