UK industry in danger because creative subjects deemed ‘strategically unimportant’
Industry leaders believe the UK is falling behind the emerging economies because creative subjects have been demoted in British cucciculums, according to a new survey.
TAITMAIL Theatre, large and small, where the twain must meet
Twenty-five years ago Ayub Khan-Din’s East is East was a ground-breaking piece of theatre, bringing to British audiences with dark humour the torments of tradition versus contemporary life for so many British Pakistani families.
Courtauld unveils its £50m transformation
The Courtauld Institute has unveiled its £50m transformation, the biggest since it moved to Somerset House in 1989.
My child’s eye
Fifteen brave contemporary artists have agreed to collaborate with their children for a unique exhibition at Bath University’s The Edge arts centre.
Bedford shoppers’ high street puzzle
Shoppers in Bedford High Street have been puzzled by what appears to be a portal to a long-lost bank vault.
AI PROFILE Tara - small becomes powerful
Abdul Shayek, artistic director and chief executive, Tara Theatre
On the night of Friday, June 4th, 1976, an 18-year-old Sikh engineering student, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, was stabbed to death in Southall.
National Theatre launches community campaign
The National Theatre has announced a National Theatre Together campaign to cement its commitment to the theatre community, young people and audiences, as well as to raise money to fund its post-covid recovery.
Export stop on ‘wonderful’ £10m reliquary
A silver reliquary statuette of St Christopher made at the end of the Middle Ages has been valued at £10m.
£3.4m to make libraries digital
Arts Council England is putting £3.4m into a platform to improve access to libraries’ collections, exhibitions and events across the UK.
David Nixon steps down at Northern Ballet
Northern Ballet’s artistic director for the last 20 years, David Nixon, is to leave later this year.
Helping museums adapt to post-Covid age
Art Fund is offering grants from a new £2m fund to help museums transform following the pandemic.
Can we design our way out of climate disaster?
The delayed third London Design Biennale opens today at Somerset House with a resounding message, writes Simon Tait
THE ART OF PHOTOJOURNALISM Image of the month
Festival Gardens Funfair, Battersea Park, 1st June 1957, by Terry Fincher
Former Fleet Street picture editor Alan Sparrow on the work of Terry Fincher
MY STORY Making Medway towns into a city of culture for 2025
This weekend culture secretary Oliver Dowden announced the start of the race to be UK City of Culture 2025, in succession to Coventry, and for the first time opened it up to groups of towns as well as cities. The result will be announced next spring. Medway in Kent has launched its bid and Imogen Robertson is the bid director.
Search for City - or towns - of Culture 2025 is on
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has launched the quest for a UK City of Culture for 2025, with a crucial difference.
This time, the fourth time since the scheme was launched in 2012, groups of towns can apply as well as cities.
The competition as run by DCMS is a “catalyst for levelling up areas outside London” and help communities recover from the effects of the pandemic through culture.
The winner will succeed Coventry, the current City of Culture, and Dowden has also confirmed that the scheme will continue beyond 2025 at least to 2029.
“UK City of Culture is a fantastic showcase of the huge impact culture has in towns and cities across the country” Dowden said. “From Derry-Londonderry, to Hull and Coventry, previous winners have shown how the competition can deliver greater cultural participation, drive economic regeneration and boost local pride. I encourage towns and cities across the UK to put forward bids for 2025 and champion their local arts and culture scene.”
The winning bid is expected to be announced next spring.
Southampton’s gallery reopens, with help from a national friend
Southampton City Art Gallery reopens after lockdown today with an exhibition that rekindles a long association with the National Gallery with one of the largest loans of works its has ever made.
Free Word closes
Free Word, the multi-disciplinary word-associated arts producer, is to close after 12 years following the loss if its central London headquarters.
Shakespeare North Playhouse appoints Melanie Lewis as CEO
Melanie Lewis, executive director of National Museums Liverpool, is to be the first CEO of the £20m Shakespeare North Playhouse, due to open next year.
Brexit nightmare forcing musicians overseas
Britain’s musicians are being forced to move to Europe or quit the profession altogether because of the “nightmare” of touring under Brexit strictures.
How a Jewish refugee came to make the most church murals in England
A Jewish award-winning painter and sculptor whose work was declared "degenerate" by the Hitler regime fled the Nazis in 1933, came to Britain as a refugee and stayed to make more Church of England murals than any other 20th century artist.
How revived £42m culture fund will work
Arts Council England has today revealed how the £42m Cultural Investment Fund will create a new infrastructure to start the long-term recovery of the arts, heritage and cultural sector in this financial year.
Hall resigns from National Gallery in Bashir scandal aftermath
Tony Hall today stood down as chairman of the National Gallery in the wake of the Martin Bashir scandal.
Covid guidance hits wrong note
The government is being lobbied to change its latest guidance on music performance that insists that only six people can sing indoors together, so that choirs are forbidden to sing together.
GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE How to go to the theatre – post-Covid
Blackpool Grand Theatre has produced a guide to how technology will guide us into the theatre in the near future.
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