Could cultural diplomacy be a threat to a free artistic expression?

"Today, the think-tank Demos releases the solution to all the political and social challenges we face", comments Tiffany Jenkins, director of the arts and society programme at the The Institute of Ideas, with a touch of irony. "Their new big idea, in the report 'Cultural Diplomacy: We're all Diplomats Now', is that museums, galleries, libraries, art, theatre and music, can play a critical role in international relations. Demos recommends that they address troubles in the Middle East, terrorism, climate change, and enhance relations with diasporas. It proposes that members of arts organisations form a cultural diplomacy group run by the Foreign Office, and that organisations be 'incentivised' to follow government policy. ... The arts play a social and provocative role, but one that brings complexity and ambiguity to our lives. They should not be constrained by political diktat. Culture is not for mopping the minister's brow, flattering Blair, Brown, or Cameron. Cultural foreign policy is one piece of political theatre where the cultural sector should bow out."

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