Good Reads

The delicate ecology of the arts

The subsidised sector is a vital training ground for those who go on to produce commercial hits, says Matthew Linley.

Kirsten Peter
1 min read

To the Noel Coward Theatre for a sell out performance of Peter and Alice by the Michael Grandage Company. A performance that is no doubt keeping both its producers and the VAT man happy. Councillor Harry Phibbs would be delighted.

Why Cllr Phibbs? Well because on Conservative Home yesterday Cllr Phibbs posted an article titled ‘ why councils should not subsidise the arts’. It won’t matter – he argues – as the good art will out in the end. He quotes Kingsley Amis who said arts subsidies cause:-

plays without plots, a canvas entirely covered with black paint offered as a picture, poems that are meaningless patterns of letters – I needn’t go on