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.
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.
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!”
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
Skegness Beach, summer of 1999, by Tom Pilston
Alan Sparrow introduces this month’s image
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.
The David Glass Ensemble was founded in 1990 as an international theatre company engagied with the changing world through tough productions, often written by David Glass himself and with new takes on Shakespeare and even Dickens. As a pioneer of physical theatre the performer, director and playwright is often said by other theatre makers to be a defining force in world drama.
Indoor performances can start again from August 1, but with social distancing still in place how will theatres and concert halls work?
When I worked in the V&A two or three curatorial generations ago the best day of the week for colleagues was Friday, the day the museum was closed. No public getting in the way of research, cleaning, labelling, no noise, and in the best of all possible museological worlds it would be permanently closed to non-staff.
Thanks for the bundle, Rishi, but what about the workers?
MY STORY - Nathan Penlington, writer, performer and co-creator of The Boy in the Book
Neville Chamberlain at Heston Aerodrome, 30th September 1938, by Fred Ramage, Keystone Picture Agency
Alan Sparrow introduces this month’s image
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