The arts have always engaged with politics. Yet something decisive has changed in recent years in the relationship between the two. Today the arts are routinely displayed, performed and interpreted through the lens of ideological agendas and charged with solving social challenges. The arts can certainly do good, but in making them all about activism, are we losing sight of the art itself?

Underfunded and undervalued, the arts are in crisis in contemporary Western society. Is over-politicising and over-bureaucratising them the answer? In a wide-ranging discussion of museums and galleries, period dramas, the musical and theatrical canon, and debates about access and arts education, Alexandra Wilson argues that advocating for the arts for all becomes harder when they are labelled as elitist, accused of historic wrongs, or reduced to utilitarian purposes.

Understanding the arts in their historical and political contexts is vital. But today’s arts world often anachronistically thrusts the politics of today onto art from the past. Wilson argues that it is time for some fresh thinking. She presents an optimistic vision for rediscovering the enjoyment, meaning and sense of community that can be derived from the arts, when approached on their own terms.

Praise

“The pressure to defend the arts in utilitarian terms has become inescapable. Alexandra Wilson argues that they need no such justification, and even that activism on their behalf can hollow out the very thing it seeks to champion. This book articulates, forcefully and elegantly, what is at stake when we forget that the experience itself is what matters.”
Armand D’Angour, University of Oxford

“An admirably spirited, bracing and readable book – at once a passionate tribute to the value of the arts and a welcome reminder that we shouldn’t let everything be tainted by politics.”
Dominic Sandbrook, presenter of The Book Club and The Rest is History

“A passionate, lucid and inspiring defence for art for art’s sake. What seems like an almost hopeless task in our fractured and polarised times is made not just urgent and necessary but possible and plausible by Alexandra Wilson’s defence. A magnificent book that every thinking person should read.”
Amanda Craig, author of High and Low

“Alexandra Wilson has done it again. If you’ve ever wondered why art galleries are suddenly obsessed with colonialism, why period dramas regurgitate 21st century attitudes – or why so many people want you to feel guilty about enjoying your favourite painting or opera – Culture Vultures will give you the answers. A brave and necessary book.”
Richard Bratby, critic