It's a very sad day for the visual arts. I've been avoiding looking at the list of cuts to arts organisations due to take place in the next 12 months but here it is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/30/arts-council-cuts-list-funding
I want to write something profound - but I'm actually gobsmacked. Yorkshire and the North seem really badly hit - with a particular blow to media arts organisations which support specialist and highly innovative practices. It seems that the industry part of the culture industry has eaten itself until there is nothing left. Whilst some may argue that artists should join banking or advertising, a more likely scenario is that artists join the ever-growing movement of dissent.
Arts Against Cuts are about to gain several thousand artists, curators, and cultural workers who will be bereft of their tiny incomes which enable them to give their time (both paid and unpaid) for the creative development, critical thinking, and grass-roots innovation that even the hijacking of social language couldn't quite stamp out.
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