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| A tip for the next Labour leader – get yourself an interest outside politics | A tip for the next Labour leader – get yourself an interest outside politics |
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| What a strange time. As chair of the Brighton festival that opened on 2 May and runs until next Sunday, I have zig-zagged between politics and the arts, yo-yoing between two worlds that can seem utterly disconnected from each other. And yet are not – or shouldn’t be. | What a strange time. As chair of the Brighton festival that opened on 2 May and runs until next Sunday, I have zig-zagged between politics and the arts, yo-yoing between two worlds that can seem utterly disconnected from each other. And yet are not – or shouldn’t be. |
| The festival opened with Richard Nelson’s The Apple Family Plays, an intense seven-hour story of an upstate New York family enmeshed in a history of hopey-changey Democratic politics. But there was also Dawn Chorus, by Marcus Coates: an extraordinary installation of humans singing birdsong Further from the realms of politics you cannot go, or so you’d think. | The festival opened with Richard Nelson’s The Apple Family Plays, an intense seven-hour story of an upstate New York family enmeshed in a history of hopey-changey Democratic politics. But there was also Dawn Chorus, by Marcus Coates: an extraordinary installation of humans singing birdsong Further from the realms of politics you cannot go, or so you’d think. |
| Related: The Apple Family Plays review – exemplary American ensemble tells a nation’s story | Related: The Apple Family Plays review – exemplary American ensemble tells a nation’s story |
| Obsessives consumed by politics in recent weeks, watching heart-in-mouth for each opinion poll, hopes raised then dashed, may now be suffering an exhausted political fatigue. God knows, it matters, as we shall see in the Queen’s speech and the budget. But there is a limit to what politics can do for the human spirit. The dead language – “aspiration”, “empowerment” – shrivels the imagination and withers the brains of politicians, activists and commentators alike. Engaging with politics is essential but never enough. | Obsessives consumed by politics in recent weeks, watching heart-in-mouth for each opinion poll, hopes raised then dashed, may now be suffering an exhausted political fatigue. God knows, it matters, as we shall see in the Queen’s speech and the budget. But there is a limit to what politics can do for the human spirit. The dead language – “aspiration”, “empowerment” – shrivels the imagination and withers the brains of politicians, activists and commentators alike. Engaging with politics is essential but never enough. |
| In the lineup of Labour leadership potentials, how to choose between these able, good-looking and experienced Oxbridge graduates? The list of qualities required is probably impossible to combine within one human frame. We look for strength of character and rhetorical talent. But I would look for other clues, too: who has passions beyond politics? The politicians who seem most human are those with lives outside Westminster’s airless corridors: Ken Clarke’s love of serious jazz and F1 motor racing, Michael Heseltine’s passion for trees, Ed Balls taking piano exams or Margaret Hodge playing Mendelssohn helped make them all plain talkers in a world of ear-aching politics-speak. I’d probe the Labour leadership candidates for similar activities. Those who only do politics usually do it badly. | In the lineup of Labour leadership potentials, how to choose between these able, good-looking and experienced Oxbridge graduates? The list of qualities required is probably impossible to combine within one human frame. We look for strength of character and rhetorical talent. But I would look for other clues, too: who has passions beyond politics? The politicians who seem most human are those with lives outside Westminster’s airless corridors: Ken Clarke’s love of serious jazz and F1 motor racing, Michael Heseltine’s passion for trees, Ed Balls taking piano exams or Margaret Hodge playing Mendelssohn helped make them all plain talkers in a world of ear-aching politics-speak. I’d probe the Labour leadership candidates for similar activities. Those who only do politics usually do it badly. |
| That’s true in every walk of life: the arts enhance other talents. Recent research found science Nobel laureates are 25 times more likely to sing, dance, act and paint than other Royal Society members, and 12 times more likely to write poetry and novels. After all, Einstein played the violin. | That’s true in every walk of life: the arts enhance other talents. Recent research found science Nobel laureates are 25 times more likely to sing, dance, act and paint than other Royal Society members, and 12 times more likely to write poetry and novels. After all, Einstein played the violin. |
| But that richness across cultures is in danger of being lost to future generations. Gove’s legacy is Gradgrind education, where arts teaching is stripped out in favour of fact-based subjects such as science, technology, economics and maths: imagination replaced with coding. The Warwick Commission on the future of cultural value found a drastic fall in arts GCSEs ever since Gove downgraded them – a 50% drop in design and technology, drama down by 23% and 25% fewer taking craft subjects. Only 8% of students combined arts and science at AS level – sealing that great “two cultures” divide. | But that richness across cultures is in danger of being lost to future generations. Gove’s legacy is Gradgrind education, where arts teaching is stripped out in favour of fact-based subjects such as science, technology, economics and maths: imagination replaced with coding. The Warwick Commission on the future of cultural value found a drastic fall in arts GCSEs ever since Gove downgraded them – a 50% drop in design and technology, drama down by 23% and 25% fewer taking craft subjects. Only 8% of students combined arts and science at AS level – sealing that great “two cultures” divide. |
| Those who only do politics usually do it badly | Those who only do politics usually do it badly |
