greatest art ever

There are cuts in arts funding because the Olympics is hoovering up most of the money, so what remains is going to be directed towards the “excellent”, ie towards the metropolitan and well connected. Another day, another stitch up. But I’ve never heard one justified in quite such terms of megalomania.

Britain may be about to produce "the greatest art yet created", ushering in a "new Renaissance" comparable with that in 15th century Italy, according to a policy review to be published by the government next Thursday.

Supporting Excellence in the Arts, written by Sir Brian McMaster, a former director of the Edinburgh International Festival, was commissioned by the culture secretary, James Purnell. It proposes that state subsidy of the arts should focus on the pursuit of "excellence" rather than the fulfilment of targets, and says this switch could contribute to a historic cultural moment.

…Purnell told the Guardian: "When Brian talks about the potential for a new Renaissance, I don't think that's an overstatement. It's exactly true."

I wonder when they’ll start poisoning each other.

Comments

[Demon]

"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

The Third Man