Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 131

We made a deliberate decision to engage more ambitiously internationally.
This year we’ve seen a ��% increase in international work. We have shows
from Argentina and Brazil. We went to China, Korea to meet artists and
producers. There is responsibility on any festival to be proactive in that
space, in our times. Audiences are shifted by hearing these unfamiliar voices.
There is a counterbalance to international working and supporting artists
who have something to say about the broader political landscape—you also
need to make sure you are doing the same at home. We have really targeted
efforts to reach out to the wider city not just the center, not just give lip
service but take responsibility for actively listening and responding.
The Fringe is where you can feel the pulse of societal concerns: aging and
society, social care, and a coalescing of global concerns. And it’s not just
the Fringe. I can’t imagine there is a single topic that is not going to be
unearthed in this city in August.
The responsibility we’ve failed in, as a cultural sector, is not in responding
to our times. It’s in articulating our relevance. We have failed to find a new
language that engages, failed to allow the best of what we do and offer to
be asserted. And no political party ever talked to me about the arts on the
doorsteps as they campaigned. It’s the language of the intermediaries that
has failed, not the language of the artists.
Scan here for a video of Shona McCarthy
URL: http://bit.ly/2uOE3J3
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