Artists have always responded to what is going on in the world, from wars to social and political upheavals. So it is to be expected that in this second decade of the 21st century there will be Covid-inspired art. Lockdown, including the closure of…

Patronising immigrants, demonising the white working class

Over 2.5million people missed out on the wonderfully fun, boisterous and beautifully colourful Notting Hill Carnival this bank holiday. It was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the biggest and most popular street carnival in Europe and…

Leave Adele alone!

The SDP's Manick Govinda: Cultural Sharing Not Cultural Appropriation.

Panel discussion at the Academy of Ideas Arts & Society Forum, via Zoom, on 6 August 2020. Original introduction What future do the arts have after the economic disruption wrought by the lockdown and post-lockdown precautionary measures? Theatres,…

What future for the arts in the post-lockdown world?

Martin Parr is probably the most well-known living British photographer. His exhibition last year at the National Portrait Gallery, Only Human, which I reviewed here, had audiences flocking to see his colour-saturated photographs that portrayed a…

The cancellation of Martin Parr

Platforms
This is a beautiful, sad 38-page dreamy, philosophical, experimental, amphetamine prose-poem. I read it in the course of 3 nights, curled up in bed before going to sleep and it felt right to read it in this state of yawning tiredness. It…

Manick Govinda's Reviews > Platforms

The Covid-19 virus has thrown the creative and cultural industries into a grim crisis. Since lockdown the only access we have to culture has been online: Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, Facebook Live, Amazon Prime, Spotify are all the platforms where I…

Exploiting COVID-19 for Cultural Self-Interest

Creative Wick are hosting another virtual masterclass on how to navigate during these uncertain times as a creative, led by Manick Govinda.
How can creatives negotiate their way through this profound societal upheaval that is shaping our thinking,…

Creative Wick masterclass: Negotiating a Crisis

TApchat
A series of free online discussions between invited visual artists, performers, curators and writers alongside artists based in Norfolk, in relation to the Covid 19 pandemic and how this may and will affect the livelihood of artist’s in the…

The new alternative art school in Norfolk

I found the first few poems very raw, understated in its expression of horror of child sexual abuse in the poet's youth, but there is also a sense of optimism in the later poems such as Sanctity and Profound, which was uplifting, joyous and…

Manick Govinda's Reviews

I have worked in the arts for 34 years. I was an immigrant from a working-class background, and the first to gain a degree in my family; both my parents had left school at 14.
I have always been interested by ideas, experimentation, and the world of…

The witch-hunt culture in the arts: a personal account

We are used to hearing about the attacks on free speech on university campuses and on social-media platforms. But, incredibly, it seems that the UK’s arts and cultural institutions, those supposed bastions of tolerant liberalism, are proving equally…

The not-so-liberal arts

Yes, my crude social media posts may have caused offence – but we can't only allow speech we find agreeable, says Manick Govinda.
Ideas, experimentation, and the world of the imagination have always interested me. I have worked in the arts for 34…

I shouldn’t have been ‘cancelled’ for my vulgar jokes

Join the De Beauvoir Balloon Debate on Thursday, March 26th for an evening of ideas and engagement. We invite three speakers to present an idea they feel passionately about. At the end of the evening, you vote for your favourite!
DATE: Thursday,…

Spring Debate, Thursday March 26th 2020

Censorship of the arts is on the increase: both that imposed from above, by the state, but also from below, with artists calling for works to be taken down from display. This episode of Behind the Scenes of the Museum brings together three experts –…

Cancelled! Censorship and self-censorship in the arts

The year 2022 is going to be a significant one for Britain. Birmingham will host the Commonwealth Games and the Platinum Jubilee will mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign. And there will also be Festival 2022 – an initiative which has been…

Let’s give the ‘Festival of Brexit’ a chance

Manick Govinda
independent arts consultant; writer; former programme director, SPACE; former member, Mayor of London’s Cultural Strategy Group
Manick Govinda is a freelance arts consultant, and was formerly programme director at SPACE. He is an…

Battle of Ideas — 2019

Both my mentors Manick Govinda and Sacha Craddock suggested that my cut-out paintings would have more physical presence if the way they sit on the ground was addressed. The cut-outs are made from 6mm plywood, and propped up in a way that pleases me -…

Plinth Problems

The Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve stood by this fountain with Mauritian friends and family, statically frozen for that photo moment, being a tourist in London. It’s an iconic, majestic monument, but…

Biting masquerade and compassion – Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus

The online mob of commentariats have again got their high-handed politically correct digits in a twist over the ongoing storm concerning white actors performing roles that they deem should be played by non-whites. In August, Scarlett Johansson got…