Arts grant wasted on 'Nowhere Island'
I suppose despite having their annual grant from the South West Arts Council cut in half, Exeter's Northcott Theatre is obliged to say how wonderful it is because £375,000 is better than nowt. The Northcott's problem is that its audiences are far too middle class, taxpaying and "hideously white" to coin a phrase used by lefty former BBC director general Greg Dyke. The other half has gone to a theatre company that is doing "innovative" productions for people who don't normally go to the theatre – i.e. stuff that no normal healthy person wants to watch and only gets an audience because whining school kids are dragged along by their teachers and forced to sit through it until the interval, when they slope off.
The Arts Council South West region are the profligate jokers who part-funded "Nowhere Island" to represent our region in the Cultural Olympiad running alongside the sports Olympics. Torridge and West Devon Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox described the £500,000 of taxpayers' money blown on employing Alex Hartley to dig up six tonnes of soil from an Arctic island and tow it around the South West coast on a barge, as an "extraordinary folly". The Arts Council said it would open up a debate on global warming. No it hasn't. It has started a debate on why a spendthrift bunch of clowns are running South West Arts Council and who do you have to mix with at the right parties to flog them a ship load of dirt for half a million quid.
The Arts Council's regional chair is Sheila Healey, well known down here as the former chief executive of Cornwall County Council who trousered a £150k payoff and more or less walked straight into a similar post in Shropshire. Not even the Guardian's environment editor, Leo Hickman, could bring himself to support them, blogging "Olympic Arctic art project deserves to sink". Phil Gibby, head of Arts Council England in the South West, explained to the BBC: "It is a remarkable visual sculpture and we reckon more than a quarter of a million people will engage with it."
I'm thinking of erecting a very large hoarding, visible from out at sea, with a message for the Arts Council. Do WMN readers have any suggestions?
3 Comments
by Barbara19588
Monday, February 06 2012, 8:07PM
“As an artist, I'm really looking forward to Nowhereisland and the Embassy visiting Cornwall this summer. I'm one of the thousands of citizens already involved and I can't wait to see how schools join in as well. I hadn't realised Nowhereisland has so much going on, so thanks to Paula2968 putting the record straight. I am not sure who wrote this article but the last thing we need in these difficult times is someone trying to pitch one arts project against another and if you have to resort to quoting Geoffrey Cox then you can't have much of an argument. I don't expect Mr Cox bothered to find out about Nowhereisland before he made that quote.
Barbara, Truro”
by paula2968
Monday, February 06 2012, 7:09PM
“I'm wondering if you've read the opinion piece published in the Western Morning News on 6th October last year, "Nowhereisland has lessons for us all", which applauded Nowhereisland as a project which (contrary to the misconceptions in some of the press) seems to involve a great many other organisations (choirs, schools, young mums, a refugee football team, resident thinkers from all over the world) all leading to what could be some brilliant activities, events and ideas this summer. If you take a look at their website (http://tinyurl.com/6gm93g7), 4838 people have already signed up to be citizens of Nowhereisland from all over the world. I know about a primary school in Plymouth that has been working to make their own film about the island.So it's so much more than the tabloids would have us believe. Isn't this what we want the arts to be about these days? Films, sculptures, writings, drawings, and performances that really make you think about the world around you - the kids seem to get it, so why don't we? It's a brilliant idea. As the promotional film on their website says, 'what if an Arctic island travelled south in search of its people' - now there is a story worthy of telling the grandkids. Calling the island sculpture a bunch of rocks is like calling a St. Michael's Mount - a mound of earth - have some imagination! Take a look - you might change your mind once you see what's on offer. It's time we stopped bashing the people who are trying to do things well with a bit of nerve and flair in this country. I've become a citizen, will you?”
by paula2968
Monday, February 06 2012, 7:07PM
“I'm wondering if you've read the opinion piece published in the Western Morning News on 6th October last year, "Nowhereisland has lessons for us all", which applauded Nowhereisland as a project which (contrary to the misconceptions in some of the press) seems to involve a great many other organisations (choirs, schools, young mums, a refugee football team, resident thinkers from all over the world) all leading to what could be some brilliant activities, events and ideas this summer. If you take a look at their website (http://tinyurl.com/6gm93g7), 4838 people have already signed up to be citizens of Nowhereisland from all over the world. I know about a primary school in Plymouth that has been working to make their own film about the island.So it's so much more than the tabloids would have us believe. Isn't this what we want the arts to be about these days? Films, sculptures, writings, drawings, and performances that really make you think about the world around you - the kids seem to get it, so why don't we? It's a brilliant idea. As the promotional film on their website says, 'what if an Arctic island travelled south in search of its people' - now there is a story worthy of telling the grandkids. Calling the island sculpture a bunch of rocks is like calling a St. Michael's Mount - a mound of earth - have some imagination! Take a look - you might change your mind once you see what's on offer. It's time we stopped bashing the people who are trying to do things well with a bit of nerve and flair in this country. I've become a citizen, will you?”