A letter has been launched defending freedom in the arts, against what it calls ‘a culture of self-censorship and groupthink which are fundamentally damaging to the arts’. Signed by artists, choreographers, composers, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and others, the letter says that: Art schools, galleries, theatres, dance and music stages, and film sets were once platforms that nurtured diverse ideas and contrasting perspectives. Today, many of these institutions actively discriminate against artists and audiences who do not subscribe to their views. This repressive atmosphere has given rise to numerous boycotts and protests. Artists and art workers have become the subjects of cancellations, denunciations,…

I have worked in the arts for 34 years. I was an immigrant from a working-class background, and the first to gain a degree in my family; both my parents had left school at 14. I have always been interested by ideas, experimentation, and the world of the imagination as expressed through the arts – converging to curate work that asked audiences to question and to open new doors of understanding. I also believed that clashing ideas and traditions could create fresh thinking, looking at the world differently. My politics is an eclectic one, as I moved from Marxist, socialist thought to…