Description
Join author and cultural commentator, David Kennedy, as he explores the complex relationship between art, class, and social change, drawing on themes from his provocative book Art and Class: How the Middle Classes Hijacked the Nation’s Galleries.
Kennedy will examine whether landmark works like Guernica truly influenced public opinion, whether the New Deal’s investment in artists brought lasting transformation, and whether today’s galleries and museums are engines of social cohesion – or simply echo chambers for the already privileged.
With powerful examples from past and present, we will ask: do the arts truly challenge power and reach those who need them most?
About the Author
David Kennedy
On leaving school David Kennedy worked as an apprentice in the cotton mills in Paisley but turned his interest in climbing into a career and became a climbing instructor in Africa and America. On returning home he worked as a social worker and eventually became a serious man in a suit running Bradford Council.
About the Chair
Colin Philpott
Colin Philpott is the author of four books. His first novel Deathday , published in April this year, imagines England in 2045 when euthanasia has been made compulsory at the age of 90. Previously he wrote three non-fiction books A Place in History – the stories of places affected by news events in twentieth century Britain; Relics of the Reich about how Germany has dealt with the architectural legacy of the Nazi period; and Secret Wartime Britain telling the stories of secret or hidden locations in WW2 Britain. Colin is a former BBC programme maker and former Director of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. He is a Trustee of the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation.
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