Blog/27/9/10
The Vaizey way
What an extraordinary way the new government has of making its righteous points. Many thought the new DCMS ministerial team would find a way of reinstating admission charges for national museums and galleries, but both Jeremy Hunt and Ed Vaizey have been adamant: the turnstiles will not return. But Vaizey has his own special way of driving it home, and he chose last week’s Spectator debate on the cuts to display it. ‘Imagine a Peruvian visitor who comes to the British Museum to see some of his national treasures’ Vaizey told the assemblage of arts administrators and politicos. ‘He reaches the café, with an extra £20 in his pocket because he got in for nothing, and he spends it on carrot cake and lapsang souchong. This is how it works. We fleece him at the café, not at the entrance’. An interesting contrast with the founding principles of the BM given to it by Parliament in 1753, ‘to allow visitors to address through objects, both ancient and more recent, questions of contemporary politics and international relations’.
Cultural blank for Oona
Oh dear. Oona King thought she would get an edge over Ken Livingstoen as they vied for the nomination to be Labour London mayoral candidate by issuing an arts manfesto, never our Ken’s strong point. She lost by a margin of more than two to one.
Folkestone en fete
The second Folkestone Triennial has been launched, with a more prudent champagne breakfast at St Pancrasfor the press rather than the ride on the Orient Express of 2008. The reclusive Saga billioniare Roger de Haan, who is behind the public art extravaganza as the key to reviving the fortunes of his believed hometown, is not there, but his presence on earth, Peter Bettley, is and he tells me that in spite of the recession the fund-raising this time is ahead of the game. They need £2.27m and are well on the way to what they need to commission the likes of Cornelia Parker, Martin Creed and Hew Locke for the festival which opens next June. That owes a lot to the success of the first Triennial two years ago when 150,000 came to the beleaguered Kentish seaside town, and since when 40 artists have chosen to move there.
