{"id":1559,"date":"2016-06-29T07:35:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T07:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/?p=1559"},"modified":"2019-04-23T12:39:23","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:39:23","slug":"what-does-brexit-mean-for-culture-in-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/2016\/06\/29\/what-does-brexit-mean-for-culture-in-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"What does Brexit mean for culture in UK?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tools\"
Various tools salvaged from the Grand Hall. Photo by Jake Tilson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am a producer who works in south-west London. I am also a resident in Kent near Dover. Those are the extent of my qualifications to write the following.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday evening I caught a cab from the train station to get home to hear the first results. The cab driver and I talked about the referendum all the way from Folkestone to Dover.<\/p>\n

The conversation began\u2026<\/p>\n

He said \u2018So you\u2019re \u201cin\u201d then\u2019
\nI said \u2018Yes\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018So you\u2019re \u201cout\u201d then\u2019
\nHe said \u2018Yes\u2019<\/p>\n

We both laughed.
\nHow did he know?
\nHow did I know?
\nIt was a strange, frank, intimate moment.<\/p>\n

We talked about immigration, the crash of 2008, democracy, London, Folkestone, politicians and so on.<\/p>\n

He told me that he\u2019d picked up 40 passengers that day and I was the only one voting in.<\/p>\n

We tried to see things from the other\u2019s point of view, avoiding confrontation, respecting taxi etiquette. But by the time the journey ended, things had started to feel strained.<\/p>\n

Without noticing it a chasm had opened up between us. The honesty of our initial exchange was gone and there was an edge to the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u2018Good luck\u2019 he said to me.
\n\u2018Good luck\u2019 I said to him.
\nAs if one of us was about to fall off a cliff.<\/p>\n

An hour later, the Sunderland and Newcastle results were in and it was me who was tumbling down Dover cliffs.<\/p>\n

The sinking feeling of an election night took hold\u2026but it felt worse\u2026irreversibly worse.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the weekend I consumed a steady diet of 24 hour news, clicked on hundreds of commentaries, video clips and heartfelt comments that had gone viral online.<\/p>\n

I stared in to the middle distance.
\nI ended up feeling a lot but doing nothing.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m a pragmatist and an optimist at heart. And after several wallows in self-pity, fitful bouts of sleep and a thousand visits to Twitter, by Monday morning, I was beginning to think how to make the best of it.<\/p>\n

To be honest, my optimism partly sprang from a dawning realisation that I was part of the reason that Remain<\/em> lost and that Leave<\/em> won.<\/p>\n

And I wanted to do something about it.<\/p>\n

This sums up my train of thought\u2026<\/p>\n

I think a vibrant culture helps to breed tolerance, open-mindedness and empathy. I think artists reflect truth and ask great questions and have a positive and transformative impact. I think our everyday creativity is an everyday super-power, available to every one of us. Creativity helps us tackle any challenge and gives us agency to make change.<\/p>\n

I also think that during the referendum campaign Nigel Farage dressed himself up as a man of the people and with thousands of committed volunteers, told a story again and again on millions of doorsteps. I think his narrative is having a deeply corrosive impact on our values of tolerance, open-mindedness and empathy.<\/p>\n

So if both these things are true, why is there no cultural turf war being fought, for the hearts and minds of millions of UK residents?<\/p>\n

This made me think about a bunch of questions that I keep coming back to\u2026<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How much public investment in culture do we actually make in post-industrial cities and seaside towns compared with the resources available for more metropolitan, urban areas?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Who considers themselves connected to our current breed of cultural organisation, who is being resourced in these organisations to tell their story, who do these cultural organisations represent?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. What kind of education do we offer our children, why do private schools invest millions in culture and yet our national curriculum is squeezing out culture with the introduction of the Ebacc?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        In short:<\/p>\n