The Arts Diary – Camilla Long wrong and Scotland’s ‘Year of Young People’

BBC moves in the right direction with Civilisations

Following my piece a few weeks ago on the BBC’s lamentable approach to arts coverage, I was pleasantly surprised with the first outing of Civilisations.  It’s not perfect by any stretch, and it will surely miss the mark in redressing the Eurocentric bias of Clark’s forerunner, having bitten off more than it can chew in only nine episodes.  But it was hard not to be awestruck by the beauty of some of the art objects — in particular the Combat Agate Sealstone from Pylos — and if you can’t stand the sound of Simon Schama’s gyrating vocal cords, then switch the sound off: the visuals alone are a feast for the eyes.

Apparently not if you’re Camilla Long however, as she wrote in her predictable take down in the Sunday Times: ‘Every segment in the opening episode … contains history I don’t want to know anything more about.  The Minoans, the Mycenaens — most people hurry past this rubble.’ Desperately attempting to fill the shoes of A.A. Gill, but sadly with less eloquence and much less heft, Long ‘managed just 20 minutes of Mary Beard’s first episode’, and resorted to well trodden criticism of the presenter’s appearance in place of anything intelligent.

Let’s hope the BBC does not take Long’s boorish comments to heart, and continues to set its sights on ambitious programming.

An Idiot Abroad? Sky’s comedy commissioner moves to English National Opera

On International Women’s Day, ENO announced Stuart Murphy would be succeeding Cressida Pollock as Chief Executive, to join the other men at the top, Artistic Director Daniel Kramer and Music Director Martyn Brabbins.  Murphy has traded a career in television — his commissions include Little Britain, Ross Kemp: Middle East Special and An Idiot Abroad — for opera.

Murphy said of his appointment: ‘For a long time now I have wanted to pursue my passion for classical music and opera in a professional capacity, and so it is a privilege to lead an organisation that is so committed to world-class artistic, musical and technical excellence.’

Judging him (admittedly rather prematurely) on this statement alone, it appears ENO have appointed a TV man who likes to catch a concert once in a while, rather than someone who lives and breathes opera, which is what ENO desperately need.

Well-qualified figures such as James Clutton of Opera Holland Park, Wasfi Kani at Grange Park Opera and Sally O’Niell at Covent Garden have been overlooked yet again. Clearly the ENO Board has had enough of experts.

London conservatoire leads the way for women composers

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, which is chaired by Harriet Harman, continues to show itself to be one of the more progressive arts institutions in the UK.  It has just announced its new scheme, ‘Venus Blazing’, which pledges that at least half of all music programmed during the 2018/19 academic year will be by women composers.  The institution programmes over 50 concerts a year at its home in Greenwich, spanning classical, opera, and jazz.

The gender balance is still a huge issue facing classical music’s most prestigious institutions. The Metropolitan Opera’s 18/19 season features not a single work by a women (the same goes for the Chicago and Philadelphia Symphony Orchestras), nor has it booked any women conductors.

The UK is thankfully moving more assuredly in the right direction, thanks to organisations like PRS for Music, which has recently received commitments from 45 international festivals and events (including the BBC Proms, the Aldeburgh Festival, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival) to achieve a 50/50 gender split among performers by 2022.

Scotland’s ‘Year of Young People 2018’ has been a disaster for the arts

Youth arts in Scotland was dealt a huge blow this week, as Scottish Youth Theatre announced it will cease trading – a tragic and needless demise to an organisation that has nurtured aspiring actors aged 3-25 for over four decades.  This is a direct result of the funding debacle Creative Scotland presided over in January of this year, which left SYT (and many other eminent organisations) short by a third after being turned down for regular funding.  A lifeline of sorts has been thrown by Nicola Sturgeon, who has pledged to ‘explore all options’, although wasn’t able to give any more detail.  The Scottish Government cannot directly intervene with Creative Scotland; one hopes this is not just a vain promise.  SYT, whose alumni include Karen Gillan, Gerard Butler, and Douglas Henshall, will perform their last shows this summer.

Aberdeen International Youth Festival too has a very uncertain future, after the local council voted to remove funding for the 45-year-old annual festival, which has hosted around 30,000 performers from around the globe.

How long must we continue to make the argument? The economics alone should be enough: the arts and creative industry is growing at twice the rate of the rest of the UK economy.  For every £1 invested in the arts, the Treasury gets £5 back.  Creative Scotland has been called unfit for purpose by many following January’s disaster, so if the decision makers can’t understand this no-brainer, get some new ones in.