The Visual Arts
Benefit or Burden?
Friday 11th November 2011
Emeritus Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
The present position of the visual arts seems profoundly paradoxical. While gallery numbers continue to soar and the ‘commodity fetishism’ surrounding artworks is becoming almost ludicrously intense, the visual arts themselves may be showing signs or terminal crisis. Not merely are art schools being increasingly underfunded by the state, but it seems genuinely difficult for educators and public alike to discern precisely in what direction the visual arts are currently heading and what their current raison d’etre’ now is. Are they simply the victims of ‘market forces’ or can they, like religion, still carry the potential to transport us beyond our everyday experiences and perceptions?
Graham Howes began life as an arts student but then taught History and Social & Political
Sciences at Cambridge. He is now an Emeritus Fellow of Trinity Hall and a Trustee
of ACE (Art and Christianity Enquiry). His publications include ‘The Art of the
Sacred -
