Arts First

@RosieKayK2CO That's wonderful.

Just something I created m.youtube.com/watch?v=_yaADx…

I’ve lived in Birmingham for over 20 years and it’s given me an amazing quality of life. First I lived in the Jewellery Quarter and loved my life of going out, city centre etc. Then ten years ago I moved out into leafy, park filled suburbs with great schools and remarkably friendly people. Much rather have a family and life here than elsewhere.

This is brilliant! @JaneDalgarno and Daniella Callow on making of 3D printed costume for Fafner #Siegfried @rbo_org

Very good by @JamesHeartfield "Some have called for the exhibition to be banned, but that would be a mistake. On the contrary, Matthew Collings has done us a great service by showing us the disturbed mind of the anti-Israel activist." spiked-online.com/2026/03/29/the…

The Quick Vote decided this for you. Clandon Park The Saloon.

Our latest podcast asks 'Has the National Trust abandoned its historic role?' Calvin Po, @ASCphiled and @RestoreTrustNT Cornelia van der Poll join us to discuss the @nationaltrust shift away from its core mission, and what to do about it. artsfirst.substack.com/p/has-the-nati…

@CJordanjb Our latest podcast asks 'Has the National Trust abandoned its historic role?' Calvin Po, Dr Alka-Sehgal Cuthbert and @RestoreTrustNT Cornelia van der Poll join us to discuss the @nationaltrust shift away from its core mission, and what to do about it. artsfirst.substack.com/p/has-the-nati…

It's been a long, lonely country lane but we finally have a National Trust director who accepts that my ethnicity means I'm too thick to know what to do, wear or how to behave in the countryside. How very condescending, I mean understanding, of her. Bravo! apple.news/AtTXYiBzJRlORc…

@RosieKayK2CO @denbypottery Happy 50th!!

My birthday present to ME! Courtesy of the wonderful @denbypottery Best coffee I’ve had in ages from the 4th mug! Happiness!

On doormats today and on newsstands soon, the April issue of @TheCriticMag, with me on my shameful art past. And on Tracey Emin’s.

‘A lot of members are very unhappy!’ Co-founder of Restore Trust Cornelia Van Der Poll explains why she is calling for previous members of the National Trust to return to the charity amidst accusations of a woke culture being enforced.

@GBNEWS Out tomorrow. artsfirst.uk

'This is not censorship in its most obvious form - no sweeping bans, no public condemnations. It is quieter than that. A label adjusted here, a program dropped there, a show that never quite opens' The Quiet Censorship of Global Art - C. J. Anderson-Wu open.substack.com/pub/consequenc…

Out tomorrow. Has the @nationaltrust abandoned its historic role? From leaked Mansion House report to the decision to leave @ClandonPark as a ruin, 3 leading critics explain what’s gone wrong and how to fix it. With Cornelia van der Poll, @RestoreTrustNT Calvin Po & @ASCphiled

Over the last week the Joseph Wales studios and gallery in Margate – my manor – exhibited a show by artist, critic and broadcaster Matthew Collings entitled ‘Drawings Against Genocide’. Whether one considers the work good or not, it features many images which were caricatures of Jews, and which exhibited long-standing and well-known antisemitic tropes, such as “the blood drinking Jew”, “the Jew delighting in murder”, the child-murder Blood Libel, “Jews as racists” and imagery equating Zionism with Nazism. And, of course, the unsubstantiated turning of accusation of genocide on the victims of a genocide – Jews – is a ghastly libel. Images in the exhibition also include “October 7th denial”, repeating false claims that there is no evidence of sexual violence committed by Hamas ‘fighters’ and others during the invasion of southern Israel. While I find the content of the exhibition and Collings’ work to be objectionable and hateful, and to inversely echo the well-known antisemitic exhibition of Degenerate Art of the late 1930s, I don’t believe the show should have been cancelled, let alone closed down. But I do wonder how the artist, and the organisers and hosts of this exhibition think about their fellow citizens. They appear not to have given a moment of thought to the effect of this exhibition and imagery on our Jewish friends and neighbours. It is fine to criticise or condemn the Israeli government for its actions, just as it is fine to criticise or condemn Hamas. But the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist imagery and slogans in this exhibition were a ‘dog whistle’ for racist antisemitism. Were such an exhibition to feature imagery of Palestinians or other Arabs, or of Muslims, it would rightly be called out by organisations such as Stand Up to Racism, and by politicians and other civic leaders. But Jews don’t seem to count in the hierarchy of discrimination and prejudice. I have several Jewish friends, in Thanet and beyond, who are distressed by the attitudes, words and actions of many of those who consider themselves to be ‘pro-Palestinian’ activists. And they are dismayed by hostile conversations they hear, and private messages they have received from people they considered friends. No doubt most would find this exhibition discomfiting at best. The views exhibited by Collings and his supporters are of people who belive that the world is divided into the “good people” – them – and the “bad people”, who it is virtuous to express hatred towards. We need unity among citizens in our community, and to not allow this hate to divide us. I hope our politicians and other civic leaders will do more to condemn hatred towards our Jewish fellow citizens, and explain the threat of antisemitism to all of us.

"The National Trust is no friend of farmers... Its been captured by a clique with a driven agenda" @CatharineHoey @ #BattleFest 2025 "Ploughing on? The state of British farming"🧑‍🌾🧺 👇

@acadofideas @CatharineHoey Our next podcast is on the National Trust.

@GHWTowler Excellent piece.

I know I'm supposed to say that Modern Art is Rubbish, but Tracey Emin's show at the Tate Modern is anything but.

"The @ArtsFirstUK podcast talks to the author of 'Strangers and Intimates: the rise and fall of private life' about how art has reflected ideas of privacy and intimacy" @tiffanyjenkins on art and the evolution of private life - in @acadofideas open.substack.com/pub/clairefox/…

Something on the tedious regime artist Banksy, by me for @ArtReview_

Three cheers for Sally Dunsmore and @oxfordlitfest for their steadfast defence of intellectual freedom & free speech telegraph.co.uk/gift/149161cec…

We are speaking from the heart of the EU institutions, where culture is increasingly shaped through frameworks, criteria, and funding language. This tension grows in parallel with the European Democracy Shield, presented as protection against interference and manipulation.