In these days of unemployment and cuts to the arts its always a thrill to come across someone who has a different idea of how to improve things. Eighteen months ago Martin Bright, a resident of London, got such an idea. He called it the New Deal Of The Mind. He wrote about it in The New Statesman, where it received a lot of attention and has now become a reality. He’s written about the whole adventure in the Guardian and here’s an excerpt which lays out his idea:
“I suggested that what we really needed was a New Deal of the Mind, which would harness the potential of Britain’s creative industries (film, music and the performing arts, as well as new forms of innovation such as software design and social media). This could take its lead from the cultural projects of Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, which put thousands back to work on artistic and literary projects. Although some of the works produced were mediocre, among the alumni of the scheme were painters Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, and writers Saul Bellow, John Cheever and Ralph Ellison.”
You can read the rest of the article here.
You can visit the New Deal Of The Mind site here.