Is it Art?

I didn’t go to any of the ArtsFest events this weekend, busy, tired and didn’t have the energy for trying to hunt for the bits I’d enjoy. I did walk through it on Saturday at about three though, and it was rammed and people seemed to be enjoying it a lot (the weather no doubt helped bring out the crowds). Even stuffed rabbits had a good time.

Artsfest 2009, Sunday by The Development of Birmingham on Flickr

Artsfest 2009, Sunday by The Development of Birmingham on Flickr

I think I’ve worked out why ArtsFest makes some people mad and uncomfortable with supporting it. Some is due to the supposed chaos behind the scenes, some to the haphazard promotion, but for me at least it’s the name. Some of what was on offer wasn’t “art” — some was craft, some was participatory science, some were information stalls about local charities or groups… some was Blues Brothers tribute acts (okay that’s just be being snobbish). All interesting, potentially popular, valuable to the community, but not art.

Could we all get behind it more, feel more a part of it, if we weren’t told it was “art”? Couldn’t it be “Britain’s Biggest Community Festival”. Giving people a reason to feel proud, make it Brum people and orgs only, no parachuting in “headline acts” — if it was BrumFest it would have a reason to exist, it would be a day for and from and about the people of Birmingham. A coming together of community.

Maybe it would be a little more chaotic, but people would be able to help — make it open and there’s lots of people dying to sort out some of the problems.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 10:13 am by Jon Bounds and is filed under what's on. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  • I've said many, many times before that I doubt half of the people who have a problem with it would still do so if it didn't have 'art' in the title. I'd always leaned towards something with 'family' in ('cos that's what it is, really - a nice few days out for all ages) but I suppose 'Brumfest' is as good as anything.

    Bunty isn't stuffed, meanwhile. Her carrot consumption is very moderate.
  • Yeah, it's not 'art' per se, more 'the arts' which is pretty much a catch-all, including music, theatre, whatnot.
  • They should stick an apostrophe in the middle and claim that it's a festival run by someone named Arthur.
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