“I think it’s the
responsibility of an artistic director, or let’s say, the collective, which is
the artistic institution, to say here’s the pull that I’m feeling in our
community. But, after all, isn’t it our responsibility to have a sort of
eloquence or articulation around that, that maybe the community itself feels
but does not deliver as a particular statement of need? So, I think being
sensitive to that, to me, is leadership, saying here’s what we feel is in the
air and what we think is worthy of giving voice to.”
Showing posts with label access. Show all posts
Showing posts with label access. Show all posts
Friday, 10 April 2020
Saturday, 7 March 2020
What if one likes broccoli?
A few weeks ago, I came
across an advertising campaign of Folkoperan (Stockholm, Sweden) called “Broccoli vs. Opera”. The idea behind it is that the only think children dislike
more than opera is broccoli. Thus, when having to choose between the two…
they´ll go for the lesser of two evils.
The campaign irritated
me. The prejudiced assumptions behind it irritated me. The way many in the
classical music world avoid addressing the real barriers, the ones raised by
them, upsets me. Do you remember the “Classical Cannabis: the high note series” promoted by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra back
in 2014?
That sort of thing… Anything but trying to understand better what is keeping
people, of all ages, away. Perhaps because a better understanding would require
action; and change.
Monday, 3 February 2020
Where are the opportunities? Regarding ACE's new ten-year strategy
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| Image teken from the Arts Council England website. |
Kanneh-Mason is aware of the importance of
having an opportunity, of having access. “I’ve benefited from having so much
music education. And the thought that lots of people won’t have something even
close to that same level is a real shame. Diversity needs to start way, way
before people are auditioning. If actual education is not invested in and
supported, then nothing will change.”
Saturday, 4 January 2020
Radical TRUST
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| The People's Studio: Collective Imagination, at the new MoMA (image taken from the website) |
Hospitality. Courage. Humility. TRUST.
I was in my RESHAPE group’s
last meeting for 2019, reflecting on art and citizenship, and I wrote down
these words, which kept coming up in our discussions. The word “TRUST”, though,
was one that I was carrying with me from other meetings and discussions in the
last months. It had sprang on so many occasions, that it finally caught my full
attention.
On December 13, the last day of our RESHAPE meeting, we woke up to the
news of the British election. One of the first articles I read on that day was
entitled “Why people vote for politicians they know are liars”, the pressing question
on many people’s mind that morning.
Saturday, 22 June 2019
First thoughts on the National Plan of the Arts
There were two occasions for a first appreciation of the National Plan of the Arts (NPA): its public presentation, on 18 June, and the reading of the document. I'll start by sharing my thoughts on the first.
The room where the
presentation took place was packed. Many colleagues, journalists, people
representing private organisations that support the cultural sector and the arts.
One could feel the good mood and the expectation, mixed with some distrust (“Will
this be it?”). I believe that that moment of encounter and everything one felt
in the air was a positive sign that the sector is made up of professionals who
are still very much interested and ready to get involved in a common effort
that may value, support and strengthen their work and their contribution to
society.
Saturday, 14 July 2018
Monday, 11 June 2018
Discussing the decolonisation of museums in Portugal
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| Photo: Maria Vlachou |
I love museums. I love them for what they are; I love them for what they are not, but can be; I love them for their potential. I especially love them because of the work developed by a number of colleagues around the world so that museums may adapt to new realities, remain or become relevant for people, and even reinvent themselves. I particularly love them lately because of the controversies they cause or face, pushing our thinking and practice forward.
Sunday, 28 January 2018
TS Elliot, a terrible hip-hop artist
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| A photo of the project Contratempos in the This is PARTIS programme. |
The Guardian recently
wrote about a critique by poet Rebecca Watts, entitled “The cult of the noble amateur”, where she
attacks the work of a cohort of young female poets considering it “the open
denigration of intellectual engagement and rejection of craft”. The text
resulted in a very interesting, and welcome, debate regarding the value of
“high” and “popular” poetry. The answer of Scottish poet Don Patterson (winner
of the TS Elliot award and publisher of two of the young poets in question) was
captivating: " You don’t have to like what people do, but I think you
measure it against its own ambitions. Otherwise it’s like saying TS Eliot was a
terrible hip-hop artist. True, but so what.”
Saturday, 13 January 2018
What Maria Matos means to me (or, why did I sign the petition)
On December 17, 2017,
the newspaper Público published an interview with the Councilor of Culture of
Lisbon, Catarina Vaz Pinto, where it was announced that "[the theatre]
Maria Matos (MM) will have a very different programming model, with longer running
periods and a greater concern in attracting audiences, in order to be
profitable". The news was surprising to me, to say the least. I would say
more, I remember that, as I read, I felt a kind of physical pain.
Tuesday, 12 September 2017
That's mine too!
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| Eden Condoms, Esther Pi & Timo Waag, Spain. Shortlisted for the 2017 Rijksstudio Awards (source: Rijksmuseum website) |
Should people be allowed to use images from museum collections on birthday cakes, sneakers, condoms or toilet paper? Who will protect the dignity of the objects from this 'assault'? And how about the income museums are losing by not charging for the images?
Tuesday, 4 April 2017
To charge or not to charge: the data
As far as I am aware of, decisions to charge or not to charge and how in Portuguese national museums are never based on research. Those who scrap admission fees do it in the name of “democratisation” and “accessibility” and state that the loss of income is not significant (never mentioning how much it is, though). Those who reinstate them usually speak of the need to generate some income.
Although previous research
and summative evaluation is not part of our practice in Portugal, this is not
the case in other countries. And even though we seem to lack our own specific
data, we can always learn from the experience and shared knowledge of others.
