Are Arts Orgs’ Diversity Initiatives Just A New Form Of Paternalism?

That’s the charge made by a few leading arts figures, among them Madani Younis, creative director of London’s Southbank Centre: “This paternalism on the one hand allows institutions to co-opt the concerns of diversity, of gender, of class and so on. On the one hand, you say: ‘That’s super good. These guys are on it, they hear the cry and they are looking to change something’. But on the flip side of that new paternalism, those very institutions then get to decide what the pace of change is. And for me that is perverse.” – Arts Professional