A Farewell to Arts

 

Dire predictions for the future of the arts industry abound.  In the Telegraph today, Dominic Cavendish claims that the Chancellor’s latest Covid Measures to help viable businesses means that he has just told an entire industry to get another job.  Theatre workers, Cavendish laments, will be left with three choices – howl in despair, quit the sector or both.  This is particularly disappointing to me because I am fond of the arts in general and live theatre in particular.  That said, I was startled recently when an interviewee chosen by the BBC told us that the arts industry had an important role to play in promoting and engineering social change.  No examples were offered but I am pretty sure we could predict what would be on the Arts Council’s mind.  I have to admit, I prickled at this pompous presumption since I believe, perhaps in an out of fashion way, that the arts are meant to stimulate and entertain their patrons rather than break new ground with woke indoctrinations for all manner of minority inequalities.  I’d go further and say that I don’t much like the idea of paying artists from public subsidy if they neither stimulate nor entertain in the first place.  So to those artists who see their role as social messiahs, farewell.  I hope there will be a suitable Government training scheme, leading to a viable job, available for you in due course.