It’s one thing fighting off the right wing absolutists when they spew their ridiculous rhetoric regarding arts funding it’s another thing altogether when you are crossing swords with people who are supposed to understand the arts. Step forward Harriet Harman, Shadow Culture Secretary, and Simon Mellor from Arts Council England. In a speech to some […]
Here in TheLab™ we imagine that it all started with a conference somewhere, probably from the Arts Marketing Association. A well dressed hipster takes to that stage and proclaims, using forced confidence while holding an iGadget™, that if a Twitter follower sends you a message containing feint praise then immediately re-tweet it to your own […]
It was suitably ironic that following our feature piece last week concerning the problems with professional dancers trying to find properly paid, full-time jobs an audition landed in our inbox from The Royal Opera House in London. This particular audition, seeking 6 female dancers for the staging of an opera called ‘Anna Nicole’, was offering […]
Professional dancers taking part in the audition process over the last few years will be very aware of the increasing demands from companies and choreographers to provide video material of their abilities in advance of being selected for attendance. Some notices go so far as to request solo material or material that clearly shows the […]
The Guardian newspaper published a by the numbers puff-piece last week based on a press release from the BBC proclaiming that the publicly funded broadcaster was going to champion the arts or, you know, whatever. Said press release, loosely translated by John Plunkett (totally made up name or what? Ed!), proclaimed that; “Nearly £3m extra […]
The budget delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer is often a snooze for arts folk unless they are expecting arts cuts, the norm for the last few years. However, this time out there was, allegedly, some good news for the creatives when George Osbourne announced some tax breaks for both touring and non-touring theatrical […]
Last week saw the return of the much maligned ‘State of the Arts’ conference rebranded as ‘No Boundaries’. The website and the logo might look bit cooler but it’s really just another conference. For 2014 the talking shop to end all talking shops took place in two separate cities in England; Bristol and York, connected […]
For reasons past understanding the Guardian newspaper decided to give Arts Council England Chairman Peter Balzagette a nice long promo for a book he has written called “Is The BBC In Crisis?”. The quick answer to that particular question is YES! One of the reasons being that the best the BBC can come up with […]
Last week the Royal Ballet announced that they were cancelling a performance of ‘Tetractys – The Art of Fugue’ (seriously? Ed!) crafted by Wayne McGregor because one of the dancers, Natalia Osipova, had received a concussion during a matinee show and another dancer, Thiago Soares, had become ill. Such was the shortage of time there […]
Last Friday Arts Professional magazine released a brief story reporting that the, so-called, “strategic funding” budget used by Arts Council England had risen by 67% from the previous financial year. What’s unusual about this particular fund is the fact that neither arts organisations nor individuals can apply for this money; “‘Strategic funding’ grants being paid […]