Pain in the Arts

John Tusa

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781780768175
• eBook ISBN: 9780857734761
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

Over a distinguished career in cultural leadership, management and journalism spanning almost 30 years, John Tusa has amassed a unique experience of the arts world, the political controversies it faces and the battles it continues to fight. His new book is a fearless and passionate defence of the performing and visual arts at a time of increasing 'Pain in the Arts'. Tusa addresses the controversies in the arts that must be resolved so urgently today, including the ever-flowing arguments on whether they should be useful before they are excellent. He gives guidance on how the arts can survive in the downturn and explains why the case must always be made that they deserve special treatment. He writes an excoriating critique of the language of Whitehall bureaucracy and shows how crucial to the nation's health and wealth are the small regional arts projects alongside our big arts institutions like the Barbican or National Theatre. He also draws on his expertise as Chair of the Clore Leadership Programme to discuss those increasingly complex questions - practical, personal, professional - that today's and tomorrow's cultural leaders must face, including the qualities of character needed to succeed and what a revolution in arts leadership might achieve. The backdrop throughout is Tusa's personal story of discovery and love of the culture he strives to defend in hard times.

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John Tusa is Chair of the Clore Leadership Programme in the arts. His many senior positions in journalism and the arts have included Managing Director of the BBC World Service (1986–92) and of the Barbican Centre in London (1995–2007), and Chairman of the University of the Arts London (2007–13). Before moving into arts management, he was an award-winning BBC TV and radio journalist, most notably for the BBC’s Newsnight. His books include Art Matters and Engaged with the Arts (I.B.Tauris, 2007). John Tusa was knighted in 2003.

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‘I have always admired John’s fearless pursuit of clarity, and this book is a dose of smelling salts thrust under the nose of the body cultural. He has a great instinct for coining or spotting the telling phrase that cuts through the fog of obfuscation and self-delusion that so often cloaks arts policy. His analysis of the often-unconsciously deceptive language used around arts organisations is as amusing as it is timely. He is a champion of the arts who unusually is able to combine a celebratory love of its productions with unflinchingly honest appraisal of its organisations.’

Grayson Perry

‘It’s essential this book is read by anyone in the arts or passionate about the arts. As the inspirational director of the Clore Leadership Programme, he is nurturing the talented young people who will ensure this country continues to have world beating arts and culture. His writing is wise, insightful… and fun.’

Tony Hall
Director-General of the BBC

‘The arts are necessary and important. They have been doing well in the UK but will undoubtedly face some big challenges in the future. Clear thinking and strong leadership will be required. John Tusa, characteristically articulate and provocative, provides a real stimulus for the thinking which is needed.’

Vernon Ellis
Chair of the British Council

‘This is an important book: not only for its page-turning personal account of turbulent times, but also in the insights and challenges offered – reminding all who work in the arts of the need to be sure of our first principles and to defend them resolutely.’

Alan Davey
Chief Executive, the Arts Council

‘Simultaneously arts boss and iconoclast, John Tusa is a lifelong scourge of meddling politicians who think the arts are Covent Garden and that targets make good symphonies. His third book on the subject, the fruit of his own years running the Barbican and the Clore Leadership Programme, is brilliant on the way artists got to grips with the managerial culture of the Blair years, learnt its good skills and then turned its arid instrumentalism on its head. Essential reading for any council contemplating scrapping its culture budget.’

Liz Forgan
Former Chair, Arts Council England

Published in 2014 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com

Distributed in the United States and Canada
Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

Copyright © 2014 John Tusa

The right of John Tusa to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978 1 78076 817 5
eISBN: 978 0 85773 476 1

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Text designed and typeset by Tetragon, London
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

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Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Part I • Getting Things Done
• 1 Pain in the Arts: Decline or Renewal?
• 2 Surviving the Downturn
• 3 Looking Facts in the Face: The Case for the Arts
• 4 The Dos and Don’ts of Running the Arts
• 5 The Wars of the Words: Language Matters
• 6 Learning on the Job: A Personal Road to Responsibility
• 7 The Leader, the Manager: What’s the Difference?
• 8 What Do You Know? Inside the Mind of a Leader
• 9 An Arts Policy for a Floating Utopia
• 10 Keeping It Simple
• Part II • Arguing for the Arts
• 11 The State of the Arts, the Arts and the State
• 12 Music All Around Us
• 13 The Education Debate: Giving the Young the Arts They Deserve
• 14 The Arts: A Special Case for Special Pleading
• 15 The Arts a...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Part I
• 1 • Pain in the Arts: Decline or Renewal?
• 2 • Surviving the Downturn
• 3 • Looking Facts in the Face: The Case for the Arts
• 4 • The Dos and Don’ts of Running the Arts
• 5 • The Wars of the Words: Language Matters
• 6 • Learning on the Job: A Personal Road to Responsibility
• 7 • The Leader, the Manager: What’s the Difference?
• 8 • What Do You Know? Inside the Mind of a Leader
• 9 • An Arts Policy for a Floating Utopia
• 10 • Keeping It Simple
• Part II
• 11 • The State of the Arts, the Arts and the State
• 12 • Music All Around Us
• 13 • The Education Debate: Giving the Young the Arts They Deserve
• 14 • The Arts: A Special Case for Special Pleading
• 15 • The Arts and Civil Society: Firm Friends or Distant Cousins?
• 16 • Small Is Significant: Taking Care of the Roots