Culture Hunter
The following commentary originally appeared in ICOM UK weekly news The tragic events of Charlottesville, instigated by the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, highlights the important role we as museums and heritage professionals play in preserving, interpreting and displaying public history. Myself and Edmund Connolly, Head of Communications for [...]
The New York Times opinion page featured a piece called Why the Met Should Appoint a Female Director in response to the resignation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current Director Thomas Campbell. Based on pure probability, I agree: women make up the majority of the workforce in museums both in the US and UK. [...]
This blog was originally published in the Huffington Post. As the seismic repercussions of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump start to reveal themselves, a new imperative for the art world emerges. The referendum and US presidential election reduced a set of complex, interlocking problems into a simple binary decision - the status quo [...]
Museum Barberini had an inauspicious opening date - 20 January 2017 - the same day as Donald Trump's inauguration. The Museum is the creation of German software billionaire Hasso Plattner, who financed the refurbishment of what once was the palace of Frederick the Great. The Museum will host rotating temporary exhibitions featuring works from Plattner's private collection along [...]
The fact that the only candidate rejected for the Channel 4 board was a black woman (the other four candidates were white men) has sparked outrage across the cultural sector. A number of high profile cultural sector leaders including Bonnie Greer, Tessa Jowell and Liz Forgan signed a letter requesting an explanation for the decision. [...]
An 8-hour flight across the Atlantic from London to Atlanta gave me the opportunity to see films about two American music legends: Miles Ahead, which tells the story of Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, and I Saw the Light, which portrays the short life of country singer Hank Williams. Their musical styles vastly differ, but the [...]
Authentic. This is the word that kept coming to mind as I watched Lisa Fischer, best known for being a Rolling Stones’ backup singer, perform last night at the Barbican in London. For those of you who don’t know her, see her sing Gimme Shelter with Mick Jagger here. This show was not an attempt [...]
