Towards 2010: new times new challenges for the artsBy Robert Hewison and Henley Centre for Forecasting (Arts Council of England, 2000, ISBN 0728708116 £10 This publication brings together two pieces of work commissioned by the Arts Council; an essay by Robert Hewison and a ‘picture of the arts landscape’ ten years hence, prepared by the Henley Centre for Forecasting. Hewison explores demographic trends, economic and political change as well as technological developments in an attempt to " try to understand the complex matrix of known trends and future possibilities that will affect the context of the arts, before risking predictions about the aesthetic and structural consequences of the arts themselves." I usually find Hewison’s writing interesting, and this was no exception. Some of the aesthetic predictions were the least convincing part of the essay, and predictions such as "we can be certain that political and bureaucratic imperatives will cause people who are not artists to want to affect art’s ways of happening" depressingly believable. The Henley Centre reports on the "big macro drivers of money, time, changing structures" etc, and how they impact on the arts and then analyses "consumer change trends" of "polyglotting, authentiseeking, connoisseurship, perfect moments, people as players and communal yearning". Will these be the buzz words of 2002? There is nothing particularly ground-breaking here. The document is thought-provoking and inspires some further mental gymnastics essential to good management & planning. It would complement and sit well alongside Living on Thin Air by Charles Leadbeater, The Way We Live Now by Richard Hoggart, and any number of Charles Handy’s books.
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