John Holden
Head of Culture
John Holden is a visiting Professor at City University. He was previously Demos' Head of Culture until Sept 2008.
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Culture and learning urgent news
We experienced severe problems with our emails around the deadline for responses to the cultural learning paper on April 30th. If you sent a response then, you will probably have received a message saying that your email could not be delivered.
Responses that did not get through can still be sent to
cultural_learning@demos.co.uk; or to
rachel@cloreduffield.org.uk
With many apologies for this inconvenience. continue reading on 12th May 2008 - Women and culture New report into women in the workforce in the cultural sector... continue reading on 21st April 2008
- Sir Brian McMaster's Excellent Adventure The DCMS has just released the McMaster review of excellence under the rubric “from measurement to judgement”. Demos has been arguing for years, starting with our Valuing Culture conference in 2003, that it is vital to reintroduce discussions of quality and excellence into cultural policy. Many of our publications and speeches have emphasised the point (have a look at Capturing Cultural Value and Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy). So we very much welcome this move on the... continue reading on 10th January 2008 Comments (3)
- Fact and Fiction More than half the population have a library card and the number of visits to public libraries is increasing. Libraries are among the most loved and trusted public services. But debate has raged about the direction that libraries should take, and about where and how resources should be invested. Recently, Demos published an article in association with Hampshire County Council that looks at these debates and argues that the future of our libraries should lie in the hands of local people. continue reading on 7th December 2007 Comments (1)
- Culture: how do you value yours? Back in December we published Capturing Cultural Value and ever since a debate has been going on about what cultural value means in practice. How can you measure/describe/articulate/characterise a greater public involvement and democratisation of culture? How can the cultural world be responsive to people?s needs, whilst preserving the integrity of artists and the professionalism of funders? How should we square the wishes of today?s public with the interests of future generations? Part of the... continue reading on 4th February 2005
- Unintended consequences Over the last few years, the government has tried to reform and reinvigrate local government. One of the ways of doing it was to introduce cabinet-style local authorities with or without executive mayors. I was speaking to a young local councillor recently who said the new system was demoralising him and his peers. Under the old system, every councillor had a say, and sat on at least one committee where they cut their teeth. Now everything gets decided by a small number of older cabinet... continue reading on 1st October 2003 Comments (1)
- Blainely offensive David Blaine's forthcoming stunt of starving himself whilst suspended over the Thames at Tower Bridge is morally repugnant. Voluntary starvation for entertainment looks pretty sick when there are so many people really starving in the world. But is there something more sinister at work? Are the broadcasters who will televise this stunt unaware that Blaine's act debases the currency of one of the most extreme forms of political protest? When the next political prisoner decides to go on hunger... continue reading on 29th August 2003 Comments (5)