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Activism and corporate sponsorship of the arts

Ideological perspective

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The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.

Wed Jun 26 2024 - 00:12

Sir, – Mark O’Connell’s contention that those critical of certain forms of activism around corporate sponsorship of book festivals are exhibiting “some form of preconscious ideological reflex” is made in an article that throughout exhibits a similar reflex (“Politics is not like an exam subject you can take or leave”, Opinion & Analysis, June 22nd).

He admits to some initial ambivalence about activists’ success in ending sponsorship from companies that hold certain investments and is approving of the “smart and thoughtful” people he met at one such company, Baillie Gifford. However, rather than attend to such complicated issues as what business activities sponsors cannot engage in if literary festivals are to receive their money, how artists can avoid accusations of double standards and hypocrisy in their commercial dealings (whether, for example, to refuse to have their books sold on Amazon or their paintings commissioned by an obscenely wealthy benefactor), and what business model countless small festivals should adopt to thrive without sponsorship, he focuses instead on journalists who contribute to publications he clearly disapproves of and bemoans opinions on this matter that are apparently born of too much time spent in the “shallow trenches of the culture war”.

Leaving aside the fact that his article is itself a dispatch from one of those trenches, none of the columnists he mentions made the absurd claim that “art should be wholly unencumbered by politics”. His misrepresentation of their views indicates his own ideological reflex, as does his reference to the “disaster of capitalism”. He, along with other contemporary Irish writers, may believe capitalism is a disaster and that the politics of power and class is an exam paper we must indefinitely sit, but that does not mean that those with an alternative view have no interest, as he suggests, in thinking seriously about either art or politics. Unless, that is, there is only one ideological perspective he deems serious about art and politics. – Yours, etc,

ANDREW QUINN,

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Clongriffin,

Dublin 13.

Sir, – Mark O’Connell refers to the “deepening disaster of capitalism”. I would like to ask him if by this he means the fact that 1.1 billion people have been pulled out of poverty since 1990 (World Bank).

Or perhaps the global under-five mortality rate dropping by 59 per cent, from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 37 in 2022 (Unicef).

Maybe he is upset about Ireland’s transformation from a poverty-stricken theocracy to a rich, liberal society. To pick an example from the multitude available, six times as many people attended third-level education in 2017 compared to 1972 (Central Statistics Office).

If this is the “deepening disaster” he speaks of, then I’m all for it. – Yours, etc,

DARAGH THOMAS,

Glenageary,

Co Dublin.

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