Description
This paper explores how two nationwide movements – the drive to decentralise and democratise the arts – facilitated everyday encounters with modern art, design and performance in rural communities across Britain. From the Arts League of Service travelling theatre to the British Institute of Adult Education’s peripatetic ‘Art for the People’ exhibitions, communities could engage with modern art without leaving their villages or market towns. In this paper, West introduces some of the schemes which aimed to bring the arts from cities and into the country, exploring the complex cultural politics at stake. Although these schemes were well intentioned, they often veered into cultural paternalism, predicated as they were on the assumption that the taste and behaviours of those living in rural areas needed to be ‘improved’.| Period | 23 Jun 2022 → 25 Jun 2022 |
|---|---|
| Event title | British Association for Modernist Studies: Hopeful Modernisms |
| Event type | Conference |
| Degree of Recognition | International |
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