This should be an interesting week.
The old line is, of course, that 'a week is a long time in politics', a line probably first uttered by Harold Wilson in 1964. Fifty years later it holds true, and for the arts too. And for the nation.
It seems as if every other story I write has 'national' in it at the moment. The prospect of a national film studio. The national museums and galleries. A national tour of literary salons, organised by Neu Reekie, backed this week by Creative Scotland, the national arts funding body. And this is natural: we are a national newspaper which attempts to cover the entire spectrum, the width and breadth and depth of culture and the arts in Scotland.
And this week the word will again be typed many times. Tomorrow morning I travel to the biggest inter-national festival of visual art, the Venice Biennale. There, dozens of countries - nations - put on shows displaying some of their finest or most interesting artistic talent. Scotland has had its own independent show since 2003 and this year, an arts company based at the magnificent pile of Hospitalfield House in Arbroath is staging a show by Glasgow artist Graham Fagen. There is a UK aspect to the show, it has backing from the British Council, but essentially for 12 years Scotland has already been going it alone at this most prestigious show on the world stage. The subject matter is inspired by Robert Burns, but I suspect not unambiguously.
Meanwhile, at home, National Collective, the pro-independence cultural movement, which engaged thousands of people, organised petitions and campaigned, put on the Yestival and many more events, has essentially called it a day. Some of its key members had already moved on. For example, co-founder Ross Colquhoun is now an "engagement strategist" for the SNP. Yesterday the group announced a statement which said "National Collective belongs to a time and a place, and that moment has passed. Instead, we need to take the massive significance of that transformative journey and learn from our campaign experiences." Was it successful? Obviously, we all know the result of the referendum. In purely objective terms, then, it was not a success. But I would argue it was in many others: for one, it made the referendum campaign a sight more interesting and colourful. Culture and arts could not be silent or offstage once the National Collective was established. I would argue it engaged an audience - predominantly young, the enthused, perhaps the most wide-eyed - that may not have otherwise have been engaged. However, I wonder if it is truly gone. If there is another #indyref, I'm betting it will be back.
Meanwhile, in a week, Scotland could have 59 MPs all from the same political party. Culture, the arts, and artists, who live in world of variety and difference, subjectivity and variance, who look outside-in as well as inside-out, will be in new dispensation. What will be the cultural response to that novel, unprecedented scenario?
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