Another thought, inspired by the conjunction of McMaster, the cultural offer, and me spending a week away with my family, enjoying ourselves and relaxing without anything approaching a life-changing experience, arts or otherwise...
Noel Coward said it was ‘extraordinary how potent cheap music can be’. Brian McMaster (or his report at least) recommends that ‘cultural organisations stop exploiting the tendency of many audiences to accept a superficial experience and foster a relationship founded on innovative, exciting and challenging work’. He rightly says that ‘An excellent cultural experience goes to the root of living.’
But how much excellence of that sort can a person – especially an impressionable young person –bear? Is it not enough at times to be stimulated, inspired and challenged as well as entertained at a deep level? Is an hour wandering TATE modern not a ‘superficial’ experience for many, no matter how great the art? I don’t think it’s necessarily transformational, or certainly not immediately. Anyway, don't some superficial things sometimes sneak up on you and turn into life-changing experiences?
I want fulfilling arts experiences, and surprise. I want to laugh, dance, think, ponder. I don’t necessarily want my values reorganised every time I go to the theatre or read a book. I don’t think that makes me shallow. Tell me if I’m wrong.
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Thoughts and suggestions from Mark Robinson, (former) Executive Director of Arts Council England, North East
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I'm Mark Robinson and I used to work for Arts Council England, as Executive Director, North East, until March 2010. This was a space for me to share thoughts on arts policy, strategy and development and to show that people who work for the Arts Council, even Exec Directors, are not faceless, robotic bureaucrats. I now run Thinking Practice, a consultancy dedicated to helping arts and cultural organisations create a fairer and more beautiful world by increasing their impact and building resilience. I combine strategy and analysis - thinking - with doing, learning and coaching - practice.
The new Thinking Practice blog carries on the Arts Counselling model - do visit or subscribe.
The new Thinking Practice blog carries on the Arts Counselling model - do visit or subscribe.
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The comments and views expressed on this blog are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views or values of Arts Council England, though I'll be surprised if they're far off. Arts Council England is not responsible for the content of this or external websites.
Comments are encouraged but please stick to the Arts Council's comments policy. You can find it here. Basically: agree or disagree all you like, but keep it reasonable and polite!
Comments are encouraged but please stick to the Arts Council's comments policy. You can find it here. Basically: agree or disagree all you like, but keep it reasonable and polite!
5 comments:
Well, it's not wrong, per se, but it is wrong to let the superficial be regarded as anything but light entertainment. So, let's not say "visiting the Tate Modern provides a gateway into modern art", but rather a gateway into spending lots of money on coffee and ice cream. With a bit of art on the side.
As a side note, I believe that this blog entry is a really well-written argument that kinda funnels you along from the point to the conclusion. Obviously, all that time filling in ACE forms has some benefit when it comes to argument-forming! But it would be nice to see something a bit more revealing on the blog. Why don't you share some of the 'shallow' experiences you love, and why they are fun?
Are you a secret Eastenders fan? Do you own a Meatloaf album? Do you read the sort of magazines that show 'candid' pictures of stars buying sandwiches? I guess I'd find a discussion of the relative merits of tawdry gossip rags more enlightening than an argument that seems to only supports the status quo.
Thanks Pete. I think there's a back-handed compliment in there somewhere! Not sure how far to go in exposing my guilty pleasures - may post those seperately.
I'd like to say that an advantage of working for ACE is you don't have to fill in too many forms. I'd like to....
The compliment is that you are very good at writing, but the best part of 'non-official' blogs is those parts that stray from the party line. Writing about superficial experiences seems like a great point to talk about the fun things in life.
On the other hand, if you post a beat-by-beat breakdown of Bros, I'd be outta here so fast.
If we all had lifechanging experiences every day we would never get any work done.
One man I trust studied the memories people retained of shows they had seen as children - going back as far as twenty years.
People seldom retained words or story themes but mainly emotionally charged gestures, movements and visual effects.
We all see things differently and respond at different intervals. We are all different mixes of intelligences. That's why any cultural offer must be very broad indeed and probably use many different modes of delivery.
yeah,
what do you laugh at?
dance to?
think about?
ponder?
this could get interesting..
p.s - i think meeting a faceless robot could be exciting (maybe a little scary)
nice to meet you,
nicky peacock
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