Which way for the Arts Council's new leader?
Follow David Hockney's example, urges Nick Jones, and bring the arts home
When David Hockney headed for California in the 1960s it was not only sun, swimming pools and sex that attracted him, but also the colour, playfulness and youthful energy of the USA, a far cry from a grey, post-war Bradford.
Two hundred and fifty years young this 4th July, Uncle Sam still feels a bit like a spoilt teenager trying to call all the shots, including controlling and directing culture and sport.
It's eighty years since the Arts Council of Great Britain was founded by economist John Maynard Keynes, saying 'The arts owe no vow of obedience', stressing its autonomy from the state, not 'to teach or censor, but to give courage, confidence and opportunity'.
Mindful to avoid the fate of the arts under the Nazis. Sir Nicholas Serota, outgoing Arts Council chair, born in that same year 1946, says his aim has always been to change society by showing that the arts are for everyone.
Big shoes for the incoming chair, Dawn Airey, to step into. She brings with her an impressive track record from her time at the top of the television tree with Sky, Yahoo, and Channels 4 and 5.
So where next for the Arts Council? Time to take a leaf out of Hockney's sketch book surely?
Put colour, beauty, wonder and play back into national life, acknowledge the strength of our cultural roots, and be ever vigilant to the faceless influence of power, bigtech or worse that threaten to dehumanise and diminish our creativity.
And remember… . Hockney came home.
