Artful scientists
The relationship between art and science has been fractious since the Enlightenment, when practices that had often been seen as alternative ways of approaching the same truth began to be … Continue reading
The intrinsic value of art
Four weeks ago, the Louvre Museum presented the largest overview of German painting ever seen in France. De l’Allemagne, 1800-1939 De Friedrich à Beckmann brings together 200 works, most of … Continue reading
Portraying the change
How can you describe a cultural programme that has extended over 14 years, 9 countries and 3,000 projects? How do you account for its outcomes, the change it may have … Continue reading
A child’s view of the Miners’ Strike
Yesterday morning, Margaret Thatcher died. Her death has been followed by an explosion of polemic, encomium and vitriol, about what happened under her premiership and how it has shaped Britain … Continue reading
The Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans
Next week, I will be in Sarajevo for a conference to mark the end of the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans, (SCP) after almost 15 years. Set up … Continue reading
Artful integrity: on Alistair Cooke
In August 1983, New York experienced a heat wave of unusual ferocity. One evening, in his 15th floor apartment overlooking Central Park, the BBC’s correspondent, Alistair Cooke, sought to divert … Continue reading
The useful uselessness of art
Human beings do not have to make art to survive, which is why it’s relegated to the highest (last) place in Maslow’s much quoted hierarchy of needs. But it’s a grave … Continue reading
What is the Parliament of Dreams?
When I started this site, at the beginning of last year, I called it the Parliament of Dreams because I’ve used that metaphor to suggest how I see the unique … Continue reading
‘All in this together’
The de-politicisation of community art in Britain, 1970-2011 The term ‘community art’ came into use in Britain at the beginning of the 1970s, at a time when the cultural experimentation … Continue reading
The mailman’s authority
‘Alert always to “Wittgenstein’s distinction between all the trivia you can talk about, and all the essentials you can’t,” Steiner has labored not ever to obscure that distinction.’ George Steiner … Continue reading
