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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
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Justine Simons

OPINION - Culture matters. So why is it always treated as an optional extra?

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s an election year. So, what does it mean for art and culture? Well the hard truth is, culture never makes the cut. Despite how much we value it, when it comes to elections, people want their leaders to solve crime, fix housing and sort the environment. All incredibly important of course — but we only have to imagine a world without creativity to understand how much it means to us.

Just think about it for a moment — no theatres, galleries, festivals, clubs, dance or music. We had a glimpse of what this might be like in the pandemic, and we didn’t like it. As soon as we could, we were back dancing at festivals, being captivated by great theatre and enjoying live comedy.

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