Live performance indoors gets go-ahead
The government has announced that as of tomorrow, August 15, live performances that observe strict social distancing can return indoors., but it was met with a cautious response.
National Theatre to reopen in October
The National Theatre has announced it is to reopen in late October after a seven month lockdown with a new one-man play and a socially distanced audience.
TAITMAIL The Southbank, and pearls before jewels
Gradually the “String of Pearls”, as Richard Rogers once called the cultural attractions along the south side of the Thames, are coming back to life, but it’s patchy and their futures are as murky as the river itself.
Red Alert for dying live events industry
Over 715 buildings across the UK, including Tate Modern pictured here, were lit up in red last night indicating “Red Alert” for imminent danger.
Talking Heads take to the stage
London’s Bridge Theatre is to stage eight of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues, shown on TV in June, as part of its post-Covid re-opening season, its normal capacity of 900 seats reduced to 250.
GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Culling Culture
The arts face an uphill battle for survival post-Covid and post-Brexit, especially with new restrictions on touring. Even loops in the new rules may not help much, reports Olivia Bridge, political correspondent for the legal consultancy the Immigration Advice Service.
Derry’s 'Sunlit Absence' in virtual theatre
1972 was Derry-Londonderry’s worst year of The Troubles, and the city’s Playhouse is using the year’s story to herald the theatre's new virtual future.
TAITMAIL The cost of joy
Could this have been true? The story goes that when Keir Starmer recently rang Boris Johnson to ask for theatres to be reopened he got the usual non-committal response of “as soon as we safely can”. But at the end of the call Johnson didn’t hang up properly, and the unmistakable voice of his Senior Adviser could be heard exclaiming: “The last people we’re going to allow back to work is those fucking dancers!”
Anti-racist rallying cry by new Tara Arts head
Tara Arts, the country’s first BAME theatre company, has announced Abdul Shayek as its new artistic director and joint-CEO who has pledged himself and the company to renewed combating of racism and racial inequality in the light of the Black Lives Matter campaign.
Balshaw joins Mendoza arts crisis panel
Tate director Maria Balshaw (pictured here by Bloomberg) has been named today as a member of the expert panel exploring the impact of the Covid pandemic on the arts and their response.
THE WORD Collaboration – the catalyst to save culture
The Catalyst Network is a gathering of entrepreneurial, strategic and operational expertise from across the creative industries that meets regularly to discuss strategic challenges faced by the arts. Kate Rolfe (pictured), the co-chair of the latest Catalyst Thinks discussion, reports on its latest exchanges
Atomic bombings to be marked – in Piccadilly
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago this week are to be marked by a digital work of public art.
Bugsy Malone’s Alan Parker dies
Alan Parker, the film director, writer and producer who brought such classics as Bugsy Malone, Mississippi Burning and Angela’s Ashes to the screen, died today aged 76.
ATG to lay off 1,200
Ambassador Theatre Group, the UK’s largest theatre operator, is to lay of 1,200 casual staff.
THE ART OF PHOTOJOURNALISM Image of the month
Skegness Beach, summer of 1999, by Tom Pilston
Alan Sparrow introduces this month’s image
THE END reaches the Fourth Plinth
A new public sculpture, THE END by Heather Philipson, was today unveiled on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth in central London.
1,200 National Trust staff face job loss
The National Trust today told staff their jobs may have to go as part of a £100m savings package.
Slavery beneficiary’s statue stays
The statue of a 17th century trading magnate whose fortune partly came from forced labour and the trading of slaves is to remain.
£500m for film production, and how the £1.57bn arts recovery fund will be shared out
The government has launched a £500m scheme for save TV and film production, effectively becoming the industry's insurer.
Southbank’s plea for help with £21m debt
The Southbank Centre, which has said it may have to cut 400 jobs, has appealed to the government for help with a “crippling” £21m debt exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdown.
Quentin Blake’s House of Illustration in £8m move
The House of Illustration, the UK’s only gallery devoted to illustration and graphics founded by the illustrator Sir Quentin Blake in 2014, is to make a new home in a listed building next to Sadler’s Wells Theatre in Islington.
Coventry – on the move for 2021
Coventry has chosen its brand and logo for its year as the UK City of Culture in 2021.
Mendes raises £1.6m for theatre artists
The fund set up by Oscar-winning film and theatre director Sir Sam Mendes to help theatre workers struggling in the lockdown has raised £1.6m in just three weeks.
THE WORD Small town boy
By Patrick Kelly, AI’s northern editor
This column is not a particular fan of John Whittingdale, the culture minister and one-time culture secretary, whose fixation with the BBC and its alleged “leftwing” bias distorted his blessedly brief time as government culture supremo.
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