Congratulations to the National Youth Jazz Orchestra celebrating fifty years

The Arts Council published a policy for the support of jazz in 1996 and then 4 years later it was dropped in favour – as I recall – of “the bigger picture”. Needless to say no real resources had been allocated to the policy. In Paragraph 62 the Arts Council say clearly that they will…

Charlotte Higgins in her article, “After the war the arts came back stronger” had a self-prophesying ring about it (Please see article here). Ms Higgins erroneously says that the war was the last time cultural organisations ground to a halt. The Arts Council developed from the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA)…

There was a leader article, “Opera is often derided as elitist”, in the Guardian on the 28th September 2017. Regrettably the article ignores the fact that opera in the UK receives a disproportionate amount of public subsidy compared to other art forms and like the banks are too big to fail. In a time of…

The Arts Council has launched a new ten year strategy which they say is not dreamed up by a bunch of bureaucrats sitting in a room on their own – well tough, as this is what it reads like, out of touch and given the current resources probably unachievable. Musicians, dancer, painters, poets, writer, singers…

Sunday 25 February 7.30pm Jazz on the Plaza Café Yukari, Kew, TW9 4HJ – Chris Hodgkins – Trumpet, + Terence Collie – Piano and Esther Ng – Double Bass The Thursday 29th February has been cancelled and we are now on the 5th April at the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, London, SW1A…

Firstly the Arts Council’s magazine Create – vanity publishing in an age of austerity. I looked into the Arts Council’s publication of their magazine “Create”. “The publication cost £16,999 to commission the essays. Nineteen contributors in all, of which only three contibutors gave their services for free. £1062 an essay – nice work if you…