The State of the Arts
I was invited to speak recently at the University of Cambridge on the state of the arts. This is a transcript of my speech at the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation Conference, Peterhouse, Cambridge.
Speech at Cambridge University
Good evening, everyone. It’s an honour to be here, and I deeply appreciate the invitation to speak with you tonight. As someone who operates on the frontlines of the arts—as both a choreographer and co-founder of Freedom in the Arts (FITA)—I find it crucial to address the challenges and opportunities our sector faces today.
Allow me to begin with a vision for the future, articulated in our Manifesto for 2024:
Protecting Artistic Freedom: We must support arts organisations in defending creative expression and actively combat the pervasive culture of bullying. This includes restoring institutional impartiality to allow individuals, artists, and audiences the freedom to engage authentically.
Prioritising Artistic Excellence: Talent and excellence should always outweigh identity-based considerations. Mechanisms that elevate identity over skill must be repealed. We must shift the focus of arts education from mere engagement to nurturing genuine quality and talent.
Revamping Arts Funding: Let’s focus funding systems on sustaining the health of the arts sector rather than leveraging the arts for instrumental purposes. By reducing administrative overhead and increasing transparency, we can direct more resources towards production and strengthen legal protections for artists.
The urgency for these changes stems from a concerning trend in the arts world: intolerance, self-censorship, and a stifling of free expression. Increasingly, artists are being attacked for holding differing views or, in some cases, for actions as innocuous as referencing historical facts. The pressure to conform to a narrow ideological framework is undermining creativity and excellence.
Personal Reflections
I’ve experienced these challenges first-hand. One of my productions, Orlando, was two years in the making. Yet, it was cancelled without my consultation due to complaints rooted in a misunderstanding of my beliefs. The individuals involved were young and inexperienced, but their entitlement and lack of respect left a lasting impact.
This incident led me to establish FITA, which has now supported over 50 artists and arts workers in its first year. Many of these cases reveal the fragility of artistic freedom today: