We challenge the contemporary view of the arts as tools for social change; fight for freedom of expression; explore what is unique and special about the arts.
London and the world
Joined July 2024
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The wonderful Hastings Embroidery, made in 1965 to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the Norman Conquest. At 74m it's longer than the Bayeux Tapestry, but perhaps it needs to be, as it depicts some of the key events in Britain's history since the Battle of Hastings, going right up to the 1950s.
It offers a refreshing and much-needed take on our national story argues Niall Crowley @elondems. How much has changed in just one lifetime! Oh, and it's about to be put back into indefinite storage by a disinterested museum and council. #Hastings #BayeuxTapestry #BritishMuseum
niallcrowley.substack.com/p/…
Arts First retweeted
Patrick Stewart as gay opera director Alistair Burke in one of my favourite scenes in Frasier. Rest in Peace
"In this special live edition of Arts First at the Battle of Ideas in October @acadofideas, host Niall Crowley @elondems is joined by Dolan Cummings, author of The Sacred Virgin and the Spurned Bride, an historical novella with some deceptively contemporary themes. In it, two single mothers each seek a place in a world caught between the old ways and the new.
The novella is set in what we used to call Dark Age Britain. Historians now prefer ‘the early medieval insular region’. Historians don’t sound like much fun. For readers (and viewers), the earlier term surely evokes romance and excitement rather than mere benightedness. It is in this spirit that Cummings draws on myth and imaginative speculation as well as historical sources to conjure a world both like and unlike our own." #historicalfiction #historicalnovel
artsfirst.substack.com/p/myt…
Here's @timiswriting reading his poem 'The Medium'. You can catch the whole episode 'Afraid of Poetry' at artsfirst.uk or go to our YouTube channel. #PoetTown #Hastings #poetry youtube.com/watch?v=pTJv0ALE…
Our latest episode 'Afraid of Poetry?' is up now on our video channel. #poetrycommunity #hastings #PoetTown
youtube.com/watch?v=pTJv0ALE…
Episode 54: Afraid of Poetry? @timiswriting Tim Rich joins Niall @elondems in the Arts First kitchen to discuss the health of poetry today. He reads and we talk about his poem ‘Afraid of Poetry’, the inspiration for this episode, and Tim tells us doubters there’s nothing to fear. #PoetTown #Hastings #poetry
artsfirst.substack.com/p/afr…
Arts First retweeted
It was a fantastic panel, with brilliant insights all round but especially from @FrankHudson95 Anyway, here’s another shot #BattleFest @acadofideas
Arts First retweeted
Were we really never alone in the past? Pleased to have worked on this Arte documentary, based closely on my #privacy book, Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life arte.tv/en/videos/127455-003…
Excellent discussion on the Odyssey and Nolan's film with speakers including @MadamMarenT and Niall @elondems from Arts First.
Arts First retweeted
What can Dark Age Britain tell us about our own times? 4/14🧵
@ArtsFirstUK host Niall Crowley joins novelist Dolan Cummings to explore myth, religion and national identity through The Sacred Virgin and the Spurned Bride.
Sat 17 Oct | 13:45–14:30
battleofideas.org.uk/session…
Arts First retweeted
Terrific and thorough discussion of the 2026 @BGPrize for Non-Fiction shortlist with chair @thatkirstylang Featuring authors: Nicholas Boggs, Anand Gopal, Patrick Radden Keefe, Edmund Richardson, @mathewsweet, & @andrea_wulf
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00325…
Arts First retweeted
I so hope that the forthcoming Blake 200 year is one in which people hear more than William Blake was brilliant but crazy, inspiring but confusing. Help make that so!
youtu.be/PNVvhX2HvZM?si=EDFg…
Arts First retweeted
Thinking of all the victims of October 7th.
A dark day that has cast a dark shadow over the west.
Contemporary antisemitism is as evil and nasty as anything from the recent or distant past.
Visiting the Nova site was a profound experience.
Am Yisrael Chai
Arts First retweeted
Here's @RosieKayK2CO @ #BattleFest 2025 on her cancellation, the foundation of @Freedom_in_Arts & why we need FREEDOM in the Arts
This year Rosie will be discussing "FROM BOYCOTTS TO RENAISSANCE: THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ARTS"
W/ @wearliegig, Nat Edwards, @RosieKayK2CO, @msjlindsay & @drianpace
DETAILS - battleofideas.org.uk/program…
TICKETS - battleofideas.org.uk/battle-…
Arts First retweeted
I have watched this. I'm a bit surprised to see how much I reveal about making art.
artsfirst.substack.com/p/ead…