Please don’t turn our libraries into trendy arts hubs

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30 Jan 2020

ACE is right to focus on libraries in its new strategy, says Hassan Vawda – but it must put communities at the heart of its plans to revive them.

When the best response is an angry one

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30 Jan 2020

We should pay attention to what makes people angry - it points the way to growth and real change, says Hayley Williams-Hindle.

Can libraries deliver culture for all? ACE’s new strategy unveiled

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27 Jan 2020

Children, young people and libraries are central to the funder’s ambitions to enable everyone to benefit from creative and cultural opportunities.

Three reasons why ACE’s new strategy won’t cut it

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23 Jan 2020

As Arts Council England prepares to publish its next ten-year strategy, thought leaders suggest a radical alternative.

Arts and dementia work failing to reach South Asian communities

16 Jan 2020

There is “an urgent need” for funders and arts organisations to develop more culturally appropriate approaches, says a new report.

Angry, powerless and invisible: cultural sector migrants speak out

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16 Jan 2020

The sector must be held accountable to those suffering under the ‘hostile environment’ immigration regime. Migrants in Culture is taking on the challenge, explain Alessandra Cianetti and Diana Damian Martin.

Exit interview: 'Theatre is diverse by its very nature'

16 Jan 2020

Outgoing Tara Arts Artistic Director Jatinder Verma looks back on 40 years of championing diversity on and off stage. Is the fight finally over?

Call for more collaborative cultural leadership

13 Jan 2020

The Creative People and Places scheme is helping develop a new generation of progressive arts leaders, according to research.

Warning over misuse of creative apprenticeships

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10 Jan 2020

Using apprenticeships to take on graduates employers would hire anyway is putting diversity at risk, an expert has cautioned.

Quotas alone won't achieve gender equality

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09 Jan 2020

Setting targets helps, but wider strategies are needed to dispel the sense of novelty value that still surrounds female musicians. We need to normalise their presence on stage and behind the scenes, writes Kate Lowes.

ACE treads carefully with ‘intrusive’ new social class metric

17 Dec 2019

Arts Council England will begin collecting data on the socio-economic background of its NPO workforce next year, but will need to overcome perceptions that doing so is “alien, intimate and intrusive”.

AP's end of year quiz

13 Dec 2019

Arts numpty? Or sector swot? Test your team's knowledge with ArtsProfessional's light-hearted look at the year's news... 

How the Fringe is forcing out working class voices

12 Dec 2019

Edinburgh Fringe is full of people making obscene amounts of money on the backs of artists who are bringing everyone to the city in the first place, says Kevin P. Gilday. It’s an inequality that is undermining the lofty ideals on which the fringe was formed.

How can heritage respond to a changing world?

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05 Dec 2019

Climate change, activism, funding constraints, policy priorities… How can museums and heritage organisations adjust their presentation, programming, collections and business models in response to the challenging world around them? Being adaptable is the only way forward, says Tom Freshwater.

Finding faith in voluntary arts

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05 Dec 2019

How do policies and prejudices around religious belief affect the cultural workforce? People of faith tell Martin Cox how they feel about being an artist involved in socially engaged arts.

Glasgow School of Art defends ‘hurtful, outdated and offensive’ lecture

05 Dec 2019

Students’ association President pushes for change following upset over a guest speaker’s allegedly racist and transphobic remarks: “I know the school is sympathetic and keen to remedy these sort of situations.”

A truly national theatre? Exploring new ways to collaborate

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05 Dec 2019

National Theatre partnerships with theatres around the country are creating an opportunity for them to share and compare experiences and ideas across a mix of scales, locations and financial models. Lisa Burger explains what’s going on.

Diversity and inclusion: why are we still talking about it?

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28 Nov 2019

A reluctance to self-reflect and a tendency to recruit in our own image are at the root of the sector’s failure to employ a workforce that reflects the wider working population, says Sara Whybrew.

Bonding with the Bard: how Shakespeare brought East Londoners closer together

28 Nov 2019

Can theatres really forge deep and meaningful connections with their local communities across age, class and ethnicity? Douglas Rintoul explains how Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch has done just that.

We need more welfare funding of the arts – literally

19 Nov 2019

If the arts sector really has faith in everyday creativity, it should put its money where its mouth is, writes Jonathan Knott.

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