curiosity about the ways of the world

Category: Museum Culture

Don’t let big tech Captain Hook grab lockdown loot

Every moment her light was growing fainter; and he knew that if it went out she would be no more. “Do you believe?” he cried.

Peter Pan: JM Barrie

I wrote a brief tribute to Edinburgh International Festival’s haunting celebration of theatre for Sceptical Scot culture section – with a caveat: we in the audience must do more than clap to keep the performing arts alive. And then I read the thrilling call to action by playwright James Graham in the Financial Times and I wanted to run through the city streets shouting.

Not by the wildest stretch of imagination is this an elegy. Graham’s article throbs with urgency for theatre to seize the opportunity to ‘come back better’, to be at the heart of restoring a ‘common culture’. Not just ‘national treasures’ – “theatres outside London are not “regional”. They are our “national” theatres, in the places where the majority of us live.” That applies, of course, to every part of Scotland. Now back to Edinburgh…

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‘Who is it for?’ the big question at the heart of Dundee’s McManus

The young dads, a group of single parents, needed somewhere to take their kids at weekends. Why not try the museum, asked the outreach worker. “Oh no”, the young dads say. “That’s for posh people.”

But then, persuaded, they come. They see among the displays Dundee football, factories, familiar faces, and they say, “Wow! This is about us. My dad, my granddad, worked in that mill….”

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