Spiked Online (via ArtsJournal) has posted an interesting critique on multiculturalism and cultural diversity in relation to the British Arts Council. According to the article, multiculturalism is the mainstream issue. While the article does point out some wonderful acknowledgements made by the arts community to incorporate many different voices, it does point out some of the short comings of the multi-cultural project; namely destroying a central culture.

Both the cultural left and the economic right attack the idea of culture as a separate sphere that should be judged in its own terms- instead holding it to account with external political or economic criteria. Both deny the possibility of developing common standards for judging art, and see culture as merely a collection of disparate individual preferences. The difference is the left saw these preferences as personal identities; the right saw them as market choices

How does art function in culture? Do minority voices in art actually become part of the culture at large when they no longer promote a human truth but rather celebrate difference as an end in itself?

Jeff_Fries

Humptulips, WA

September 2003

APR 11, 2004 02:37 AM

*bump*

crucifiedalien

I'm lost

February 2004

APR 11, 2004 03:36 AM

If anything is a destroyer of a "central culture" it is unguarded Capitalism. We live in a country that exploits everything that culture is and then wonder where it went...

Jeff_Fries

Humptulips, WA

September 2003

APR 11, 2004 09:05 PM

crucifiedalien said:
If anything is a destroyer of a "central culture" it is unguarded Capitalism. We live in a country that exploits everything that culture is and then wonder where it went...

I don't see how a hard-line multiculturalist attitude is any less destructive, but then unlike unguarded capitalism, unguarded multiculturalism isn't a reliable black hole of criticism. You might want to add that Nazis were evil.

Fixed

Christmas Island

December 2003

APR 11, 2004 09:34 PM

what is central culture anyway? a limited defintiion that describes the activities of the most powerful sectors of a given group, while marginalizing the activities of "the other", or less powerful sectors of the population. Minority voices in art call attention to the fact that most cultures can not be so monolithically defined, but are instead collections of diverse activities and beliefs. "Destroying" is perhaps too harsh a word; maybe deconstructing would be better.
"difference as an end in itself" gets at the root of most systems, be they cultural, linguistic, economic, etc: "the norm" can only exist by differentiating itself from "the fringe." so we need to pay more attention to the aspects of culture that are in the minority, to better understand how "central culture" is defined and whether it is worth upholding.