News and views

NCA Chair, Samuel West, set up poetry-reading initiative – PANDEMIC POEMS – just ahead of the official UK Coronavirus lock-down. The poems provide a much needed sense of perspective, reflection, and some hope in a time of uncertainty and grief.

The efforts of arts organisations to embrace digital performances and online sharing has been awe-inspiring. Particularly awe-inspiring for us at the NCA was how the National Student Drama Festival innovated all of its plans for their 2020 festival into a festival that could be entirely accessible online. NSDF’s Director, James Phillips, tells us of the challenges and successes of this unique year for NSDF.

In the countdown to the UK General Election, the arts are being drowned out by the B word. We want to push it up the agenda. So we’ll be publishing lists of ground-breaking arts events to remind everyone about the power of culture to transform lives and maintain a healthy, balanced nation.

We were invited to attend the launch of a new book ‘Smashing It: Working Class Artists On Life Art And Making It Happen’. Our Exec Chair Michael Smith went along and tells us what he made of the evening (and the book).

Overwhelmed by a recent performance by 1000 children at the Albert Hall, our chair Samuel West answers one of the first questions in the armoury of the arts defender: “Do we want our children to have this?”