This new guest post by Nick Mahony, Stephanie Bolt and Russell Todd, argues that the people excluded by “arts and culture” in the UK are the same people who are all too often excluded from and marginalised by everyday life . They argue that now – as we approach the 100th anniversary of Raymond Williams’ birth – is the time to rediscover his radical calls for collectively creative, democratic change at every level of our society.
I am really pleased to be able to share this extremely powerful, thought-provoking guest blog by Rosie Priest. It’s a personal account of how art can be part of everyday life as well as a challenge to the superficial rhetoric of institutional art as a vehicle for “transformative change”.
Rosie Priest is a PhD candidate at the University of Stirling, working with the National Galleries of Scotland’s outreach programme to explore “Collaborative Art and Transformation”, whilst also working as the Creative Learning Associate for Stellar Quines Theatre Company.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
In Stephen’s last guest blog in this series, he demonstrates that a highly cited arts and health paper is a ‘fairy tale’ that has cast a collective spell over the field. Stephen wishes he had published this debunking in 2008. Now, 12 years later, here it is…
Stephen Clift (BA, PhD, PFRSPH) is Professor Emeritus, Canterbury Christ Church University, and former Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
In Stephen’s penultimate guest blog, for now, he provocatively argues that, sometimes at least, ‘research in arts and health can produce findings that are banal, trivial or spurious’. His final guest blog in this series will be published tomorrow.
Stephen Clift (BA, PhD, PFRSPH) is Professor Emeritus, Canterbury Christ Church University, and former Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
This is the third guest blog by Stephen Clift. Here he asks questions about the value, relevance and usefulness of some research into ‘arts and health’, and wonders how such examples were funded and why they garnered such favourable, unquestioning reviews.
Stephen Clift (BA, PhD, PFRSPH) is Professor Emeritus, Canterbury Christ Church University, and former Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
In this second guest blog by Stephen Clift, he questions the WHO scoping review of arts and health (Fancourt and Finn, 2019), particularly its headline: ‘Arts ‘crucial’ to reducing poor health and inequality’. Here, Stephen asks if the existing body of evidence really supports such ‘grand claims’.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
This guest blog by Dr Stephen Clift calls for a thorough appraisal of research about how art might contribute to health and wellbeing and argues for greater critical debate about arts and health practice and research.
Stephen Clift (BA, PhD, PFRSPH) is Professor Emeritus, Canterbury Christ Church University, and former Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
This is a response to Anna Francis’s article entitled ‘Artwashing’ gentrification is a problem – but vilifying the artists involved is not the answer . It includes comments from myself, Emily Jost, Rab Harling and Ewan Allinson.
Your Life But Artwashed, Stephen Pritchard, 2017.
Stephen Pritchard
Artwashing is a serious business and it is not something that’s planned or financed by artists. … READ MORE
This is a guest blog by Martin Daws. Martin is a Spoken Word Poet and Community Artist. Full-time freelance since 1999. Young People’s Laureate for Wales 2013-2016. Check out his website and follow him on Twitter.
Martin came up with the idea of paying artists to work with communities instead of “investing” millions of pounds in “capital projects” such as arts centres. … READ MORE
I received this letter from Richard Parry as a comment to my blog post entitled SHHH, BE QUIET! (Reflective prose about library closures, Arts Council England & middle-class asset stripping.) Richard has been researching the arts organisation V22 for some time (as have I). His letter which he has agreed to publish as a blog post here instead of a comment is the result of his research and relates to a number of Freedom of Information requests he has made to Arts Council England.… READ MORE