In this very personal open letter, Dany Louise explains why, after more than 25 years, she has fallen out of love with the arts sector.
Regular followers and subscribers will be aware that I haven’t publicly commented on arts and culture for quite some time, so I start 2021 by formally changing the name of this blog.
For a start, there hasn’t really been any arts policy to speak of for the last ten years, culture being largely driven by coping with the scale of budget cuts brought about by the misguided “austerity” programme. The changes it has wrought in the sector have been less about culture being a project that bears fruitful examination, and more about the sector struggling to survive while still producing and delivering work. From that perspective, I haven’t had a huge amount to usefully say once those changes had bedded in and become the new normal.
Regular followers and subscribers will be aware that I haven’t publicly commented on arts and culture for quite some time, so I start 2021 by formally changing the name of this blog.
For a start, there hasn’t really been any arts policy to speak of for the last ten years, culture being largely driven by coping with the scale of budget cuts brought about by the misguided “austerity” programme. The changes it has wrought in the sector have been less about culture being a project that bears fruitful examination, and more about the sector struggling to survive while still producing and delivering work. From that perspective, I haven’t had a huge amount to usefully say once those changes had bedded in and become the new normal.
In addition, budgets to commission new arts writing have shrunk year on year, to the point where... Keep reading on Dany Louise's blog.