Saturday, August 9, 2008

Access to the arts

In this week's TLS there is a reference to novelist Alan Sillitoe who attended 'poor boys' camps, left school at 14 and heard his mother called a prostitute.

Yet Sillitoe developed an interest in serious music, literature and painting. He became a successful novelist.

But Sillitoe did not think the situation odd saying "in this country [UK], we have a public library system, free entry to art galleries, and a radio station that broadcasts classical music and drama all day long".

It's easy to forget but there is plenty of access to the arts and that's true in Canada almost as much (we charge for most art galleries) as the UK.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So your point is that the recent cuts to arts funding dont matter? Your a woolf in sheeps clothing!

James C Morton said...

Anonymous,

"Wolf" I think. But my point was more general -- if you look around there is plenty of opportunity for self improvement. Forcing culture down someone's throat doesn't work well; making culture available is a good idea and it is there for the taking already.

james

Anonymous said...

There are still barriers to access in my view. Despite some free offerings here in Canadian, most museums and galleries do have an admission cost. This is a barrier for some. I prefer to see more arts education within the school system. I find that if parents weren't raised in an environment where they were exposed to the various arts, they likely won't expose their children to it. I was fortunate enough to attend school during a time when arts programs were still funded. For a small town high school, we had surprisingly robust music & drama programs. I feel that I derived great benefit from that and it saddens me that the current generation of children may not be so lucky.