Lecture - Support for the Arts in the UK and Japan

This seventh seminar in the 2011 series, Uncertain Futures: The Individual, Society and the State in the UK and Japan, will consider the issues surrounding support for the arts in the UK and Japan. In recent years, arts funding in both the UK and Japan has undergone severe cuts and dramatic changes. Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of Arts & Business, and Mami Kataoka, Chief Curator of the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, will explore the current landscape and look to the future in assessing the impact of spending cuts and priorities for supporting the arts in these uncertain times.
Speakers:

Colin Tweedy OBE is the Chief Executive of Arts & Business. He is also Chairman of CEREC (Comité Européen pour le Rapprochement de l'Economie et de la Culture). He is a Trustee of the Headlong Theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre Trust, the Serpentine Gallery and The Prince's Foundation for Children & the Arts. Colin Tweedy is also a director of The Ideas Foundation, a Council member of the National Musicians Symphony Orchestra and a Governor of the University for the Creative Arts. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). In 2000 he received an OBE for services to business partnerships with the arts in The Queen's Birthday Honours.

Mami Kataoka has been the Chief Curator at the Mori Art Museum (MAM) in Tokyo since 2003. She is currently overseeing many international projects, including the 9th Gwangju Biennale 2012 in South Korea as the Joint Artistic Director, and Phantoms of Asia at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco as guest curator. She was the International Curator at the Hayward Gallery in London between 2007 and 2009, curated Laughing in the Foreign Language (2008) and co-curated Walking in My Mind (2009). Kataoka frequently writes and gives lectures on contemporary art in Asia.

Jenny White (Chair) has 25 years' experience of producing arts projects in UK, Latin America, East Asia and Japan. After working as manager of Scotland's Communicado Theatre, she first encountered the British Council, and worked with them, initially in Japan for ten years, introducing contemporary British artists and programming two UK-Japan festivals UK90 and UK98, and then in Thailand and in London, as Head of Arts Development. From 2006-2009, she was Director of the British Council in Cuba, hosting the visit of the Royal Ballet and producing UK's contribution to the Latin American Film Festival and the Habana Biennial of Art. She is currently on assignment to manage the Environmental impact of British Council's global cultural relations work. With a lifelong interest in Japan and the intersection between Japanese and British cultures, Jenny will draw on her experience to contribute to this topical debate for both the UK and Japan.

Admission free but booking essential click here