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Sir Richard Eyre: Britain on Way to Cultural Apartheid

by Zoe Strimpel
Sun, 2 Dec 2007 at 1:58 PM
updated Sun, 2 Dec 2007 at 2:00 PM

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One of Britain's most influential figures in the arts, Sir Richard Eyre, the former director of the National Theatre and director of films including "Notes on a Scandal," has said that Britain is on the way to cultural apartheid. According to the Observer newspaper, Sir Richard said that the failure to instill an appreciation of theater, art, and classical music in schoolchildren was leading to a huge gap in society between those who feel alienated or uninterested by arts and those who feel arts are for them. He blamed the deterioration of arts appreciation on too much testing in schools, which leaves teachers without enough time to teach the arts properly, and on the BBC, which he said does not show good programs as it used to do. He attributes his own early interest in the arts to teachers at school and the BBC.

He told the Observer: "My fears are that you enlarge the divisions in society between those for whom the arts are a part of life and people who think it is impossibly obscure and incomprehensible ... I would use the word apartheid."

The warning comes as the fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood launches an "arts manifesto," calling on people to reject the popular entertainment fed them through TV and cinema, and instead to seek more authentic cultural experiences.

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