| Education secretary Nicky Morgan last year warned students off studying arts, saying it held them back for years. How profoundly wrong she is. Facts soon fly out of mind and out of date too. Future-proofed education breeds creativity that spurs enterprise of every kind: nearly a quarter of the UK workforce is in creative employment, according to the charity, Nesta – higher than any other country. Research shows how the arts improve attainment in all subjects: drama improves literacy, music improves maths and early language. The arts make most difference to children from low-income families – those who get arts teaching are three times more likely to get a degree and a job. | Education secretary Nicky Morgan last year warned students off studying arts, saying it held them back for years. How profoundly wrong she is. Facts soon fly out of mind and out of date too. Future-proofed education breeds creativity that spurs enterprise of every kind: nearly a quarter of the UK workforce is in creative employment, according to the charity, Nesta – higher than any other country. Research shows how the arts improve attainment in all subjects: drama improves literacy, music improves maths and early language. The arts make most difference to children from low-income families – those who get arts teaching are three times more likely to get a degree and a job. |
| No one forgets any school play they were in. No discipline is tougher than acting in front of an audience, learning a part, speaking up to be heard. All those are skills vital to jobs in later life, as employers complain of young people mumbling and slouching in interviews. But fewer schools employ drama teachers. Shakespeare is the one writer every student must study – but without performance, it’s dead on the page. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s work with schools, training teachers to teach Shakespeare performance, showed remarkable results: performing a play transformed attitudes to both Shakespeare and to school. | No one forgets any school play they were in. No discipline is tougher than acting in front of an audience, learning a part, speaking up to be heard. All those are skills vital to jobs in later life, as employers complain of young people mumbling and slouching in interviews. But fewer schools employ drama teachers. Shakespeare is the one writer every student must study – but without performance, it’s dead on the page. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s work with schools, training teachers to teach Shakespeare performance, showed remarkable results: performing a play transformed attitudes to both Shakespeare and to school. |
| But the English baccalaureate excludes the arts altogether, leading to a sharp fall in arts subjects, especially in deprived areas. I would bet both Gove and Morgan would reject any school for their own child that had abandoned arts teaching. Now, a further 12% cut in school budgets will see arts cut again, as headteachers are judged only on exam results. New Arts Council England head Darren Henley is calling on concerned parents to become school governors if they want to protect arts teaching. | But the English baccalaureate excludes the arts altogether, leading to a sharp fall in arts subjects, especially in deprived areas. I would bet both Gove and Morgan would reject any school for their own child that had abandoned arts teaching. Now, a further 12% cut in school budgets will see arts cut again, as headteachers are judged only on exam results. New Arts Council England head Darren Henley is calling on concerned parents to become school governors if they want to protect arts teaching. |
| Related: How the arts shape our nation’s politics | Letters | |
| Fewer poor students are getting a foot on the ladder into worlds of art, music or design. Arts Emergency, a small new charity for 15 to 19-year-olds, has found that pupils from low-income families are often discouraged from applying to art schools, as it promises too precarious an occupation. How long can the UK remain dominant in creative industries if the talent pool dwindles to all but the privileged few? | Fewer poor students are getting a foot on the ladder into worlds of art, music or design. Arts Emergency, a small new charity for 15 to 19-year-olds, has found that pupils from low-income families are often discouraged from applying to art schools, as it promises too precarious an occupation. How long can the UK remain dominant in creative industries if the talent pool dwindles to all but the privileged few? |
| The Arts Council, already cut by 30%, braces itself for worse, though every £1 invested yields £2 in GDP. Britain’s cultural power in art and broadcasting casts more global influence than embassies and trade missions. The West End may enjoy a golden age of theatre, but how long can it last without supply of new talent? The Brighton festival does what it can, opening with a parade of 5,000 primary children from schools who spent months creating costumes and floats with help from visiting artists: a wonderful idea, but no substitute for arts and music in all schools all the time. | The Arts Council, already cut by 30%, braces itself for worse, though every £1 invested yields £2 in GDP. Britain’s cultural power in art and broadcasting casts more global influence than embassies and trade missions. The West End may enjoy a golden age of theatre, but how long can it last without supply of new talent? The Brighton festival does what it can, opening with a parade of 5,000 primary children from schools who spent months creating costumes and floats with help from visiting artists: a wonderful idea, but no substitute for arts and music in all schools all the time. |
| The arts don’t inhabit some distant elite space far removed from politics and commerce. They are integral to every aspect of our national life, from every note of music ever heard to the design of every object ever sold, touching everyone everyday. As for Brighton, don’t miss the spectacular light and sound installation on the beach this Sunday, paying homage to the murmuration of starlings over West Pier, while sparking reflections on political dissent, migration and the surveillance state. Politics and art are never as far apart as they seem. | The arts don’t inhabit some distant elite space far removed from politics and commerce. They are integral to every aspect of our national life, from every note of music ever heard to the design of every object ever sold, touching everyone everyday. As for Brighton, don’t miss the spectacular light and sound installation on the beach this Sunday, paying homage to the murmuration of starlings over West Pier, while sparking reflections on political dissent, migration and the surveillance state. Politics and art are never as far apart as they seem. |
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