AustLit

In a passionate personal/political statement, Australia's most celebrated festival director and cabaret artist accuses Australia and its political leaders of selling out its arts to populism. 'A prejudice against the intellectual, a preference for pure entertainment, the adherence to 'in or out', 'black or white' -- these are some of the consequences of falling for the myth of the mainstream.' Archer urges her readers to be curious, to question and debate. 'If the myth goes unchallenged, the spirit of art will continue to be marginalised. Those who believe we can afford that loss in the morass of mistakes and short-term thinking that make life on this earth increasingly pleasurable for the few and tortured for the many, those people need the power of art far more than they know.'

(Source: Currency House website, http://www.currencyhouse.org.au/pages/pp_issue_04.html)