The best job in Government
One of the joys of the new job is to see and experience new things which would have passed me by in the past. Dance used not to be a top priority, but now I’ve grown to love it.
This month I saw a great variety. Carlos Acosta at the Coliseum is living proof of the extraordinary power and athleticism of dancers as well as their beauty and expression. Moon Water, performed by The Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan was a beautiful performance set to some lovely Bach cello compositions which fired the soul.
And ACE Dance’s performance at the Purcell Room on the South Bank was also great. The six dancers came from South Africa, Italy and the UK, and they performed two pieces, one choreographed by a Japanese choreographer, the other by an African.
I was hugely impressed by the taut control of the first half of the show which contrasted vividly with the energy and the pace of the second half. Afterwards I met the dancers, Marcia Edwards, Keisha Grant, Gwyneth Noot-Griffiths, Thoko Seganye, Luyanda Sidiya and Elena Zaino together with their artistic director Gail Parmel and her husband. It was great to see this enthusiastic and relatively young company bringing so many traditions together for the audience.
I also saw Wayne MacGregor’s rehearsals for his new show Entity. Seeing the collaborative work between the choreographer and the dancers was fascinating. He’s just the right person to be our first Youth Dance Champion, wholly committed to dance, bursting with energy and full of ideas on how to inspire our young people. I’m so pleased we’re committing an extra £5.5 million to Youth Dance England to get even more young people interested in dance. Did you know it’s the second most popular activity at school after football? Maybe we can look forward to a generation of home grown Carlos Acostas.
I never knew where the term “bluestocking” came from, but now, after popping into the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Brilliant Women, I do. The exhibition shows the portraits, writings and possessions of a group of late 18th century female writers and artists called the Bluestocking Circle. As I’m sure you’ll know by now if you’re a regular reader, I’m a champion of women’s rights, and I think it’s really important that we recognise the often unsung achievements of women from the past. And of course the portraits and objects are beautiful to look at too.
I was also able to pop along to the first event held by the Society of Antiquaries for women at Burlington House. It was good to be able to meet women at their first networking event and great to see women archaeologists of all ages, including one in her nineties, still actively engaged in digs to discover and explain more of our past
I also attended the opening of ‘For Your Eyes Only’ at the Imperial War Museum which celebrates the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth and his artistic creation in the context of the Second World War and the cold war period in which the books were written.
I particularly enjoyed the unexpected revelations and exhibits. Augustus John had an affair with Fleming’s mother and the exhibit included a delightful drawing of their daughter Amaryllis, half sister to Ian. Other pictures include a luminous and arresting portrait of Fleming’s wife Anne by Lucien Freud and a landscape of Goldeneye, Fleming’s Jamaican island retreat by Noel Coward. James Bond’s appetite for gourmet food was apparently not shared by Ian Fleming who preferred scrambled eggs on a pre–cholesterol scale – 12 eggs and 6oz of butter!
I went to see the Millennium library in Norwich. It’s fabulous. The library’s in a light filled building in the city centre that also houses a café and restaurant. Inside it’s buzzing. The children’s section is laid out perfectly for families, the displays of adult books are enticing and the library on a Tuesday morning was full of different people, including many young people not in education, employment or training for whom the library provides a haven. The success of the library is down to the energy, commitment and skills of the people who work there, and the building itself is great.
When I asked the librarian how she thought of new ideas, she said “When I’m stuck for ideas I go down to Tesco’s and have a look at what they’re doing!” And why not? Supermarkets know how to get people through the door and buy their goods, and cultural institutions are selling an experience like any other organisation. Anything that gets people reading and enjoying books is good as far as I’m concerned.
I went on my first visit to our National Archives in Kew. The Archives hold an amazing collection of records, from state documents dating back to Henry VIII, to papers on the transportation of convicts to Australia. Apart from my family records, I saw plans for an opera house on the Embankment and the menu for a grand dinner for James I. Fascinating. It really is the record of this country’s personal and public history and well worth a trip. It was especially meaningful for me as the archivists had uncovered my family naturalisation papers when we were first granted British Citizenship.
This has been a full month, I spent a week in the USA during recess, holding meetings with everyone from Microsoft and Google to Apple and Yahoo, talking to people in the Games industry and holding meetings with the Film Studios. Many people wanted to talk about the Byron report and our creative Economy Strategy and I was working to attract more investment to the UK.
Recess also provides more opportunities to see live performances, because there is no voting, so it was great to see Richard II at the Roundhouse, (I only wish I could have seen the entire King Cycle) Metamorphoses at the Lyric Hammersmith and God of Carnage at the Gielgud; and a powerful night at Covent Garden seeing the new Harrison Birtwistle opera, The Minotaur. No wonder people say this is the best job in Government.