Levelling down London’s HE sector
Universities in the capital are set to lose nearly £80m in funding for arts courses. Diana Beech fears this will further wid…
Posts
Is DCMS any longer fit for purpose?
While the appointment of Nadine Dorries to lead DCMS has been greeted with widespread dismay by the cultural sector, Robert Hewiso…
When best intentions backfire?
In trying to diversify its company, English Touring Opera shot itself – and 14 freelancers – in the foot.
Racial equity: a zero-sum game?
The fight for racially equitable funding in the creative industries is what drove Kevin Osborne to set up Create Equity. Here…
UK City of Culture competition in need of redesign
The UK City of Culture is a DCMS success story by any standards. But, as Andrew Dixon explains, serious flaws in this year’s…
Why funders must pledge to fund equitably
Covid, the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement all led to an outpouring of statements committin…
Arts and culture needs its Euro 2020 moment
Ethnically diverse creative leaders are experiencing a rise in racist abuse. Amanda Parker calls for government support to kick it…
Masking for a friend
Arts venues might lose out by mandating masks and other Covid-19 mitigations but it's the only socially responsible optio…
Choosing care over censorship
The Jess de Wahls controversy has highlighted how tenuous arts organisations' solidarity with transgender people can…
State funding for BAME entrepreneurs
Can using public money to make BAME* entrepreneurs successful be in the public interest if it makes them wealthy too? Kevin Osborn…
New Deal for the arts
The more you look at the cultural aftermath of this year of lockdowns, the clearer it becomes that current thinking around arts fu…
Time’s up for conservatoire culture
Drama schools would do well to interrogate their practices and culture now before the calls for reform begin.
Funding BAME creativity
Kevin Osborne has long been exercised by systemic racial bias in UK arts funding. Last month he produced a panel discussion aimed…
Coming of age
'We’ve only been here because you’ve been with us': as ArtsProfessional heads into its third decade, Liz…
BAME over – the unintended consequences
With a Government report recommending the dropping of the term BAME, people have been challenging Kevin Osborne’s continued…
Beyond Culture Recovery
The distribution of Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund has attracted widespread criticism, not least from those ca…
An unacceptable truth
To describe the past year as unprecedented is an understatement. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking anything has really…
Selling collections must be subject to scrutiny
Sharon Heal challenges a museum chair’s view that ethics are a matter of ‘emotion’.
Déjà vu over value news
DCMS’ new model for measuring culture’s economic value shows no understanding of how public policy has developed in re…
New horizons
As we say good riddance to 2020, Liz Hill takes a glass-half-full look at progress in the cultural sector this year, and what the…
A Fond Farewell to ArtsProfessional
Amanda Parker shares her parting words as Editor of ArtsProfessional.
The sector should be scared – very scared
"We have now had a glimpse of what direct government funding of the arts would look like – and it’s not a pretty…
News Comment: Sharp actions, at pace, with respect
UK Music has published its industry-wide ten-point plan for a diverse music ecosystem. But it’s actions, not words, that wil…
Teaching music mustn’t become an exclusive career option
By cutting bursaries for teacher training, the Department for Education will make a career in teaching an unreachable dream for so…
