Congratulation to Oliver Dowden Secretary of State Culture, Media and Sport on listening and delivering a £1.5 billion rescue package for the arts. However there are caveats; where and how will the money be spent, who will deliver the money to beleaguered organisations and musicians? Will under-represented musics find a place in the sun?
I recently appeared in a podcast with Nicoleta Porojanu a psychologist and therapist from London. It was an interesting interview where the topic of stress was discussed. Stress is explored and what is causing stress in our modern world and the terrible impact it has on our mental activity, emotional life and physical body. Music […]
There was an article in the Guardian on the 18th June 2020, “Act to save industry, leading lights of stage urge government” https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/17/cultural-catastrophe-uk-theatre-faces-ruin-amid-coronavirus-crisis . Dowden was quoted as saying “he does not want to let anyone down”. Well his insouciance to date has let a whole raft of jazz musicians and volunteer jazz promoters down and […]
Charlotte Higgins in her article, “After the war the arts came back stronger” had a self-prophesying ring about it. (Please see https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/18/war-arts-stronger-covid-19-devastated-theatres-museums-imagination) Ms Higgins erroneously says that the war was the last time cultural organisations ground to a halt. The Arts Council developed from the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) […]
Press Release The All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group urge Arts Council England to reinstate National Lottery Projects Grants When Arts Council England announced its £160 million emergency rescue package to deal with the coronavirus crisis in March 2020, arts organisations and individuals alike were rightly delighted by such a swift and positive response. However, […]
Timothy Garton Ash in his article “Britain dwells on its past, but has no vision for its future” (The Guardian, 22nd May 2020), sets out where we are now but fights shy of a vision of where we want to be. Asking Keir Starmer to propose a future will undoubtedly provide some useful policies but […]
“The world looks to British theatre. So let’s get it back on track…” So ran the headline in the Observer on Sunday 24th May 2020. It was an article by Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital Culture Media and Sport. ( https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/may/24/the-world-looks-to-british-theatre-so-lets-get-it-back-on-track ) The article presented the new task force and working groups which […]
The Arts Council has announced a rescue package but has suspended national lottery grants that would help jazz musicians and jazz promoters organise tours and plan ahead – to organise a tour or project you have to plan over a year ahead. The suspension of the national lottery grants will now add to the misery.The Arts […]
The leader article ( Amid the pandemic music send a message about things eternal, Monday 23rd March 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/22/the-guardian-view-on-music-and-pandemics-the-global-prisoners-chorus) on culture and music completely missed the point which is the meltdown of music; especially among underrepresented music such as jazz, blues and folk. The available research shows that jazz musicians had 45% of their incomes coming from […]