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Saturday, 4 February 2017
Looking for sandy ground
"Free access to museums for under 30s", one reads
in portuguese newspapers. The measure was approved in parliament yesterday.
"Can anyone explain to me the logic of under
30s?", asks a Brazilian colleague.
"Is it to stimulate young families, like couples with
small children?", replies another colleague. "Is it because it was
found that unemployment is higher among the under 30s?"
Is it worth looking for the logic? Was there a logic? Was
the measure based on any management report? Was it based on some audience
survey? Were the professionals of the sector consulted? Are there concrete
objectives that can be evaluated in one or two years’ time?
Sunday, 30 October 2016
MAAT, a generator of expectations
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| Image taken from the website of MAAT. |
I am still amazed at the
way the recently inaugurated MAAT - Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology,
designed by Amanda Levete, is integrated into the landscape. When I approach
that area or when I cross the bridge from Lisbon, I always expect to see a huge
building overlapping or hiding the Central Tejo power plant. But no... The
Central Tejo still emerges majestically and the new building stands at its side
as a smooth and fluid note.
My first contact with
the new museum was back in June. In fact, it was the reopening of the
"old" museum (Museum of Electricity in Central Tejo), after its renovation,
and the MAAT brand was launched. Afterwards, I followed the campaign for the
inauguration of the new building and I read some interviews of the museum director,
Pedro Gadanho, thus forming an initial opinion / expectation. The various
criticisms that arose with the opening of the building, as well as some discussions
with colleagues, brought me more "food for thought", just like my
first visit to the new building.
Saturday, 22 October 2016
Unlimited
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| "Uma menina perdida no seu século à procura do pai", CRINABEL Theatre (Photo: Paulo Pimenta, courtesy of National Theatre D. Maria II) |
Two years ago, I was questioning here the
purpose of festivals that present the art of specific groups of people (gay,
black, disabled, etc). It was September 2014 and the second edition of
Unlimited festival was taking place at Southbank in London. “I keep
questioning myself”, I was writing at the time, “who attends these festivals,
exhibitions, activities and what happens after? Do they attract the already ‘converted’
or they appeal to a wider audience? Do gay or disabled or black artists become
more acknowledged by the sector and the public? Are they seen as the professionals
they are? Are we moving towards an inclusive representation, where they are
seen first and above all as artists, or rather curators and audiences still go
to see something ‘special’, confined in a specific space and time, its ‘own’
space and time? Do these festivals help us move towards caring more and more
about the art and less and less about ‘the rest’?”
Monday, 3 October 2016
Justin Bieber and the fight against islamic extremism
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|
A recent NPR article, entitled Italy's 'CulturalAllowance' For Teens Aims To Educate, Counter Extremism is a clear demonstration of the confusion existing, at various levels and in
various contexts, in relation to access to culture and to culture as a panacea
for many ills of this world.
The title is not an exaggeration of the newspaper. It was
the Italian Prime-Minister himself who said, when announcing this culture
allowance (€500 for every 18-year-old to spend on cultural products), shortly
after the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015: "They destroy statues,
we protect them. They burn books, we are the country of libraries. They
envision terror, we respond with culture."
Sunday, 25 September 2016
Naming the impact: it may be Telmo or Rafael or Gustavo…
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| Telmo Martins, member of the Orquestra Geração (Photo: Maria Vlachou) |
A few
years ago, I saw the documentary Waste Land. It is about the work the Brazilian visual artist Vic Moniz created together with
garbage pickers at the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, in the outskirts
of Rio de Janeiro. Moniz said that he wished to change the lives of a group of
people with the same materials they deal with every day. So, together they used
garbage to create large-size portraits of the garbage pickers, which were later
sold in auction and the money was distributed among the garbage pickers. The
works were presented in exhibitions in a number of contemporary art museums.
Sunday, 24 July 2016
Managing museums: a portuguese case
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| "Panels of St. Vincent" at NMAA (image taken from the National Museum of Ancient Art Facebook page) |
The
claim of a new legal status, of a special status, by the National Museum of
Ancient Art (NMAA) in Lisbon has resulted in a very healthy debate among museum
professionals in Portugal, especially (and unfortunately) after the
announcement of the Minister of Culture that this status will actually be given
to the museum. Independent of our criticism, positive or negative, of this case
and this process, there is no doubt that we owe this very necessary debate to
the NMAA, its director, António Filipe Pimentel, and to the entire museum staff*.
Labels:
access,
audiences,
branding,
communications,
cultural policies,
culture,
evaluation,
funding,
fundraising,
management,
marketing,
museums,
public value,
strategy,
sustainability,
visitor studies
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
Guest post: The ethical museum, by David Fleming
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| Image taken from Twitter @IcomOfficiel |
I would like to begin by
quoting from Janet Marstine’s book entitled The Routledge Companion to
Museum Ethics (2011, page xxiii):
“The traditional
museum ethics discourse…is unable to meet the needs of museums and society in
the twenty-first century”.
I will continue by quoting the
statement on ethical behaviour that my Trustees at National Museums Liverpool (NML)
discussed just last week:
NML statement on
ethical considerations
In several areas
of our work, as we find ourselves more and more reliant on funding from other
than our own democratically-elected Government, NML’s commitment to behaving in
an ethical manner at all times is leading us to consider carefully what
decisions we should make.
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Government reflections on access to culture
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| "MAP - The chartography game", a performace by the association A PELE (image taken from the website of the National Theatre D. Maria II) |
The Culture White Paper (published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sports in March
2016) sets out how the British government will support the cultural sector in
the coming years. It’s the first document of its kind in 50 years and the
second ever published in the UK.
The document opens by quoting British Prime Minister,
David Cameron, who states: “If you believe in publicly-funded arts and culture
as I passionately do, then you must also believe in equality of access,
attracting all, and welcoming all.”
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