Arts and Culture debates at the Battle of Ideas 2010

[Mike Gibb, Operabase]

[Passing on this email from Claire Fox, Institute of Ideas]

In the run-up to this year’s Battle of Ideas festival weekend on 30 October and 31 October, an exciting programme of Satellite Events around the country will showcase free thinking on everything from the nature of genius to public health, from the state of secularism to the myth of racist kids. I thought you may be particularly interested in these upcoming debates, one of a series of Satellites run in partnership with Time Out London and taking place at the Royal College of Music, London:

X-Factor: singing in the name of quality?

Thursday 14 October, 7.00pm until 8.30pm, Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2BS, £7.50/5

TV talent shows have made stars of ‘pop-opera’ singers like Paul Potts, G4 and Rhydian, as well as conventional pop acts. Do these shows offer an opportunity to tap talent excluded from elitist cultural institutions, or reduce serious singers to the same level as dancing dogs and warbling binmen?

Speakers: Sarah Boyes, assistant editor, Culture Wars; editor, Battles in Print; Christopher Cook, visiting professor, University of the Arts, London; broadcaster, BBC Radio 3; chair, Cheltenham Music Festival; Mark Frith, editor, Time Out London; former editor, Heat and Smash Hits; Barb Jungr singer, writer and performer; Norman Lebrecht, cultural commentator; Michael Rosewell, director of opera, Royal College of Music and Peter Whittle, director, New Culture Forum

Chair: David Bowden, co-ordinator, Battle Satellites; TV columnist, spiked

http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2010/session_detail/4370/

Nature of Genius: standing on the shoulders of giants or genes?

Thursday 21 October, 7.00pm until 8.30pm, Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2BS, £7.50/5

Is genius a sum-total of DNA, or a subtler configuration of individual talent and the historical moment? What part does society play in forming genius, and what potential does our current society have for ‘standing on the shoulder of giants’ and nurturing the geniuses of the future?

Speakers: Martin Butlin, retired art historian; author of catalogues on JMW Turner and William Blake; Rachel Halliburton, deputy editor, Time Out London; theatre writer; Professor Colin Lawson, director, Royal College of Music; David Lister, arts editor and founder member, Independent; Dr Munira Mirza, mayoral advisor, arts and culture, Greater London Authority; Matthew Syed, former Olympian; columnist, The Times; author, Bounce: how champions are made and Matt Warman, new technology journalist, Daily Telegraph

Chair: Dr Shirley Dent, associate fellow, Institute of Ideas; co-author, Radical Blake http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2010/session_detail/4371/

Tickets: can be purchased online or by calling 02072699220.

Debates in and about arts & culture are a key aspect of the annual of the Battle of Ideas festival weekend itself, organised in London by the Institute of Ideas, taking place at the Royal College of Art. For example, on Saturday 30 October, there will be a debate on ‘Instrumental music: should music be a tool of social policy?’. http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2010/session_detail/4152/

Meanwhile, a series of discussions will ask what’s the value of opera, examine whether the craze for vampire literature represents a crisis of being human, interrogate whether political art is really just self-important graffiti, investigate the politics of fashion, analyse why crime fiction has conquered the world and debate how to free poetry from the tyranny of relevance. Speakers include: poet and novelist Sophie Hannah; the ENO’s John Berry; film-maker Penny Woolcock; poet George Szirtes; Swedish opera star Nikola Matisic; best-selling novelist Marcus Sedgwick, Sloane Ranger author Peter York and many more. For details of all arts & culture-related sessions at this year’s Battle of Ideas, see:

http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2010/overview/C9/

Visit www.battleofideas.org.uk to view this year’s entire festival programme, including separate Satellite
Events http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2010/satellites/, as
well as carefully selected readings for each session, specially commissioned
Battle in Print essays on selected themes, and videos of previous years’
sessions.