I’m just back from Manchester, where I had the absolute honour to appear in the launch film for State Of The Arts, Arts Council England’s major international conference on the role of the artist in a changing society. Quite someting for Valentine’s Day. On which note Dame Liz Forgan, Chair of the Arts Council, introduced Ed Vaizey as ‘our national Valentine’, which prompted quite a response.
Chaired by Kirsty Wark at The Lowry, Salford Quays, the conference featured contributions by David Edgar, Ruth Mackenzie, Baba Israel and Arlene Phillips amongst many others. Events around the conference included a lecture by the colossus that is Robert Wilson.
In the launch film ‘What Matters?’, directed and directed by Straybird (aka Becky Edmunds and Lucy Cash), nine artists were invited to reflect on the role of their art in the world. I was profiled alongside Jeanette Winterson, Hofesh Shechter, Anthony Missen and Kevin Turner of Company Chameleon, Zarina Bhimji, Vasily Petrenko (Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra), Mark Murphy and Sarah Wigglesworth.
Here’s me hopefully making some sense alongside these brilliant people:
Suba Das Directs 