Opinion: Labour’s Culture Secretary Is Missing in Action
Juliet Jacques
Labour had a massive opportunity to counter the media onslaught and brighten the public mood, writes Juliet Jacques - and they’ve squandered it.
Tag: arts
Feature: London’s First Palestinian Cultural Centre Is Within Arm’s Reach
Juliet Jacques
Sprawling across five floors of a former language school, the gorgeous Palestine House is poised to make history. Juliet Jacques reports.
Opinion: The Arts Will Die Under Grey Labour
Juliet Jacques
Amid a crowded field of strenuously unambitious manifesto pledges, Keir Starmer’s culture offering is spectacularly pathetic, writes Juliet Jacques.
Feature: Against All Odds, Brent Council Is Investing in Its Artists
Juliet Jacques
Only 8% of film and TV professionals come from the working class, according to new stats. One of London’s most deprived boroughs wants to change that by paying artists to work in its studios, writes Juliet Jacques.
Analysis: London’s Arts Scene Has Been Captured By Corporate Culture
Sam Bright
The failure to ‘level up’ has left London an island. Now, its rich culture being crushed by a soulless commercial elite.
Opinion: England Is in the Midst of an African Renaissance – but It’s Still Racist As Hell
Kojo Koram
As impressive as England’s current African cultural renaissance is, the goal must ultimately be to create a world free of the painful legacies that produced it, writes Kojo Koram in Contesting Culture, a new series asking who really owns British culture.
Opinion: Attacks on the Arts Are Part of the Tories’ Culture War
Chardine Taylor-Stone
Earlier this month the government announced plans to cut funding for arts subjects at universities by 50%. Why? Because attacks on the arts play into the Tories’ confected culture war between salt-of-the-earth folk with ‘proper’ jobs and the ‘metropolitan elite’, argues Chardine Taylor-Stone.
Opinion: Independent and DIY Venues Offer Us Steps Towards a Lived Socialist Culture
Luke Cartledge
With pandemic support and mutual aid groups kicking into gear around the country, Luke Cartledge argues the spaces from which they operate - largely DIY community initiatives - should be part of the infrastructure of socialist organising.
Long Read: Literally Just Vibing: How Music Streaming Platforms Manipulate History, Legacy and Emotion
Fred M-G
In this long read, music-maker Fred M-G takes a closer look at how the "sonic wallpaper" curated by the music streaming services upon which we now rely flattens and sanitises music's history and potency.
Art School Strikers Are Turning the Tide on Apathy
Joe Hayns
Striking art school workers are building new networks of solidarity, defying historically low trade union engagement and a professional self-image that is widely exploited by university bosses.
Report: Opera de Paris en Grève: The Ballet Company Striking Back Against Macron’s Pension Reforms
Nic Murray
With strikes against sweeping pension reforms now passing the six-week mark, French arts workers are engaged in a struggle not only to secure their own futures, but the future of the country's cultural sector. Nic Murray reports.
Novara FM: Trash Cultures
Ash Sarkar and James Butler are joined on #NovaraFM by Bridget Minamore and Joseph Guthrie to discuss "low" culture, "high" theory, memory and resistance.
3 Reasons the Campaign to #SaveFabric is Political
Joel White
Having had its licence revoked, the iconic nightclub Fabric has started crowdfunding its legal challenge. Many have been hasty to point to council cuts or gentrification to explain the closure, but there's a wider political context at play.
Knowledge is Power: Lessons from Dystopian Fiction
Ellen Judson
32 years since George Orwell’s predictions of the future failed to come to pass, and our world seems to be getting more dystopian every day - but of all society's dystopian elements, which should worry us most?
Tears of Oil: The Case of Ashraf Fayadh, Condemned to Death in Saudi Arabia
Ben Morris
Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on Saturday to widespread condemnation. Meanwhile Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh is currently fighting a death sentence for apostasy, supported by artist groups rallying against tyranny.
Arts Strike Now! 5 Reasons Cultural Workers are Boycotting the Zabludowicz Collection
BDZ Group
Amid the erosion of public arts funding, the private Zabludowicz Collection has stepped up as the post-austerity arts pathbreaker. Notorious for its complicity in Israeli militarism, it is now the target of a boycott by cultural workers.