Louis Fleming is right to proudly draw attention to the Lowry and the Imperial War Museum on Salford Quays (ArtsProfessional issue 44, p8).
I?ve visited the area and I was impressed (not so my Basque wife, I have to say ? she thinks the Lowry is a copy of the Guggenheim!). But the point I was trying to make was about scales of commitment. The UK is one of the G7 group of economies; the Basque country is only a province in Spain. Imagine what an arts project twenty times the size of the Lowry might look like, and what it might say about us. At that level, you really could talk about international significance. We can?t afford anything like this? Well, even at £2 billion it would be cheaper than the projected war with Iraq ? for which money has ? surprise, surprise ? been found. I don?t want to labour the point, but the issue does illustrate how politics and the arts interconnect.
Published: 10-03-2003